It was with feelings of the most intense hatred, that the forces of the two parties approached each other; the deaths of not a few of the members of their respective families, and of many friends in battle, and of others on the scaffold, the forfeitures and confiscations by the act of attainder of the Parliament held at Coventry, and the bitterness of party strife, gave to the conflict a degree of inveteracy and fury, perhaps never equalled in any civil dissensions in England; and it cannot excite wonder, that in the dreadful battle which ensued, no quarter was given or expected. The first hostile meeting of any of the forces, was unfavourable to the cause of Edward. He had sent troops commanded by Lord Fitzwalter, {86a} to secure the passage over the river Aire, at Ferrybridge; but in the course of the night of the 27th of March, or very early in the morning of the 28th, a body of light cavalry, under the command of Lord Clifford, {86b} was detached by the Lancastrians, and attacked and defeated the Yorkists stationed there, slew their leader, and won that position; but in consequence of Edward’s forces having crossed the Aire at Castleford, three miles higher up the river, the Lancastrian troops were soon obliged to retreat from Ferrybridge, and, in endeavouring to rejoin the main body at Towton, were intercepted at a place called Dintingdale, {86c} near Scarthingwell, and near Saxton, were completely defeated, and their leader, Lord Clifford, was slain. The main bodies of the two armies were now close to each other: that of the Yorkists being posted at Saxton, and that of the Lancastrians at Towton; and during the night of the 28th, each party prepared for the terrible combat of the morrow. On Palm Sunday, the 29th of March, 1461, at nine in the morning, the battle commenced; and it is to be regretted, that the old historians have handed down to us, very little information of value, respecting that most extraordinary and sanguinary conflict; but some of the few particulars which they have left, will be noticed afterwards. The battle is said to have raged with great obstinacy and valour on both sides, during about ten hours, and terminated in a complete victory on the side of the Yorkists, and the rout and dispersion of the Lancastrian army. The place where it was fought, is found without difficulty; indeed the old chroniclers and annalists mention the locality with sufficient precision. We know from those sources (independently of tradition), that it took place near Towton, partly in the township of Towton, and partly in that of Saxton, {87a} and between Towton and Saxton and as the distances between the villages of those names, is only one mile and a half, it defines the exact locality very clearly.