The Battle of Piltown took place near Piltown, County Kilkenny in 1462 as part of the Wars of the Roses. It was fought between the supporters of the two leading Irish magnates Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmond, head of the government in Dublin and a committed Yorkist, and John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond who backed the Lancastrian cause. It ended in decisive victory for Desmond and his Yorkists, with Ormond's army suffering more than a thousand casualties. This effectively ended Lancastrian hopes in Ireland and bolstered FitzGerald control for a further half-century.[1] The Ormonds departed into exile, although they were later pardoned by Edward IV.[2]
It was the only major battle to be fought in the Lordship of Ireland during the Wars of the Roses. It is also part of the long-running feud between the FitzGerald dynasty and the Butler dynasty.
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| Key figures | | Monarchs | |
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Lancaster
Tudor
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- Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England
- Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England4
- Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales
- Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset
- Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset
- John Beaumont, Viscount Beaumont
- Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset
- John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley
- James Butler, Earl of Ormond
- John Butler, Earl of Ormond
- John Clifford, Baron Clifford
- John Courtenay, Earl of Devon
- Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter
- John Neville, Baron Neville2
- John Neville, Marquess of Montagu3
- Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick3
- Thomas Neville, Bastard of Fauconberg3
- Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland
- Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland
- Thomas Ros, Baron Ros
- Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham4
- Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham
- Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby
- George Stanley, Baron Strange
- William Stanley4
- George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
- John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury
- Andrew Trollope
- Thomas Clifford, 8th Baron Clifford
- James Tuchet, Baron Audley
- Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond
- Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke5
- Margaret Beaufort
- Owen Tudor
- Edward Woodville, Lord Scales
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York
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- Anne Neville, Queen of England
- John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln
- Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Desmond
- William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke
- William Hastings, Baron Hastings
- John Howard, Duke of Norfolk
- Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell
- John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk
- Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury
- Sir Thomas Neville
- William Neville, Earl of Kent
- Sir Richard Herbert
- Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland
- George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence1
- Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon
- Margaret of York
- Richard of York
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| Events | |
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| See also | |
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1 Briefly joined the Lancastrians. 2 Briefly joined the Yorkists. 3 Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause. 4 Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim. 5 Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.
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References
Bibliography
- Jeffrey James. Edward IV: Glorious Son of York. Amberley Publishing, 2015.
- Anthony M. McCormack. The Earldom of Desmond 1463-1583: The Decline and Crisis of a Feudal Lordship. Four Courts Press, 2005.