I first became interested in the battle of Towton ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Towton ) after reading the wonderful Blood Red Roses. I followed that with other histories, including the Osprey history of the battle with illustrations by Graham Turner. I later discovered that one of my (Lancastrian) ancestors is known to have been among the vast numbers of dead and that further piqued my interest.

I kept coming back to one of Turner's paintings of the battle--the decisive moment before the lines close, just after Fauconberg brilliantly seized a tactical advantage for his archers. It's a beautiful painting and highly accurate in its details. I finally treated myself to a 34" x 24" print of the painting from by-the-sword.com. It actually wasn't that much of a treat--$60. :) BTS has lots of Turner's artwork, including WOR and ECW scenes but this one more than all the others seems like a window onto the field.

I finished mounting and framing the Towton print yesterday and I'm just about to hang it in my office. I'm really thrilled to own this! One of the most impressive things about Turner's work is that he has studied the period so thoroughly that he's gotten drawn into serious historical jousting. He commissioned a very fine English plate harness, which can be seen at his site, and recently won The Queen's Golden Jubilee Trophy in joust at Royal Armouries, Leeds (a hugely impressive feat by itself).This interest, in turn, is informing his artwork.

Enjoy!

Graham Turner: http://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/Graham_Turner.html

The BTS prints:
http://www.by-the-sword.com/acatalog/Art_Work.html

---

 Attachment: 173.97 KB

Very neat purchase. Some of my favorite artwork of medieval events are his painting.

Thanks for the photo of it. I love that one as well.

Did you see the rout picture... ouch!

RPM

i love Turners work. now if only i had the cash.

thanks for sharing!

Very nice print!

I first became interested in the Wars of the Roses after reading Sharon Penman's "The Sun in Splendour". I really like the illustration "The Melee at Towton" in the center of the Osprey book and wouldn't mind having a print of that one. I'll have to check out the site with his artwork.

It IS a lovely piece.

A bit of trivia on the picture: The archers in the foreground are portraits of real people; in this case the Towton Bowmen. If you know the Towtons it's obvious who is who! The figure in the centre left, with the blue/white livery and brown monmouth cap is Guinness World Record holder Mark Stretton. He actually appears more than once in the picture - see if you can spot him!

There's an old SFI thread on Towton entitled "A day of much slaughter" (I think that's what it was!) in which archaeological discoveries in the form of battle-damaged human remains is discussed. It gave me a headache to view some of the skulls found.

--ElJay

Sean, you have my admiration and envy!

I remember you mentioning tracing your family history to a participant in this gruesome battle in an earlier post. For someone who is keenly interested in historic arms and armour, this piece must be very special to you. In my opinion, Turner’s works really “capture the moment” and allow the viewer to immerse themselves in that particular time and place.

Sean Flynt wrote:

I finished mounting and framing the Towton print yesterday…

Did you mount the print yourself? I know you have mad skills from your scores of “DIY” threads, but matting and framing too? :cool:

Well done, enjoy the view of Towton! :)

I love that picture - I have it framed above my mantle piece in the front room. I am also a member of Towton Battlefield Society:

www.towton.org.uk

and help to mark the Battle of Towton with a commemorative event every year on Palm Sunday at Towton.

People might be interested in the article by A. A. Gill in the Sunday Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/desti...572704.ece

Thanks for the links, Frances! I'm jealous of your proximity of so many places I've tasted only briefly.

I know this has been discussed on myArmoury before, but I couldn't find the appropriate thread. Here's an article I noticed today on Yahoo news.

Site of Britain's first ever gunbattle revealed

WOW is that a misleading title!!!

A gun battle would, at least to me, indicate large numbers of them- maybe more so than other weapons on the field. This certainly was not the case at Towton. There was a better article out on this find but I could not find it on any of the forums I frequent. I will wait and see what reports and such come out of this find. The fact it was fractured very badly is interesting as well.

RPM