PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Historical Fun Fact: (USER LOSETH POSTYNG PRIVILYGES FOR FOUR AND TWENTY HOURS)

PlantHead: Jan 2, 2004

Interestingly with Russia having just invaded the Crimea there is a tiny town in the north of England which has already been fighting Russia for the Crimea for over 100 years.
When the Crimean war started between the UK and Russia it was declared in the name of Great Britain, Ireland and Berwick upon Tweed (Berwick was disputed between Scotland and England and so was treated separately)
However when the peace was signed only Great Britain and Ireland were mentioned, leaving poor little Berwick to continue the war alone.

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PlantHead: Jan 2, 2004

The Battle of Towton (1461) - the bloodiest battle no one has heard about.

quote:

"If you compare that to the first day at the Somme where we had 10,000 British casualties; to then have three times that many casualties at Towton, you can only imagine what the melee, the man-to-man cut and thrust could be like.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/york/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8673000/8673322.stm

Towton is a battle fought during the Wars of the Roses with Lancastrians on one side and Yorkists on the other. The figures are disputed but it is estimated that each side had about 40k men and that by the end of the day around 50% of them were dead, or about 1% of the total population of England. or 5% of all men of a fighting age. Pretty much everyone living in England at that time would have known someone who died at Towton.

The wounds suffered by the men are also unusual in that most seem to be head wounds and it is thought that the reason the number of dead is so high is that "no quarter" was agreed on before the battle and stuck too in the aftermath.
http://www.economist.com/node/17722650

quote:

THE soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough�somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died�to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out.

Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.

The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his head�picture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25's brain, felling him
His enemies were not done yet. Another small blow to the right and back of the head may have been enough to turn him over onto his back. Finally another blade arced towards him. This one bisected his face, opening a crevice that ran from his left eye to his right jaw (see picture). It cut deep: the edge of the blade reached to the back of his throat.

The death toll was so high that the Lancastrians were unable to muster another army for 3 years and led to the crowning of the Yorkist Edward IV.

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# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 10:56

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