Bloody Meadow and The Battle of Tewkesbury

The woman took another sip from her chilled pint of lager as I sat, transfixed, my burger and fries getting cold in front of me. She was giving me directions to Bloody Meadow, the legendary last stand of the Lancastrian soldiers in 1471, at the Battle of Tewkesbury. She told me how the battlefield is now surrounded by houses, not like when she was little, when she was four years old and would pick up arrows after re-enactments, and it was all fields behind other fields. She's lived in Tewkesbury all her life, she's telling me, as I steal a still-hot chip from my plate and dab it in ketchup. Oh, and there are tunnels, too. From the abbey to the old pub we're sitting in.

Turns out, the battlefield site isn't very far from the town centre. After a 15-minute stroll, we found a detour into a field that promised a battlefield walk, and a few more minutes' down the road, Bloody Meadow itself. 

It was here that witnessed the most intense fighting of the Battle of Tewkesbury. With Henry VI now locked up in the Tower of London and the Earl of Warwick dead after the Battle of Barnet, Edward faced the remnants of Lancastrian resistance to his rule, under Henry VI's queen, Margaret of Anjou. 

Margaret entered Tewkesbury at around 4pm on Friday 3 May, 1471. Her troops were commanded by the Duke of Somerset, and central to its hopes was the young prince - her son, Edward of Lancaster. Early on the Saturday morning, the 4th May, the armies clashed with the supporters of the House of York and the ruling king. Here, the three York brothers fought once again, having recently been fractured in their loyalties: George, Duke of Clarence; Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the future Richard III) and Edward IV himself. Richard, who was then 19 years old, would be especially noted after the battle for his heroism and skill on the field, ordering a rain of arrows on the Lancastrians and drawing Somerset's men out from their sheltered position. 

The Yorkists gained the upper hand and Lancastrian forces tried to disband and run away, however many ended up drowned in the nearby river 'at a mill in the meadow fast by the town', likely to have been a mill owned by the abbey. It's been estimated that around three thousand Lancastrian soldiers died in these fields near Tewkesbury on that day. Among them were Thomas Courtenay Earl of Devonshire, Lord John Beaufort, Lord Wenlock, Sir William Vaux and Sir Thomas Seymour.

Walking back from Bloody Meadow you get a beautiful view of nearby Tewkesbury Abbey, and it is here that some of the soldiers fled to seek sanctuary and the protection of the church. Among them was the Duke of Somerset, and, it was said, fourteen other men. Still in armour, and what would have been a short ride on horseback (if not an angry trudge through a field), Edward chased them to the abbey door but was stopped by the priest, reminded of the rules of sanctuary and urged to consider pardoning the men inside. Edward, for now, left the men to heal their wounds. 

Towards the end of fighting, Edward of Lancaster was captured and brought to Edward. The king asked the teenager 'how he dared to invade his dominions'. The prince's reply, that he had come to recover his father's liberty and the crown that Edward had in fact usurped, did not win him any patience and Edward slapped him across his cheek, still wearing his gauntlet. The men nearby set upon the young boy, stabbing him with their daggers. Some historians believe that the prince was in fact killed in battle or tracked down trying to flee the scene. However he died, he was later taken to be buried in Tewkesbury Abbey, to spend eternity underneath a ceiling painted with Edward's own emblem of sparkling, radiant suns. 

After visiting the abbey church to give thanks for his victory, Edward demanded Somerset and the other men leave their sanctuary and face justice in a trial. Some believe Edward had the men forcibly removed, leading to the need for the abbey church to be reconsecrated. Unsurprisingly, as enemies, they were sentenced to death and beheaded in the marketplace of Tewkesbury on 6 May. Margaret of Anjou was also discovered, in a 'poor religious house' in the town and taken to London with strict instructions to be kept separately from her husband. She was later ransomed to France. Edward marched into London to occupy his throne and ruled for another decade before dying in 1483 of a short illness.

Even today legends surround Bloody Meadow. Among the hauntings and sightings is one apparition that appears at the Black Bear pub, thought to be a Lancastrian soldier seeking relief from the battle. There is an eerieness to the field - something my friend once described on a different occasion as 'soul soup', although it's difficult to know whether I'm just reading into the significance of the historical events that surround it. Either way, it's worth a visit as such an important landmark in the Wars of the Roses, a memorial to those who were killed and a trace of all three York brothers who, in a rare moment of solidarity, worked together in defending the crown on that early May morning in 1471.

You might also like The Women of Warwick Castle, The Queens of the Wars of the Roses and Historic Pubs: The Old Black Bear of Tewkesbury.

Source: 

James Bennett, History of Tewkesbury. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green. London 1830