Originally Posted by
UKSmartypants
The Battle of Towton:
Fought between the Houses of Lancaster and York in Yorkshire, England, 1461. The largest and bloodiest battle to ever take place on British soil, one of the largest battles to ever take place in Europe. 65.000 men, half of all of England's fighting strength was assembled in one spot for control of the English throne.
35.000 were killed in one day, thousands more mortally wounded. It doesn't sound like much, but considering the population of England was only around 4 million at this time, this was the Somme Ypres and Verdun rolled into one . 1 in 2 English fighting age men were present at this battle, which is staggering. Half of them died, and more left disabled for life after.
If you survived, however, you were spoilt for choice with women; in 1462 women outnumbered men by about 2 to 1 because of this battle. Consequently there was an upsurge of women entering Convents.
Practically unheard of today, except for people local to the area and history enthusiasts.
The Harrying of the North: Northern England, 1069
After the successful Battle of Hasting in 1066, William set about those who still opposed him. Contemporary chronicles vividly record the savagery of the campaign, the huge scale of the destruction and the widespread famine caused by looting, burning and slaughtering. Contemporary biographers of William considered it to be his cruelest act and a "stain upon his soul". Writing about the Harrying of the North, over fifty years later, the Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis wrote (summarized):
"The King stopped at nothing to hunt his enemies. He cut down many people and destroyed homes and land. Nowhere else had he shown such cruelty. This made a real change. To his shame, William made no effort to control his fury, punishing the innocent with the guilty. He ordered that crops and herds, tools and food be burned to ashes. More than 100,000 people perished of starvation. I have often praised William in this book, but I can say nothing good about this brutal slaughter. God will punish him."
Indeed, upon his death bed, it is said that William was indeed begging God to forgive him for what he had done to the Saxons in the North, and was something he is said to have felt deeply remorseful of near the end.
The Harrying of the North is today considered the worst genocide in British history.