First Battle of St Albans a moment of indecision for Richard of York but a powerful victory for the Neville faction in the Neville-Percy feud. Burley, Elliott & Watson, The Battles of St Albans, Pen & Sword, 2007, First Battle of St Albans The First Battle of St Albans, fought on 22 May 1455 at St Albans, 22 miles (35 km) north of London, traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses in England. Richard, Duke of York, and his allies, the Neville earls of Salisbury and Warwick, defeated a royal army commanded by Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, who was killed. With
Wars of the Roses Henry incapable of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of a king. In 1450, there was a violent popular revolt in Kent, Jack Cade's Rebellion, which is often seen as the prelude to the Wars of the Roses. The rebel manifesto, "The Complaint of the Poor Commons of Kent" written under Cade's leadership, accused the crown of extortion, perversion of justice, and election fraud. The rebels occupied parts of London, and executed James Fiennes, 1st Baron Saye and Sele, the unpopular Lord High Treasurer, after a hasty trial. After some of them fell to looting, they were driven out of