In his seminal work ‘The End of the House of Lancaster’ Professor R. L. Storey places the beginning of the Wars of the Roses firmly in the period July/August 1453 and attributes its origins to the rising tensions between the Neville and Percy families in Yorkshire during that summer. This ignores a far more violent feud between two altogether more powerful cousins, both closely related to the Nevilles, which had raged in south Wales over the issue of regional supremacy during the previous fifteen months. The noble rivalry in the north came to a head with an attempt by Thomas Percy, Lord Egremont, to intercept a Neville wedding party on its way back to Sheriff Hutton from Tattersall castle in Lincolnshire. The Nevilles, led by the Earl of Salisbury and his two sons, Thomas and John, were taking the road north from York when they were confronted at Heworth Moor by Egremont’s affinity, numbering some 5,000 men. Egremont, the youngest son of Thomas, Earl of Northumberland, seems to have been a particularly rash and troublesome man and although he had little hope of inheriting the family estates, he had been a conspicuous and destabilizing presence in the politics of the north since 1450. There had been several encounters between Egremont and the younger Nevilles since the spring and he had been recruiting a following in and around the city of York since May. Read moreSection: NewsGeneralAncient PlacesEuropeHistoryImportant EventsPremiumPreviewRead Later