Battle of St Albans Battlefield

On May 22, 1455, the Wars of the Roses began in the streets of St Albans. The Duke of York and his allies attacked King Henry VI’s forces in a brutal street fight that left the Duke of Somerset and other Lancastrian lords dead. Though technically a minor battle, it began thirty years of dynastic civil war. The ghosts of the first battle still fight in St Albans’ medieval streets, forever beginning the conflict that tore England apart.

The History

The First Battle (1455)

How the Wars of the Roses began:

• Richard Duke of York challenged Henry VI’s advisors
• The two armies met at St Albans
• Negotiations failed
• The Yorkists attacked through the town
• Street-by-street fighting
• The Duke of Somerset killed
• King Henry VI wounded
• York gained control of the government

The Second Battle (1461)

St Albans saw battle again:

• Margaret of Anjou’s Lancastrians attacked
• The Yorkists were defeated
• King Henry VI (now a prisoner) rescued
• But the Lancastrians failed to press south
• York’s son Edward seized London
• And became Edward IV

The Key Deaths

Important casualties of the first battle:

• Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset
• Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland
• Lord Clifford
• Their deaths created blood feuds
• Their sons would seek revenge
• The cycle of violence began

The Hauntings

The First Clash

May 22, 1455, replays:

• Armies approaching through the streets
• The negotiations failing
• The Yorkist attack beginning
• Fighting house to house
• The first blood of the Wars of the Roses

The Duke of Somerset

The key death:

• Fleeing from the fighting
• Taking refuge at the Castle Inn
• Dragged out by Yorkists
• Cut down in the street
• His death began the wars
• He dies there still

Street Fighting

Urban combat chaos:

• Soldiers in narrow medieval streets
• Fighting door to door
• Arrows fired from windows
• Confused, brutal combat
• Nowhere to form proper battle lines
• The town became a battlefield

King Henry VI

The ineffective monarch:

• Wounded by an arrow
• Taking refuge in a tanner’s cottage
• Mentally fragile
• Unable to control events
• The Wars began during his weak reign
• His ghost is confused, lost

The Percy and Clifford Ghosts

The slain lords:

• Their deaths created vendettas
• Blood feuds that lasted generations
• Their sons became savage enemies of York
• The revenge they sought
• The cycle continuing

The Second Battle Confusion

Two battles in the same place:

• Ghosts from both encounters
• Different armies, different outcomes
• Temporal confusion
• Which battle is replaying?
• Sometimes both at once

St Albans Abbey

The great abbey overlooked the fighting:

• Used as a refuge
• The wounded brought here
• Prayers for the dying
• The horror witnessed
• Paranormal activity reported

The Castle Inn

Where Somerset died:

• Intense activity at this location
• The duke’s final moments
• His death that began the wars
• Cold spots and apparitions
• The moment England changed

The Clock Tower

Medieval landmark that witnessed both battles:

• Soldiers fought around it
• A rallying point
• Sightings of armored figures
• The sounds of combat
• The tower remembers

Modern St Albans

A town built over a battlefield:

• Medieval street plan preserved
• Residents report phenomena
• Figures in 15th-century armor
• Sounds of fighting
• The Wars never ended here

Anniversary Phenomena

May 22 (First Battle) and February 17 (Second Battle):

• Peak activity on these dates
• Street fighting replays
• Somerset dies again
• Sounds of medieval combat
• The Wars of the Roses return

The Beginning

St Albans was the start:

• The first violence
• The first noble blood spilled
• The beginning of thirty years of war
• The start of the bloodiest family feud
• The Wars of the Roses began here
• And here they continue

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The Battle of St Albans was where the Wars of the Roses began. The Duke of Somerset was dragged from an inn and killed in the street. King Henry VI was wounded and captured. Lords who had been councilors became enemies. The violence that would consume England for three decades started in these medieval streets. And in these streets, it continues still. Somerset dies again and again, the armies clash eternally, and the Wars of the Roses never end.