THE
FIELD OF THE BATTLE
OF
NORTHAMPTON. {39a}
“The King from out the town who drew his foot and horse,
As willing to give full field-room to his force,
Doth pass the river Nen, near where it down doth run,
From his first fountain’s head, is near to Harsington,
Advised of a place, by nature strongly wrought,
Doth there encamp his power: the Earl of March, who sought
To prove by dint of sword, who should obtain the day,
From Towcester trained on his powers in good array.
The vaward Warwick led (whom no attempt could fear);
The middle March himself, and Falconbridge the rear.
Now July enter’d was, and e’er the restless sun
Three hours’ ascent had got, the dreadful fight begun.”
MICHAEL DRAYTON’S _Polyolbion_, Song 22nd.
RICHARD NEVILLE, Earl of Warwick, {39b} having landed, in the summer of
1460, from Calais, at Sandwich, with the Earls of March {39c} and
Salisbury, {39d} and having been met by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of
Canterbury, {40a} and other persons of distinction, supporters of the
party of the Duke of York, proceeded towards London. In passing through
Kent they were joined by Cobham {40b} and many other personages of
influence; and on the 2nd of July, 1460, they entered London, with a
great accession to their forces, where they were cheerfully received by
the Mayor and citizens, and of which they took quiet possession, except
the Tower, into which Lord Scales {40c} and other Lancastrian leaders had
retired, and which the Yorkists immediately besieged. Without waiting
for its surrender, the Earls of March and Warwick, with the Lords
Falconberg {41a} and Clinton, {41b} Viscount Bourchier {41c} (Earl of
Ewe), the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Exeter, {41d} and other
bishops and noblemen, left London with an army, a great portion of which
came out of Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, amounting altogether, as
some writers state, to 25,000 men, and proceeded towards Henry VI., {42a}
leaving the Earl of Salisbury, Cobham, and Sir John Wenlock, in London,
to take care of the city, keep the citizens firm in their fidelity, and
push the siege of the Tower. {42b}
Henry VI. was at Coventry when the confederate earls were in Kent. On
receiving intelligence of what was taking place in London, he—or,
perhaps, it would be more correct to say, Queen Margaret, {42c} in his
name, obtained money by compositions for knighthood, and loans from the
prelates and convents, and from such of the nobility as were attached to
the Lancastrian party, and raised a large army to provide for his
defence, and proceeded with the Duke of Somerset, {43a} who had recently
arrived from Guisnes, the Duke of Buckingham, {43b} and other noblemen
and knights, to Northampton, where the King took up his abode at the
Friary. {43c}
The confederate earls, at the head of the Yorkist army, proceeded
northward to meet Henry, and took up a position between Towcester and
Northampton. {43d}
Queen Margaret, judging from the power of the Lancastrians assembled at
Northampton, that they were fully able to meet in hostile conflict the
forces of the Yorkists, took upon herself to encourage {43e} her friends
and supporters; and when the whole of the King’s forces were assembled,
they issued out of Northampton, and, crossing the river Nen, or Nene,
proceeded into the meadows on the southward side of the town, and in that
part of them which is close to Delapré Abbey, {43f} a religious house of
Cluniac nuns in the parish of Hardingstone, strongly intrenched
themselves, {44a} and awaited the arrival of their enemies, and prepared
to fight them there. The position, in a military point of view, was most
ill judged. It possessed no natural advantages, but the contrary; for,
by placing themselves on the southward side of the river, which seems to
have been done with a view to deprive their adversaries of the advantage
of having it in their front, the Lancastrians seem to have lost sight of
the peril and chance of destruction, in case of defeat, from having the
river in their own rear; an error which caused most lamentable
consequences to them after the battle.
The Bishop of Salisbury, with the assent of the other bishops and of the
noblemen who were on the side of the Yorkists, was sent to the King with
pacific overtures, but without any satisfactory result; for, although
somewhat inferior in numbers, the Lancastrians seem to have been over
confident in their forces, and in the strength of their position. In the
night the Yorkists removed their camp towards Northampton, and both
parties prepared for battle.
On the 9th {44b} of July, 1460, the Earls of Warwick and March,
accompanied by Viscount Bourchier, Lord Falconberg, and others, advanced
with their forces, and the battle commenced about seven o’clock in the
morning. According to one account, their van was led by the Earl of
Warwick, and after him followed the Earl of March, with the banner of his
father; others state that the Earl of March commanded the van, the Earl
of Warwick the middle, and Lord Falconberg the rear body. During the
battle, Edmund Lord Grey, of Ruthen, {45a} who was in the Lancastrian
army, betrayed his trust, and, having a command in a part of the King’s
camp, where, in consequence of a deep trench, and of a rampart, fortified
with piles and sharp stakes, with which the camp was encompassed, so that
the Yorkists could not enter without great danger, he and his men
assisted the Yorkists to get within the intrenchments, and greatly
conduced to the defeat of the Lancastrians. {45b}
Another circumstance occurred which was a great disadvantage to the
Lancastrians: there was a considerable fall of rain on that day, and the
cannons, with which the camp of the King was in some degree at least,
defended, were prevented by the wet, from being of the service that they
otherwise might have been. {45c}
The battle however lasted some time, with obstinacy and fierceness, the
victory being uncertain until nine o’clock, when the King’s army was
completely defeated. Many of his forces were slain in the battle and in
their flight towards the town, and great numbers were drowned in the
river Nen; {46a} for, as before observed, it was in their rear, and
consequently between them and Northampton, and it proved a most serious
disadvantage to the fugitives, when flying towards the town; so that the
Lancastrians felt, to their grievous loss, the impolicy of taking up a
position with the river in their rear. The King was left to his fate by
the vanquished, and was speedily captured by the victors. {46b}
Amongst other persons of distinction on the Lancastrian side, slain in
the battle, were the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Shrewsbury, {46c}
his brother Sir Christopher Talbot, Viscount Beaumont, {46d} Lord
Egremont, {46e} and Sir William Lucy, who hastened to take a part in the
fight, and immediately on joining in it, received his death wound, by a
blow on the head, with an axe. A considerable slaughter amongst persons
of distinction, is said to have been caused by the Yorkist leaders
directing their men to spare the common soldiers, but to despatch the
noblemen, knights, and gentlemen. Many of the Lancastrians, however,
were taken prisoners, in consequence of their having alighted from their
horses, to fight on foot; a mode of fighting very likely to be adopted,
when it is borne in mind that they were to fight behind intrenchments.
The Duke of Somerset and others narrowly escaped, and fled with Queen
Margaret, and Edward Prince of Wales, {47a} into the bishopric of Durham.
The confederate earls having obtained the victory, waited upon the King
with all outward show of respect; but immediately conveyed him to London,
and lodged him in the bishop’s palace.
The body of the Duke of Buckingham was interred in the church of the Grey
Friars {47b} at Northampton; that of the Earl of Shrewsbury was conveyed
to Worksop, {48a} and there buried; those of some of the leaders were
interred in the Hospital of St. John, in Bridge Street, in
Northampton;{48b} and others in the Abbey Delapré, adjacent to the field
of battle; {48c} but the exact spot where the cemetery of the abbey was
situated is not now known.
The Duke of Buckingham was of royal lineage, {48d} being the son and heir
of Edmund Stafford, fifth Earl of Stafford, by Anne Plantagenet, daughter
of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of King Edward
III. A strange and mournful fatality attended the principal members of
the great and powerful family of the Duke of Buckingham, during five
generations. The father, son, grandson, great-grandson, and
great-great-grandson, all died violent deaths. Edmund Stafford, fifth
Earl of Stafford, was slain fighting on the part of Henry IV., at the
battle of Shrewsbury, in 1403; his son, Humphrey Stafford, first Duke of
Buckingham, was slain at the battle of Northampton, fighting for the
Lancastrian party, in 1460; his son, Humphrey, Earl of Stafford, was
slain at the first battle of St. Alban’s, also fighting for that party,
in 1455; his son, Henry Stafford, second Duke of Buckingham, was beheaded
in the first year of Richard III., in 1483; {49} and his son, Edward
Stafford, the third and last Duke of Buckingham of that family, was
beheaded in the thirteenth year of Henry VIII., in 1521.
I carefully searched for, but could not discover, any remains of
intrenchments, and, although I made inquiries, I was unable to learn that
any traces of them could be recollected by persons on the spot; but there
is sufficiently clear information, given by the old historical writers,
to enable a person fond of such investigations, to identify the place
where the battle took place; and their accounts show that it was fought
close to Northampton, {50a} in the meadows on the southward side of the
town, {50a} and of the river Nen or Nene, and adjoining Delapré Abbey,
{50a} in the parish of Hardingstone, and near Queen Eleanor’s Cross.
{50a} The field of battle is now occupied by beautiful plantations,
pleasure-grounds, and a portion of the park of Edward Bouverie, Esq.,
{50b} formerly part of the meadows before mentioned; and the railway from
Northampton to Peterborough, passes over one side of them.
The mansion of Delapré Abbey stands upon the site of the old abbey of
that name, and some portions of the walls, and two or three small arches
or doorways, of the old abbey, are yet to be seen, in the interior of the
present mansion.
As the meadows are skirted by the river Nen, which flows on the south
side of Northampton, and separates the town from them, it follows, that
when the Lancastrians marched out of the town, and took up a position in
the meadows, and had the town and river close to them in their rear, they
faced to the southward.
As the Yorkists marched from London, and proceeded to a place between
Towcester and Northampton, it appears pretty certain that they advanced
by Blisworth, and by the present turnpike road, and passed close to the
beautiful and interesting monument of antiquity, Queen Eleanor’s Cross,
which stands not much more than a mile from Northampton. The land is
rather elevated in the vicinity of the cross, and slopes down to the
mansion of Delapré Abbey, and to the park and pleasure-grounds belonging
to it; and the Yorkists would naturally face to the northward, when
attacking the Lancastrians. I was unable to learn, upon inquiry, that
any relics of the battle had been dug up upon the field; and, as it is
now part of the park and pleasure-grounds, the probability of the
discovery of them by any excavations, ploughing, or digging, is
consequently much diminished.
The victory was productive of most important advantages to the Yorkists.
The Lancastrians were dismayed by the loss of the battle, the captivity
of King Henry, and the deaths of so many of their leaders; and the
defenders of the Tower of London, straitened by the want of provisions,
surrendered immediately. The Duke of York, {51} who was in Ireland when
the battle was fought, hearing of its successful result, returned to
London; and although he did not succeed in getting himself recognised as
King of England, he was declared by Parliament to be Henry’s successor;
besides which, without waiting for Henry’s death, he was at once
intrusted with the power, though not the title, of King; for he was
appointed Protector and Regent of the whole realm.