Editing Heworth, York (section)

===1453 Battle of Heworth Moor===
On 24 August 1453,<ref>{{cite book|last=Wagner|first= J.|title= Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses| page=186}}</ref> a skirmish took place and was the first meeting of the two families involved in the [[Percy-Neville feud]], the feud which eventually helped provoke the [[Wars of the Roses]].<ref name="Battle">{{cite news|url=http://uk.geocities.com/jakdoor/heworth/heworth.htm|publisher=Heworth History|title=Battle of Heworth|date=23 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911113826/http://uk.geocities.com/jakdoor/heworth/heworth.htm|archive-date=11 September 2007}}</ref> Historians have described an attack on the Neville family's wedding party by [[Thomas Percy, 1st Baron Egremont|Lord Egremont]]; numerous contemporaries regard it as the very first military action of the Wars of the Roses.

The Neville family was returning to [[Sheriff Hutton]] castle following a wedding between [[Sir Thomas Neville]] and Maud Stanhope. Stanhope was the heiress and niece of [[Baron Cromwell|Ralph de Cromwell]]. Cromwell had previously confiscated Percy strongholds such as [[Wressle]] and [[Bunwell]] after [[Henry 'Hotspur' Percy]]'s death in 1403; the thought of those properties one day being handed over to the Neville family angered [[Thomas Percy, 1st Baron Egremont|Lord Egremont]] greatly.<ref name="Battle"/>

Egremont decided to ambush the Neville family's returning wedding party at Heworth Moor, along with 1,000 [[retainer (medieval)|retainers]] from [[York]]. The Neville family were said to have given a good account of themselves and defended themselves well in the skirmish.<ref name="Battle"/>