Neville against Percy, 1450-1455

Abstract The political history of northern England in the 1450s and early 1460s is dominated by the great feud between the Nevilles of Middle ham and the Percies, which at times threw central Yorkshire into turmoil. The private war between the dominant families was described by one annalist as the beginning of the greatest sorrows in England-the start of the Wars of the Roses. And indeed it is plausible to suggest that what happened in Yorkshire in 1453 and 1454 led directly to the first battle of St Albans, Ludford, and all-out civil war. Not only were the subsequent battles, reaching a climax once more in Yorkshire at Tow ton, a continuation of the feud between Neville and Percy; but also, since the royal dukes of York and Somerset were dragged in as partisans, the struggle between Neville and Percy became inseparable from the struggle between York and Beaufort. The part played by the northern feud in the last years of the house of Lancaster has been clearly established and fully explored; its place in the history of the north-east is central. But, perhaps because the conflict between Neville and Percy has never been considered in its regional context, its genesis has been misunderstood.