local to regional or national conflict. The Percys had lands throughout northern England, while the northern lands of the Nevilles were concentrated in north Yorkshire and in County Durham. As Warden of the West March, Salisbury was in a position to exert great power in the northwest, in spite of holding only Kendal and Penrith. The Percys resented the fact that their tenants in Cumberland and Westmorland were being recruited by Salisbury, who even with the reduced grant of 1443 still had great spending power in the region. The senior Neville line (now related by marriage to the Percys) still resented the inequitable settlement of their inheritance dispute. The fifteenth century could be regarded as the peak of "bastard feudalism" – when every subject needed a "good lord". In return for a commitment by the retained man to provide (usually) military support, the lord would give his retainer a small annual fee, a badge or item of clothing to mark his loyalty (livery) and provide help for him in his disputes with his neighbours (maintenance). Northern England was a long way from the Palace of Westminster, and rapid legal redress for wrongs was impossible. With his economic power as Warden, Salisbury could provide better support for Percy tenants than Northumberland, unpaid in regard to the East March for years, could hope to. In 1448, during the renewal of the war with Scotland, Northumberland took his forces through Salisbury's West March – a grave breach of etiquette. Northumberland was defeated at the Battle of Sark, and his son Henry Percy, Lord Poynings was captured. The fact that Salisbury lost 2,000 horses trying to respond to this attack, and was then excluded (along with Northumberland) from the subsequent peace negotiations, can only have inflamed relations between the two families. Over time, the ill will might have receded, but Northumberland's second son, Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, spent the next few years stirring up trouble in Yorkshire – particularly at York, situated between the Percy estates of Spofforth and Healaugh, and Neville's castle at Sheriff Hutton. On 24 August 1453, Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, assembled a force of men-at-arms and archers perhaps as large as 1,000 strong, intending to waylay Salisbury and his family at Heworth Moor, outside York, as he made for Sheriff Hutton. Salisbury had been attending the wedding of his son Thomas in Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, and although his escort would