ABSTRACT
York, the King, and all the Lords paraded their men through the streets to restore order, "which was the gloryousest sight that ever man in those dayes sawe," and one man was executed. The Yorkists made straight for London, which closed its gates, and obliged them to find their way across the Thames by Kingston Bridge to Dartford. A few Kentish men joined, but it was practically a purely baronial army that lay encamped opposite the Lancastrians, who had retraced their steps to Blackheath. To some the Wars of the Roses, as historians have wrongly called them, since the red rose was never a badge of the House of Lancaster, seemed to be a direct retribution for the renewal of the Hundred Years' War. The struggle of York and Lancaster was a "barons' war" and did not concern the commonalty.
