ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the influence of the latter stages of the French wars in the construction of field fortifications such as those thrown up by the Lancastrians before Northampton in 1460. Battles were frequently bloody as losers in a civil war have no cash value: personal, family and dynastic feuds are brought to a sanguinary denoueme. The battles themselves tended to be fought along traditional lines, with opposing forces facing each other in linear formation, divided into three conventional divisions or battles. There were some innovations: the use of fieldworks at Northampton, and the Earl of Warwick's measures before Second St Albans show marks of ingenuity neither, however, was successful. The Lancastrian flank march prior to Warwick's defeat is also a notable example of some enlightened tactical thinking possibly the professional captain, Andrew Trollope. The Wars of the Roses thus stand on the rim of the era of medieval warfare on the brink of the age of pike and shot.
