Battle of Blore Heath with a stone cross in 1765. The battle was commemorated by a re-enactment each year in September at Blore Heath until 2009. Battle of Blore Heath The Battle of Blore Heath was one of the first major battles in the English Wars of the Roses. It was fought on 23 September 1459, at Blore Heath in Staffordshire. Blore Heath itself is a sparsely populated area of farmland, two miles east of the town of Market Drayton in Shropshire, and close to the towns of Market Drayton and Loggerheads, Staffordshire. After the First Battle of St Albans in 1455, an uneasy
Wars of the Roses Henry of Anjou to the throne in 1154 as Henry II, the crown passed from father to son or brother to brother with little difficulty until 1399. The question of succession after Edward III's death in 1377 is said to be the cause of the Wars of Roses. He had five surviving legitimate sons: Edward, the Black Prince (1330–1376); Lionel, Duke of Clarence (called 'Lionel of Antwerp' 1338–1368); John, Duke of Lancaster (called 'John of Gaunt'; 1340–1399); Edmund, Duke of York (called 'Edmund of Langley' 1341–1402); and Thomas, Earl of Buckingham (1355–1397). Although Edward III's succession seemed secure, there was