Chapter IV: Part 4

In face of the gathering storm Richard sailed for Ireland. On the 4th July, 1399, three small ships entered the Humber, and Hereford, attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Fitz-Alan, son of the late Earl of Arundel, a few servitors, and fifteen men-at-arms, landed at Ravenser Spurn.

Shut out of Hull, he was met at Doncaster by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, who espoused his cause, affecting to believe his assertion that he had returned to claim the estates of his father.

King Richard threw himself into Conway Castle, and Northumberland induced him to leave his refuge, to make terms with Hereford. Drawn into an ambush, Richard was delivered into his cousin's hands. Northumberland had sworn on the sacramental elements to keep faith with the King, and Richard thus reproached him, on the moment of his seizure, "May the God on whom you laid your hand reward you and your accomplices at the last day."

On the 1st of October, the day following his coronation, Henry IV. signed a licence for Matthew Danthorpe, a hermit, who had welcomed him at Ravenser Spurn, granting him permission to erect a hermitage and chapel on that desolate place.

Richard was imprisoned, and expired in a dungeon of Pontefract Castle, but whether by stroke of Sir Piers Exton's axe, or broken down by famine, matters not _now_.

Northumberland was honoured by the dignity of Constable of England, and at the coronation bore a naked sword on the King's right hand. He was further guerdoned by a grant of the Isle of Man.

On the 7th of May, 1402, the Percies defeated Earl Douglas at the battle of Homildon, inflicting a heavy loss upon the Scots, and capturing Douglas; Murdoch, son of the Duke of Albany, and other captains to the total sum of eighty.

King Henry forbade the ransoming of the prisoners, an interference which aroused the bitter wrath of the Percies. As though in mockery of their pride, he bestowed upon them the Scottish estates of the Douglas, and ordered them to abstain from ransoming Sir Edward Mortimer, Hotspur's brother-in-law, who had fallen into the hands of Owen Glendower, the Welsh patriot.

These impositions of the royal commands resulted in the revolt of the Percies. The Scotch prisoners were released, and assisted the Percies in the field. The captive Mortimer married Glendower's daughter, and drew that chieftain into the conspiracy. The lineal heir to the throne was Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. Him Northumberland proposed to raise to the throne, virtually partitioning the kingdom between the Percies, Mortimers, and Glendower.

The revolt came to the issue of battle at Shrewsbury, on the 21st July, 1403, when Percy and Douglas penetrated the centre of the royal army, and Hotspur, casting up the ventaille of his helmet, was shot in the brain by an arrow, and fell in the press. The victorious advance was turned into a rout. Of Prince Henry, it is written: "The prince that daie holpe his father like a lustie young gentleman."

Northumberland was marching to join his sons, but retired into Warkworth Castle on receiving the news of their defeat. The King, either from fear or policy, condoned his part in the revolt.

When the Archbishop of York, Richard Scrope, took up arms in 1405, the Earl was implicated in his revolt. Sir John Falconberg had raised the banner of revolt in Cleveland, but Prince John and the Earl of Westmoreland had defeated the rebels. The Archbishop's army was so strong, for it had been augmented by Lord Bardolph and Thomas, Lord Mowbray, that the royal captains resorted to treaty, and induced the Archbishop to disband his army. No sooner was this done than the leaders of the revolt were arrested.

The Archbishop of York, Lord Mowbray, Sir John Lamplugh, Sir Robert Plumpton, and several other unfortunates, were put upon their trial, and condemned to death. On the 8th June the Archbishop of York was executed at his palace of Bishopthorpe, and his head, with that of Mowbray, was piked and exposed on York walls.

The city of York was heavily fined, and the King proceeded to Durham, where he executed Lords Hastings and Fauconbridge, and Sir John Griffith.

Northumberland, "with three hundred horse, got him to Berwike," but on the King's advance passed into Scotland, accompanied by Lord Bardolph.

After brief exile, the end came.

"The earle of Northumberland, and the lord Bardolfe, after they
had been in Wales, in France, and Flanders to purchase aid
against King Henrie, were returned backe into Scotland, and had
remained there now for the space of a whole yeare: and as their
evill fortune would, while the King held a councill of the
nobilitie at London, the saide earle of Northumberland and lord
Bardolfe, in a dismall houre, with a great power of Scots
returned into England, recovering diverse of the earle's
castels and seigneories, for the people in great numbers
resorted unto them. Hereupon encouraged with hope of good
successe, they entered into Yorkshire, and there began to
distroie the countrie."

The Sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir Thomas Rokeby, is stated to have lured the old warrior to his doom. Sir Nicholas Tempest reinforced him at Knaresborough, and the little army crossed the Wharfe at Wetherby. They had achieved a succession of trifling successes, but now Sir Thomas Rokeby interposed his forces, cut off their retreat, and compelled them to give battle, on the 28th February, 1408, on Bramham Moor, near Hazlewood.

They were brave men who thus stood opposed. Northumberland's troops were incited by their dangerous position, by the hope of recovering their lost possessions, and by their hatred of the King. On the other hand, the royalists were anxious to gain the honours and rewards which princes bestow.

The Sheriff was not slack to close, but advanced his standard of St. George, and sounded the charge, as Northumberland bore down upon him with his lances, doing battle once more beneath his banner, that displayed the proud emblazonments of the house of Percy.

The onset was fierce and bloody. Lances shivered to splinters; men went down in their blood, wounded and dying; riderless horses burst from the press, and wildly galloped over the moor. Lances were cast aside, as knights and men-at-arms fell-to with sword, and mace, and axe, testing mail, smashing shield and casque, and finding and bestowing wounds and death despite of guarding weapons and tempered plate-mail.

The archers were fiercely at work, pouring their long shafts upon the rear ranks; the footmen face to face with the wild play of deadly bill and thrust of pike. Morions were cleft, corsets pierced, and men fell thick and fast. The battle was hotly maintained, but for a short time, the insurgents being sorely over-matched. Northumberland fell--never to rise again until rough hands stripped off his mail, and held him for the butcher's work of headsman's axe and knife. There ended Lord Bardolph's many troubles, as he fell, a sorely wounded and dying man, into the Sheriff's hands.

The leaders fallen, no further object for contention remained to the rebels, and the defeat was complete and irretrievable. The tragedy of the battlefield had to be concluded by the rush of the pursuers, eager to maim and slay; and by the useless rally of defeated men, turning fiercely at bay, to claim blood for blood and life for life; and, alas! by the seizure of flying men, doomed to rope and axe in reguerdon of their last act of vassalage to the devoted house of Northumberland.

The Earl's head,

"full of silver horie hairs, being put upon a stake, was openly
carried through London, and set upon the bridge of the same
citie: in like manner was the lord Bardolfe's. The bishop of
Bangor was taken and pardoned by the King, for that when he was
apprehended, he had no armour on his backe. The King, to purge
the North parts of all rebellion, and to take order for the
punishment of those that were accused to have succoured and
assisted the Earl of Northumberland, went to Yorke, where, when
many were condemned, and diverse put to great fines, and the
countrie brought to quietnesse, he caused the abbot of Hailes
to be hanged, who had been in armour against him with the
foresaid earle."

So, after his treacheries, his aspiring ambitions, the once puissant Earl of Northumberland was brought as low as Richard of Bordeaux when he lay upon his bier at St. Paul's, his set and rigid face, bared from eyebrows to chin, for the inspection of the Londoners, and, in its surrounding swathing of grave-clothes, in its dreadful emaciation, eloquent of the unrecorded tragedy of secret murder.

A grant of the manor of Spofforth, a former possession of the slain Earl, rewarded the loyalty of Sir Thomas Rokeby.

In the reign of Henry V., an attempt was again made to restore the lineal heir to the throne, an augury of the War of the Roses commenced in his son's reign. The Earl of Marche, the object of the conspiracy, himself betrayed it to the King. Henry, whose assassination had been planned, took immediate revenge upon the principal offenders, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scroop of Masham, and Sir Thomas Grey. They were executed at Southampton, on the 13th of August, 1415, at the moment when the royal fleet was sailing from the harbour to add the terrors of invasion to unhappy France, then suffering from internecine strife.

There is an old tradition that on the day of Agincourt the shrine of St. John of Beverley exuded blood, and when King Henry was in Yorkshire he naturally paid his devotions at the shrine. He was accompanied by his Queen; and it was at this time that he received the sad news of the death of his brother Clarence at Beaujé. The Duke was dashing over the narrow bridge when the charging Scots burst upon him; Sir John Carmichael shivered his lance upon the Duke's corset, Sir John Swinton smote him in the face, and, as he dropped from the saddle, the Earl of Buchan, with one blow of a mace, or "steel hammer," dashed out his brains.

XI.--THE BATTLE OF SANDAL.

A.D. 1460.

Although Henry VI. was beloved by his subjects, he was subjected to the vicissitudes of the Wars of the Roses. His Queen, Margaret of Anjou, was unpopular with the people, her favourite minister, William De la Pole, was hated of the nobles, and nobles and commons were alike exasperated by the loss of the French possessions.

Richard, Duke of York, a brave soldier, and popular with the people, was the lineal heir to the throne, and he was determined to assert his claim.

The first battle was fought at St. Albans, on the 23rd May, 1455. The royalists maintained the town, being commanded by Lord Clifford, the Dukes of Buckingham and Somerset, and the Earls of Northumberland and Stafford. York fiercely attacked, being supported by Norfolk, Salisbury and Warwick. The Northern archers poured their shafts into the town, and inflicted great slaughter, and the Earl of Warwick, "seizing his opportunity, moved to the garden side of the town, and attacking it at the weakest side, forced the barriers." A desperate conflict ensued, Somerset, Northumberland, and Clifford were slain, and King Henry, Stafford, Buckingham, and Dudley were wounded by arrows. Abbot Wethemstede states that he saw, "here one lying with his brains dashed out, here another without his arm; some with arrows sticking in their throats, others pierced in their chests."

The King was defeated and captured, and the Yorkists divided the government. The Duke was created Constable of the Kingdom, Salisbury Lord Chancellor, and Warwick governor of Calais.

Each party watched the other, and the pious King attempted to reconcile the leaders in 1458, when they went in solemn procession to St. Paul's, the Duke of York leading the Queen, and the opposing barons being paired accordingly.

A few weeks later, and Warwick fled into Yorkshire, the two factions being put into opposition by a brawl between the servants of Warwick and Queen Margaret.

In September, 1459, the Yorkists were again in arms, and Salisbury, feigning to fly before Lord Audley and the royalists, turned upon them as they were crossing a brook on Bloreheath, and bore them down with lance and bill. The conflict was somewhat desultory, and lasted five hours, the victory remaining with the Yorkists. Lord Audley was slain, and with him 2,400 men, including the good knights Thomas Dutton, John Dunne, Hugh Venables, Richard Molineaux, and John Leigh.

Henry and York met at Ludlow, when Sir Andrew Trollope carried his command over to the King, and the Yorkists, panic-stricken by this defection, dispersed.

The Duchess of York, and two of her sons, fell into Henry's hands, and was sent to her sister, Anne, Duchess of Buckingham. At Coventry, November 20th, Parliament attainted and confiscated the estates of

"the duke of York, the earl of March, the duke of Rutland, the
earl of Warwick, the earl of Salisbury, the lord Powis, the
lord Clinton, the countess of Salisbury, sir Thomas Neville,
sir John Neville, sir Thomas Harrington, sir Thomas Parr, sir
John Conyers, sir John Wenlock, sir William Oldhall, Edward
Bourchier, sq., and his brother, Thomas Vaughan, Thomas Colt,
Thomas Clay, John Dinham, Thomas Moring, John Otter, Master
Richard Fisher, Hastings, and others."

On the submission of Lord Powis he received the King's grace, but lost his goods.

Warwick, March, and Salisbury fled to Calais, and Somerset, the newly-appointed governor, proceeded to attempt the reduction of the fortress; but, by a clever counter-stroke, Warwick captured the fleet, Lord Rivers and his son being surprised before they could leave their bed. Rivers

"was brought to Calais, and before the lords, with eight-score
torches, and there my lord Salisbury rated him, calling him
'knave's son, that he should be so rude to call him and these
other lords traitors; for they should be found the King's true
liege-men, when he would be found a traitor.' And my lord
Warwick rated him, and said, 'that his father was but a squire,
and brought up with King Henry V., and since made himself by
marriage, and also made a lord; and that it was not his part to
hold such a language to lords, being of the king's blood.' And
my lord March rated him likewise. And Sir Anthony was rated for
his language of all the three lords in likewise."

A notable scene, and picturesque: making easy the mental transition to a later period, when these fierce lords called for block and headsmen, and their prisoners made short shrift. Indeed the period was very near. Osbert Mountford, despatched to reinforce Somerset, was captured at Sandwich, carried to Calais, and beheaded on the 25th June, 1460.

On the 5th June Salisbury and Warwick landed at Sandwich, and reached London with 25,000 men arrayed under their banners. Margaret strove to shut them out of the city, but in vain; and Lord Scales discharged the Tower guns against them.

On the 19th of July the two armies engaged at Northampton. Margaret, with a strong escort, watched the conflict with the keenest anxiety. The heavy rains rendered the King's artillery inoperative, yet, after five hours of sanguinary fighting, the battle was decided by the treachery of Lord Grey, of Ruthin, who carried his command over to the Yorkists.

King Henry was captured, and carried, in honourable captivity, to London. Margaret fled to Scotland, accompanied by Somerset and the young Prince of Wales.

Richard of York entered London, appeared before the peers, and advanced to the throne, placing his hand upon the canopy. This mute claim was received in silence, that was broken by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he enquired whether the Duke would not wait upon the King. York haughtily replied, "I know of none in this realm than ought not rather to wait upon me," and turning his back upon the peers, retired.

It was admitted by the lords that Richard was the lineal heir to the throne, but Parliament had elected Henry IV. to the crown, Henry V. had succeeded, and his son, the present King, had been accepted by the lords and commons, and, but for the ambition of York, his title would have remained unquestioned. The peers passed over the claims of the young Prince of Wales, and decided that the King should retain the crown, but that, on his death, York and his heirs should inherit it.

Margaret was immediately summoned to London, and prepared for the journey by raising her standard. Before she appeared upon the scene the battle of Sandal was fought.

The Yorkists now freely dipped their hands in blood. Lords Hungerford and Scales were allowed to pass out of the Tower free men, but the soldiers and officers had "to abide by the law." Lord Scales was murdered within the week by mariners serving Warwick and March. He was seen

"lying naked in the cemetery of the church of St. Mary Overy,
in Southwark. He had lain naked, being stripped of his clothes,
for several hours on the ground, but afterwards on the same day
he was honourably interred by the earls of March, Warwick, and
others."

In the same month, July, Sir Thomas Blount, of Kent, with five others of the household of the Duke of Exeter, were accused before "the Earl of Warwick and the other justiciaries of the King, of illegally holding the Tower," and "were drawn to Tyburn and beheaded, and shortly afterwards John Archer, who was in the councils of the duke of Exeter, shared the same fate."

Duke Richard was declared heir-apparent on the 9th of November, with the present title of Lord Protector, and an allowance of £10,000 to maintain the dignity. The Yorkshire royalists were in arms, and "had destroyed the retainers and tenants of the Duke of York and Earl of Salisbury."

Salisbury and York immediately marched for the North.

Their vanguard struck Somerset's army at Worksop, and was cut off. On the 21st December York occupied his Castle of Sandal. His army consisted of 6,000 men, too few to cope with the enemy lying at Pontefract under Somerset and Northumberland. The Duke might have maintained the defensive until the Earl of March came up from the Welsh borders, but on the 30th of December he sallied out to rescue a foraging party from the Lancastrians. With so numerous an army to feed, and in a position so remote from succour, Richard might reasonably risk something to protect his foragers.

Vainly Sir David Hall argued against so perilous an adventure. The drawbridge was lowered, and York's banner was given to the wintry wind. It bore for device a Falcon _volant_, _argent_, with a fetter-lock, _or_. The bird was depicted in the effort of opening the lock, typical of the crown.

Behind the falcon-banner marched 4,000 veterans. With the Duke there rode to his last battle, Salisbury and the good knights, Thomas Neville, David Hall, John Parr, John and Hugh Mortimer, Walter Limbrike, John Gedding, Eustace Wentworth, Guy Harrington, and other notable men-at-arms.

Raising the war-cry of York, and sounding trumpets, they charged through the drifting snow-flakes, and awoke the fury of the battle. The Duke was outnumbered and surrounded, but fought stubbornly, being nobly seconded by his heroic army. Lord Clifford hotly attacked him, exerting every effort to cut off his retreat. Duke Richard valiantly attempted to cut his way through and retire into Sandal, but Clifford as sternly drew around him the iron bonds of war, prevented all retreat, and held him to the trial. The battle was extremely sanguinary, and the Lancastrians fought as though they were the red-handed arbiters of the whole dispute, and, like avenging angels, must wash out the treason of York in streams of blood. As Mountford fought at Evesham so fought the Lord Protector that day--exacting the heaviest price for his doomed life. Weapons whirled before his face, rang on his mail, and probed the jointed armour with point and edge until the good steel harness was dinted and stained with gore. Many warriors perished around him, and he, too, fell, sorely stricken, and died in his blood, amid the trampling of iron-clad feet, and the clash of crossing swords, as friends and foes fought hand-to-hand above his body. The crisis came. The falcon-banner fell, and the pursuing swords maimed and slew the fugitives, burdening the old year with the sorrows of the widow and the orphan. In the triumphant van, in the moment of victory, Richard Hanson, Mayor of Hull, laid down his life for Queen Margaret and her fair son. Salisbury won his way through the press, to fall by headsman's axe. Rutland broke away from the slaughter, reached Wakefield Bridge, to perish by the steel of Clifford, happy in his early death that saved him from the infamy of bloody years that tarnished the fame of his brothers, March, Clarence, and Gloucester.

Some chroniclers represent the Queen as commanding her army in person, and as luring the Duke to meet her in open field. Dissuaded from the encounter by his friends, he declared that: "All men would cry wonder, and report dishonour, that a woman had made a dastard of me, whom no man could even to this day report as a coward! And surely my mind is rather to die with honour than to live with shame! Advance my banners in the name of God and of St. George." This is not the York of history.

Rutland is represented as a boy, aged twelve years, a spectator, not a combatant, and accompanied by his tutor, Aspall. Clifford overtook him, and demanded his name. "The young gentleman dismayed, had not a word to speak, but kneeled on his knees, craving mercy and desiring grace, both with holding up his hands and making a dolorous countenance--for his speech was gone for fear." "Save him," cried Aspall, "he is a prince's son, and peradventure may do you good hereafter." Said Clifford, "By God's blood thy father slew mine, and so will I thee and all thy kin," and so smote him to the heart with his dagger, and bade the chaplain, "Go, bear him to his mother, and tell her what thou hast seen and heard." Doubtless Clifford was as red-handed a sinner as any of the barons, but probably no worse. He is said to have cut off the Duke's head, crowned it with paper, and carried it upon a pole to the Queen, exclaiming, "Madam, your war is done: here I bring your King's ransom."

Such are some popular errors, perpetuated by historians who have followed the romantic versions of Grafton and Hall. Margaret did not lure York to his fate, for she was in Scotland when the battle was fought, and he did not sally out to fight a battle, but to rescue his foragers. The execution of Yorkist prisoners was simply a retaliation for the treason and blood-guiltiness of the Yorkists, and was carried out without the Queen's knowledge. Clifford may have vowed to avenge his father's death upon the house of York, and Rutland may have fallen to his sword: but the duke was in his eighteenth year, and no doubt an approved man-at-arms. As recorded, he had been attainted of treason a few months prior to his death. We may safely conclude that there were no schoolboys on Wakefield-Green on the 30th of December, 1460, and the only tutors there were tutors in arms.

William of Wyrcester's account of the battle may be considered the most probable, and best authenticated:--

"The followers of the Duke of York, having gone out to forage
for provisions on the 29th of December, a dreadful battle was
fought at Wakefield between the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of
Northumberland and Lord Neville, and the adverse party, when
the Duke of York, Thomas Neville, son of the Earl of Salisbury,
Thomas Harrington, Thomas Parr, Edward Bourchier, James
Pykering, and Henry Rathforde, with many other knights and
squires, and soldiers to the amount of two thousand, were slain
in the field. After the battle, Lord Clifford slew the young
Earl of Rutland, the son of the Duke of York, as he was fleeing
across the bridge at Wakefield; and in the same night the Earl
of Salisbury was captured by a follower of Sir And. Trollope,
and on the morrow beheaded by the Bastard of Exeter at
Pontefract, where at the same time the dead bodies of York,
Rutland, and others of note who fell in the battle, were
decapitated, and their heads affixed in various parts of York,
whilst a paper crown was placed in derision on the head of the
Duke of York."

Thus perished Duke Richard in his fiftieth year.

Edward, Earl of March, Richard's eldest son, was at Gloucester when the news reached him of the disaster before Sandal Castle. He promptly advanced his army to intercept the Lancastrians, and dispute their advance upon the capital.

Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, harassed his rear with a tumultuary army of Welsh and Irish troops. Marching to engage an army, and alarmed by a powerful enemy in the rear, was too critical a position for Edward not to appreciate its danger. On the 2nd of February, 1461, he turned furiously upon the enemy, at Mortimer's Cross, Herefordshire, and defeated Pembroke with a loss of 3,800 men.

At Hereford Edward halted, and handed over to the headsman Owen Tudor, Sir John Throckmorton, and eight of the Lancastrian captains--the captives of his sword and lance at Mortimer's Cross.

London threw open its gates to the victor on the 4th of March, and he was proclaimed King, under the title of Edward IV.

XII.--THE BATTLE OF TOWTON.

A.D. 1461.

Margaret of Anjou had the honour of defeating the famous Warwick. Thus Wyrcester:--

"After the battle of Wakefield Queen Margaret came out of
Scotland to York, where it was decided by the Council of the
Lords to proceed to London and to liberate King Henry out of
the hands of his enemies by force of arms. Shortly after the
Feast of the Purification, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the
Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, the Earls of Northumberland,
Devonshire, and Shrewsbury, the Lords Roos, Grey of Codnor,
Fitzhugh, Graystock, Welles and Willoughby, and many others,
amounting in all to 24,000 men, advanced upon St. Albans, and
at Dunstable destroyed Sir Edward Poyning, and 200 foot."

Margaret's tumultuary army consisted of English, Irish, Welsh, and Scotch troops, and their excesses tended to the ruin of the Lancastrian cause.

On the 17th of February the second battle of St. Albans was fought. At first the Lancastrians fell back before Warwick's archers, but, renewing the attack, they fought their way to St. Peter's Street, driving the enemy before them. On reaching the heath at the north end of the town, the Yorkists made a stand, and, after a furious struggle, were put to the rout. Warwick lost Sir John Grey of Groby, and 2,300 men. King Henry was rescued from the hands of Warwick, but Margaret ungenerously executed his warders, Lord Bonville, and the veteran Sir Thomas Kyriel, although the King had pledged his word for their safety.

Margaret reached Barnet, but London feared her and her rude army. When she sent for "victuals and Lenten stuff," the mayor and sheriffs obeyed her orders, but the commons stopped the carts at Cripplegate. March and Warwick were drawing near, London would not admit her army, and Margaret "fled northward, as fast as she might, towards York."

Henry was deposed by the Yorkists, and the Earl of March declared King in his stead. Edward IV. carried on the war with vigour. Norfolk visited his estates to raise troops; Warwick marched out with the vanguard, the infantry followed, and lastly, on the 12th of March, Edward issued out of Bishopgate with the rear-guard.

On the 28th of March Lord Fitzwalter secured Ferrybridge, but at daybreak the Lancastrians fell on: Fitzwalter was slain as he issued from his tent, in his night gear, to quell, as he thought, a quarrel of his rude soldiery. Clifford pressed the fugitives furiously, and they carried a panic into the camp of Edward, that was only arrested when Warwick slew his horse, swearing upon the cross-hilt of his sword, that, "Who would might flee; but he would tarry with all who were prepared to stand and fight the battle out."

The troops recovered courage, and Edward proclaimed freedom to depart for all who desired to quit before the battle; threatening severe punishments to any who, remaining, manifested fear in the presence of the enemy. Such cowards were to be slain by their companions. No man accepted the permission to retire.

Lord Fauconbridge then fell upon Clifford, defeated him, and recovered the post. During the retreat Clifford paused, to remove his gorget, and was struck on the throat, and slain, by a headless arrow.

Edward crossed the river, and confronted the enemy on Towton field. The Lancastrians were formed on an elevated ridge between Towton and Saxton, and presenting a front some two miles in extent. The Yorkists occupied a neighbouring ridge. A broad battle-space lay between the two armies.

The villagers were at mass in Saxton Church when "the celebration with palms and spears began," for it was Palm Sunday. The heavy clouds hung low in the sombre sky, and as the wind arose the snow began to fall heavily, and was driven full into the faces of the Lancastrians.

It was nine o'clock when, from the heavy masses of Edward's army, looming portentiously through the thickened air, the flight arrows descended upon the Lancastrians, and mingled with the wind-driven snow. In an instant the snow was red with blood, and dead and wounded men encumbered the ground.

Falconberg having advanced his archers, and struck the first blow, retired them, drawing the Lancastrian fire. The Queen's archers shot fierce and fast, but uselessly exhausted their quivers, when the Yorkists took a terrible revenge, pouring a deadly sleet of arrows upon their enemies. It is said that they drew the Lancastrian arrows from the soil, leaving a few to impede the Queen's advance.

Somerset determined to close, and ordered a general advance. Knights dashed from point to point along the lines; Northumberland and Trollope closed their decimated ranks, and moved to the attack. Edward's army had suffered little, and was kept well in hand. It advanced steadily to meet the tide of war that surged madly forward through the mirk air and falling snow.

King Edward commanded the centre: the lion of England crested his helmet, he carried a long lance, with a peculiar vamplate, and the crimson velvet housings of his steed were powdered with suns and white roses. When the armies joined battle, he dismounted, and fought on foot. Warwick commanded the right wing, Lord Falconberg the left, and Sir John Denman and Sir John Venloe were in charge of the rear-guard

"As if battle were the gate of Paradise, and the future an
incomprehensible dream, they raised against each other a
tumultuous shout of execration and defiance."

The front ranks struck, with shivering of knightly lances on the wings, and with deadly play of mauls, of bills and pikes in the van. The slaughter was dreadful: the moans of the dying were drowned in the clashing of steel, fierce war-cries, and the rush of stormy winds. Savagely assailed, and beaten by the pitiless, incessant snow, the Lancastrians valiantly maintained their ground, although their original superiority in numbers was more than balanced by their first losses and their exposed position. The front ranks fought desperately, for Edward of York had issued orders that no quarter should be extended to the vanquished. The archers of York poured their last arrows into the rear of the Queen's army.

Norfolk should have commanded the van, but, seized with a sudden sickness, he had remained at Pontefract with the rear-guard. His orders were to bring forward his command, with any reinforcements that might reach him. Edward anxiously awaited his arrival. The battle raged for hours; the imprisoned peasantry in Saxton Church fearfully awaited the end; and Edward was scarcely less anxious, for the murderous butchery of the hand-to-hand fight favoured neither army. Norfolk was steadily marching through the wintery weather with his hardy soldiers, and messenger after messenger reached him requesting him to hurry up the reserves.

The form of battle was lost, as the two hosts were locked in the sanguinary struggle. The dark and stormy day was glooming to a wild and early night, when a louder tumult of battle rose on the Lancastrian left flank at North Acres. Norfolk was on the field, and had struck his enemy. The Lancastrians could not bear up under the augmented storm, and the retreat commenced. In the confusion the retiring wings struck each other, and the difficulties of the position were increased. Edward urged his infuriated soldiery to unsparing vengeance, and the Lancastrians turned again and again upon their pursuers. Ere they reached the river Cock--a tributary of the Wharfe--the Lancastrian army had merged into a dense and tumultuary crowd of fugitives, upon whose flank and rear the Yorkists hung with the blood-thirsty fury of barbarians. On reaching the stream the massacre became frightful, and the waters were tinged with gore and darkened with the slain, and are stated to have communicated their dreadful burthen and sanguinary stains to the Wharfe. For three days the Lancastrians were hunted out and butchered by the victors.

On the gloomy night of that fatal 29th of March, 1461, a stormy rout of knights and men-at-arms urged their jaded war-horses through the narrow streets of York, calling loudly upon the King and Queen to mount in hot haste and ride for their lives. That night the King and Queen, with the young prince, rode through Bootham, through the gloom of Galtres forest, fugitives, _en route_ for Scotland.

The total loss was computed at 40,000 souls, the Lancastrians being heavily in excess. The death-roll contains the names of the Earls of Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Shrewsbury; of Lords Dacres and Wells, and Sir Andrew Trollope.

At York Edward executed the Earls of Devonshire and Ormond, Sir Baldwin Fulford, Sir William Talboys, and Sir William Hill. The Earl of Wiltshire suffered at Newcastle on the 1st of May. The heads of York and Salisbury were replaced by those of Devonshire and Hill.

According to tradition, "The Lord Dacres was slain in Nor-acres." Having removed his gorget he was shot in the throat by the cross-bow bolt of a lad lurking behind a burtree, or elder-bush.

The blood and snow froze on the field of Towton, and when the thaw came the furrows overflowed with mingling blood and water. The slain were buried in vast pits; and there is a strange legendary belief that the roses which so persistently flourish upon the field, and the petals of which are pure white, slightly flushed with red, sprang from the commingling blood of the partisans of the red and white roses.

Edward was duly crowned, but his throne was threatened by the plots of the Lancastrians, although he kept the headsman's axe steadily at work. In 1462 the Scots caused some trouble in the North; and, towards the close of the year, Margaret appeared in arms, but precipitately retired without being able to make head against the King.

In 1464 Margaret again appeared in the North, when the gallant Sir Ralph Percy was slain on Hedgeley Moor, fighting for the red rose. The battle of Hexham followed a rout of the Lancastrians, whose leaders, Somerset, Ross, and Hungerford, were executed.

Sir Ralph Grey having betrayed Bamborough Castle to the Queen, and then defended it against Edward, was executed at Doncaster.

Margaret escaped, but Henry ultimately fell into Edward's hands, and was committed to the Tower.

XIII.--YORKSHIRE UNDER THE TUDORS.

Edward IV. disgusted the Earl of Warwick by espousing Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey, of Groby, and the Yorkshire rising, known as the Thrave of St. Leonard, followed. The defeat and death of the royal captains, the Earls of Devon and Pembroke, was succeeded by Edward's confinement in Middleham Castle, and his escape to the Continent, when Warwick restored King Henry to the throne. On the 14th March, 1471, Edward landed at Ravenser Spurn and defeated Warwick at the battle of Barnet, when the king-maker and his brother Montacute were slain. On the day of Barnet, Queen Margaret, her son and his bride, landed at Weymouth, and the battle of Tewkesbury was fought on the 4th May, when Prince Edward was slain, and Queen Margaret captured. Edward was now firmly fixed upon the throne, and in 1478 he requited the numerous treacheries of his brother Clarence by procuring his condemnation on a charge of high treason. Clarence perished in the Tower, either being drowned in a butt of wine, or permitted to drink himself to death. On the 9th of April, 1483, Edward IV. departed this life, leaving two sons, Edward and Richard. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, promptly appeared upon the scene, seized Lord Rivers, the Queen's brother, and Lord Grey, her son, and sent them to Pontefract, where they were executed. Procuring possession of the persons of his nephews, he caused them to be murdered, and usurped the throne. Nemesis followed him; he lost his only son, and was defeated and slain at Bosworth Field by Henry Tudor, who espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and was crowned under the title of Henry VII. Richard had proclaimed John De-la-Pole, Earl of Lincoln, heir presumptive to the throne, but this unfortunate nobleman was slain at the Battle of Stoke, ostensibly fighting in the cause of the Pretender, Lambert Simnel. The wars of the Roses were now ended, and Henry concluded the series of diabolical tragedies by obtaining the condemnation and execution of the Earl of Warwick, Clarence's son, and the lineal heir to the throne. He was judicially murdered on the 24th November, 1499.

Henry's love of gold led to a revolt in Yorkshire, A.D. 1489, when the people, furious against the imposition of a tax, murdered the Earl of Northumberland, and took up arms; to be defeated and severely punished.

Henry VIII. succeeded to the throne, and by the suppression of the monasteries roused the indignation of the Yorkshire people, who made an armed remonstrance, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. But for the moderation of the people, Henry's throne might have been overturned, and His Majesty requited their loyalty by wholesale executions, and by hanging Sir Robert Constable over the Beverley gate at Hull, and executing Robert Aske at York. Another of the leaders, Lord Darcy, was executed on Tower Hill.

The reign of Edward VI. witnessed a tumultuary outbreak at Seamer, consequent upon changes that had been made in the forms of religious worship. It was promptly put down by troops from York, and the ringleaders were executed.

During the reign of Queen Mary there was some little excitement in Yorkshire, consequent upon Sir Thomas Wyat's insurrection, when Thomas, son of Lord Stafford, seized Scarborough Castle, and paid with his life for the daring exploit.

The nation was sorely disturbed by the complications resulting from the lust and religion of Henry VIII., when Elizabeth ascended the throne, and Her Majesty's interference with the affairs of Scotland, and her imprisonment of Mary Stuart, added to the difficulties of the position.

The Northern Rising, headed by Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, occurred in November, 1569, and was promptly suppressed, and followed by the customary severities.

Fortunately royal lines die out, and with Elizabeth the Tudors ceased; but only to entail upon the nation the wars and revolutions resulting from the follies of the Stuarts.

XIV.--THE BATTLE OF TADCASTER.

A.D. 1642.

When Charles I. visited Hull in 1639, he was most loyally received by the people; but his second visit, on the 23rd of April, 1642, ended in a bitter disappointment, and brought on the resort to arms. His power had waned, the Star Chamber was a tyranny of the past; Stafford was surrendered to the block, and Laud was in prison.

Before Charles reached the town, he was requested to defer his visit, and on appearing before the Beverley gate, he found it closed, the drawbridge raised, shotted cannon frowning upon him, pikemen and musketeers holding the ramparts.

Sir John Hotham dare not for his life admit the King. Vain the orders, the threats, the persuasions of Charles; he was compelled to retire, after commanding the garrison to hurl the traitor over the walls. Sir John was deeply distressed; he had heard himself proclaimed a traitor by the royal heralds, who sounded trumpets before the walls.

On the 3rd of June, the nobility and gentry of Yorkshire met the King on Heworth Moor, and from that day the nation was virtually in arms.

On the 2nd of July, the Royalists occupied Hull Bridge, and the "Providence" entered the Humber with military stores for the King. Hotham attempted to capture the stores, but his troops were driven back, and the munitions of war were carted to York, being escorted by a large force of the King's friends.

Shortly after Hull was besieged, and the banks of the river being cut, the country around was submerged. Batteries were erected and the town cannonaded, but with little effect. As the month waned, sorties were organised, and the royal lines penetrated. One day the foot were scattered and the royal cavalry had to retire to Beverley. Reinforcements from London encouraged Sir John Meldrum, who assisted in the defence, in repeating the sorties. On one occasion the Earl of Newport was hoisted out of his saddle by a cannon ball, and hurled into a ditch. He was with difficulty rescued, being reduced to a state of insensibility. The siege was raised.

At Nottingham, on the 25th of August, Charles raised his standard. It was blood-red, bore the royal arms, quartered, with a hand pointing to the endangered crown, and the motto, "Give to Cæsar his due." It was almost instantly levelled with the ground as a sudden blast of wind swept with a weird moaning across the face of the hill.

Cumberland maintained the King's cause in the loyal North, and to counteract his influence, Parliament appointed Lord Fairfax to the command of the Northern forces, his son, Sir Thomas, acting as General of Horse.

Various skirmishes ensued, Fairfax operating from his head-quarters at Tadcaster. On one occasion the loyal city of York was insulted by one of Fairfax's officers, who fired a pistol in Micklegate Bar.

At Wetherby, the younger Fairfax was surprised by Sir Thomas Glemham, but the explosion of a powder magazine induced the Royalists to draw off. Sir Thomas was in great peril, being repeatedly fired upon at close quarters. Major Carr, of the King's army, was slain, and the Parliamentarian Captain Atkinson was mortally wounded, his thigh being fractured by the repeated blows of pistols.

The Earl of Newcastle assuming the command of the Cavaliers, attacked Fairfax at Tadcaster. A bridge over the Wharfe led to the main street of Tadcaster, and Fairfax cast up a breastwork to command this bridge, while he posted musketeers in a number of houses that flanked the position. The attack commenced on the morning of Tuesday, the 7th of December, eight hundred Parliamentarians withstanding the numerous army of Newcastle. When Fairfax beheld Newcastle's cavaliers marching down the York Road, and over the fields on each side, he resolved to evacuate the town, perceiving the impossibility of holding it against so numerous an enemy. It was, however, too late to retire in the face of the enemy, and the troops had barely time to occupy the position at the bridge before Newcastle made a determined attack upon them. Planting two demi-culverins to command the bridge, and hurrying up his infantry, Newcastle opened the ball at eleven o'clock. For five hours the cavaliers attacked, and the Parliamentarians as gallantly defended the position.

Again and again the King's men came steadily on, with pikes in the front, and the musketeers firing and reloading with the most determined courage; but ere they could reach the breastwork the brave men of Nunappleton and Denton, and the stout-hearted burghers of Bradford and Bingley, smote them with a storm of shot, shattered and thinned their ranks--sending them back to re-form and renew the attack with the same obstinate but unavailing courage. After a while the fight slackened, the Royalists lining the hedges and maintaining a brisk exchange of shot with their adversaries.

It was important that Newcastle should effect a lodgment within the lines of defence by carrying the houses on the river banks, and several desperate attempts to effect this were made. Some fierce conflicts resulted, and many men were slain. At length Newcastle carried one of the houses that commanded the main body of the Parliamentarians. In this strait, Major-General Gifford was ordered forward to retake the lost positions. Some heavy fighting at close quarters ensued, and pike and sword were red with blood, and the soil cumbered with the slain and wounded, before the stubborn Royalists were driven out, and the buildings re-occupied.

As the shades of evening closed over the mournful scene of slaughter and confusion, Newcastle sent forward another party against one of the houses. It was his last effort, and was gallantly made; but the hail of bullets smote so fiercely in the face of the division, that it was driven back in confusion, with some loss of men, including Captain Lister, a young and promising officer, whose death was deeply lamented.

Newcastle drew off, intending to renew the attack on the following morning. Upwards of a hundred dead and wounded men were left upon the field.

Lord Fairfax retained the honours of the field, but was compelled to retire his forces, and accordingly occupied the town of Selby. His position was extremely precarious, and he was deeply distressed by the necessity of leaving the towns of the West exposed to the attacks of their powerful enemies.

XV.--THE BATTLE OF LEEDS.

A.D. 1643.

On the 14th December, Sir Thomas Fairfax and the gallant Captain Hotham sallied out of Selby, and stormed Sherborne, to come back on the spur, closely pursued by the enraged Goring.

Sir William Savile, of Thornhill, compelled Leeds and Wakefield to surrender; and on Sunday, December 18th, attacked Bradford with 200 foot, six troops of dragoons, and five of horse. A spirited engagement ensued, and the Royalists were beaten off. Shortly after, Sir Thomas made a night-march through the Royalist lines, and entered Bradford with 300 foot and three troops of horse.

Reinforced by numerous recruits Sir Thomas resolved to attack Sir William Savile, who was strongly entrenched in Leeds. The approaches from the Bridge and Hunslet Lane were defended by breastworks, and two demi-culverins commanded the long, broad Briggate, or principal street.

On Monday, January 23rd, 1643, Fairfax summoned the town with 2,000 clubmen, 1,000 musketeers, six troops of horse, and three of dragoons at his back. Sir William Savile rejoined by a gallant defiance, having 1,500 foot and 500 horse posted in the town. Sir Thomas had formed his troops in two divisions to storm both sides of the town, and they advanced to attack as a snow-storm burst over the moor.

The watchword was "Emanuel," and with sounding trumpets Sergeant-Major Forbes and Captain Hodgson fell on at the head of five companies of foot and one of dismounted dragoons. They were saluted with a volley of musketry, all but inoperative. The musketeers had aimed too high.

The roar of battle rose at the end of Ludgate, when Sir William Fairfax and Sir Thomas Norcliffe assaulted the entrenchments, and was answered from the south side of the river, where the stormers were fighting their way to the south end of the bridge. Here they established themselves, and flanked the defenders of the works at the north-end of the bridge, who were holding Forbes and his stormers in check. Sir William Savile ordered up one of the demi-culverins, and planted it upon the bridge, to arrest the Parliamentarian advance. Maitland, who led the attack, despatched a party of dragoons to the waterside, and compelled the defenders of the lower breastwork to retire, when Forbes occupied the deserted position. Schofield, a minister of Halifax, celebrated this success by singing a verse of the lxvii. psalm; and as it was concluded the cheers of the dragoons announced the evacuation of the upper breastwork. Still singing the psalm, Forbes charged up the Briggate, and captured the demi-culverins. Here they were met by Sir William Fairfax, who had gallantly forced his way into the town.

Fairfax had stormed three positions, and captured Leeds, after three hours of close fighting. His conduct was highly eulogised.

Sir William Savile and the Rev. Mr. Robinson swam their horses across the Aire, and escaped. Unhappily Captain Beaumont was drowned in the attempt.

Fairfax lost about twenty men, and took 460 prisoners, the two demi-culverins, a number of muskets, and fourteen barrels of gunpowder. The prisoners were allowed to depart on engaging not to arm against Parliament.

Sir Thomas Fairfax being in delicate health returned to the head-quarters at Selby. Newcastle withdrew from Wakefield, and concentrated his army at York, leaving the country between Selby and the West open to the Fairfaxes, who occupied Howley Hall, between Wakefield and Bradford.

XVI.--THE BATTLE OF WAKEFIELD.

A.D. 1643.

While the Fairfaxes held Selby, Queen Henrietta landed at Bridlington, where she was briskly cannonaded by Vice-Admiral Batten, whose ungallant conduct was generally reprobated. Fairfax offered her Majesty an escort of Yorkshire Parliamentarians.

The plots of the Hothams closed Hull to the Fairfaxes, and they resolved to march to Leeds, a distance of twenty miles, although exposed to a flank attack. Sir Thomas drew off the enemy by marching a division in the direction of Tadcaster, thus enabling Lord Fairfax to carry the main body to Leeds.

The Royalists believed that Sir Thomas had designs upon York, and Goring followed hot upon his track, and on Whin Moor, near the village of Seacroft, charged his rear and right flank, and dispersed the Parliamentarians, of whom a few were wounded or slain, and many were captured.

After a sharp pursuit and some shrewd blows, Sir Thomas Fairfax and Sir Henry Foulis reached Leeds with a few troopers.

Chiefly for the purpose of obtaining prisoners for the exchange of his captured soldiers, Sir Thomas resolved to make an attempt upon Wakefield, then held by Goring with seven troops of horse and six regiments of foot. Outworks, trenches, breastworks, and several cannon defended the town.

The Royalist officers were given to drinking and playing at bowls, and although aware of Fairfax's advance, he found some officers in liquor when the attack began. Doubtless this refers to the few; the majority would be on the alert like gallant and loyal gentlemen.

At midnight on Saturday, the 20th of May, Sir Thomas marched from Howley with 1,500 horse and foot, drawn from the garrisons of Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, and Howley. At four o'clock, he approached Wakefield, to find the enemy on the alert. Driving a body of horse out of Stanley, he assailed Wrengate and Northgate. Major-General Gifford, Sir Henry Foulis, Sir William Fairfax, and other brave officers, supported Sir Thomas. The stormers were saluted by a hot fire from muskets and cannon, but suffered little thereby. Undaunted by their hot reception, the stormers faced the hail of shot and fell on with pike and musket, capturing the works and turning the guns upon the enemy. Driving the cavaliers before him, Fairfax cleared the streets, capturing, with many others, General Goring, Sir Thomas Bland, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Geo. Wentworth, Lieut.-Colonel Saint George, Lieut.-Colonel Macmoyler, Sergt.-Major Carr, Captains Carr, Knight, Wildbore, Rueston, Pemberton, Croft, Ledgard, Lashley, Kayley, and Nuttall; Captn.-Lieut. Benson, Sergt.-Major Carnabie. Left wounded in Wakefield, upon their engagement to be true prisoners, Lieutenants Munckton, Thomas, Wheatley, Kent, Nicholson; Ensigns Squire, Vavasor, Masken, Lampton, Ducket, Stockhold, Baldwinson, Davis, Carr, Gibson, Smathweight, Ballinson, Watson, Smelt, Hallyburton, and Cornet Wivell.

Too weak to retain his conquest, Fairfax marched off in triumph with his prisoners, captured cannon, colours, arms, ammunition, etc.

London greatly rejoiced on receiving news of the victory. Parliament ordered public thanksgivings to be observed in the city; and in the churches and chapels narratives of the action were read.

The following is the official account of the battle, as made to Lord Fairfax: