CASUALTY RECORD // March 29, 1461
Battle of Towton
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
2 sides catalogued · combined 9,000 estimated
House of York
3,000
Medium-confidence figure
House of Lancaster
6,000
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Battle of Towton, fought on Palm Sunday 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, produced a decisive Yorkist victory that secured the English throne for Edward IV, displacing the Lancastrian king Henry VI. With an estimated 50,000 soldiers engaged across both sides, the engagement lasted ten hours and has been characterized as probably the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil. Lancastrian casualties of 6,000 against 3,000 Yorkist losses reflect the scale of the defeat suffered by the forces supporting Henry VI. The outcome was not a marginal shift in the balance of the conflict but a settlement of the immediate contest for the crown, establishing Edward IV's hold on the throne at a moment when Yorkist supremacy had been far from certain.
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