This Day in History: 1460-12-30

Following the  Battle of Wakefield, bonfires were lighted on 30th – 31st December 1460 to enable the conquerors purportedly  to bury the bodies of the slain on the field of battle. The battle had been of a relatively short duration fought in the afternoon. A letter written at the time by a son who visited the battlefield in search of the dead body of his father said ‘that at midnight the kindly snow fell like a mantle on the dead and covered the rueful faces staring to directly up to heaven’. After the battle, the Lancastrians set off towards York with the intention of reuniting with Margaret of Anjou who had remained in Scotland throughout the whole of the Wakefield campaign to gather further support and an army of mercenaries.