Fatal Colours Towton 1461-England's Most Brutal Battle

The Battle of Towton in 1461 was unique in its ferocity and brutality, as the armies of two kings of England engaged with murderous weaponry to conclude the first War of the Roses. Variously described as the largest, longest, and bloodiest battle on English soil, Towton was fought with little chance of escape and none of surrender. Combining medieval sources and modern scholarship, George Goodwin colorfully re-creates the atmosphere of fifteenth-century England. From the death of the great Henry V and his baby son's inheritance first of England, then of France, Goodwin chronicles the vicious fighting as increasingly embittered factions struggle for a supremacy that could only be secured after the carnage of Towton. At the center is the first full explanation for the crippling incapacity of the enduringly childlike Henry VI. With a substantive introduction by David Starkey, Fatal Colours brings to life a vibrant and violent age.