War of the Roses Cannonball Recovered

The Eagle Drive Cannon Ball, thought to be the oldest surviving cannonball in England, has been rediscovered at the site of the Battle of Northampton. “It is highly likely that the projectile was fired during the battle in 1460,” Glenn Foard of Huddersfield University told Culture 24. As many as 12,000 men may have been killed while fighting the battle called the turning point in the War of the Roses. The cannonball is thought to have been fired by Yorkist gunners targeting Lancastrian troops. It was damaged by at least two bounces, and it may have hit a tree. A gouge on the ball contains small fragments of local sand and ironstone. “It supports the long-held belief that the 1460 Battle of Northampton was the first time artillery was used in battle on English soil, raising the importance of the conflict as part of the story of England,” added David Mackintosh, Leader of the Northampton Borough Council. To read more about battlefield archaeology, see "Reconstructing Medieval Artillery."