Ludlow self catering
The Rout of Ludford Bridge
Ludlow self catering

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You may find the text below interesting to read if you are planning to stay in our holiday cottages.

old Ludford bridge


On 12th October 1459 two large armies met near Ludlow. The affair was later to be known as the Rout of Ludford Bridge, because no battle was fought. During the Wars of the Roses this battle was to have been fought between Richard Plantagenet Duke of York with his two sons the Earls of March and Rutland and their allies the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, against the far superior army of King Henry V1 and his allies the Dukes of Somerset and Buckingham, and the Earl of Northumberland. Had this battle taken place the Yorkists would have been outnumbered and beaten and then the course of history would have been very different for Ludlow. The Yorkist army had suffered a wet trudge to the battle site and were dispirited to start with. To the medieval mind the idea of fighting against the King was sacrilegious, so to the Duke of York's army of men the belated discovery of the King's presence caused dismay when they saw his banners flapping along side those of his lords in the royal Lancastrian camp across from them. In medieval wars banners of partaking lords were planted in the ground of each camp as a challenge to the enemy and an appeal to god for victory. The Yorkist guns were probably discharged at random into the gathering gloom as that was the tactics of the same leaders when there was military and political weakness, at that time they were awaiting more Marchmen and Welshmen to help them. That evening, as they were hopelessly outnumbered when the help that they expected had not arrived the Yorkist men began to slink away. The final blow came when some of the men deserted to the royal camp. As now the battle plans of the Yorkists would be known to their enemy so all seemed totally hopeless. A council was held and the leaders realising the troops would probably refuse to fight themselves did a runner. It seems they left their banners in the field and under the cover of darkness fled in the night into Ludlow where they refreshed themselves before disappearing into Wales. Ludlow town now surrendered to the royal victorious army who as in these words "The misrule of the Kings gallants at Ludlow," wrote Gregory, "when they had drunken enough of wine that was in taverns and other places, they full godly smote out the heads of the pipes and hogsheads of wine, that men went wetshod in wine, and then they robbed Ludlow castle also the town, and bare away bedding, cloth, and other stuff, and defiled many women." The rout of Ludford Bridge was an appalling disaster for Richard, Duke of York, a fiasco that ruined his prestige and credibility, so he went away it seems and brooded (sulked).