Blood Red Roses: The Archaeology of a Mass Grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461, second edition

Highly recommended for students of medieval and English history, military history, archeologists, and physical anthropologists. The tremendous, brutal Battle of Towton (1461) near York, decided the Yorkist claim to the throne. Over 70,000 knights, archers, and infantrymen participated. There were more than 25,000 casualties, mostly violent deaths. It was the greatest battle ever fought in Britain. This book includes a brief historical summary and a longer discussion of 15th-century warfare with color illustrations of modern "re-enactors". The core of the book is a detailed description of about 30 men buried in a shallow mass grave a few miles north of the battlefield. These were probably Lancastrian infantrymen killed while fleeing the field by Yorkist horsemen.They died of multiple cuts and blunt trauma to the face and skull. Archeological excavation was precise. Osteological analysis is exceptionally detailed. For example, a comparison of aging methods by bone growth, etc. is very valuable to the specialist. (Most were about 30 and had lived a rather rough life.) This volume is meant for the serious amateur historian or the specialist. It can be heavy going and is expensive. But it is worth it.

A multi-disciplined breakdown and analytical study of The Battle of Towton. Informative and thorough in its approach with little detail lost.

You must love archeology of this period but then even if you don’t it’s fascinating reading.

"Blood Red Roses" is not for the casual reader who has a mild interest in archeology. It is, rather, a collection of analytical reports on the excavation of a mass grave from the mid-fifteenth century. To the layman, the language is dry and academic. To someone like me, who has spent time with a trowel in the trenches, it's fascinating. This is an exceptional book that sheds a bright light on the world of the Wars of the Roses. No historian of the era should be without it.

Excellent!

The book is really a set of academic papers (each in a different speciality) that aim to add to our knowledge of British medieval warfare and the battle of Towton in particular. The focus of the analysis is a mass grave found at the battle site with the text going perhaps unnecessarily deeply into the methodology of excavation, bone analysis etc. and producing a series of rather confusing results. Some questions are; Why were the men a mile from the centre of the battle? Why did they have mostly front facing head wounds and very few lower body injuries? Why was so little recovered from the battle site, especially since the few arrow heads found were well preserved? The authors make a good presentation of the usually neglected common soldier showing his physical condition (from a small sample) and leaning heavily on the unique "Bridport Muster Roll" for typical 15th century arms and equipment. This says that 25% of the recruits arrived with shields (bucklers and pavises) but the book curiously attributes the lack of lower body wounds entirely to various types of body armour. Equally the strong left arm elbow bone structure is attributed to holding a longbow without considering that it could be caused by shield use. Personal experience with a true weight medieval shield shows that it puts a heavy stress on the arm and elbow.

This book has a fantastic level of detail with regards to the men found in the mass grave at Towton and is nice to see a thorough and highly detailed archaeological book available for the mass market. Information on the weapons and armour available was also useful though I would have enjoyed seeing some of the primary sources myself (the Bridport muster roll for example.) Boardmans' history of the battle and events surrounding it was also nicely pitched and informative. I would have quite enjoyed at least a cautious attempt at interpreting the nature of the mass grave and the events that overwhelmed the men there but respect the decison to limit this less scientific avenue of enquiry. I did however get the impression that there had been other academic work done that was not being presented here. Articles on battle field archaeology were also very rewarding and highlight the rather fragile nature of battlefield preservation. I was less impressed with the article on combat techniques (which didn't seem to be linked with the archaeology of the site) and was quite uniformative. I found the article on reenactment quite irrelevant in an academic book and would have liked rather more detail in the section on using the battlefield to teach history. However these really are minor quibbles and the book really should be in the collection of all people interested in history or western martial arts.

As a non-expert, this book fulfilled my needs. Not entrenched in deep technical vocabulary.

A wonderful but moving book concerning One of Britains most bloody battles. The illustrations are worth the price of the book alone.

excellent book and good service from the vendor

Highly recommended for students of medieval and English history, military history, archeologists, and physical anthropologists. The tremendous, brutal Battle of Towton (1461) near York, decided the Yorkist claim to the throne. Over 70,000 knights, archers, and infantrymen participated. There were more than 25,000 casualties, mostly violent deaths. It was the greatest battle ever fought in Britain. This book includes a brief historical summary and a longer discussion of 15th-century warfare with color illustrations of modern "re-enactors". The core of the book is a detailed description of about 30 men buried in a shallow mass grave a few miles north of the battlefield. These were probably Lancastrian infantrymen killed while fleeing the field by Yorkist horsemen.They died of multiple cuts and blunt trauma to the face and skull. Archeological excavation was precise. Osteological analysis is exceptionally detailed. For example, a comparison of aging methods by bone growth, etc. is very valuable to the specialist. (Most were about 30 and had lived a rather rough life.) This volume is meant for the serious amateur historian or the specialist. It can be heavy going and is expensive. But it is worth it.

A multi-disciplined breakdown and analytical study of The Battle of Towton. Informative and thorough in its approach with little detail lost.