Historic%20Yorkshire

112
THE BATTLE OF TOWTON.
death-blow to the Lancastrian cause which Towton
inflicted, fled into Scotland, well aware that ample
vengeance would now be taken by Edward for the
beheadal of his father. The barbarous exhibition of
heads over the Micklegate Bar of York now received a
change; those of the late Duke of York and the Earl of
Salisbury wereremovedto give place to those of the Earl
ofDevonshire, the EarlofKyme, and others.
Thus terminated the bloody and useless Wars of the
Roses; the weak-minded but amiable Henry was exchanged
for the vigorous and tyrannical Edward, while
the country received not the slightest benefit from the
struggle whichhad swept away some 100,000of her sons.
Thus did a long and useless struggle terminate in a
battlenotablycruel and bloody.
The district has, as might be expected,not a few relics
of the Battle of Towton, principallyin the tombsof the
nobles,and the traditionsofthecommonpeople; but little
has been found on the site to indicate that here was
fought one of the most obstinate Yorkshire battles on
"
record.