The fighting 45
confront Warwick, whose army was much
the stronger, hut who nevertheless entered
Coventry, sheltered behind the city walls,
and refused to fight. Warwick expected a
decisive advantage in numbers when he
was reinforced by his son-in-law Clarence,
who had been recruiting in the West
Country, but Clarence joined his brother
Edward IV. Together they marched to
London, where they were admitted without
opposition and arrested Henry VI. After
meeting up with Montagu's northerners,
Oxford, Exeter and the easterners, Warwick
approached London with a view to a
surprise attack over Easter. Edward,
however, was alert, left the City, and drew
up his line of battle opposite Warwick's in
Hertfordshire, somewhere near Barnet, the
precise site being uncertain. Warwick's
army was in four divisions, with Oxford on
the right facing Lord Hastings, Warwick's
brother Montagu in the centre facing
Edward, and Exeter on the left against
Gloucester, Warwick himself being in
reserve. Warwick's bombardment of the
Yorkist line during the night had little
effect, since Edward's army was closer than
Warwick supposed and in dead ground, and
the battle of Barnet commenced at dawn
on Easter Sunday, 14 April 1471. Both
armies advanced into combat but darkness
and fog meant that the armies were
misaligned, so each was outflanked,
Hastings' division being routed,
although as this could not be seen along
the Yorkist line, morale was unaffected. The
front lines may have wheeled and in the
consequent reorientation, the divisions of
Oxford and Montagu in Warwick's army
came to blows. The result, eventually, was a
decisive victory for Edward; Warwick and
Montagu were slain, Exeter captured,
and only Oxford of the principal
commanders escaped.
Edward was fortunate that he had to
fight only some of his opponents, since the
Lancastrians of the South-West and Wales
were elsewhere. Somerset and Devon had
actually left London almost undefended in
order to meet Queen Margaret when she
landed at Weymouth. So unhappy had they
been with Warwick as an ally that
supposedly they even claimed not to be
weakened by his defeat, but actually
strengthened. Having recruited an army in
the West, they proceeded to Bristol en
route to join up with Jasper Tudor's
Welshmen. No sooner had Edward defeated
Warwick, than he had to embark on a new
campaign, marching along the Thames
valley to intercept the West Country men.
He wanted to force a battle, the
Lancastrians to avoid it. They feinted
towards him, apparently offering battle at
Sodbury (Gloucs.), but dashed instead
through the Vale of Berkeley to the Severn
crossings of Gloucester, which was blocked,
and Tewkesbury, whilst Edward pursued
them along the Roman road across the
Cotswolds via Cirencester. Both armies
marched record distances in appalling
conditions of heat, dust and no water. The
exhausted Lancastrians won the race,
reaching Tewkesbury first and might
perhaps have crossed the Severn that night
and defended the ford, but they chose
instead to make their stand on 4 May south
of the town. Again the precise position is
uncertain. Edward's artillery so troubled the
Lancastrians, who had few guns, that
Somerset abandoned his defensive position
in the Lancastrian centre and somehow
advanced undetected to outflank the
Yorkist centre. He was repulsed, the rest of
the Yorkist army came into combat, and
the Lancastrian army was destroyed. The
defeated Lancastrians fled across the
Bloody Meadow into the town, many
taking sanctuary in Tewkesbury Abbey.
Queen Margaret was captured, her son
killed; Somerset, Lords Wenlock and St
John, and the other principal Lancastrians
were executed. Although Tudor remained
in arms in Wales, Warwick's Middleham
connection in the North, and the Bastard
of Fauconberg's shipmen near London all
realised that Tewkesbury was decisive.
Tudor fled abroad; the others submitted.
Even long-standing, irreconcilable
Lancastrians like Margaret's chancellor Sir