On the 26th July in 1469, the Battle of Edgecote took place on Danes Moor in Northamptonshire at a crossing of a tributary of the River Cherwell between a royal army and well-supported rebels from the north of England.
Despite his victory at Towton in 1461, Edward IV was still concerned with Lancastrian plots, however, he had not understood the gravity of his betrayal of Richard, Earl of Warwick and how much he wished to be avenged. By 1468 Edward's popularity in England was reduced and this gave Warwick his opportunity to take back control of England.
Rebellion in the north began in the spring of 1469, it gathered under the banner of a man going by the name of Robin of Holderness. Another man going by the name of Robin, whose true identity has never been identified only suspected, appeared again in the summer of 1469, he was known as Robin of Redesdale (he would later appear again, under this guise at the Battle of Luscote Field in the March of the following year.) Pulling the strings, or at least stirring the pot was Richard Neville and the sly old fox was clever enough not to be seen to be involved in any plotting of the downfall of the House of York.
Edward was at Newark in Nottinghamshire when he heard of the Redesdale rebellion and by the night of the 25th July, the forces of the king under the command of William Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke and Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon and a rebel army under the aforementioned Robin of Redesdale arrived at a moor not too far from Banbury in Oxfordshire. The battle began on the morning of the following day took place on the east side of the River Cherwell, but the exact battleground has never been identified. This battle has been written about by two chroniclers, Jean de Wavrin and John Warkworth both were living and writing at the time of these events. Both note that the royal army was in trouble from the start, an argument in the ranks took place at some point before the fighting took place, but they disagree as to the reason, whatever went on the Earl of Devon withdrew his troops.
In the first part of the battle, the royal forces were successful but with the arrival of the army of Richard Neville, the Battle of Edgecote went the way of the rebels.
This battle saw the executions of a number of high ranking members of the Yorkist party and the king himself captured and placed under arrest. Robin of Redesdale, as we have seen, (may) have lived to fight another day.
With the Earl of Warwick now in control the question should be asked could he run the country?