Editing Battle of Wakefield (section)

==Battle==
[[File:SandalCastleMotte.jpg|right|thumb|The remains of the [[motte-and-bailey|motte]] of Sandal Castle]]
On 21 December, York reached his own fortress of [[Sandal Castle]] near Wakefield. He sent probes towards the Lancastrian camp at Pontefract {{convert|9|mi}} to the east, but these were repulsed. York sent for help to his son Edward, but before any reinforcements could arrive, he sortied from the castle on 30 December.{{sfn|Weir|2015|p=253}}

It is not known for certain why York did so. One theory was later recounted in ''[[Edward Hall]]'s chronicle'', written a few decades after the event, but partly from first-hand sources, and the contemporary [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundian]] [[Jean de Waurin]]'s chronicle. In a stratagem possibly devised by the veteran Andrew Trollope (who by Waurin's account had also sent messages to York via feigned deserters that he was prepared to change sides once again){{sfn|Seward|2007|p=83}} half the Lancastrian army under Somerset and Clifford advanced openly towards Sandal Castle, over the open space known as "Wakefield Green" between the castle and the [[River Calder, West Yorkshire|River Calder]], while the remainder under Ros and the [[James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond|Earl of Wiltshire]] were concealed in the woods surrounding the area.{{sfn|Dockray|Knowles|1992|p=10}}{{#tag:ref|However, Wiltshire was almost certainly not present. He had fled to the continent shortly before the Nevilles landed at Sandwich{{sfn|Clark|2016|p=217}} and landed in South Wales with a force of Breton, French and Irish mercenaries in the early weeks of 1461.{{sfn|Clark|2016|p=234}}|group=nb}} York was probably short of provisions in the castle and, seeing that the enemy were apparently no stronger than his own army, seized the opportunity to engage them in the open rather than withstand a siege while waiting for reinforcements.{{sfn|Warner|1972|p=50}}

Other accounts suggested that, possibly in addition to Trollope's deception, York was fooled by some of John Neville of Raby's forces displaying false colours into thinking that reinforcements sent by Warwick had arrived. By another contemporary account, [[William Worcester]]'s ''Annales Rerum Anglicorum'', John Neville himself obtained a Commission of Array from Richard of York to raise 8,000 men to fight on York's side under the Earl of Westmoreland.{{sfn|Goodwin|2012|p=145}} Having gathered this force and enticed York to leave the castle to rendezvous with him, John Neville then defected to the Lancastrians.{{sfn|Dockray|Knowles|1992|p=10}}

Another suggestion was that York and Somerset had agreed a truce during Christmas until 6 January, the [[Feast of Epiphany]], but the Lancastrians had no intention of honouring the truce. On three successive days, they sent heralds to provoke York into premature action with insulting messages{{sfn|Weir|2015|p=255}} and when York moved into the open the Lancastrians treacherously attacked earlier than had been agreed, catching York at a disadvantage while many of his men were absent foraging for supplies.{{sfn|Ross|1974|p=30}}

The simplest suggestion was that York acted rashly.{{sfn|Rowse|1966|p=143}} For example, historian [[John Sadler (historian)|John Sadler]] states that there was no Lancastrian deception or ambush; York led his men from the castle on a foraging expedition (or by popular belief, to rescue some of his foragers who were under attack){{sfn|Clark|2016|p=230}} and as successive Lancastrian contingents joined the battle (the last being Clifford's division, encamped south and east of Sandal Magna), York's army was outnumbered, surrounded and overwhelmed.{{sfn|Sadler|2011|p=60}}

The Yorkists marched out of Sandal Castle down the present-day Manygates Lane towards the Lancastrians located to the north of the castle. It is generally accepted that, as York engaged the Lancastrians to his front, others attacked him from the flank and rear, cutting him off from the castle. In Edward Hall's words:

<blockquote>...&nbsp;but when he was in the plain ground between his castle and the town of Wakefield, he was environed on every side, like a fish in a net, or a deer in a buckstall; so that he manfully fighting was within half an hour slain and dead, and his whole army discomfited.{{sfn|Dockray|Knowles|1992|p=12}}</blockquote>

===Casualties===
One near-contemporary source (''Gregory's Chronicle'') claimed that 2,500 Yorkists and 200 Lancastrians were killed, but other sources give wildly differing figures, from 2,200 to only 700 Yorkists dead.

The Duke of York was either killed in the battle or captured and immediately executed. Some later works support the folklore that he suffered a crippling wound to the knee and was unhorsed, and he and his closest followers then fought to the death at that spot;{{sfn|Sadler|2011|p=60}} others relate the account that he was taken prisoner (by one Sir James Luttrell of Devonshire), mocked by his captors and beheaded.{{sfn|Jones|2014|p=187}}

His son [[Edmund, Earl of Rutland]], attempted to escape over [[Wakefield Bridge]], but was overtaken and killed, possibly by Clifford in revenge for his father's death at St Albans. Salisbury's second son [[Thomas Neville (died 1460)|Sir Thomas Neville]] also died in the battle.{{sfn|Rowse|1966|p=144}} Salisbury's son in law [[William Bonville, 6th Baron Harington|William, Lord Harington]], and Harington's father, William Bonville, were captured and executed immediately after the battle. (The Bonvilles had been engaged in a [[Bonville–Courtenay feud|feud]] with the Earl of Devon and the Courtenay family in Devon and Cornwall.) Salisbury himself escaped the battlefield but was captured during the night, and was taken to the Lancastrian camp. Although the Lancastrian nobles might have been prepared to allow Salisbury to ransom himself, he was dragged out of Pontefract Castle and beheaded by local commoners, to whom he had been a harsh overlord.{{sfn|Dockray|Knowles|1992|p=14}} The mob may have been led by the "Bastard of Exeter", an illegitimate son of the Duke of Exeter.{{sfn|Seward|2007|p=83}}

Among the "commoners" in York's army who were killed was John Harrowe, a prominent [[Worshipful Company of Mercers|mercer]] of London, described as a "captain of the foot".{{sfn|Seward|2007|p=83}}