It's said that 1% of England's population died at the 1461 Battle of Towton. How were such large armies (compared to population) mobilized?

the numbers given for battles during the war of the roses (and really most medieval history) have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Ive seen historians like AH Burn accept like 50,000 without question while other scholars such as Allisons Weir or Wm Seymour be a little more circumspect. To me it defines reality to see such huge numbers for many reasons....

These armies were hastily put together over a matter of weeks. THere was a calll to some lords and they put out the word and then a group of vassals were assembled.

Historically you see very few armies larger than 20-25k until the time of Marlborough. Well OK Wallenstein may have had 100k men in his army but they werent assembled in one place they were spread out. In ancient days yes you did see some larger armies but these kingdom seem to larger and arguably better organized than feudal England.

Its hard to see how the infrastructure could have supported say 100k army. YOu would need at least several paved roads if not more. This campaign was fought over a few weeks time in early spring in the midlands of England. The dirt roads and rain would have made conditions very difficult. NOt to mention having to march all those men over that single road and a few trails running north/south. Given the time frame of the campaign and how quickly the battle was joined I dont see how they can get that many into battle that quickly.

They find burial pits there, and they found one a few years ago. But they dont hold thousands of bodies do they? Dozens, maybe a hundred or so but not thousands. Its more secondary evidence that tends to downplay the numbers.

There was no other battle in the war of the Roses or really in all of England's history where a 100,000 men were assembled in one place. I think Marston Moor in 1644 might be the largest with maybe 80k combatants? But those were much different armies, armies that were existing for months that had a supply structure etc.

In short I just dont see it.