meet the Lancastrian army marching north. The Lancastrians suffered a crushing defeat at the First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455. Edmund Beaufort, the Earl of Northumberland and Lord Clifford were killed, Wiltshire fled the battlefield and King Henry was taken prisoner by the victorious Duke of York. In March 1458 along with her husband and leading nobles of the warring factions, she took part in The Love Day procession in London. In 1459, hostilities resumed at the Battle of Blore Heath, where James Tuchet, 5th Baron Audley, was defeated by a Yorkist army under Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury. The Wars of the Roses Early campaigns While Margaret was attempting to raise further support for the Lancastrian cause in Scotland, her principal commander, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, gained a major victory for her at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460 by defeating the combined armies of the Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury. Both men were beheaded and their heads displayed on the gates of the city of York. As Margaret was in Scotland at the time of the battle, it was impossible that she issued the orders for their execution, despite popular belief to the contrary. Next was the Second Battle of St Albans (at which she was present) on 17 February 1461. In this battle, she defeated the Yorkist forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, and recaptured her husband. After this battle, she ordered the execution of two Yorkist prisoners of war, William Bonville, 1st Baron Bonville, the rival of the loyal Lancastrian, the Earl of Devon, and Sir Thomas Kyriell. Both men had kept watch over King Henry, a prisoner to Warwick, to keep him out of harm's way during the battle. The king had promised the two knights immunity, but Margaret gainsaid him and ordered their execution by decapitation. It is alleged that she put the men on trial with her son presiding. "Fair son", she allegedly asked, "what death shall these knights die?" Prince Edward replied that their heads should be cut off, despite the king's pleas for mercy. Sojourn in France The Lancastrian army was beaten at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461 by the son of the late Duke of York, the future Edward IV of England, who deposed King Henry and proclaimed himself king. Margaret was determined to