Hello Everyone! :

Happy Holidays!

I own a copy of "Blood Red Roses" which is a detailed forensic documentary of the remains of several soldiers found at the Towton battlefield from England's medieval civil war - the War of the Roses. It has some historical information too. I highly recommend it if you don't have a copy because it will really make you respect the viscious effects of all these weapons we admire. My copy's front cover shows a skull with almost the entire left half of the face gone.

Anyway .... this book deals with the excavation of just one mass grave that was found during modern construction work. My question is does anyone know if there have been anymore remains or graves found at Towton's battlefield (or other War of the Roses battlefileds)? If so, have more books like "Blood Red Roses" been published?

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Dustin Faulkner

Great book and very interesting mix of seriously hard core archaeology and readable information - recommended. Especially interesting analysis on defensive wound distribution and the massively high level of blunt trauma injuries if I remember right.

I can't say for sure if other similar books have come out, but I browse in the right kind of specialised book shops several times a year and haven't seen anything similar since it came out (6 years ago?)

As for mass graves, I think that Towton was a special circumstance that caused mass graves to be used and that it was not a general feature of the wars of the roses, so the likelihood of finding more is slim.

If it is graves in general you are interested in I know there are reports from the MOL on places like Spitalfields cemetary and some simliar ones about monastery grave yards up in the north - York or Hull maybe?

I do believe that a similar work was done on the Battle of Visby 1370 (approx I think) where again many bodies were found, but not read it myself.

Contact Paul Meekins at Paul Meekins books here in the UK, he will know.

Tod

The only Battles which are known for mass graves are Towton and Wisby yes. The Battel of Wisby was on 27th of july 1361. I've also looked into "Blood Red Roses" but as far as I know there are no more known locations of massgraves in the sam amnner in England. If someone hav emore information I'd be happy to know too.

There's a reprint of "Armour from the Battel of Wisby" by Bengt Thordeman available again.