Thread: Bloodiest Battles in History

Ceaser Augustus defeat of mark Atony's fleet at Actium Antony lost 220 quinquiremes each wih 500 men 110,000 men killed or captured in a single day and becuase mark Antony's retreat cause dhis land based army to defect it in effect ended the last vestiges of the Roman Republic and Egyptian Pharohonic rule.

I guess Battle of Somme and Verdun are very decisive in a way because their outcome sealed the fate of the British and the French in the begening of the next war

Here's another list from Wikipedia:

The following is a list of the most lethal battles in world history. This list will include both sieges (not technically battles but usually yielding similar combat-related deaths) and civilian deaths during the battles.

These refer to battles in which armies met on a single field of battle and fought, generally for one to several days. With more advanced weapons, military formations lost their impact and this type of battle died out in favor of grander military operations. As a general rule, this happened in the late 19th / early 20th century. The last war to have been fought on a battle-by-battle as opposed to campaign basis is generally held to be the Second Boer War between Britain and the South African Republic (1899-1902).

Many of these battles are ancient, and in many cases, the few historical records differ, sometimes wildly, on casualties. The figures used are what the contributors believe to be the most plausible compromise estimate.

Top 15 bloodiest battles

1) Battle of Yarmouk (Muslim conquest of Syria) - 120,000 casualties - 636AD
2) Battle of Las Navas de Talosa (Reconquista) - 102,000 casualties - 1212
3) Battle of Canae (Second Punic War) - 92,000 casualties - 216BC
4) Battle of Salsu (Goguryeo-Sui Wars) - 80,000 casualties - 612AD
5) Battle of Arausia (Cimbrian War) - 80,000 casualties - 105BC
6) Battle of Wagram (Napoleonic Wars) - 79,000 casualities - 1809
7) Battle of Plataea (Greco-Persian Wars) - 77,000 casualties - 479BC
8) Third Battle of Panipat (Imperial Maratha Conquests) - 75,000 casualties - 1761
9) Battle of Ullais (Muslim conquest of Persia) - 71,000 casualties - 633BC
10) Battle of Alba (Ottoman wars) - 70,000 casualties - 1476
11) Battle of Guandu (Three Kingdoms) - 70,000 casualties - 200BC
12) Battle of Pliska (Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars) - 70,000 casualties - 61AD
13) Battle of Watling Street (British warrior queen Boudicca takes on Roman Empire) - 70,000 casualties - 61AD
14) Battle of Siffin (First Islamic War) - 70,000 casualties - 657
15) Battle of Anchialus (Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars) - 70,000 casualties - 917

The early days of the First World War, are by far the most bloodiest in human history. Old military tactics met Modern Tactics.. thousands of men would be killed within hours.. the fields of France became the worst meat grinder the world ever seen, and perhaps will ever see again.

I'm surpised the Battle of Towton isn't on the list of bloodiest battles.

This battle took place on 29th March 1461 between the House of York and the House of Lancaster (two main houses of the Plantagenet Royal Dynasty) during the Wars of the Roses.

It is the bloodiest battle ever to have taken place on British soil.

As many as 32,000 people may have perished, which would put the Battle of Towton between the Battle of Mukden (1905) and the Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) in that large list at the beginning of this thread. Roughly 1% of the entire British population died at that battle.


Here's the story of the Battle of Towton...


House of York (white rose) VS House of Lancaster (red rose)



Commanders:
Yorkists - King Edward IV (who, along with Henry VI, is the only English monarch to have reigned more than once)
Lancastrians - Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset

Strength:
Yorkists - 20,000-36,000
Lancastrians - 25,000-42,000

Casualties and Losses
Yorkists - 5,000-12,000
Lancastrians - 8,000-20,000

Result: A decisive Yorkist victory.

The Battle of Towton in the Wars of the Roses was the largest and bloodiest ever fought on British soil.

Roughly 1% of the entire English population at the time died at Towton (1 in every 100). The battle took place on a snowy 29 March 1461 (Palm Sunday) on a plateau between the villages of Towton and Saxton in Yorkshire (about 12 miles southwest of York and about 2 miles south of Tadcaster).

It is thought that 50,000, or perhaps even 100,000 men fought, including 28 Lords (almost half the peerage), mainly on the Lancastrian side. The numbers often given are 42,000 for the Lancastrians and 36,000 for the Yorkists.

Part of the reason that so many died is because both sides resolved that no quarter would be given.


How did the Wars of the Roses start?


With the wind and driving snow at their backs, the Yorkist archers shoot their final deadly volleys of armour piercing arrows into the advancing Lancastrian army while Edward IV and his knights and men-at-arms move through the ranks to meet their oncoming foe.


The Wars of the Roses first broke out in 1455, between the supporters of King Henry VI (the Lancastrians), and those of Richard, Duke of York (the Yorkists), who was out of favor with the court and had been seeking a role in government for the preceding five years. Henry, who had been an infant upon ascending the throne, placed all his reliance in his majority on a clique of nobles, leading to severe inequity of government even by the standards of the age. He was also afflicted by bouts of insanity. His Queen, Margaret of Anjou became the most determined opponent of York and anyone else who threatened the birthright of her son, the infant Edward of Westminster.

In the year 1460, the war intensified, and there were several rapid reversals of fortune. At the Battle of Northampton, Henry had been captured. In the aftermath, Richard had attempted to gain the throne, but his supporters were not prepared to take this step, and instead they enforced the Act of Accord, by which Henry's son was disinherited, and Richard would become King on Henry's death. In response, Margaret began gathering an army of York's opponents in the north of England. York took an army to the north to deal with this threat, but fatally misjudged the strength of his enemies. At the Battle of Wakefield he was killed and his army was destroyed.

Margaret's large army began marching south, looting as it went. At the Second Battle of St Albans, they defeated the Yorkist army of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (later known as "the Kingmaker"). Warwick had brought the captive King Henry to the battlefield, and in the aftermath of the battle, Henry was recaptured by the Lancastrian army.

Margaret now had a chance of entering London, the capital, but the mayor and citizens feared being plundered by her undisciplined army, and refused her entry. While negotiations continued, Margaret learned that York's eldest son Edward, Earl of March, had destroyed another Lancastrian army at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross on the borders of Wales, and had linked up with Warwick's surviving forces. With this threat to the rear of her army, Margaret began to retreat northwards.

Warwick now proclaimed Edward as King Edward IV. On March 4, Edward was crowned in a hasty ceremony in London. The next day, Edward himself decided to take the military initiative and march north in the hope of inflicting a final defeat on Henry's supporters.


The Battle

On March 29, the Yorkist army began pressing forward across the repaired bridge at Ferrybridge. The weather was very bad, with cold winds and snow showers.

Edward led the Yorkist centre, Warwick the right and Fauconberg the left. A further Yorkist contingent from the Eastern counties under the Duke of Norfolk had been delayed and was still approaching the battlefield.

The Lancastrian army occupied a plateau of high ground, with its right flank covered by a stream, the Coc k Beck. The army was led by the Duke of Somerset, who commanded the centre himself, with the Earl of Northumberland commanding the right and the Duke of Exeter the left.

Although the Lancastrians occupied a strong position, with good fields of fire for their archers and with the Yorkists forced to advance uphill to attack them, they had not bargained for the foul weather. The Yorkist archers had the wind behind them, and therefore outranged their Lancastrian opposite numbers, who were also blinded by the snow. Several companies of archers loosed volleys into the Lancastrian ranks, and then fell back out of range when the Lancastrian archers tried to reply. They then advanced again and gathered up the enemy arrows which had fallen short before repeating the manoevre. In several places the Lancastrian men-at-arms advanced to seek hand-to-hand combat rather than endure the showers of arrows, losing the advantage of the high ground.

Once close-quarters fighting began, it was intense. Several times, the combatants had to pause and pull the dead bodies out of the way before they could get at their opponents. Fighting swayed back and forth for several hours, with neither side gaining any decisive advantage, until the early afternoon, when Norfolk's contingent arrived, and extended the Yorkist right flank. The Lancastrian left was outnumbered and outflanked, and the rout began in this section of the battlefield. Some Lancastrians tried to flee north to Tadcaster, but most of the Lancastrians were now pushed to their right into the Coc k Beck.


The Rout


The defeated Lancastrian army flees from the battlefield, down Towton Dale towards the River Coc k, pursued and cut down by the victorious Yorkists.


Open Edition Print

It is supposed that far more men died in the rout than in the battle. Several bridges over neighbouring rivers broke under the weight of the armed men, plunging many into the freezing water. Those stranded on the other side either drowned in the crossing or were cornered by their pursuers and killed. Some of the worst slaughter was seen at Bloody Meadow, where it is said men crossed the River Coc k over the bodies of the fallen. All the way from Towton to Tadcaster the fields were full of bodies. The fleeing Lancastrians made easy targets for Yorkist horsemen and footsoldiers, who killed many men who had dropped their weapons and thrown off their helmets to breathe more freely as they ran. At Tadcaster some men made an unsuccessful stand and were killed.

The rout lasted all night and into the morning, when remnants of the Lancastrian army stumbled into York in total panic. Margaret, Henry and Somerset fled north to Scotland, while those Lancastrian lords who were not killed or dispossessed were forced to make peace with Edward IV.

Most of the senior Lancastrian commanders managed to escape the battlefield, although the Duke of Northumberland and one prominent commander from the borders, Ralph, Lord Dacre, were killed.

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