tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/wars-of-the-roses-29259/articlesWars of the Roses – The Conversation2017-07-13T09:37:44Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/805022017-07-13T09:37:44Z2017-07-13T09:37:44ZFive reasons why Game of Thrones satisfies our needs (apart from all the sex and violence)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176800/original/file-20170704-808-zpc5uo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky Atlantic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Game of Thrones has become something of a TV event over the past six years – the last season <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/06/game-of-thrones-most-popular-sky-series-ever-as-16m-download-show">attracted more than 5m viewers</a> per episode. On the face of it, the attractions are obvious: large helpings of sex and violence, bolstered by a serpentine storyline said to be inspired by the War of the Roses, one of the bloodiest periods of English history.</p>
<p>Yet, I think the series meets deeper, more fundamental human needs than just a romp through the bedrooms and battlefields of author George R. R. Martin’s imagination. With colleagues Luca Visconti of ESCP Europe and Stephanie Feiereisen of Cass Business School, I conducted a series of <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2831991">semi-structured interviews</a> with 55 people from 14 countries to get a more detailed picture of what the psychological needs are that narratives like Game of Thrones satisfy.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/99623579" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We found five motivations for consuming stories varying from Game of Thrones specifically to other books, documentaries and films, to paintings and frescos, to music and novels. These are: understanding the outer world, understanding the inner world, investigating the outer world, forgetting the inner world and looking after a lonely and suffering self.</p>
<h2>1. Understanding the outer world</h2>
<p>Game of Thrones provides insight into the lives of people in other places in other times, like the Scandinavian vikings (portrayed in the series as the Ironborn from the Iron Islands) as well as Genghis Khan and the Mongols (represented by Daenerys’ time with the horse-obsessed Dothraki). We get a glimpse of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Coast">Slave Coast</a> of Africa with Slavers’ Bay while the various Free Cities in Game of Thrones – Lys, Braavos, Pentos, Norvos, Myr – can be found in our history books as various trading cities of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (Alexandria, Baghdad, Constantinople, and Tyre, for example).</p>
<p>However, the main action in Game of Thrones is inspired, according to Martin, by the Wars of the Roses, which raged from 1455 to 1485 between the English houses of Lancaster and York. That bloody story has been transferred to Game of Thrones where the two main competing houses are known as Lannister and Stark. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176803/original/file-20170704-5302-188fr1j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Will Arya Stark come into her own in season seven?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky Atlantic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Making sense of the world is something all humans need and do. As American scholar Athinodoros Chronis <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/026725708X273894">wrote</a>, visitors to places such as the American Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg turn what are essentially commercial tourist sites into personal experiences by comparing what they see and hear with their own prior knowledge, filling in the gaps in their knowledge, and using their imagination to immerse themselves in the story of the past. So it is with Game of Thrones and the Wars of the Roses. We learn that problems of social and financial inequality combined with the mental infirmity and ineffective and weak rule of political leaders can cause conflict, power struggles, and fighting.</p>
<h2>2. Understanding the inner world</h2>
<p>Living through an event or feeling certain emotions does not necessarily make them easily interpretable. People use stories to make sense of individual experiences. For example, some people watch Game of Thrones because they can easily relate to the battle between good and evil being fought chiefly in the individual human heart of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrion_Lannister">Tyrion Lannister</a>, instead of between heroic elves and evil orcs in, say, Lord of the Rings. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177838/original/file-20170712-8283-1qf6ktr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enemies on all sides.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky Altantic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, other people particularly enjoy Game of Thrones because they feel a personal stake when another character dies. <a href="http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Hodor">Hodor</a>, body servant to young Bran Stark, was not a major character but he was beloved for his gentleness. Though his master would ultimately cause his demise, Hodor stuck with him loyally until death. We all need a Hodor in our lives.</p>
<h2>3. Investigating the outer world</h2>
<p>Different from needing to understand the outer world, needing to investigate it reflects the human need to understand not only our own beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives but to appreciate that other people’s are different from one’s own. A story like Game of Thrones enables viewers not only to interpret their own lives, but also to vicariously navigate other lives that are alien to their own.</p>
<p>Some people take this seriously enough to <a href="http://nationalpost.com/travel/how-game-of-thrones-inspired-tourism-became-a-lucrative-travel-trend/wcm/364a037f-c8cd-4054-9834-3d77261eed27">visit locations</a> from the series such as Dubrovnik in Croatia, whose walls were used for scenes in King’s Landing and the Red Keep. Another popular destination is Ouarzazate in Morocco which stands in for Yunkai on the Game of Thrones’ continent of Essos. Iceland was used to film the Land Beyond the Wall on the Game of Thrones’ continent of Westeros and Northern Ireland provided Castle Black, Vaes Dothrak, Winterfell, and other locations. Travelling to such locations turns Game of Thrones into a personal event that becomes a discovery.</p>
<h2>4. Forgetting the inner world</h2>
<p>Another shared need for narrative is to break away from daily life. Humans cannot escape the need for escapism. As such, Game of Thrones is effective whenever you just do not want to think about your things anymore. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176804/original/file-20170704-30030-17d6s6z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky Atlantic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The series is an effective way to escape from your problems, or at least, to forget them for a while. Fans even invent great (and weird) <a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/06/16/the_best_and_the_weirdest_of_game_of_thrones_fanfiction/">fan fiction</a> that grants elevation from mundane affairs. Beware though: fan fiction can suit solipsistic indulgence and denial of personal problems. One 39-year-old French woman we interviewed was struggling to overcome her alcoholism. She escaped from her urges by binge-watching horror films, simply replacing one addiction with another. In the end, escapism is about putting your issues aside and keeping them for later. As a result, they do not get resolved.</p>
<h2>5. Looking after a lonely and suffering self</h2>
<p>At other times, people use stories to improve personal resources and heal their suffering selves, including coping with profound sorrow, embarrassment, and guilt. </p>
<p>Game of Thrones can be used for various self-prescribed therapies too. Participants mentioned a wide variety of stories they used for therapy. One 80-year-old Irish woman told us she had used David Copperfield to help her deal with the grief of losing her mother. In Game of Thrones, Arya Stark’s migration to Essos is an example of a way to cope with loneliness – her story is a reminder that there are people out there having it harder than you. </p>
<p>Meanwhile Sansa Stark having Ramsay Bolton’s hound eat him alive offers a fictional revenge to survivors of sexual violence. Or you can use Tyrion as your alter ego, whose similar life events and emotions makes you think you are <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-transportation-into-game-of-thrones-could-have-ugly-results-25523">not to blame</a> for the mess the world is in.</p>
<p>First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans used Game of Thrones in a speech to Google:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is confusing, it’s epic, it’s about good and bad, but it’s not black and white. It’s about challenges … Sort of like society in general today.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JYRfURVI_TM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Paraphrasing him, Game of Thrones is the perfect metaphor for where we stand as a society. Our time is a challenging time. Winter may be coming but that is an opportunity to show how strong we are because – like the house of Stark – we are best when we are challenged. Stories empower people to self-prescribe narrative therapy. Not only do we know which stories we like – but we also know which narrative we need to escape from reality as well as transform it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom van Laer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s gritty and gripping in equal measure, but the swords and snowstorm narrative also answers a number of basic human needs.Tom van Laer, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/803362017-07-12T14:38:00Z2017-07-12T14:38:00ZGame of Thrones and the cut and thrust of warring women through the ages<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177730/original/file-20170711-14421-9hgrwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime in Game of Thrones.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky Atlantic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Enemies to the east, enemies to the west, enemies to the south, enemies to the north. Whatever stands in our way, we will defeat it.” So says Cersei Lannister to her brother Jamie, as she considers the various threats to her reign.</p>
<p>The trailers for season seven of Game of Thrones promise further epic battles to decide the fate of the Seven Kingdoms. One of the key struggles will almost certainly be between Cersei Lannister, recently crowned queen of Westeros, and Daenerys Targaryen, whose ownership of several dragons would appear to give her a distinct advantage on the battlefield. Her mantra: “I was born to rule the seven kingdoms and I will.”</p>
<p>One of the many sources of inspiration for Game of Thrones is the Wars of the Roses, which involved several ambitious women – principally Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, Elizabeth Woodville (who married Edward IV), and Margaret Beaufort, whose son Henry Tudor would eventually take the crown – who brought the civil war to an end. The Hollow Crown, the BBC’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s plays about the Wars of the Roses portrayed Margaret of Anjou wearing mail on the battlefield, but what role did women really play in warfare of the later medieval period?</p>
<p>This partially depends upon how we define warfare. Then, as now, it was unusual to find women on the battlefield – but not impossible, think of <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/saint-joan-of-arc">Joan of Arc</a> or Joanna of Flanders who donned armour to attack her enemy on horseback. But, if we think of warfare more broadly – as being waged by one society against another – then women played a significant role in the war effort. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J3l4wVCCTVA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>On the home front, wives would be responsible for looking after the estates or the family business while their husbands were away. In 1448, Margaret Paston <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/pastonletters_01.shtml">wrote to her husband John</a>, a lawyer and MP, that she was having trouble with a neighbour. She asked him to send her weapons so that she could defend the property. She did not ask him to return and help but described the steps she was taking to defend the estate. To further prove that this was nothing out of the ordinary, she also sent him a shopping list, asking him to send sugar, almonds and fabric to make clothing for the children.</p>
<p>When under attack, women contributed to the defence of their settlement, whether by bringing children or animals to a place of safety (something a young Joan of Arc may have done when her village was attacked by Burgundians), preparing supplies or supporting military activity. This could involve repairing or building defences, gathering stones or projectiles, or boiling water or oil to use against the enemy. </p>
<p>In the Siege of Senlis, during the Hundred Years War, the citizens prepared wagons at the top of a steep hill to push down on enemy soldiers and men concealed themselves in houses so they could surprise the invaders. Women stationed themselves at windows to pour boiling water on the attackers. The <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=acls;cc=acls;view=toc;idno=heb06053.0001.001">Chronicle of Jean de Venette</a> revealed that the citizens of Senlis managed to defend themselves successfully – and that the women played their part.</p>
<h2>To play the queen</h2>
<p>Queens in particular had a role to play in times of war. If their husbands were away fighting, it was not uncommon for queens, such as <a href="http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_35.html">Philippa of Hainault</a> (wife of Edward III) or <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/catherine_of_aragon/">Katherine of Aragon</a> (first wife of Henry VIII) to be in charge of defending of the realm. Both queens of England won important battles against the Scottish while their husbands were waging wars in France.</p>
<p>It was more controversial, however, if a queen seemed to make war in order to further her own interests. Queens are meant to be patrons, mediators, and peacemakers – so while Katherine and Philippa are revered for defending the realm, <a href="http://historylists.org/people/top-10-most-unfairly-maligned-women-in-history.html">history has been less kind</a> to those queens who are perceived as aggressors. Like Cersei Lannister, Margaret of Anjou is often portrayed as a villainous adulteress, determined to protect her own power and the rights of her child at any cost. In Shakespeare she is called the “she-wolf of France”, and the opposition propaganda of her own time depicts her as willing to destroy the realm in pursuit of her own desires.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177749/original/file-20170711-13828-1sabf4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret of Anjou marries Henry VI of England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martial d'Auvergne</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Families at war</h2>
<p>Yet what choice did Margaret have? Married to an ineffective king, whose ability to rule and even his sanity were often in doubt, she could not stand by while her son was disinherited. Soon after her husband agreed to name Richard Duke of York his heir, a Lancastrian army led by Margaret’s chief commander attacked Richard at Sandal Castle in Wakefield. </p>
<p>Richard was killed and his eldest son Edward took up the Yorkist cause as bloody civil war continued. When Henry VI was imprisoned after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-medieval-somme-forgotten-battle-that-was-the-bloodiest-fought-on-british-soil-62129">battle of Towton</a> and Edward took the throne, Margaret fled to France with her son and lived there in exile. Like Daenerys Targaryen, however, she was only biding her time. She would eventually return with an invading army. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/177750/original/file-20170711-14452-1oavyfp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daenerys Targaryen has something of a not-so-secret weapon in her bid for victory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sky Atlantic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Margaret was eventually doomed to failure and an obscure death in France after the deaths of her son and husband. The Wars of the Roses raged off and on until, thanks to the politicking of Margaret Beaufort and Elizabeth Woodville, Henry Tudor was able to raise an army against Richard III whom he defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.</p>
<p>What sets both Cersei and Daenerys apart, however, is that they are both fighting to defend a personal claim to the throne, rather than the claim of a husband or son. Either one could be seen as a defender or an aggressor – it depends upon where your loyalties lie. </p>
<p>If history teaches us anything, however, it is that the queen who is ultimately successful will ensure that she is recorded in history as the defender, not the usurper, of Westeros.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80336/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marta Cobb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new series will bring several strong women into conflict with each other – just like the Wars of the Roses.Marta Cobb, Teaching Fellow in Medieval Studies, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/621292016-07-13T12:13:03Z2016-07-13T12:13:03ZThe Medieval Somme: forgotten battle that was the bloodiest fought on British soil<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130374/original/image-20160713-12383-fygvoa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Richard Caton Woodville's The Battle of Towton.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>A Battle of the Somme on British soil? It happened on Palm Sunday, 1461: a day of fierce fighting in the mud that felled a generation, leaving a longer litany of the dead than any other engagement in the islands’ history – reputed in some <a href="http://www.r3.org/on-line-library-text-essays/crowland-chronicle/part-ii/">contemporary reports</a> to be between 19,000 – the same number killed or missing in France on July 1 1916 – and a staggering 38,000. </p>
<p>The battle of <a href="http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/warsoftheroses/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=46">Towton</a>, fought near a tiny village standing on the old road between Leeds and York, on the brink of the North York Moors, is far less known than many other medieval clashes such as <a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/1066-battle-of-hastings-abbey-and-battlefield/">Hastings</a> or <a href="http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/warsoftheroses/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=8">Bosworth</a>. Many will never have heard of it.</p>
<p>But here, in a blizzard on an icy cold March 29 1461, the forces of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Wars-of-the-Roses">the warring factions of Lancaster and York</a> met in a planned pitched battle that soon descended into a mayhem known as the Bloody Meadow. It ran into dusk, and through the fields and byways far from the battlefield. To the few on either side that carried their weapon to the day’s end, the result was by no means clear. But York in fact prevailed and within a month (almost to the day), the towering figure of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_iv_king.shtml">Duke Edward</a>, who stood nearly six-feet-five-inches tall, had reached London and seized the English crown as Edward IV. The Lancastrian king, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/henry_vi_king.shtml">Henry VI</a>, fled into exile.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130375/original/image-20160713-12397-1gqqln0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Victor: the Yorkist Edward IV.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6639948">The National Portrait Gallery</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Towton was not merely a bloody moment in military history. It was also a turning-point in the long struggle for the throne between these two dynasties whose rivalry has provided – since the 16th century – a compelling overture to the grand opera of the Tudor legend, from Shakespeare to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/edward_iv_king.shtml">the White Queen</a>. But this summer, as national attention focuses on the 100th anniversary of The Battle of the Somme, we might also take the opportunity to recall a day in our history when total war tore up a landscape that was much closer to home.</p>
<h2>An English Doomsday</h2>
<p>First, the historian’s caveats. While we know a remarkable amount about this bloody day in Yorkshire more than 550 years ago, we do not have the benefits granted to historians of World War I. Towton left behind no battle plans, memoranda, maps, aerial photographs, nor – above all other in value – first-hand accounts of those who were there. We cannot be certain of the size of the forces on either side, nor of the numbers of their dead. </p>
<p>A death toll of 28,000 was reported as early as April 1461 in one of the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ShfEdpp2bbAC&pg=PA244&dq=towton+newsletter+28000&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiru6-Dg-_NAhWaOsAKHTYmAWsQ6AEIIjAB#v=onepage&q=towton%20newsletter%2028000&f=false">circulating newssheets</a> that were not uncommon in the 15th century – and was taken up by a number of the chroniclers writing in the months and years following. This was soon scaled up to nearly 40,000 – about 1% of England’s entire male population – by others, a figure which also came to be cemented in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m8Ojo6VI8KUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=towton&f=false">the accounts of some chroniclers</a>.</p>
<p>This shift points to the absence of any authoritative recollection of the battle – but almost certainly the numbers were larger than were usually seen, even in the period’s biggest clashes. Recently, historians have curbed the claims but the <a href="https://nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/towton.pdf">latest estimate</a> suggests that 40,000 men took to the field, and that casualties may have been closer to 10,000.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130372/original/image-20160713-12366-ihrg8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lethal: an armour-piercing bodkin arrow, as used at Towton.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1596107">by Boneshaker</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But as with the Somme, it is not just the roll-call, or death-toll, that matters, but also the scar which the battle cut across the collective psychology. Towton became a byword for the horrors of the battlefield. Just as July 1 1916 has become the template for the cultural representation of the 1914-18 war, so Towton pressed itself into the popular image of war in the 15th and 16th centuries. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Malory">Sir Thomas Malory</a> re-imagined <a href="http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/englit/malory/">King Arthur</a> for the rising generation of literate layfolk at the beginning of the Tudor age, it was at Towton – or at least a battlefield very much like it – that he set the final fight-to-the-death between Arthur and Mordred (<a href="http://www.shmoop.com/morte-d-arthur/book-21-summary.html">Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI, Chapter 4</a>). Writing less than ten years after the Yorkist victory, <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1252/1252-h/1252-h.htm#link2HCH0256">Malory’s Arthurian battleground raged</a>, like Towton, from first light until evening, and laid waste a generation: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… and thus they fought all the long day, and never stinted till the noble knights were laid to the cold earth and ever they fought still till it was near night, and by that time there was there an hundred thousand laid dead upon the ground. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Lions and lambs</h2>
<p>In his history plays, Shakespeare also presents Towton as an expression of all the terrible pain of the years of struggle that lasted over a century, from Richard II to Henry VIII. He describes it in <a href="http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=henry6p3&Act=2&Scene=5&Scope=scene">Henry VI, Part 3, Act 2, Scene 5</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>O piteous spectacle! O bloody times! While lions war and battle for their dens, poor harmless lambs abide their enmity. Weep, wretched man, I’ll aid thee tear for tear.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both the Somme and Towton saw a generation fall. But while it was a young, volunteer army of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pals_battalion">“Pals”</a> that was annihilated in 1916, osteo-analysis suggests that Towton was fought by grizzled older veterans. But in the small society of the 15th century, this was no less of a demographic shock. Most would have protected and provided for households. Their loss on such a scale would have been devastating for communities. And the slaughter went on and on. The Lancastrians were not only defeated, they were hunted down with a determination to see them, if not wiped out, then diminished to the point of no return.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/130366/original/image-20160713-12377-1fab7dq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Battle of Towton: initial deployment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12564852">by Jappalang</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For its time, this was also warfare on an unprecedented scale. There was no be no surrender, no prisoners. The armies were strafed with vast volleys of arrows, and new and, in a certain sense, industrial technologies were deployed, just as they were at the Somme. Recent archaeology confirmed the presence of <a href="http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/2015/03/exploded-gun-brings-the-story-of-richard-iii-into-the-modern-age/">handguns on the battlefield</a>, evidently devastating if not quite in the same league as the German’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_08">Maschinengewehr 08</a> in 1916. </p>
<p>These firearm fragments are among the earliest known to have been in used in northern European warfare and perhaps the very first witnessed in England. Primitive in their casting, they presented as great a threat to the man that fired them as to their target. Surely these new arrivals would have added considerably to the horror.</p>
<h2>Fragments of the past</h2>
<p>Towton is a rare example in England of a site largely spared from major development, and <a href="http://www.towton.org.uk/archeology/">vital clues to its violent past remain</a>. In the past 20 years, archaeological excavations have not only extended our understanding of the events of that day but of <a href="http://www.academia.edu/10248475/Holst_M._and_Sutherland_T._2014._Towton_Revisited_Analysis_of_the_Human_Remains_from_the_Battle_of_Towton_1461_in_S._Eickhoff_and_F._Schopper_eds._Schlachtfeld_und_Massengrab_Spektren_Interdisziplin%C3%A4rer_Auswertung_von_Orten_der_Gewalt_Zossen_97-129">medieval English society in general</a>. </p>
<p>The same is true of the Somme. That battlefield has a global significance as a place of commemoration and reconciliation, especially as Word War I passes out of even secondhand memory. But it also has significance as a site for <a href="http://www.laboisselleproject.com/">“live” research</a>. Its ploughed fields and pastures are still offering up new discoveries which likewise can carry us back not only to the last moments of those lost regiments but also to the lost world they left behind them, of Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain.</p>
<p>It is essential that these battlefields continue to hold our attention. For not only do they deepen our understanding of the experience and mechanics of war, they can also broaden our understanding of the societies from which such terrible conflict springs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Clark receives funding from UK Research Councils.</span></em></p>On an icy cold day in 1461, tens of thousands died in a muddy slaughter.James Clark, Professor of Medieval History, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.