First Battle of St Albans 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 King Henry VI captured, a subsequent parliament appointed Richard of York Lord Protector. The incapacitation of Henry VI by mental illness in 1454 had led to the recall to court of Richard of
Invasions of the British Isles the Earl of Northumberland to capture Richard, which they did by a trick on 15 August. Richard was taken to London and on 29 September was forced to abdicate. On 30 September Henry was proclaimed king at Westminster Hall, the first of the Lancastrian kings. England was spared invasion during the Hundred Years' War against France and Castile, but it was plagued by 32 years (1455–1487) of civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses. The Lancastrian branch of the House of Plantagenet, which had overthrown the direct royal line in 1399, was embroiled in fighting against the Yorkist