Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
LYRICS:
Young Edmund had no choice that day
His feudal lord proclaimed
Thus forced to take up arms and pray
He'd not be killed or maimed
Palm Sunday fourteen-sixty-one
On Towton's pastures green
A mighty battle had begun
A truly hellish scene
Two mighty armies were prepared
As snow fell all around
No quarter given no-one spared
Each man must stand his ground
The archers on the Red Rose side
Unleashed a mighty swarm
Of arrows but the missiles died
Against the wintry storm
Those arrows falling were then
Picked up and fired straight back
By grateful White Rose longbow men
Beginning their attack
White snow was quickly turning red
As men lay on the ground
Badly wounded maimed or dead
With mayhem all around
The White Rose army held their place
When Red Rose soldiers charged
Then hand-to-hand and face-to-face
They battled and they barged
Young Edmund put away his fear
And fought like one possessed
His arm was strong his head was clear
And somehow he was blessed
He suffered just one minor cut
In ten long hours of hell
So many dead around him -- but
He really could not tell
If victory for the White Rose side
Would ever come at all
Then reinforcements turned the tide
And broke the Red Rose wall
Near the town Cock Beck ran red
With blood from Red Rose men
Who fought but being routed fled
And all was lost by then
The bodies dammed the stream that day
Before the sun went down
The biggest slaughter so they say
In any English town
White roses then were planted by
The locals in respect
Of the ones to fight and die
That day -- now I reflect
Upon the legend that arose
It says that when they bloomed
The petals of each Towton rose
Were tingled with red -- presumed
To mean that nature wished to show
Her own respect for those
Whose bones lie buried there below
That special Towton rose.
____________________________________________
"The Towton Rose " - Words & Music copyright
Robert Haigh 2024.
#notautotuned #notpitchcorrected
LYRICS:
Young Edmund had no choice that day
His feudal lord proclaimed
Thus forced to take up arms and pray
He'd not be killed or maimed
Palm Sunday fourteen-sixty-one
On Towton's pastures green
A mighty battle had begun
A truly hellish scene
Two mighty armies were prepared
As snow fell all around
No quarter given no-one spared
Each man must stand his ground
The archers on the Red Rose side
Unleashed a mighty swarm
Of arrows but the missiles died
Against the wintry storm
Those arrows falling were then
Picked up and fired straight back
By grateful White Rose longbow men
Beginning their attack
White snow was quickly turning red
As men lay on the ground
Badly wounded maimed or dead
With mayhem all around
The White Rose army held their place
When Red Rose soldiers charged
Then hand-to-hand and face-to-face
They battled and they barged
Young Edmund put away his fear
And fought like one possessed
His arm was strong his head was clear
And somehow he was blessed
He suffered just one minor cut
In ten long hours of hell
So many dead around him -- but
He really could not tell
If victory for the White Rose side
Would ever come at all
Then reinforcements turned the tide
And broke the Red Rose wall
Near the town Cock Beck ran red
With blood from Red Rose men
Who fought but being routed fled
And all was lost by then
The bodies dammed the stream that day
Before the sun went down
The biggest slaughter so they say
In any English town
White roses then were planted by
The locals in respect
Of the ones to fight and die
That day -- now I reflect
Upon the legend that arose
It says that when they bloomed
The petals of each Towton rose
Were tingled with red -- presumed
To mean that nature wished to show
Her own respect for those
Whose bones lie buried there below
That special Towton rose.
____________________________________________
"The Towton Rose " - Words & Music copyright
Robert Haigh 2024.
#notautotuned #notpitchcorrected
