Battle of Mortimer's Cross

The Battle of Mortimer's Cross was fought on 2 February 1461 near Wigmore, Herefordshire (between Leominster and Leintwardine, by the River Lugg), not far from the Welsh border. It was a major battle of the Wars of the Roses. The opposing forces were an army led by nobles loyal to the King Henry VI of the House of Lancaster, his Queen Margaret of Anjou and their seven year-old son Edward, Prince of Wales on one side, and the army of Edward, Earl of March. Some sources say it was fought on 3 February, and the exact location has been the subject of some speculation.

Background
Upon the death of the Duke of York at Wakefield the previous December, the Yorkists were led by his 18-year-old son Edward, now 4th duke of York. He sought to prevent Lancastrian forces from Wales, led by Owen Tudor and his son Jasper, from joining up with the main body of Lancastrian forces. The elder Tudor had been second husband to Catherine of Valois, widow of Henry V. His army included the Welsh from their own lands in Carmarthen and Pembroke, and French, Bretons, and Irish mercenaries led by James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond. Edward, based at Wigmore Castle had gathered troops from along the borders and there were also significant Welsh forces on the Yorkist side especially Sir William Herbert of Raglan and his supporters, who included Sir Richard Devereux, Herbert's father-in-law, and John Milewater, John Tuchet, Lord Audley, Lord Grey of Wilton, and the future earl of Devon created by Edward, Humphrey Stafford. After spending Christmas in Gloucester, he began to prepare to return to London. However, Jasper Tudor’s hostile army was approaching and he changed his plan; so as to block Pembroke’s advance and block him from meeting up with the main Lancastrian force which was approaching London, Edward moved north with an army of approximately five thousand men to Mortimer’s Cross.

Parhelion
As dawn broke, the meteorological phenomenon known as parhelion occurred: three suns were seen to be rising. The appearance of this sun dog so soon before the battle seems to have frightened his troops, but Edward of York appears to have convinced them that it represented the Holy Trinity and that therefore God was on their side. He later took it as his emblem, the "Sun in splendour". The event was dramatized by William Shakespeare in King Henry VI, Part 3 (See below) and contemporarily, in Sharon Kay Penman's "The Sunne In Splendour."

The battle
One of York's advisers, Sir Richard Croft, a local lord from Croft Castle, recommended positioning archers at the crossroads (now the A4110 and B4362 junction) in order to halt the Lancastrian advance. Pembroke's army was about a thousand men smaller than York's, and, being untried in battle at that point, may not have originally planned to fight, but by midday, it was clear that they would have to in order to cross the Lugg. The Lancastrians commenced the attack – Butler's ‘battle’ (division) led the first assault, forcing Edward’s right wing to retreat across the road, where this flank dissolved. Pembroke faced Edward’s center division and was held off, but most decisively, Owen Tudor attempted an encirclement of the Yorkist left wing; his ‘battle’ was defeated and a rout commenced. Pembroke's centre then also broke and the battle was won. Owen Tudor’s men were now in full flight: some of them were followed as far as Hereford, approximately seventeen miles, and where Owen was himself captured and beheaded.

Aftermath
The battle having intruded on York's plans to march to the midlands, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, with the captive King Henry in his train, was meanwhile forced to move to block Margaret's army's route to London on his own. He took up position north of St Albans astride the main road from the north (the ancient Roman road known as Watling Street). Although he lost the battle that followed, and Margaret of Anjou and her army could now march unopposed on to London, they did not do so. The Lancastrian army's reputation for pillage caused the Londoners to bar the gates. This in turn caused Margaret to hesitate, as did the news of the Yorkist victory at Mortimer's Cross. The Lancastrians fell back through Dunstable, losing many Scots and Borderers who deserted and returned home with the plunder they had already gathered. Edward of March and Warwick entered London on 2 March, and Edward was quickly proclaimed King Edward IV of England. Within a few weeks he had confirmed his hold on the throne with a decisive victory at the Battle of Towton.

In Shakespeare
William Shakespeare described this parhelion phenomenon and its portentous symbolism in Act Two Scene One of Henry VI, Part 3:

''Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun;  Not separated with the racking clouds,  But sever'd in a pale clear-shining sky.  See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss,  As if they vow'd some league inviolable:  Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun.  In this the heaven figures some event. ''

However, Shakespeare omits any mention of the following battle.