It was probably as a result of his father's death there that Clifford became one of the strongest supporters of Margaret of Anjou, wife of King Henry VI, who ended up as effective leader of the Lancastrian faction.

Clifford had already achieved prominence in the north where, as an ally of the son of the earl of Northumberland, he took part in a feud against the Neville family, the Percy's natural rivals in Yorkshire.

Although this was supposedly a period of temporary peace between the factions, Clifford and his allies appear to have made numerous attempts to ambush the Neville and Yorkist lords.

This winter campaign culminated in the Battle of Wakefield in the last days of the year, and was a decisive victory for the Lancastrian army, of which Clifford was by now an important commander.

Clifford accompanied the royal army on its march south early the next year, where, although wounded, he played a leading part in the second Battle of St Albans, and then afterwards with the Queen to the north.

The Yorkist army, now under the command of Edward of York and Richard, Earl of Warwick, pursued the Lancastrians to Yorkshire and eventually defeated them at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461.

[4] She had been the widow of Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, executed on 5 August 1415 for his part in the Southampton Plot,[3][5] and she was said to have lived "in great estate" in the castle.

[11] Historian Henry Summerson has described his marriage, which gained the Cliffords estates, as he put it, "in parts of the north relatively free from Neville domination.

[15] King Henry VI imposed a reconciliation between the warring factions of St Albans in early 1458, and commanded the various parties, including Clifford, to London.

[21] The king, as arbitrator, resided out of London, at Berkhamsted Castle, and Clifford visited him there on 1 March – "presumably to influence the result [but] probably unsuccessfully," says Hicks.

[23] A few months later he was appointed to the King’s Bench for the West Riding of Yorkshire,[4] but when a great council was summoned for October 1458, it seems that Clifford – along with other anti-York peers such as the dukes of Somerset and Exeter – were excluded from it.

By this time the civil wars had broken out again in earnest: the Neville earl of Salisbury had defeated an attempted Lancastrian ambush of him at the Battle of Blore Heath that September, and had joined with the duke of York at the latter's castle in Ludlow.

It was also a traditional office of the Nevilles, and had most recently been held jointly by the earls of Salisbury and Warwick; now Clifford was ordered to raise a force to resist the Yorkists.

[4] In June 1460 the exiled Yorkists successfully invaded England, and on 10 July they defeated a royal army at the Battle of Northampton, and captured the king.

[4] But although the now-Yorkist government repeatedly sent messages, orders and instructions to Clifford in the north, he did not acknowledge them, and with Northumberland and Lord Roos, remained in control of most of the region.

[18] It seems that, although Clifford was summoned to attend, he stayed away, and probably met with Queen Margaret in Kingston upon Hull,[27] where she was gathering Lancastrian lords and their retainers to her.

[4] One modern historian has noted, however, that although Rutland's death brought Clifford "considerable notoriety, much of it [was] first reported only several decades after the event.

This included the addition of various confirmed historical inaccuracies, such as describing Rutland as being aged twelve rather than seventeen,[4] and that Clifford also beheaded York after the battle, whereas the duke almost certainly fell in the fighting.

[30] Following the victory at Wakefield, Clifford and other Lancastrian lords in the north attended Queen Margaret's Royal council in January;[31] they soon led their army south.

Traditionally, Clifford was killed at Dittingdale, possibly by a headless arrow in the throat, and buried in a common burial pit, along with the rest of the dead from that encounter.

After what is now considered the biggest and possibly bloodiest battle ever to take place on English soil, the Lancastrians were routed, and the son of the duke of York was crowned King Edward IV.

[34] On 4 November 1461, at Edward's first parliament, Clifford was attainted and his estates and barony forfeited to the king;[35][36] a large portion was later granted to the earl of Warwick.

The story – which would later be repeated by George Edward Cokayne in his Complete Peerage[11] – of how Clifford's widow, fearing her son, Henry, would be slain in retaliation for Rutland's death, sent him into hiding as a shepherd, is almost certainly a folklore.