Second Battle of St Albans

Date	17 February 1461
Location	St Albans in Hertfordshire, England
Result	Lancastrian victory

Belligerents

House of Lancaster

House of York

Commanders and leaders

Margaret of Anjou

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick

Strength

~15,000

~10,000

Casualties and losses

2,000

4,000

The Second Battle of St Albans was a battle of the English Wars of the Roses, fought on 17 February 1461, at St Albans. The army of the Yorkist faction under the Earl of Warwick attempted to bar the road to London north of the town. The rival Lancastrian army used a wide outflanking manoeuvre to take Warwick by surprise, cut him off from London, and drive his army from the field. The victors also released the feeble King Henry VI, who had been Warwick's prisoner, from his captivity. However, they ultimately failed to take advantage of their victory.

The Wars of the Roses were fought between the supporters of the House of Lancaster, represented by the mentally unstable King Henry VI, and those of the rival House of York.

Richard of York quarrelled with several of Henry's court during the late 1440s and early 1450s. He was respected as a soldier and administrator, and was believed by his own supporters to have a better claim to the throne than Henry. York and his friends finally openly rebelled in 1455. At the First Battle of St Albans, York gained a victory, but this did not resolve the causes of the conflict. After several attempts at reconciliation, fighting resumed in 1459. At the Battle of Northampton in 1460, Richard of York's nephew, the Earl of Warwick, defeated a Lancastrian army and captured King Henry, who had taken no part. York returned to London from exile in Ireland and attempted to claim the throne, but his supporters were not prepared to go so far. Instead, an agreement was reached, the Act of Accord, by which York or his heirs were to become king after Henry's death.

This agreement disinherited Henry's young son Edward of Westminster. Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept the Act of Accord and took Edward to Scotland to gain support there. York's rivals and enemies meanwhile raised an army in the north of England. York and his brother-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury (Warwick's father), led an army to the north late in 1460 to counter these threats, but they drastically underestimated the Lancastrian forces. At the Battle of Wakefield, the Yorkist army was destroyed and York, Salisbury and York's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were killed in the fighting or were executed after the battle.

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