This Day in History: 1461-03-11
On 11th March 1461, the Yorkist army began leaving London heading north; the first to leave being Lord Fauconberg at the head of Edward IV‘s vanguard. Edward himself left on the 13th. They followed the same route that his father, Richard Duke of York, had taken the previous year in his campaign against the Lancastrians. York had planned to use Pontefract as his base in 1460 only to be side-tracked to Sandal when he realised the Lancastrians were there before him. Edward realised in 1461 that Pontefract Castle would still make an ideal base from which to launch his war in Yorkshire and beyond against the Lancastrians.