2B - The outbreak of war: the first Battle of St Albans and the balance of military power in 1455 | AQA A-Level History

Learn why the first Battle of St Albans broke out, how the Yorkists won and why its political consequences were much larger than its scale. Assess military power without assuming that victory destroyed the king’s authority or ended opposition.

The decision to fight

The first Battle of St Albans grew from a dispute about control of Henry VI and his government. After recovering from incapacity, Henry restored Somerset’s influence and ended York’s first protectorship. York, Salisbury and Warwick feared exclusion and possible action against them. A royal council planned at Leicester in May 1455 increased their concern that their opponents would dominate decisions.

The Yorkist lords brought an army towards the king’s party and intercepted it at St Albans on 22 May 1455. They demanded that their enemies, particularly Somerset, be removed. Their public justification treated Henry as the rightful king who needed better counsel. It was not yet an open declaration that York should replace him.

Negotiations failed. For the royal party, surrendering leading councillors to armed opponents would weaken kingship and place those men in danger. For York’s group, withdrawing without security risked leaving their rivals able to punish them. This was a political impasse in which each side could see yielding as more dangerous than fighting. That explains the resort to force without assuming that every participant wanted a long civil war.

The Yorkist victory

St Albans was a small battle compared with the mass engagements of 1460–1461. Estimates of army sizes vary, but the Yorkists probably had a numerical advantage. The king’s force defended the streets and entry points of the town. Barriers helped it resist the initial attacks because approaching Yorkist men could not all fight through narrow entrances at once.

Warwick’s men broke through by a less defended route through gardens and buildings. Once fighting reached the defenders from within the town, the barriers no longer provided a complete defence. The episode demonstrates the importance of local terrain and tactical initiative: a smaller defensive position could hold until an attacker found another approach.

Somerset, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Clifford were killed. Henry was wounded and fell into Yorkist custody. Their deaths were politically significant because the Yorkists had removed particular enemies, rather than simply defeating an anonymous army. The surviving account preserved in the National Archives describes the Yorkist leaders approaching Henry submissively after the fighting and seeking forgiveness. That posture helped present the result as service to the king, although the use of force against his party remained unmistakable.

Exact medieval casualty totals deserve caution. Accounts could record only identified burials, repeat reports or use numbers to magnify a victory. The secure conclusion is that comparatively limited fighting had killed several leading nobles and changed who controlled the king.

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2B - The outbreak of war: the first Battle of St Albans and the balance of military power in 1455

The decision to fight

The Yorkist victory

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