England
Battle of Wakefield, 1460
As soon as they got to Calais, the Nevilles and the Earl of March began plotting their return. Back in England, the Lancastrian leaders Somerset and Exeter certainly knew that a return invasion was likely, but patrolling the entire English coastline was out of the question, and Calais was all but impregnable. All they could do was await the inevitable and try to win the battles that would follow.
A lead force under Lord Fauconberg took Sandwich in June, giving the Yorkists a bridgehead. The full force landed on 26 June and occupied Canterbury. They then marched on London and occupied it without resistance on 2 July. The Tower, held by the Lancastrian loyalist Lord Scales, held out until the 19th. In the meantime, Warwick and March had take much of the army north and routed a royal army at Northampton on 10 July. The Duke of Buckingham was killed at that battle and King Henry was captured and taken back to London.
The Yorkists now had London and the King, but their enemies could still field an army, and both Exeter and Somerset were still at large. The Duke of York finally returned from Dublin in October and took a fateful step: on 10 October he claimed the right to rule England. He got the timid Henry to sign the Act of Accord, by which Henry was to be king as long as he lived but that York would inherit the crown upon Henry's death. Henry's young son was disinherited.
This was a radical step. Henry was certainly king by any and all considerations. Only by going back two generations and challenging the right of Henry Bolingbroke (King Henry IV and founder of the Lancastrian dynasty) could Henry VI's rights be questioned. This was exactly York's logic, for he was a Plantagenet.
The Queen would never accept York, and still less would she accept the disinheriting of her son. Relying on the strength of the Percies in the north, plus widespread sympathy for a legitimate king, Margaret was able to raise a sizable force. York and Salisbury went to meet them and occupied Castle Sandal, near Wakefield.
A battle took place on 31 December. The Yorkists decided to leave the castle and trust to battle, even though they were outnumbered. They were destroyed. Richard, Duke of York and supposedly heir to the throne, was killed along with his second son, who was only sixteen. Salisbury was captured and executed the next day.
After Wakefield, the Lancastrians marched on London.