First battle of Saint-Albans

The first battle of Saint-Albans is the first confrontation of the Guerre of the Two-Pinks.

After the end of the protectorate exerted by the Duke of York, Richard Plantagenêt (1411 - 1460), in February 1455 and the release of Edmond Beaufort, duke of Somerset, the party of the court persuaded the king Henri VI of England to join together a large council with Leicester in May. It is probable that Edmond Beaufort hoped that the duke of York would be repudiated during this council, perhaps even brought to be judged by his pars, or at least with being subjected to one humiliating oath of fidelity. The choice of Leicester was justified by the great unpopularity of Edmond of Beaufort with London.

The duke of York and his allies, Néville, thought that the duke of Somerset had convinced the king to eliminate them. This is why, if they wanted to survive, they were to take again the capacity at all costs, which implied to take the control of the person of the king, and to eliminate the duke from Somerset. A takeover by force armed was the obvious solution. Being given the notorious military incompetence of Somerset, a small force was considered to be sufficient to direct a ambush on the royal convoy on the way for Leicester. The plan was particularly tempting for Néville since in the royal escort the chief of Percy appeared, the count de Northumberland, which gave a decisive opportunity to them to strike their mortal enemy.

May 21st, the king and Somerset left Westminster for St Albans where several tycoons with their troops were to join them. Yorkistes awaited them there. To have left Westminster shortly after, Henri accepted letters of York, Salisbury and Richard Neville, count de Warwick, which complained to be convened in Leicester because of the " calumnies launched against eux" , and that consequently they had gathered men-at-arms to protect them. Néanmois, the royal convoy, not more than 2000 men, carried on his way, without suspecting that it moved straight in a trap. When, in the morning of May 22nd, one learned that troops yorkists were in the surroundings, the king replaced Somerset as a constable (commander of its small army) by the duke of Buckingham, which was the brother-in-law at the same time of York and Salisbury. The royal procession reached Saint Albans on May 22nd at 9 a.m. The duke of York and his had awaited them for 7 a.m.; informed well by its spies, it knew that the tycoons that the king waited would not arrive before the next day.
The duke of York closed again the trap as soon as the king entered the street Saint Peter. Its men blocked the street at its two ends; he sent an emissary to require that the king delivers Somerset, " unfair man with his country, which ruined Normandy, whose negligence made lose Gascogne and who reduced all the kingdom of England to the state of misère" . The answer of the king, undoubtedly dictated by Somerset, was to summon them to leave the ground under penalty of destruction. The royal troops prepared to defend the center town. At this time still, the king and the duke of Buckingham thought that York bluffait.
The yorkists attacked the barricades between 11 a.m. and midday, but were driven back. Then the count de Warwick and 600 of his men were engulfed in the street Holywell which led to the street Saint Peter. During this time, the troops of York entered the street Saint Peter, massacring all those which were opposed to them.
The royalists who did not have it yet fact now tried of enfilier their armours. There was initially a rain of flêches, then a combat with the body with body. The king himself was wounded with the neck by an arrow; he found refuge in the house of a tanner. The duke of Somerset, cut off in an inn, died under the blows of the yorkists. Among the noble ones killed Northumberland and Clifford appeared. Certain royalists, whose duke of Buckingham, took refuge in the abbey.
The duke of York knelt in front of the wounded king, Protestant of his honesty and swearing that he had never intended to carry to him reached personally. The king says to him that he forgave him and asked him to cease the engagements. The following day, it brought back the king to London.

Sources

The First Battle off St Albans ; by Andrew Boardman; Tempus Publishing Group, 2006, ISBN 0752429833
The Poleaxed Source Book ; by Martin Stephenson, Dave Lanchester, & Stalemate McGill.
Kings in the North - The House off Percy in British History ; Rose, Alexander; Phoenix/Orion Books Ltd, 2002, ISBN 1842124854
The Lancaster and York: Wars off the Pink ; ; London; Pimlico, 1998, ISBN 0712666745

External bonds

First battle of Saint-Albans on warsoftheroses.com
First battle of Saint-Albans on entwistlefamily.org .uk

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