Memorial Type:

Battlefield Monument

Does the monument still exist?

Yes

Installation Date:

Non-Contemporary (1500-1899)

Inscription:

Here was fought the Famous Battle between Edward the 4th and the Earl of Warwick April 14th ANNO 1471 in which the Earl was Defeated and Slain'

Allegiance:

Neutral

Condition:

Good

Condition Description:

It has recently (2024) been cleaned at the behest of the council.

Memorial Notes:

A stone obelisk erected in 1740 by Sir Jeremy Sambrook, the 4th Earl Baronet of Bush Hill, Middlesex - a prominent landowner and Tory politician, who sat in the House of Commons from 1731 to 1740. The memorial was intended to commemorate the place where it was thought that the leader of the Lancastrians, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, was killed. Warwick's death was the end of his attempt to reprise his role of Kingmaker by restoring the Lancastrian king, Henry VI, to the throne. However, it was not to be. After initial success for the Lancastrians on that foggy Easter Sunday, the Yorkist army led by the resurgent King Edward IV gained the upper hand. Sources report that Warwick realised that his cause was lost and left the battlefield, trying to find a horse on which to escape, but was caught and killed 'somewhat fleing'. It is recorded by the British Museum that Sir Roger Kynaston, one of the Yorkist knights who pursued and killed Warwick took Warwick's seal from his body as he lay dying, It was kept in the Kynaston family until the 18th century, when Victoria Kynaston donated it to the British Library. In the mid-19th century, the seal was given to the British Museum, where it was kept in in the store until very recently, when Barnet Museum was alerted to its existence and applied for a loan. The seal, which is in near-perfect condition, is now on display at Barnet Museum in Wood Street, along with six arrowheads from the battle.