Hastings to Culloden - Battles in Britain 1066-1746

by Glen Lyndon Dodds

  David proceeded to assemble his army and took up a position on Durham Moor a short distance southwest of Beaurepaire. If, as seems likely, the exploits referred to above occurred on the 16th rather than early on the 17th, a night passed before the English army appeared on the scene. It made its way onto high ground just beyond Neville’s Cross a short distance to the west of Durham between the River Wear, which flows through the historic city, and its tributary the Browney.

  The English were arrayed in three main divisions, with archers stationed to the fore and flanking each division. Sir Thomas Rokeby led the left wing. Ralph Neville, described by the Lanercost Chronicle as ‘strong, truthful, cautious and brave,’ led the centre and was in overall command. Percy commanded the right wing. A reserve of cavalry was to the rear.

  The Scots then began moving towards the English position. The right was under The Earl of Moray and Sir William Douglas, David led the centre, while the left wing was commanded by Robert the Steward and the Earl of March. The army reportedly numbered between 15,000-18,000 men: the English force was of comparable strength.

  The battle began at about 9am as Moray and Douglas advanced they were impeded by the confined nature of the terrain and the presence of ditches and fences. Terrible execution was done by English archers, and the Scottish division broke when Rokeby closed in for the kill. Moray was slain and Douglas captured. Rokeby then turned against the right flank of David’s division which was engaged in a stubborn contest with Neville. Meanwhile, on the left, the invaders threw the opposing English into some confusion only to be driven back following a charge by the English reserve which fell upon their left flank. Soon the exposed centre likewise began collapsing. A general rout ensued and many fleeing Scots perished in the Browney.

  Among the significant number of important prisoners taken was King David, who had displayed ‘great personal valour.’ He was taken south and imprisoned in the Tower of London where he remained until 1357.

  10

  OTTERBURN 5 August 1388

  In 1377 Edward III of England died. During his reign much of southern Scotland had been occupied by English forces. Attempts were made by the Scots to regain this territory as Edward neared his end, and campaigning increased following his death and the accession of a minor, Richard II. Hence much of the occupied zone was wrested from English hands. Then, in 1388, England was riven by discord between the king and a number of senior nobles—the appellants—who dominated the ‘Merciless Parliament’ which sentenced the principal members of his administration to death, exile or imprisonment.

  In the summer of 1388 a large Scottish army assembled in the forest of Jedburgh intent on taking advantage of England’s problems, likely with the aim of securing a peace treaty favourable to Scotland. The army divided in two. The main body invaded Cumbria and Westmorland while the young Earl of Douglas invaded the North East.

  The most influential account of the Otterburn campaign was written a year or so later by Jean Froissart, a French chronicler who talked to participants from both sides but was also given to invention. He states that once across the border Douglas moved quickly through Northumberland into County Durham where he began to ‘slay people and to burn villages.’ (Douglas’ entry into Durham is uncertain—the point is not corroborated by other chroniclers). Then, states Froissart, laden with plunder Douglas moved north towards Newcastle where an English force had assembled under the Earl of Northumberland’s son, Henry Percy, ‘Harry Hotspur,’ an individual of martial renown. After a skirmish outside the strongly fortified town in which Douglas reportedly seized Percy’s pennon, the Scots moved northwest.

  Eager for revenge, Hotspur soon gave chase. On an August evening, most likely that of the 5th, he came upon Douglas who was evidently encamped about half a mile northwest of Otterburn astride the road to Scotland, with wooded hills to the north and a bend of the River Rede to the south. According to Froissart, Douglas had no more than 3,000 men while Percy had about 9,000 but the latter figure is no doubt inflated.

  After sending Sir Thomas Umfraville on a wide detour to attack the Scottish camp from the flank or rear, Percy moved forward while Douglas hurriedly sent men to hold a ridge some 500 yards in front of his camp. Battle was joined in failing light, and the fighting was fierce. Then, ‘at the swynnys downe-gangyng’, states Wyntoun’s Chronicle, Douglas fell upon the English right flank after leading a detachment along a depression just to the north of the ridge. The assault threw the English off balance; they began to be pushed down towards the river. Though Douglas fell mortally wounded, the Scots fought on unaware of his fate. Meanwhile, Umfraville had fallen upon the Scottish camp and routed its guards. However, he then failed to support Percy and the battle ended in a magnificent victory for the Scots. Many Englishmen of rank, including Hotspur, were taken captive.

  Otterburn was not merely an event of regional significance, as is often said. It was an important battle. For one thing, it had long-term effects on Border society and on the politics of both kingdoms. Froissart was greatly impressed by the spirit of the participants: ‘Of all the bataylles...that I have made mencion of...this...was one of the sorest and best foughten, without cowardes or faynte hertes.’

  11

  SHREWSBURY 21 July 1403

  Some historians believe that Richard II became mad in his final years. He certainly made a number of major blunders. One such was his decision to go on an expedition to Ireland in 1399, for he left behind a country seething with discontent. So much so that when his kinsman Henry of Lancaster whom he had exiled, returned during his absence, large numbers of people alienated by Richard’s increasingly tyrannical behaviour flocked to his side. Thus when Richard returned from Ireland he was captured, forced to abdicate in Henry’s favour, and finally murdered in early 1400 following an unsuccessful rising on his behalf by a few adherents.

  This rising was not the only one Henry IV faced. His reign proved far from tranquil. In September 1400, for example, a revolt broke out in Wales and, under the leadership of Owen Glendower, became a prolonged and bloody national uprising. Henry also had to deal with the Percys. This powerful northern family had played a major part in bringing about his accession, but soon turned against him, claiming among other things, that he was not providing enough money to pay the men they used to defend the border. By 1403 relations had declined so much that the Percys allied themselves with Glendower and his son-in-law Edmund Mortimer, with the intention of overthrowing Henry and placing Mortimer’s nephew, the young Earl of March, on the throne.

  Hence in July the Earl of Northumberland’s son, Henry Percy, ‘Harry Hotspur’, and Northumberland’s brother, Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, marched south to rendezvous with Glendower and Mortimer, accompanied by a Scottish ally, the Earl of Douglas. Henry moved against the Percys and on Saturday 21 July confronted them about two miles northwest of Shrewsbury. Henry’s army probably numbered around 14,000 men and was deployed in three divisions, with the young Prince of Wales (the future Henry V) in command of the left wing. The Percys’ force probably numbered about 10,000 men and was arrayed on high ground to the north.

  Henry sent the Abbot of Shrewsbury to talk to the rebels. If they dispersed he was willing to consider any statement of grievances they might send. The attempt at avoiding bloodshed failed, and so the royal army advanced. A fierce archery duel ensued: the first such duel on English soil between archers using the longbow. This resulted in the king’s men recoiling somewhat. During the bitter hand-to-hand fighting which followed, Hotspur and Douglas charged toward the royal standard intent on slaying Henry, but failed to do so. Meanwhile, the Prince of Wales moved against the rebels’ right flank and rear, and while doing so was wounded by an arrow. Nonetheless, the assault put the rebels under pressure and their resistance collapsed after Hotspur was killed.

  It is believed that around 1,600 died on both sides during the fighting and pursuit, and that many of the wounded were
dispatched by villagers during the night. Moreover, some important prisoners, Thomas Percy for one, subsequently suffered a traitor’s fate.

  12

  TOWTON 29 March 1461

  ‘They do so interrupt me that by day or night I can hardly snatch a moment to be refreshed by the reading of any holy teaching.’

  Henry VI

  Whether or not Henry actually stated the above, (the quotation is from a life of the king by John Blacman, his confessor), there is no doubt that he was a pious and peace-loving man prone to neglect the affairs of state. In short, in many respects he was a very different man to his redoubtable father, Henry V, the victor of Agincourt, and his incapacity for kingship was a major cause of the Wars of the Roses which commenced in the 1450s.

  The Wars of the Roses have long been viewed as one of the greatest periods of strife in English history; a time when the armigerous families of the land sallied forth to settle old scores and to gain, or retain, power while fighting on behalf of rival branches of the royal family, Lancaster and York, and a time when lesser folk suffered grievously due to circumstances beyond their control. This view was forcefully expressed by William Denton in the late nineteenth century. He believed that the ‘baronage of England was almost extirpated’ and that ‘want, exposure, and disease’ killed a considerable number of ordinary people, more indeed, than had ‘the most murderous weapons of war.’

  More recent scholarship has shown that England in the latter half of the fifteenth century was not as greatly affected by the Wars of the Roses as Denton had thought. In fact some of his contemporaries expressed such opinions. T.L. Kington Oliphant, for instance, did not believe that the ‘old nobility’ was almost exterminated, whilst J.R. Green contended that: ‘For the most part the trading and agricultural classes stood wholly apart’, leaving the upper orders and their retainers to deal out death and destruction upon one another. The late Charles Ross was of similar opinion: ‘England in the later fifteenth century was...the home of a rich, varied and vigorous civilization. To study it is to remain largely unaware that it was an age of political violence, which did nothing to hinder its steady development.’

  That the period witnessed violence, and on a significant scale, is certain. Indeed, when the Battle of Towton was fought in early 1461 several engagements had already occurred—the stage had been set for a period of great risk and uncertainty for the politically elite section of English society.

  What circumstances brought about such a situation? For what reasons did men gather to fight and perhaps die at Towton, and for that matter, the battles which preceded it?

  Mention has already been made of Henry VI’s incapacity for kingship and that this was a major cause of the commencement of the Wars of the Roses. Henry belonged to the Lancastrian branch of the royal family—which had gained the throne in 1399 when his grandfather, the Duke of Lancaster, deposed tyrannical Richard II—and through Lancaster he was descended from John of Gaunt, the fourth son of Edward III. Henry ascended the throne in 1422 when only nine months old, and so for many years the governance of the country was conducted on his behalf by a council. From the late 1430s however, Henry began to play an active part in political affairs. It was a role to which he was ill-suited. To say the least, he was not over endowed with sagacity. Moreover he was malleable, a weak and recklessly generous man who soon fell under the sway of an unscrupulous court faction.

  The House of Commons was not impressed, and was thus reluctant to grant taxation. Inevitably, this greatly added to financial difficulties being experienced by the crown, and lack of resources was a major factor which contributed to the loss of Normandy to the French in 1450.

  The loss of Normandy greatly added to the discredit of a regime already viewed with widespread disfavour for corruption and misgovernment at home, and was soon followed by a rising in the southeast in late May intended to remove Henry’s ministers, ‘the false traytours about his hyghnesse.’

  Shortly after the rising was crushed, an important man arrived on the scene. His name? Richard, Duke of York. His purpose? To play a major role in the political life of the nation, a role to which he rightly believed himself entitled for he was heir presumptive to the throne (Henry was childless) being descended through his father from Edmund, the fifth son of Edward III, and through his mother, from Lionel, Edward’s third son.

  Since 1447 York had been Henry’s lieutenant in Ireland, ‘the great slum of the fifteenth century political system’ as J.R. Lander has commented. He had been sent to that troubled land by his enemies, the king’s ministers, who wished to keep him out of the way (previously he had been virtually excluded from the royal council). Now he was back, a bitter man, determined to assert himself. Initially he made little impression. Indeed it was not until April 1454 that he achieved a central role in political affairs when he was appointed protector of England after Henry had become insane in August of the previous year. Several months of uncertainty had followed the onset of the king’s madness, but as the situation was comparable to that of a minority, with the king quite incapable of performing the duties incumbent on him, York, as the senior adult member of the royal family was eventually appointed protector.

  This was not to the liking of Henry’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, for she had recently given birth to a son and evidently feared that York had designs on the throne. Tension was increased by the fact that the great Percy family, whose head was the Earl of Northumberland, had become embroiled in a private war with a cadet branch of the Neville family, a branch represented by the Earl of Salisbury and his son, the Earl of Warwick. Moreover, Warwick was also at loggerheads with the Duke of Somerset, York’s bitter foe. The protector’s mother was a Neville, and consequently when York intervened to restore order he was viewed by some as partisan and rightly so. For her part, Margaret allied herself to the Percys and Somerset, as well as others hostile to York and the Nevilles in question.

  York’s protectorate ended in February 1455 following Henry’s recovery and after this the duke and his associates withdrew from court. Shortly after doing so they were summoned to appear before a great council which was to meet at Leicester. Fearful that their opponents intended destroying them, they resorted to arms. On 22 May they clashed with a Lancastrian force at St Albans and routed it: Somerset and Northumberland were among the Lancastrian notables slain.

  The victors had succeeded in destroying several of their personal enemies but they were still loyal to Henry, who had been little more than a cipher in the hands of men such as Somerset, and immediately after the engagement they protested their loyalty to him. Then, not long after St Albans, Henry once again became mentally incapacitated and the protectorate was briefly restored. During this period Warwick became Captain of Calais and this greatly strengthened the Yorkists for though, as events were to show, some of Calais’ strong garrison were pro-Lancastrian, many were to support Warwick and his associates thereby not only providing them with important fighting material, but a refuge in times of peril.

  During 1456 the court party, which was dominated by the queen, regained the ascendancy, ended York’s protectorate, and subsequently removed his supporters from office. There was one exception—Warwick. He refused to relinquish the captaincy of Calais. As for York, he withdrew to his estates, no doubt sullen and apprehensive.

  Though few persons wished for a fresh outbreak of warfare, hostility and suspicion were still very strong. Indeed, a ‘Loveday’ in March 1458 when the rival factions made their way to St Paul’s side-by-side in a display of reconciliation, was a sham. Both were preparing for a renewal of military conflict.

  Margaret was primarily responsible for the resumption of bloodshed. Her animosity towards York and his associates seems to have become increasingly strong, so strong that in 1459 she gave orders for Lancastrian forces to assemble. Her preparations were over: it was time to destroy the Yorkists.

  Not surprisingly, the Yorkists
likewise resorted to arms. York was at Ludlow and sent word to Salisbury, who was at Middleham in Yorkshire, to join him. Warwick was to do likewise from Calais. En route the former was intercepted by Lord Audley at Blore Heath, Shropshire, on 23 September. Audley had been ordered by the queen to prevent Salisbury from joining York, but in the ensuing engagement his force came off worst and thus the earl managed to press on to his destination. Soon after this, Warwick also arrived at Ludlow.

  However, during the night of 12/13 October most of the Yorkist rank and file, including members of Calais’ garrison, deserted after being confronted by a large force led by the king. Consequently, York made for Ireland whilst Salisbury, Warwick and others, including York’s eldest son, Edward, the Earl of March, fled to Calais. Then in November, parliament assembled at Coventry and attainted the Yorkist leaders—they were declared rebels and their lives, estates and other possessions, were forfeited to the crown.

  York and his colleagues could only return by force, and return by force they did. In June 1460 Salisbury and Warwick landed in Kent after waging a skilful propaganda campaign in which they had, among other things, denounced the king’s ministers as corrupt and oppressive thereby winning greater support in England than they had hitherto enjoyed. The invaders entered London on 2 July. While part of their force proceeded to blockade the Lancastrian garrison in the Tower, Warwick moved on and encountered and defeated the king’s army at Northampton on 10 July. Many leading figures in the Lancastrian force were slain and Henry himself was captured.