Having problems understanding the opening phase of Tewkesbury

[Dave Knight]

So we have Somerset making an unobserved flanking manoevere and hitting the left flank of the Yorkist army. 

What I am having difficulty with is Richard of Glouster is on the left flank  but it seemds to be Edward's centre battle that is engaged.

Our version of the battle will start with Somerset in a position to lauch a flank attack but I am struggling with how to set up the Yorkist deployment.

Any thoughts?

[Erpingham]

Apologies for the delay Dave - just catching up the backlog after holiday.

The obvious answer is that the Yorkists were advancing either in an echelon or column of wards.  The van, under Gloucester, has already engaged with archery and artillery before the flank attack by Somerset.  Somerset attacks the "end" of the King's ward but Edward manages to reorient his forces to beat off this attack, assisted by his flank guard taking Somerset in the right  flank and some of Gloucester's van also joining in, probably on the left flank.  Somerset has now completely messed up the Yorkist array and put his side in with a good chance if they advanced on Gloucester's disrupted van.   Cue the Somerset/Wenlock incident (if it happened).

A couple of points from rereading.  Although the Arrivall is unsure why Somerset advanced - either because he was provoked by arrows and artillery or because he was knightly and brave - it does say he had recce-ed the position and knew the route he took, whereas Edward didn't.

The other is that the incident only involves the van and main wards.  The rearguard is not involved (and isn't mentioned as involved in the battle at all by the Arrivall) .

[Dave Knight]

Thanks

So Richard is forward on the left flank and engaging to his front, do you think against the centre under Wenlock or the troops left by Somerset to disguise his flank movement

Edward is to the rear of Richard, literally or offset to later move into position alongside him?

Somerset attacks Edward in the flank, potentially going behind Richard's battle?

I can't work out a sensible on table deployment to replicate this as the Yorkists presumably are moving up intending to go into line of battles

The solution that I had been considering was Edward in place engaging Wenlock.  Richard to his rear at an angle positioned to move up and take position to Edward's left.  Somerst can then attack Edwards flank without immediately exposing his flank to Richard.

[Erpingham]

I'm not sure Richard is on the left.  I'd expect the Van to actually be on the right.  The Arrival is clear that the Yorkist van is attacking against an established "field" or position, from which Somerset departs to make his attack.  That attack is from the right of the Lancastrian position, because we know the "plompe" of spears is hidden on the Lancastrian right.  It is difficult to see why Somerset would attack Edward across the front of Gloucester's battle if it were already engaged on Edward's left, but if the fighting so far was to the right of Edward, with the rearguard further back, Somerset would be taking less of a risk. 

[Dave Knight]

Part of my problem is that the only book that I have covering the battle is Phillip Haigh's Military campaigns of the Wars of the Roses.  It has the three Yorkist battles in line with Richard on the left but as indicated in my notes above the sequence of events and involvement of Richard and Edward's forces does not make sense to me in the way in which he has presented it.

[Erpingham]

It's been interesting for me to consider the Arrivall account in detail.  If you look on the internet for plans of the battle, you do get a wide variety of locations but mostly they show a clash of three wards on each side in line.  Sometimes Gloucester is placed on the right, sometimes the left.

I suspect, though, that this battle is slightly different - more akin to Bosworth and Stoke, where the van gets stuck in before the other wards come up.  In these cases , are we dealing with a weighting of combat power to the van, a solid centre and a trailing, smaller rearguard?  Just a speculation but might be something to try.  As I said before, the Arrivall account is clear the Yorkists are advancing in the traditional three wards but there is no mention of what the rear one does.

[Erpingham]

Further considering, I looked at the account in Hall's Chronicle.  Though Tudor in date, this is the only other "detailed" account.  It is the source of two famous anecdotes which appear in modern accounts - Somerset killing Wenlock and the murder of Edward Prince of Wales.  However, it does speak of the beginning of the battle :

The duke of Gloucester, which lacked no policye, valyantly with hys battayle as- sauted the trèche of the Quenes campe, whom the duke of Somerset with no lesse courage defended, the duke of Gloucester for a very politique purpose, with all hys men reculed backe. The duke of Somerset perceiuing that: lyke a knight, more couragious then circúspect came out of his trenche, with his whole battayle, and folowed the chace, not doubtynge but the prince and the lorde Wenlocke, with the middelward had ſolowed iust at hys backe. But whether the lord Welocke dissimuled the matter for kynge Edwardes sake, or whether hys harte serued hym not, still he stode lokyng on. The duke of Gloucester takynge the auantage that he auentured for, turned agayn face to face to the duke of Somer- sets battayl, which (nothynge lesse thinkyng on, then of the returne) were within a smal season, shamefully discomfited. The duke of Somerset, Seyng hys vnfortunate chaunce returned to ye middelward, where he seyng the lord Wenloke standynge still, after he had reuyled hym, and called him traytor, with his axe he strake y braynes out of his hedde. The duke of Glocester entered the trenche, & after hym the kyng, where after no log conflict, the Quenes part went almost all to wrecke, for the most parte were slayne.

Some of the odd spelling in this isn't due to crappy OCR but the fact it uses a convention of dropping letters out of words to make words fit evenly on the line which was an old printers technique.  "N" seems to have been a particular favourite, hence treche for trench and log for long.

Anyway, here we see an emphasis on the Lancastrian position being strongly fortified, whereas the Arrivall tends toward it being a naturally strong position.  Given the available time, I suspect the Arrivall is closer, thought there may have been some improvement on nature.

Anyway, to the question in hand.  Hall confirms that the Yorkist van under Gloucester attacks first.  However , Gloucester applies "policye" i.e. a cunning plan and conducts a feigned retreat .  Somerset follows up the retreating enemy, expecting Wenlock to follow, but is caught by Gloucester's men turning again on the now strung out and crucially no longer entrenched Lancastrians. 

The two accounts are not the same but nor are they totally incompatable.  A temporary withdrawal by Glocester may have give the opportunity for Somerset to slip out of the defensive line .  Gloucester may been the target but instead of hitting Gloucester's flank, the nature of the ground meant that Somerset hit somewhere near the join between the Yorkist van and middle wards, entangling with both.