Bloodiest Day: Towton and the War That Made Edward IV King

England, winter 1460. Parliament has recognised Richard, Duke of York, as heir to Henry VI, but Margaret of Anjou refuses to accept the disinheritance of her son.

As Lancastrian forces gather in the north, York marches from London to defend the settlement. Outside Sandal Castle, his army is overwhelmed at Wakefield. York is killed, his young son Edmund dies during the rout, and the Earl of Salisbury is captured and executed. Their heads are displayed above the gates of York as proof that the Yorkist challenge has been destroyed.

Instead, the claim passes to York's eighteen-year-old son Edward, Earl of March.

Edward's victory at Mortimer's Cross establishes him as a formidable commander, while the Lancastrians defeat Warwick at the Second Battle of St Albans and recover Henry VI. Yet London refuses to admit Margaret's army. Edward enters the capital, is proclaimed king and begins the campaign that will decide whether his new title has any meaning beyond the city walls.

The rival armies meet near Towton on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461. Snow, wind, archery and hours of brutal close combat produce one of the largest and bloodiest battles fought in medieval England.

The Bloodiest Day follows the extraordinary campaign from the Act of Accord and Wakefield through Mortimer's Cross, St Albans, Ferrybridge and Towton. It explains how Edward IV won a crown through political revolution and battlefield victory, while leaving the wider Wars of the Roses unresolved.

This is Book Seven in The Last Plantagenets, a ten-volume narrative history of England from the Peasants' Revolt to the end of the Plantagenet dynasty.