So who was the “Grand Old Duke of York”, subject of the nursery rhyme and hundreds of pubs?
Was it:
1) Richard (1411-60), father of Edward IV and Richard III and senior (Mortimer) claimant almost since birth, who died at Wakefield after descending from Sandal Castle?
2) James (1633-1701), aka James VII/II, who sought to defend his position at Salisbury Plain in 1688 before retreating?
3) Frederick (1763-1827), second son of George III, who led an unsuccessful army at Tourcoing, now Belgium, in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars?
The Tourcoing region is, as Coward said of Norfolk, “terribly flat” but there is a significant hill at Cassel.
The New Murrey and Blue blog 
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