Armed clashes had occurred previously between supporters of Lancastrian King Henry VI and Richard, Duke of York, head of the rival House of York, but the first open fighting of what is to be thirty years of intermittent civil war had broken out in 1455 in the relatively small First Battle of St. Albans.

Richard's aim ostensibly had been to remove "poor advisors" from King Henry's side.

The result had been a Lancastrian defeat in which several prominent Lancastrian leaders, including the Earls of Somerset and Northumberland, had been killed.

After the battle, the Yorkists had found Henry sitting quietly in his tent, abandoned by his advisors and servants, apparently having suffered another bout of mental illness.

York and his allies have regained their position of influence, and for a while both sides have seemed shocked that an actual battle had been fought and have done their best to reconcile their differences.

With the king indisposed, York had again been appointed Protector, and Margaret of Anjou, Henry’s queen, shunted aside, charged with the king's care.

York surrenders the office in February 1456, when the king recovers from his intermittent insanity, the symptoms of which had first appeared a few years earlier.

It seems that this time Henry is willing to accept that York and his supporters will play a major part in the government of the realm.

By the time Henry, now under the influence of Margaret, resumes personal government, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, has taken over the role of his father, the Earl of Salisbury, as York's main ally; at the parliament of February 1456, as the king resumes power, Warwick shows up in force to protect York from retributions.