On Palm Sunday, near the village of Towton in Yorkshire, Lancastrian and Yorkist armies clashed in blinding snow. Roughly 50,000 men fought, and by nightfall as many as 28,000 lay dead, making it the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. The Yorkist victory secured Edward IV's claim to the throne.
Snow blew directly into the faces of the Lancastrian army, ruining the accuracy of their archers while Yorkist arrows found their mark. When the Lancastrian line finally broke, retreating soldiers were cut down while fleeing across the swollen Cock Beck, which reportedly ran red and became clogged with bodies used as makeshift bridges.
Mass graves excavated centuries later at Towton revealed skeletons with horrific wounds—skulls cleaved by poleaxes, faces slashed repeatedly even after death, suggesting a battle fought with extraordinary personal hatred between neighbors and countrymen. The battle marked a decisive, if temporary, Yorkist triumph in the decades-long dynastic struggle for the English crown.
Edward IV, only 18 years old, was crowned king following the victory, though the Wars of the Roses would grind on for another 24 years before the rise of the Tudors finally ended the conflict.