Towton Field

Palm Sunday: 1461

Love, Who from the throne above Cam'st to teach the law of love, Who Thy peaceful triumph hast Led o'er palms before Thee cast, E'en in highest heaven Thine eyes Turn from this day's sacrifice! Slaughter whence no victor host Can the palms of triumph boast; Blood on blood in rivers spilt,-- English blood by English guilt!

From the gracious Minster-towers Of York the priests behold afar The field of Towton shimmer like a star With light of lance and helm; while both the powers Misnamed from the fair rose, with one fell blow, --In snow-dazed, blinding air Mass'd on the burnside bare,-- Each army, as one man, drove at the opposing foe.

Ne'er since then, and ne'er before, On England's fields with English hands Have met for death such myriad myriad bands, Such wolf-like fury, and such greed of gore:-- No natural kindly touch, no check of shame: And no such bestial rage Blots our long story's page; Such lewd remorseless swords, such selfishness of aim

--Gracious Prince of Peace! Yet Thou May'st look and bless with lenient eyes When trodden races 'gainst their tyrant rise, And the bent back no more will deign to bow: Or when they crush some old anarchic feud, And found the throne anew On Law to Freedom true, Cleansing the land they love from guilt of blood by blood.

Nor did Heaven unmoved behold When Hellas, for her birthright free Dappling with gore the dark Saronian sea, The Persian wave back, past Abydos, roll'd:-- But in this murderous match of chief 'gainst chief No chivalry had part, No impulse of the heart; Nor any sigh for Right triumphant breathes relief.

--Midday comes: and no release, No carnage-pause to blow on blow! While through the choir the palm-wreathed children go, And gay hosannas hail the Prince of Peace:-- And evening falls, and from the Minster height They see the wan Ouse stream Blood-dark with slaughter gleam, And hear the demon-struggle shrieking through the night.

Love, o'er palms in triumph strown Passing, through the crowd alone,-- Silent 'mid the exulting cry,-- At Jerusalem to die: Thou, foreknowing all, didst know How Thy blood in vain would flow! How our madness oft would prove Recreant to the law of love: Wrongs that men from men endure Doing Thee to death once more!

'On the 29th of March 1461 the two armies encountered one another at Towton Field, near Tadcaster. In the numbers engaged, as well as in the terrible obstinacy of the struggle, no such battle had been seen in England since the field of Senlac. The two armies together numbered nearly 120,000 men': (Green, B. IV: ch. vi).

Saronian sea; Scene of the battle of Salamis, B.C. 480.

They see the wan Ouse stream; Mr. R. Wilton, of Londesborough, has kindly pointed out to me that Wharfe, which from a brook received the bloodshed of Towton, does not discharge into Ouse until about ten miles south of York. The gleam is, therefore, visionary: (1889).