Wakefield Bridge
Wakefield Bridge (Chantry Bridge) – The Death of Edmund, Earl of Rutland
There are plenty of people who drive into Wakefield every day without giving much thought to the old bridge across the River Calder.
But once you know the story connected with Wakefield Bridge and the Chantry Chapel, you look at it rather differently.
Lyn and I pass here on our Wakefield walk, and this quiet little corner of the city is associated with one of the more brutal stories from the Wars of the Roses.
It involves a 17-year-old lad, a defeated army and Lord Clifford, ( absolute shyster ) a man with a score to settle.
After the Battle of Wakefield
In our Sandal Castle story, we left Richard, Duke of York dead following the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460.
His Yorkist army had been defeated and his younger son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, ( Bull of a Man) was caught up in the retreat.
Edmund was just 17 years old.
Later accounts sometimes portrayed him as a young child, but that wasn't the case. He was a young man and had accompanied his father on the campaign.
As the Yorkist forces collapsed, Edmund apparently attempted to escape towards Wakefield.
Unfortunately for Edmund, Lord Clifford was coming the other way.
Clifford Had a Score to Settle
John Clifford was a committed Lancastrian, but this wasn't simply about which side he supported.
Five years earlier, Clifford's father, Thomas Clifford, had been killed fighting the Yorkists at the First Battle of St Albans.
Then at Wakefield, Clifford came across the son of Richard, Duke of York.
According to the traditional story, Edmund was caught at or around Wakefield Bridge while trying to escape.
And Clifford killed him.
If revenge was what Clifford wanted, he had certainly found an opportunity for it.
Murder on Wakefield Bridge
This is where the story gets a little more colourful.
A later account by Tudor chronicler Edward Hall describes Edmund fleeing with his chaplain before being caught by Clifford.
Edmund supposedly fell to his knees and begged for his life. His chaplain also pleaded with Clifford to spare him.
Clifford refused, supposedly declaring that because Edmund's father had killed his father, he would kill York's son.
It's a great story.
Whether it actually happened quite like that is another matter.
Hall was writing many years afterwards and even described Edmund as being about twelve years old when we know he was seventeen.
So we shouldn't take the dramatic conversation as absolute fact.
What we can say is that early accounts connect Clifford with Edmund's death during the retreat from the Battle of Wakefield, and the bridge became closely associated with the story.
Wakefield's Chantry Chapel
The Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin still stands on Wakefield's medieval bridge over the River Calder.
Importantly, the chapel was already there before the Battle of Wakefield. It wasn't built as a memorial to Edmund or Richard, despite the connection sometimes being made.
But standing beside it today puts you right into the landscape of the story.
It's difficult to imagine the chaos here in December 1460: York's army defeated, men fleeing towards Wakefield and the Duke of York and his son both dead before the day was over.
It's one of those bits of Yorkshire history that's easy to pass without ever knowing what happened there.
Clifford the Butcher
Edmund's death helped give Clifford a fearsome reputation.
Later writers would call him “Clifford the Butcher”, although, like much of the story surrounding Wakefield, his reputation became more dramatic as the tale was retold.
Whatever the exact circumstances of Edmund's death, Clifford remained one of the leading Lancastrian commanders.
But he wasn't going to enjoy his victory for very long.
Richard of York's eldest surviving son was Edward, ( Good Egg ) soon to be King Edward IV.
And Edward was heading north.
Just three months after Wakefield, Clifford would find himself facing the Yorkists again beside another Yorkshire river.
This time at Ferrybridge.
And if Clifford really did kill Edmund in revenge for his father's death, there's a certain irony in what happened next.
Because at Ferrybridge, Clifford's own luck ran out.
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