Timeline May 1455

Events in May 1455 3

• 1393 – 1455 Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland (1393-1455) Died 22 May 1455, aged 62 Head of the powerful Percy family of northern England, Northumberland was a committed Lancastrian whose long feud with the rival Neville family fed into the wider instability of Henry VI's reign. He fought alongside the royal army at the First Battle of St Albans, where he was killed. His death deepened the Percy-Neville blood feud that ran alongside the Wars of the Roses.
• 1406 – 1455 Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset (1406-1455) Died 22 May 1455, aged 49 A leading Lancastrian magnate and rival of Richard, Duke of York, Beaufort held major military commands in France and later dominated the royal court of Henry VI. His rivalry with York was a principal cause of the political breakdown that led to civil war. He was killed at the First Battle of St Albans.
• 1455 First Battle of St Albans Opening clash of the Wars of the Roses A Yorkist force led by Richard, Duke of York, defeated the royal army in the streets of St Albans, killing several leading Lancastrian nobles and briefly taking King Henry VI into custody. The battle is conventionally treated as the opening engagement of the Wars of the Roses. It was a short, chaotic fight settled mostly through street combat rather than open-field tactics.