#Walter Deveureux

[blackboar]

On this day: February 2th, 1461: the battle of Mortimer's Cross

The battle of Mortimer's Cross was fought at the end of winter and was rooted in Welsh politics. It was fought at the border between Wales and Herefordshire. On the one side, the new duke of York since the execution of his father a month ago: Edward Plantagenet. Edward was Earl of March before, a huge lordship in Wales and the Welsh Marches, commanding many retainers. Two of its most prominent retainers were there with him: William Herbert and Walter Deveureux.

William Herbert was an ambitious Welshman, and Walter Devereux was a prominent Hertfordshire knight, both dedicated to the House of York.

Facing them, the Lancastrian faction was led by Jasper and Owen Tudor. Jasper, as Earl of Pembroke and half-brother of the king, commanded great influence in southern Wales. His brother Edmund clashed with Devereux in 1456 as York tried to rise in influence in the region. James Butler was with them as Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. The Butler family was powerful in Ireland and headed the Lancastrian faction in an unstable island where Yorkist influence was prominent. He fought with the Tudors. However, his marriages with the Beauchamp and Beaufort families gave him lands and interests in the Welsh Marches and the West Country, making him a powerful magnate outside of Ireland.

The stakes were high. Edward IV was the only adult Yorkist alive capable of championing the Lancastrians. More locally, Jasper and Owen had a grudge against Deveureux and Herbert, who waged war against their interest in 1456.

The Lancastrians were probably less numerous than the Yorkists, but their aggressive strategy gave them a shot at beating them.

Butler attempted an aggressive encirclement of the left flank, forcing Devereux to retreat. Meanwhile, Pembroke faced the duke of York. Owen's attempt at crushing Herbert and forcing an encirclement could have changed History, but it failed, and his 'battle' began to rout. Herbert's decisive hold allowed a Yorkist victory and the capture and execution of Owen Tudor.

This victory would mean much for the Yorkist. Everyone on the Yorkist side was eventually promoted. Deveureux and Herbert would become lord in 1461, just like Sir Humphrey Stafford, who fought with them. York would become king of England a few months later. The reverse was also true, as Jasper Tudor lost his earldom in favor of the Herberts (1469) and Butler lost his life a few months later and his family lost his earldom of Wiltshire with it. Jasper would regain his lands only after the battle of Bosworth twenty-four years later, in which Walter Deveureux, as lord Ferrers, would die fighting for Richard III.

Sun Dog in the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Edward IV would use the battle as a neat piece of propaganda. A parhelion was seen on the eve of the battle, and Edward IV would say those three suns represented the three surviving sons of York (Edward, George, and Richard). It would symbolize the dawn of a new dynasty for England, but the collision of the three stars would allow Tudor's sun to rise.