Battle of Towton The Battle of Towton was fought during the English Wars of the Roses on 29 March 1461 , near the village of the same name in Yorkshire . It was " probably the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil " . According to chronicle rs , more than 50 , 000 soldiers from the Houses of York and Lancaster fought for hours amidst a snowstorm on that day , which was Palm Sunday . A newsletter circulated a week after the battle reported that 28 , 000 died on the battlefield . The engagement brought about a monarchical change in England — Edward IV displaced Henry VI as King of England , driving the head of the Lancastrians and his key supporters out of the country . Contemporary accounts described Henry VI as peaceful and pious , not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars , such as the War of the Roses . He suffered from periods of insanity while his inherent benevolence eventually required his wife , Margaret of Anjou , to assume control of his kingdom , which contributed to his own downfall . His ineffectual rule had encouraged the nobles ' schemes to establish control over him , and the situation deteriorated into a civil war between the supporters of his house and those of Richard Plantagenet , 3rd Duke of York . After the Yorkists captured Henry in 1460 , the English parliament passed an Act of Accord to let York and his line succeed Henry as king . Henry ' s consort , Margaret of Anjou , refused to accept the dispossession of her son ' s right to the throne and , along with fellow Lancastrian malcontents , raised an army . Richard of York was killed at the Battle of Wakefield and his titles , including the claim to the throne , passed to his eldest son Edward . Nobles who were previously hesitant to support Richard ' s claim to the throne considered the Lancastrians to have reneged on the Act — a legal agreement — and Edward found enough backing to denounce Henry and declare himself king . The Battle of Towton was to affirm the victor ' s right to rule over England through force of arms . On reaching the battlefield , the Yorkists found themselves heavily outnumbered . Part of their force under John de Mowbray , 3rd Duke of Norfolk , had yet to arrive . The Yorkist leader Lord Fauconberg turned the tables by ordering his archers to take advantage of the strong wind to outrange their enemies . The one - sided missile exchange , with Lancastrian arrows falling short of the Yorkist ranks , provoked the Lancastrians into abandoning their defensive positions . The ensuing hand - to - hand combat lasted hours , exhausting the combatants . The arrival of Norfolk ' s men reinvigorated the Yorkists and , encouraged by Edward , they routed their foes . Many Lancastrians were killed while fleeing ; some trampled each other and others drowned in the rivers . Several who were taken as prisoners were executed . The power of the House of Lancaster was severely reduced after this battle . Henry fled the country , and many of his most powerful followers were dead or in exile after the engagement , letting Edward rule England uninterrupted for nine years , before a brief restoration of Henry to the throne . Later generations remembered the battle as depicted in William Shakespeare ' s dramatic adaptation of Henry ' s life — " Henry VI , Part 3 " , Act 2 , Scene 5 . In 1929 , the Towton Cross was erected on the battlefield to commemorate the event . Various archaeological remains and mass graves related to the battle were found in the area centuries after the engagement . Background . In 1461 , England was in the sixth year of the Wars of the Roses , a series of civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster over the English throne . The Lancastrians backed the reigning King of England , Henry VI , an indecisive man who suffered bouts of madness . The leader of the Yorkists was initially Richard Plantagenet , 3rd Duke of York , who believed Henry was leading the country to ruin by overly favouring incompetent Lancastrian members of the court . Fuelled by rivalries between influential supporters of both houses , York ' s attempts to remove the favoured Lancastrian courtiers from power escalated into a full - blown conflict . After capturing Henry at the Battle of Northampton in 1460 , the duke , who was of royal blood , issued his own claim to the throne . Even York ' s closest supporters among the nobility were reluctant to usurp an established royal lineage ; instead , the nobles passed by a majority vote the Act of Accord , which ruled that the duke and his heirs would succeed the throne on Henry ' s death . The Queen of England , Margaret of Anjou , refused to accept an arrangement that deprived her son — Edward of Westminster — of his birthright . She had fled to Scotland after the Yorkist victory at Northampton ; there she began raising an army , promising her followers the freedom to plunder on the march south through England . Her Lancastrian supporters also mustered in the north of England , preparing for her arrival . York marched with his army to meet this threat , but he was lured into a trap at Wakefield and killed . The duke and his second son Edmund , Earl of Rutland , were decapitated by the Lancastrians and their heads were impaled on spikes atop the Micklegate Bar , a gatehouse of the city of York . The leadership of the House of York passed onto the duke ' s heir , Edward . The victors of Wakefield were joined by Margaret ' s army and they marched south , plundering settlements in their wake . They liberated Henry after defeating the Yorkist army of Richard Neville , 16th Earl of Warwick , in the Second Battle of St Albans , and continued pillaging on their way to London . As a result , the city of London refused to open its gates to Henry and Margaret for fear of being looted . The Lancastrian army was short on supplies and had no adequate means to replenish them . When Margaret learned that Richard of York ' s eldest son Edward , Earl of March and his army had won the Battle of Mortimer ' s Cross in Herefordshire and were marching towards London , she withdrew the Lancastrians to the city of York . Warwick and the remnants of his army marched from St Albans to join Edward ' s men and the Yorkists were welcomed into London . Having lost custody of Henry , the Yorkists needed a justification to continue taking up arms against the king and his Lancastrian followers . On 4 March , Warwick proclaimed the young Yorkist leader as King Edward IV . The proclamation gained greater acceptance than Richard of York ' s earlier claim , as several nobles previously opposed to letting Edward ' s father ascend the throne viewed the Lancastrian actions as a betrayal of the legally established Accord . The country now had two kings — a situation that could not be allowed to persist , especially if Edward was to be formally crowned . Edward offered amnesty to any Lancastrian supporter who renounced Henry . The move was intended to win over the commoners ; his offer did not extend to wealthy Lancastrians ( mostly the nobles ) . The young king summoned and ordered his followers to march towards York to take back his family ' s city and to formally depose Henry through force of arms . The Yorkist army moved along three routes . Warwick ' s uncle , Lord Fauconberg , led a group to clear the way to York for the main body , which was led by Edward . John de Mowbray , 3rd Duke of Norfolk , was sent east to raise forces and rejoin Edward before the battle . Warwick ' s group moved to the west of the main body , through the English Midlands , gathering men as they went . On 28 March , the leading elements of the Yorkist army came upon the remains of the crossing in Ferrybridge that spanned the River Aire . They were rebuilding the bridge when they were attacked and routed by a small band of Lancastrians , consisting of approximately 500 men led by John Clifford , 9th Baron de Clifford . Learning of the encounter , Edward led the Yorkist main army to the bridge and was forced into a gruelling battle ; although the Yorkists were superior in numbers , the narrow bridge was a bottleneck , forcing them to confront Clifford ' s men on equal terms . Edward sent Fauconberg and his horsemen to ford the river at Castleford , which should have been guarded by Henry Earl of Northumberland , but due to slowness on his part , arrived late by which time the Yorkists had crossed the ford and were heading to attack the Lancastrians at Ferrybridge from the side . The Lancastrians retreated but were chased to Dinting Dale and were all killed there ; Clifford was slain by an arrow to his throat . Having cleared the vicinity of enemy forces , the Yorkists repaired the bridge and pressed onwards to camp overnight at Sherburn - in - Elmet . The Lancastrian army marched to Tadcaster , approximately north of Towton , and made camp there . As dawn broke on the next day , the two rival armies packed up their camps under dark skies and in strong winds . Although it was Palm Sunday , a day of holy significance to Christians , the forces prepared for the battle ahead . As a result of this , a few documents named the engagement as the Battle of " Palme Sonday Felde " , but the name did not gain wide acceptance . Popular opinion favoured naming the battle after the village of Towton because of the battlefield ' s proximity to the settlement , which was the most prominent in the area at that time . Force compositions . Contemporary sources declare that the two armies were huge , stating that more than 100 , 000 men fought in the battle . One of the sources , an account in William Gregory ' s " Chronicle of London " ( 15th century ) by a soldier who had served in the Wars , claimed that the Yorkists had 200 , 000 soldiers , while the Lancastrian army had even more . Later historians believe that these figures were exaggerated , and that a combined figure of around 50 , 000 is more likely . Nevertheless , the armies gathered at Towton were among the largest at the time . An analysis of skeletons found in a mass grave in 1996 showed that the soldiers came from all walks of life at that time ; they were on average 30 years old , and several were veterans of previous engagements . Many knights and noblemen , approximately three - quarters of the English peers at that time , fought in the battle . Eight of them were sworn to the Yorkist cause whereas the Lancastrians had at least 19 . The battle would decide which of the two kings would rule over England , but while Edward fought with his men , Henry remained in York with Margaret . The Lancastrians regarded their king as a mere puppet of his wife and were wary of his mental instability . In comparison , Edward was inspirational to his followers . Eighteen years old , he was tall and was an imposing sight in armour . The young , muscular Edward looked more like a king than the frail and shabby Henry . Skilled in combat , Edward led his men from the front , motivating them to do their best and uplifting their spirits . Edward ' s preference for bold offensive tactics would dictate the Yorkist plan of action for this engagement . The Yorkists had other prominent leaders . Warwick had a flamboyant appeal to his followers . Edward Hall , a 16th - century chronicler , attributed to Warwick an inspirational scene before the Battle of Towton ; Hall wrote that Warwick , wounded at Ferrybridge , slew his horse and cried , " Let him fly that will , for surely I will tarry with him that will tarry with me " , daring any Yorkist to quit the fight ahead . The description is likely apocryphal ; military historian Christopher Gravett said that the tale demonstrates Warwick ' s loyalty to Edward and his fellow men if it is true . Warwick placed great value on his uncle , Lord Fauconberg , whom Hall called a " man of great policy , and of much experience in martial feats " . Small in stature and a veteran of the Anglo - French wars , Fauconberg was highly esteemed by his peers in matters of military affairs . He was quick to adapt to new situations ; among his previous achievements were the administration of the French town of Calais , leading several piracy expeditions of import , and the command of the vanguard at the Battle of Northampton . Of those appointed to raise men for the battle , Norfolk likely never made it to the engagement due to his advanced age , and his knights — Walter Blount and Robert Horne — would have taken command of his contingent . In any event , Norfolk was an " unpredictable ally " ; he had joined the Yorkists to establish a power base for himself in eastern England , and wavered in his support for their cause on various occasions . Without their king on the battlefield , the Lancastrians relied on Henry Beaufort , 3rd Duke of Somerset , to command their army . He was fairly experienced in matters of war and is credited with clever manoeuvres that led the Lancastrians to victory at Wakefield and St Albans . According to several historians , however , Sir Andrew Trollope , and not Somerset , was the Lancastrians ' primary strategist . Trollope formerly served under Warwick in Calais before defecting to the Lancastrians in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses . His change of allegiance was a major blow to the Yorkists , for he was familiar with their men and had played a key role in their victories in France . Other notable Lancastrian leaders included Henry Holland , 3rd Duke of Exeter , who had a reputation for violence and stupidity , and Henry Percy , 3rd Earl of Northumberland , whom Gravett described as lacking in intelligence . Northumberland had been one of the House of Lancaster ' s four linchpins of power at court . Two others were Thomas de Roos and Ralph Dacre , who also accompanied the army . The last had been Clifford , who had died earlier in the retreat from Ferrybridge . Deployment . Very few historical sources give detailed accounts of the battle and they do not describe the exact deployments of the armies . The paucity of such primary sources led early historians to adopt Hall ' s chronicle as their main resource for the engagement , despite its authorship 70 years after the event and questions over the origin of his information . The Burgundian chronicler Jehan de Waurin ( 1398 – 1474 ) was a more contemporary source , but his chronicle was made available to the public only from 1891 , and several mistakes in it discouraged historians at that time from using it . Later reconstructions of the battle were based on Hall ' s version , supplemented by minor details from other sources . The battle took place on a plateau between the villages of Saxton ( to the south ) and Towton ( to the north ) . The region was agricultural land , with plenty of wide open areas and small roads on which to manoeuvre the armies . Two roads ran through the area : the Old London Road , which connected Towton to the English capital , and a direct road between Saxton and Towton . The steeply banked Cock Beck flowed in an S - shaped course around the plateau from the north to west . The plateau was bisected by the Towton Dale , which ran from the west and extended into the North Acres in the east . Woodlands were scattered along the beck ; Renshaw Woods lined the river on the north - western side of the plateau , and south of Towton Dale , Castle Hill Wood grew on the west side of the plateau at a bend in the beck . The area to the north - east of this forest would be known as Bloody Meadow after the battle . According to Gravett and fellow military enthusiast Trevor James Halsall , Somerset ' s decision to engage the Yorkist army on this plateau was sound . Defending the ground just before Towton would block any enemy advance towards the city of York , whether they moved along the London – Towton road or an old Roman road to the west . The Lancastrians deployed on the north side of the dale , using the valley as a " protective ditch " ; the disadvantage of this position was that they could not see beyond the southern ridge of the dale . The Lancastrian flanks were protected by marshes ; their right was further secured by the steep banks of the Cock Beck . The width of their deployment area did not allow for a longer front line , depriving the Lancastrians of the opportunity to use their numerical superiority . Waurin ' s account gave rise to the suggestion that Somerset ordered a force of mounted spearmen to conceal itself in Castle Hill Wood , ready to charge into the Yorkist left flank at an opportune time in battle . The Yorkists appeared as the Lancastrians finished deployment . Line after line of soldiers crested the southern ridge of the dale and formed up in ranks opposite their enemies as snow began to fall . Edward ' s army was outnumbered and Norfolk ' s troops had yet to arrive to join them . They were also quite exhausted after their long march to reach the field , whereas the Lancastrians had travelled a much shorter distance from York . Fighting . As Somerset was content to stand and let his foes come to him , the opening move of the battle was made by the Yorkists . Noticing the direction and strength of the wind , Fauconberg ordered all Yorkist archers to step forward and unleash a volley of their arrows from what would be the standard maximum range of their longbows . With the wind behind them , the Yorkist missiles travelled farther than usual , plunging deep into the masses of soldiers on the hill slope . Many of the shafts bore bodkin arrowhead s , capable of piercing plate armour and penetrating into the flesh underneath . The response from the Lancastrian archers was ineffective as the heavy wind blew snow in their faces . They found it difficult to judge the range and pick out their targets and their arrows fell short of the Yorkist ranks ; Fauconberg had ordered his men to retreat after loosing one volley , thus avoiding any casualties . Unable to observe their results , the Lancastrians shot until they had used up most of their arrows , leaving a thick , prickly carpet of arrows in the ground in front of the Yorkists . After the Lancastrians had ceased shooting their arrows , Fauconberg ordered his archers to step forward again to shoot . When they had exhausted their ammunition , the Yorkists plucked arrows off the ground in front of them — arrows shot by their foes — and continued shooting . Coming under fire without any effective response of its own , the Lancastrian army moved from its position to engage the Yorkists in close combat . Seeing the advancing mass of men , the Yorkist archers shot a few more volleys before retreating behind their ranks of men - at - arms , leaving thousands of arrows in the ground to hinder the Lancastrian attack . As the Yorkists reformed their ranks to receive the Lancastrian charge , their left flank came under attack by the horsemen from Castle Hill Wood mentioned by Waurin . The Yorkist left wing fell into disarray and several men started to flee . Edward had to take command of the left wing to save the situation . By engaging in the fight and encouraging his followers , his example inspired many to stand their ground . The armies clashed and archers shot into the mass of men at short range . The Lancastrians continuously threw fresher men into the fray and gradually the numerically inferior Yorkist army was forced to give ground and retreat up the southern ridge . Gravett thought that the Lancastrian left had less momentum than the rest of its formation , skewing the line of battle such that its western end tilted towards Saxton . The fighting continued for three hours , according to research by English Heritage , a government body in charge of conservation of historic sites . It was indecisive until the arrival of Norfolk ' s men . Marching up the Old London Road , Norfolk ' s contingent was hidden from view until they crested the ridge and attacked the Lancastrian left flank . The Lancastrians continued to give fight but the advantage had shifted to the Yorkists . By the end of the day , the Lancastrian line had broken up , as small groups of men began fleeing for their lives . Polydore Vergil , chronicler for Henry VII of England , claimed that combat lasted for a total of 10 hours . Aftermath . The tired Lancastrians flung off their helmets and armour to run faster . Without such protection , they were much more vulnerable to the attacks of the Yorkists . Norfolk ' s troops were much fresher and faster . Fleeing across Bloody Meadow , many Lancastrians were cut down from behind or were slain after they had surrendered . Before the battle , both sides had issued the order to give no quarter and the Yorkists were in no mood to spare anyone after the long , gruelling fight . A number of Lancastrians , such as Trollope , also had substantial bounties on their heads . Gregory ' s chronicle stated 42 knights were killed after they were taken prisoner . Archaeological findings in the late 20th century shed light on the final moments of the battle . In 1996 workmen at a construction site in the town of Towton uncovered a mass grave , which archaeologists believed to contain the remains of men who were slain during or after the battle in 1461 . The bodies showed severe injuries to their upper torsos ; arms and skulls were cracked or shattered . One specimen , known as Towton 25 , had the front of his skull bisected : a weapon had slashed across his face , cutting a deep wound that split the bone . The skull was also pierced by another deep wound , a horizontal cut from a blade across the back . The Lancastrians suffered greater losses in their rout from the battlefield . Men struggling across the river were dragged down by currents and drowned . Those floundering were stepped on and pushed under water by their comrades behind them as they rushed to get away from the Yorkists . As the Lancastrians struggled across the river , Yorkist archers rode to high vantage points and shot arrows at them . The dead began to pile up and the chronicles state that the Lancastrians eventually fled across these " bridges " of bodies . The chase continued northwards across the River Wharfe , which was larger than Cock Beck . A bridge over the river collapsed under the flood of men and many drowned trying to cross . Those who hid in Tadcaster and York were hunted down and killed . A newsletter dated 4 April 1461 reported a widely circulated figure of 28 , 000 casualties in the battle , which Charles Ross and other historians believe was exaggerated . The number was taken from the heralds ' estimate of the dead and appeared in letters from Edward and the Bishop of Salisbury , Richard Beauchamp . Other contemporary sources gave higher numbers , ranging from 30 , 000 to 38 , 000 ; Hall quoted an exact figure of 36 , 776 . An exception was the " Annales rerum anglicarum " , which stated the Lancastrians suffered 9 , 000 casualties — an estimate Ross found to be more believable . The Lancastrian nobility suffered heavy losses . Trollope and Northumberland fell in battle , and Lord Dacre was said to have been killed by an archer who was perched in a " bur tree " ( a local term for an Elder ) . Conversely , the Yorkists suffered the loss of only one notable member of the gentry — Horne — at Towton . On receiving news of their army ' s defeat , Henry fled into exile in Scotland with his wife and son . They were later joined by Somerset , Roos , Exeter , and the few Lancastrian nobles who escaped the battlefield . The Battle of Towton severely reduced the power of the House of Lancaster in England ; the linchpins of their power at court ( Northumberland , Clifford , Roos , and Dacre ) had died or fled the country , ending the house ' s domination over the north of England . Edward further exploited the situation , naming 14 Lancastrian peers as traitors . Approximately 96 Lancastrians of the rank of knight and below were also attainted — 24 of them members of parliament . The new king preferred winning over his enemies to his cause ; the nobles he attainted either died in the battle or had refused to submit to him . The estates of a few of these nobles were confiscated by the crown but the rest were untouched , remaining in the care of their families . Edward also pardoned many of those he attainted after they submitted to his rule . Although Henry was at large in Scotland with his son , the battle put an end ( for the time being ) to disputes over the country ' s state of leadership since the Act of Accord . The English people were assured that there was now one true king — Edward . He turned his attention to consolidating his rule over the country , winning over the people and putting down the rebellions raised by the few remaining Lancastrian diehards . He knighted several of his supporters and elevated several of his gentry supporters to the peerage ; Fauconberg was made the Earl of Kent . Warwick benefited from Edward ' s rule after the battle . He received parts of Northumberland ' s and Clifford ' s holdings , and was made " the king ' s lieutenant in the North and admiral of England . " Sir David ap Mathew [ Sir David Mathew ] of Llandaff ( 1400 – 1484 ) , a loyal Yorkist and Seneschal , was named Grand Standard Bearer of England , and is credited for saving the life of Edward IV in the Battle of Towton , and as such granted the right to use ' Towton ' on the Mathew Family Crest . By 1464 , the Yorkists had " wiped out all effective Lancastrian resistance in the north of England . " Edward ' s reign was not interrupted until 1470 ; by that point in time , his relationship with Warwick had deteriorated to such an extent that the earl defected to the Lancastrians and forced Edward to flee England , restoring Henry to the throne . The interruption of Yorkist rule was brief , as Edward regained his throne after defeating Warwick and his Lancastrian cohorts at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 . Literature . In the sixteenth century William Shakespeare wrote a number of dramatisations of historic figures . The use of history as a backdrop , against which the familiar characters act out Shakespeare ' s drama , lends a sense of realism to his plays . Shakespeare wrote a three - part play about Henry VI , relying heavily on Hall ' s chronicle as a source . His vision of the Battle of Towton ( " Henry VI " , Part 3 , Act 2 , Scene 5 ) , touted as the " bloodiest " engagement in the Wars of the Roses , became a set piece about the " terror of civil war , a " national " terror that is essentially " familial " " . Historian Bertram Wolffe said it was thanks to Shakespeare ' s dramatisation of the battle that the weak and ineffectual Henry was at least remembered by English society , albeit for his pining to have been born a shepherd rather than a king . Shakespeare ' s version of the battle presents a notable scene that comes immediately after Henry ' s soliloquy . Henry witnesses the laments of two soldiers in the battle . One slays his opponent in hope of plunder , only to find the victim is his son ; the other kills his enemy , who turns out to be his father . Both killers have acted out of greed and fell into a state of deep grieving after discovering their misdeeds . Shakespearian scholar Arthur Percival Rossiter names the scene as the most notable of the playwright ' s written " rituals " . The delivery of the event follows the pattern of an opera : after a long speech , the actors alternate among one another to deliver single - line asides to the audience . In this scene of grief — in a reversal of the approach adopted in his later historical plays — Shakespeare uses anonymous fictional characters to illustrate the ills of civil war while a historical king reflects on their fates . Emeritus Professor of English Literature Michael Hattaway comments that Shakespeare intended to show Henry ' s sadness over the war , to elicit the same emotion among the audience and to expose Henry ' s ineptness as king . The Battle of Towton was re - examined by Geoffrey Hill in his poem " Funeral Music " ( 1968 ) . Hill presents the historical event through the voices of its combatants , looking at the turmoil of the era through their eyes . The common soldiers grouse about their physical discomforts and the sacrifices that they had made for the ideas glorified by their leaders . They share their superiors ' determination to seek the destruction of their opponents , even at the cost of their lives . Hill depicts the participants ' belief that the event was pre - destined and of utmost importance as a farce ; the world went about its business regardless of the Battle of Towton . Legacy . In 1483 Richard III , younger brother of Edward IV , started to build a chapel to commemorate the battle . Richard died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and the building was never completed . It eventually fell into disrepair and collapsed . The ruins of the structure were evident five centuries later . In 1929 , a stone cross supposedly from the chapel was used to erect the Towton Cross ( also known as Lord Dacre ' s Cross ) to commemorate those who died in the battle . Several mounds on the battlefield were thought to contain casualties of the battle , although historians believe these to be tumuli of much earlier origin . More burial sites related to the battle are found on Chapel Hill and around Saxton . Lord Dacre was buried at the Church of All Saints in Saxton and his tomb was reported in the late 19th century to be well maintained , although several of its panels had been weathered away . The bur tree from which Dacre ' s killer shot his arrow was cut down by the late 19th century , leaving its stump on the battlefield . Centuries after the battle , various relics that have been found in the area include rings , arrowheads and coins . The people of Elizabethan - era England remembered the battle as dramatised by Shakespeare , and the image of the engagement as the charnel house where many sons of England were cut down endured for centuries . However , at the start of the 21st century , the " largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil " was no longer prominent in the public consciousness . British journalists lamented that people were ignorant of the Battle of Towton and of its significance . According to English Heritage , the battle was of the " greatest importance " ; it was one of the largest , if not " the " largest , fought in England and it resulted in the replacement of one royal dynasty by another . Hill expressed a different opinion . Although impressed with the casualty figures touted by the chroniclers , he believed the battle brought no monumental changes to the lives of the English people . The Battle of Towton was associated with a tradition previously upheld in the villages of Tysoe , Warwickshire . For centuries the villagers had made it a point to clear an area on a slope of the Vale of the Red Horse on each anniversary of the engagement , exposing a large figure of a horse cut into the red soil . They claimed to do this to honour the Earl of Warwick ' s inspirational deed of slaying his horse to show his resolve to stand and fight with the common soldiers . Local historian Mary Dormer Harris believed that the villagers modified the original Red Horse , which dated to pre - historic times , to a version that reflected mediaeval horses . The tradition died in 1798 when the Inclosure Acts implemented by the English government redesignated the common land , on which the equine figure was located , as private property . The scouring was revived during the early 20th century but has since stopped .