Yorkshire’s three Ridings were divided up between the crown (as Duke of Lancaster), the Percy family, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury. However, the king and the duke of York do not seem to have visited Yorkshire very often, which Ralph Griffiths suggests meant that any tension would be solely between Percy and Neville. Indeed, he says, since the city of York itself was the most important, the capital-city of the north, it ‘provided a focus for their rivalries.’ It is not, he said, a coincidence that ‘the two virtual battles between Percy and Neville in 1453 and 1454 were fought close to the city’s walls.’ He also suggests that Percy tenants may have been as anti-Neville as their lords, since their estates were contiguous, this could have encouraged rivalry and bred antagonism. As Professor Pollard has pointed out, Salisbury retained some of his knights from 'deep in Percy country, particularly southern Northumberland.