PERSPECTIVES
THE BATTLE OF
LOSECOAT FIELD Al Tutt finds out what is known about the little-known nearby battle of Losecoat Field which took place in 1470 just north of Stamford
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isitors to Stamford with an eye on history ask about Stamford Bridge, no doubt hoping the town bridge crossing the Welland was the scene of the notable battle of 1066; only to be disabused by its having occurred many miles north in the Ridings of Yorkshire. However, four hundred and four years later a key battle of the War of the Roses did take place barely five miles north of Stamford on a site straddling the Great North Road, now the A1. One historian writing in the Rutland Magazine c1903 pronounced it an ‘Unnoticed Battle’, a fair assessment given that it is rarely mentioned and even less chronicled. That battle, which confusingly has been given various names, occurred on either the 12th or 13th of March 1470 between the Yorkists in the person of King Edward IV, crowned as recently as 1461, and his army; and the Lancastrians led by Robert Welles, 8th Baron Willoughby de Eresby of Grimsthorpe Castle. The Lancastrians being almost certainly stout progeny of Lincolnshire virtually to a man. The event has been called, variously, the Battle of Losecoat (or Loosecoat) Field, the Battle of Empingham and even the evocative Bloody Oaks – the latter being the current name of nearby woods and a service station, complete with OK Diner, on the northbound A1 road. Some commentators put the total of combatants involved in the engagement at 30,000 troops - hardly a piffling amount. So what happened? A little background is needed. Edward IV had regained his pomp and power after the ignominious flight of the royalists at the battle of Edgecote Moor in 1469. Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, so-called Kingmaker, who wished to place George, Duke
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of Clarence (his son-in-law) on the throne had become marginalised in power terms, outside the orbit of regal influence. Warwick fell in with the disgruntled Welles, subtly planning a coup d’état to remove Edward IV from the throne. Welles gathered forces in his power base, the county of Lincolnshire; the unrest prompting the king to do likewise in the south. To cut to the chase, the rebel, nominally Lancastrian, forces had mustered and reached the area on March 12 1470, positioned on a low ridge just north of Tickencote Warren Farm. Edward’s host - comprising relatively well armed and better trained foot soldiers and cavalry had tramped up the Great North Road from the southern counties and, latterly, Stamford. In a masterstroke of psychological warfare, Edward had Welles’ imprisoned father (and Thomas Dymock) executed, beheaded, in full view of his son and his rebellion force. A barrage of cannon fire from the Yorkists, no doubt well fed and watered by the good people of Stamford, followed by a stalwart advance from Edward’s confident, reasonably well equipped troopers swiftly reduced the rebels to the miserable motley crew they were. Welles’ lines broke without engagement and the cowardly force fled the field, scattering to all points north, east and west. It is said, in the havoc and panic, many hastily flung away their weapons and discarded their livery, which betrayed their allegiance to treacherous Warwick and Clarence, hence the epithet Loosecoat applied to the affray. And what of the main protagonists? Welles met the same fate as his father, captured and executed one week later along with his captain of foot, Richard Warren. Warwick and Clarence
fled to France. Within the space of a year Edward had both lost and regained the throne of England. A modern Ordnance Survey map sites the battle north of Bloody Oaks Woods, itself used to name the battle, in a field on the corner of the lane to Pickworth. But, John Speed’s 1610 map of Rutland names, reasonably accurately, many of the copses thereabouts. Newell Wood, Turnpole Wood, Woodhead (and castle – what was its role in the conflict?), Frith Wood, East Wood and Empingham Wood all closely correspond to present day topography – but there is no Bloody Oaks, only one Boyal Wood (referred to as Royal Wood by one commentator). To complete the obfuscation, the battle has one further name, Horn Field; Horn being over to the west, toward Exton. It is surprising, to say the least, that in the fields and pastures of the area no sign, no detritus, of this odd but important battle of the Roses has been unearthed, despite the building of the A1 and its later widening. Perhaps there was little interest in the archaeology, although there is anecdotal evidence of the finding of an ‘enormous groat’ of ‘king somebody.’ The chronicler, Richard Butcher, writing in 1646, avers that in gratitude for loyalty, Edward allowed Stamford, as a token of special favour, to bear the royal arms on a surcoat. “The Coat of arms depicted on our shield Was honourably won at Losecoat Field… And next to honour Stamford for such aid, His own paternall armies to it convey’d, Joyn’d with Earl Warren’s shield of high renown, Who was formerly owner of this towne.”
STAMFORD LIVING OCTOBER 2011
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23/9/11 10:14:45