Having reclaimed the throne of England and defeated the earl of Warwick at the battle of Barnet, Edward IV marched his forces from London to intercept those of Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI, and her son Prince Edward. They were heading for Wales where supporters and reinforcements awaited them.
Denied entry to Gloucester and its bridge over the Severn, Margaret was forced to march her exhausted army to the next crossing point: Tewkesbury. Here, with Edward's army hard on their heels and insufficient time to cross, they turned to confront their pursuers. The two armies met on 4 May 1471.
Following a heavy bombardment from Edward's artillery, the duke of Somerset led the Lancastrian right wing through the deep ditches and hedges that intersected the battlefield and attacked the Yorkist left, which was under the command of Edward's younger brother Richard, duke of Gloucester. However, the other Lancastrian divisions failed to support the attack, and Somerset's men were soon outflanked and routed. The rest of Margaret's army disintegrated into defeat.
The 18-year-old Prince Edward died in the battle. Afterwards, Somerset was tried for treason in what was little more than a kangaroo court and executed, and Queen Margaret was taken captive. And Edward IV? He was the unassailable king of England.
According to David Starkey, the battle of Tewkesbury is particularly significant because the cream of English medieval aristocracy was simply wiped out. This helped to clear the way for Henry Tudor to emerge as the Lancastrian contender and, eventually, establish a new dynasty.
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 The Battle of Tewkesbury
http://members.tripod.com/~Berwyn/tewkes
bury.html
Excellent article by David Alan Johnson, giving a blow-by-blow account of the battle, as well as a discussion of what preceded it.
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Tewkesbury 1471: The last Yorkist victory by Christopher Gravett (Osprey, 2003)
This book gives a full description of the battle and examines how, after Tewkesbury, the Lancastrian cause was virtually wiped out.
Get this book
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 Tewkesbury
8 miles north-west of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, at the confluence of the Avon and Severn rivers
There are two places to visit here that have something specific to do with the battle: the battlefield itself and the impressive 12th-century Tewkesbury Abbey.
The Gaston Field, south of the town, has been identified as the battlefield. In 1471, it was an open field in strip cultivation, but today it is bisected by the A38. No one knows where most of those killed during the battle were buried, but it is assumed that the graves are somewhere in this field. A recent attempt to get permission to build on the field was abandoned following protests from local residents and historians.
After the battle, some of the defeated Lancastrians – including the duke of Somerset and a few of his field commanders – sought sanctuary in the abbey. However, the victorious Yorkists, led by Edward IV, forced their way in despite the protests of the abbot. The resulting bloodshed caused the building to be closed for a month until it could be purified and reconsecrated. Today, a brass plate on the floor in the choir marks the grave of Edward, prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI and end of the Lancastrian line, who was killed at Tewkesbury – the only prince of Wales ever to die in battle.
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