found himself so much outnumbered by the enemy. He threw himself
into Sandal Castle, which was situated in the neighborhood; and he was
advised by the earl of Salisbury, and other prudent counsellors, to
remain in that fortress till his son, the earl of Marche, who
was levying forces in the borders of Wales, could advance to his
assistance.[*] But the duke, though deficient in political courage,
possessed personal bravery in an eminent degree; and notwithstanding his
wisdom and experience, he thought that he should be forever disgraced,
if, by taking shelter behind walls, he should for a moment resign the
victory to a woman.

* Stowe, p. 412.

He descended into the plain, and offered battle to the enemy, which was
instantly accepted. The great inequality of numbers was sufficient alone
to decide the victory; but the queen, by sending a detachment, who
fell on the back of the duke's army, rendered her advantage still more
certain and undisputed. The duke himself was killed in the action;
and as his body was found among the slain, the head was cut off by
Margaret's orders, and fixed on the gates of York, with a paper crown
upon it, in derision of his pretended title. His son, the earl of
Rutland, a youth of seventeen, was brought to Lord Clifford; and that
barbarian, in revenge of his father's death, who had perished in the
battle of St. Albans, murdered in cool blood, and with his own
hands, this innocent prince, whose exterior figure, as well as other
accomplishments, are represented by historians as extremely amiable.
The earl of Salisbury was wounded and taken prisoner, and immediately
beheaded, with several other persons of distinction, by martial law at
Pomfret.[*] There fell near three thousand Yorkists in this battle: the
duke himself was greatly and justly lamented by his own party; a
prince who merited a better fate, and whose errors in conduct proceeded
entirely from such qualities as render him the more an object of esteem
and affection. He perished in the fiftieth year of his age, and left
three sons, Edward, George, and Richard, with three daughters, Anne,
Elizabeth, and Margaret.

{1461.} The queen, after this important victory, divided her army. She
sent the smaller division, under Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke, half
brother to the king, against Edward the new duke of York. She herself
marched with the larger division towards London, where the earl of
Warwick had been left with the command of the