Battle of Ludford Bridge Battle of Ludford Bridge The Battle of Ludford Bridge was a largely bloodless battle fought in the early years of the Wars of the Roses. It took place on 12 October 1459, and resulted in a setback for the Yorkists. Although this seemed to be a triumph for the rival Lancastrians at the time, they had thrown away their advantage within six months. In the first pitched battle of the wars, the First Battle of St Albans in 1455, Richard of York, backed by his brother in law the Earl of Salisbury and Salisbury's son the Earl of Warwick, had
Wars of the Roses line, as descendants of Edward III's second son Lionel of Antwerp. Edmund's second son, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, who was executed by Henry V, had married Anne de Mortimer, daughter of Roger Mortimer and sister of Edmund Mortimer. Anne's grandmother, Philippa of Clarence, was the daughter of Lionel of Antwerp. The Mortimers were the most powerful marcher family of the fourteenth century. G.M. Trevelyan has written that "the Wars of the Roses were to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher Lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne." Anne de Mortimer had died