was utterly incapable of making an attempt to rally his troops, or
effect any orderly retreat. Mounting a swift horse, he directed his
flight to York with all conceivable speed, leaving behind him his
plate, money, and treasure, and even the privy seal. Walter Stewart
followed hard after him with 500 horse, and had it not been for the
swiftness of the royal steed, in all probability England would have
undergone the humiliation of having her monarch borne a prisoner from
her own soil by the invaders. As it was, the Scottish warrior could
ill brook the loss of the intended prize, and he lingered before the
walls of York with his slender force of men-at-arms until the shades
of evening began to close over the scene; but so dejected and
dispirited were the royal troops that they tamely submitted to the
affront, although in sufficient numbers to have swept away the stout
riders of Stewart. The Despensers succeeded in effecting their escape
from the scene of confusion and bloodshed, and the day after the
battle accompanied the King to Bridlington. With them went the Earl of
Kent, John de Cromwell, and John de Ross.
Many Englishmen had taken refuge in the Abbey of Rivaulx when the
struggle became too obviously hopeless; and among the knights and
nobles who there surrendered their swords to the Scots were the Earl
of Richmond, and Sir Henry de Sully. The prisoners were treated with
the greatest courtesy, being simply regarded as chivalrous warriors
doing their devoir in the field; but the Earl of Richmond had
expressed himself in most disrespectful terms against the Bruce, and
to show his opinion of such ungentle behaviour King Robert ordered the
earl to be closely confined.
On the 22nd of October the Scottish army returned to their own
country, laden with spoil, including £400 exacted for the ransom of
Beverley: they left behind them a ravaged and ruined country.
Andrew de Harcla for some reason or other had failed to join King
Edward with his levies, but, halting near Boroughbridge, had wasted
the country. This was a suspicious circumstance, and was openly
commented upon, with the implication that he had entered into a league
with the Scots, and would not act against them. It was in the last
days of the year that these grave charges were brought before the
royal notice, when the earl's arrest was immediately ordered.
Surrounded by his retainers, and occupying the strong fortress of
Carlisle, the earl might have successfully resisted the King's arms
until an opportunity of effecting his escape into Scotland offered;
and Lord Lucy, who put the royal orders into execution, resorted to
strategy rather than force.
Attended by Sir Hugh de Moriceby, Sir Richard de Denton, Sir Hugh de
Lowther, four squires, and a small party of soldiers, Lord Lucy
entered Carlisle Castle, with as little ostentation as possible, his
soldiers dispersing, to re-assemble in small parties near the gates.
Lord Lucy and his knights then sought the presence of de Harcla, and
demanded his instant surrender, with the option of defending himself
against their attack. The Earl declined to defend himself against the
four warriors, but as he was being carried off a cry of treason was
raised, and the keeper of the inner ward, making a movement to close
the gate, was immediately slain by Sir Richard de Denton. At the same
moment Lord Lucy's soldiers seized the gates, and the Earl's doom was
virtually sealed. He was tried before the chief justiciary, Jeffrey de
Scroop, and was sentenced to degradation and death; being found guilty
of having entered into a treasonable undertaking with King Robert, to
whom he guaranteed the crown of Scotland in return for services to be
rendered in England--no doubt embracing the destruction of the royal
favourites, the Despensers.
It is difficult to believe that Harcla would enter into so dubious an
undertaking, so soon after the failure of the powerful Earl of
Lancaster. If he had acted as the agent of the Barons, we may believe
that some particulars of the confederation would have been elicited
during his trial. The statement that he summoned the principal
inhabitants of Cumberland to meet him at Carlisle, informed them that
he had entered into a treaty with the King of Scotland, and succeeded
in obtaining their support, is scarcely to be credited. The Earl is
generally regarded as the scapegoat who bore the sins of Byland Battle
to the block. Degraded from his nobility, despoiled of the insignia of
his knightly merit, the unfortunate man was conducted to the scaffold
at Carlisle on the 2nd of March, 1322, and there executed.
Edward was induced by this final disaster to give more serious
attention to negotiations for peace. Henry de Sully, the French
knight, used his influence to bring the two monarchs to an
understanding, and a preliminary truce was agreed to at Thorpe, and
finally a truce for thirteen years was ratified by Robert Bruce, King
of Scotland, and Edward the II. of England, at Berwick, on the 7th of
June, 1323; a merciful peace after such long and bloody strife, and
for which the name of Henry de Sully deserves to be held in honourable
remembrance.
IX.--IN THE DAYS OF EDWARD III. AND RICHARD II.
King Edward directed his first essay in arms against the Scots, in
requital of their sanguinary invasions of the North.
The flower of his army was supposed to consist of 2,000 men-at-arms
under Lord John of Hainault, and the distinction thus bestowed upon
foreign troops aroused the honest wrath of the English. King Edward
was accompanied by his mother, Queen Isabella, and while the court was
engaged in festivities in the monastery of the Friars Minors, at York,
on Trinity Sunday, a dreadful tumult arose in the suburbs--the
Hainaulters and the Lincolnshire archers, being quartered near each
other, engaged in a dreadful conflict. A great part of the army was
drawn into the quarrel; houses were fired, and lighted the scene of
murder with a weird and fitful light.
All authority was defied, and exhaustion alone arrested the conflict,
which was renewed later on, when the Hainaulters combined, and beat up
the quarters of the bowmen of Lincoln and Northampton, slaughtering
three hundred of them before the tumult was quelled.
After this the English foot entered into a confederation to cut off
the Hainaulters, and the young King had great difficulty in restoring
peace and order in his army.
The campaign was extremely unfortunate. Douglas surprised the camp one
night, cut down the royal tent, raised his war-cry in the midst of the
startled army, and, after nearly capturing the King, effected his
escape. The Hainaulters received £14,000 for their assistance.
The Hainaulters were again at York in the following January, on the
occasion of the marriage festivities of King Edward and Queen
Philippa.
The foreigners distinguished themselves by firing the suburbs of the
city, and by insulting the wives, daughters, and female servants of
the citizens, who challenged them to mortal combat. The foreigners
lost 527 men, slain by the sword or the waters of the Ouse, and
slaughtered 242 Englishmen.
Several Parliaments were held at York in Edward's reign, and when
David Bruce invaded Northumbria in 1346, Queen Philippa raised her
standard in the city. The Scots kept York under observation for some
time, and attacked the suburbs.
The impending battle was fought near Durham on the 17th of October.
After a vain attempt to cut off the English archers, the Scots closed
in a hand-to-hand conflict, and fought under a deadly hail of arrows.
The English steadily won ground, and the Scots began to break before
repeated repulses and attacks. The King fought like a lion; his banner
disappeared; the Earl of March and the Great Steward retired their
divisions, believing the King was slain. He still fought on; eighty
loyal gentlemen supporting him. He was surrounded, wounded in the leg,
two spears were entangled in his harness, his sword was dashed out of
his hand, and he was called upon to surrender. Maddened by
mortification and pain, he struck out with his gauntleted fist. John
Copeland lost two teeth by the King's hand, but was gratified by
receiving his surrender.
After Edward's days of warfare and pride came to an end, Richard II.
reigned in his stead. Some little ferment occurred in Beverley and
Scarborough, but Wat Tyler's death prevented the movement from
spreading.
In 1385 Richard quartered his army at Beverley, during an expedition
to Scotland. A Bohemian knight, Sir Meles, was insulted by two of Sir
John Holland's squires, and protected by two archers, retainers of
Lord Ralph Stafford. A heated dispute was settled by the death of one
of the squires, who was shot by an arrow. The guilty archer appealed
to Lord Ralph Stafford for protection, and Lord Ralph at once sought
Sir John Holland, who was also out in quest of Sir Meles, vowing to
avenge the death of his favourite squire. Knight and lord met in a
narrow lane, and, it being dark, did not recognise each other until
the challenge passed, when Holland drew his sword, exclaimed,
"Stafford, I was inquiring for you; thy servants have murdered my
squire, whom I loved so much;" then he smote the young lord, and laid
him dead at his feet.
Holland took sanctuary at Beverley, and King Richard confiscated his
possessions, and declared that he should be executed if he ventured
out of bounds.
Holland was the King's half-brother by their mother Joan, the widow of
the Black Prince, and she besought pardon for the guilty knight, and
so bitterly bewailed his peril, that, after three days of continuous
weeping, she expired. Holland was then pardoned. He was afterwards
raised to the rank of Earl of Huntingdon, and being seized by the
vassals of the late Duke of Gloucester, whom he had held in deadly
hatred, he was delivered to the headsman's axe.
For six months, A.D. 1392, the Courts of King's Bench and Chancery
were held at York, Richard being at feud with the citizens of London.
He bestowed the title of Lord Mayor upon the mayors of York; presented
the city with the first mayor's mace; and created the first Duke of
York in the person of Edward Plantagenet, the fifth son of Edward III.
and Queen Philippa.
In Richard's reign the battle of Otterburn was fought. Earl Douglas
won Sir Henry Percy's lance before the barriers of Newcastle, and
vowed that it should float from the loftiest tower of Dalkeith Castle.
Percy swore that it should not be carried out of Northumberland, and
Douglas promised to plant it before his tent, that Percy might have
an opportunity of regaining it
On the following night Percy, with 6,000 horse and 8,000 foot,
furiously attacked the Scots, who were encamped at Otterburn. Douglas,
by a skilful movement, took the English in flank, and a hot encounter
ensued, which was interrupted as a dark cloud swept before the moon.
It passed, and the battle was resumed, as the scene was flooded with
light. Douglas smote his way through the press, wielding his axe in
both hands. Three spears smote him, and man and horse went down. He
was found dying, defended by his chaplain, William Lundie, who
bestrode him, curtail-axe in hand. Douglas thanked God that few of his
ancestors had died in bed or chamber. He reminded his friends of the
old prophecy that a dead Douglas should win a field; and commanded
them to raise his fallen banner and his war-cry, but to tell none that
he lay dying there. His orders were followed, and the English were
defeated.
The De la Poles, merchants of Hull, rose to power during the reigns of
Edward III. and Richard II. Edward received princely assistance from
the brothers during his French wars, and in 1327 bestowed the office
of Chief Butler upon Richard. William he created a Knight-Banneret.
Sir Michael was appointed Admiral of the King's fleet in the North,
and was raised to the peerage as Earl of Suffolk. In 1389 he died at
Paris, a broken-hearted exile. His son and successor followed Henry V.
to France, and died, of a malignant disease, before the walls of
Harfleur. Michael, his eldest son, took up his honours, but perished
on the field of Agincourt, a few weeks later. William, the fourth
earl, famous as a statesman and warrior, was foully slain in the roads
of Dover, his head being struck off against the side of the long-boat
of the ship _Nicholas_. His son, created Duke of Suffolk in 1462,
married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Duke of York. Their eldest son,
John, Earl of Lincoln, was declared heir to the crown by Richard III.
He fell at the battle of Stoke, June 16th, 1487. The fifth Earl of
Suffolk was brought to the block in 1513; and the exile, Richard,
fought beneath the banner of King Francis, and was slain amid the rout
at Pavia in 1525, when King Francis was taken prisoner, after a
desperate defence.
In "The Story of the De la Poles," J. Travis-Cook, F.H.R.S., furnishes
the student with a very interesting account of this talented but
unfortunate family.
Edward Baliol's expedition against Scotland, fruitful of so much
suffering and useless bloodshed, sailed from Ravenser in 1332. The
crown that he won was as suddenly lost as acquired.
X.--BATTLE OF BRAMHAM MOOR.
A.D. 1408.
In 1387 the Barons of England deprived King Richard of the reins of
government, and impeached his friends, the Archbishop of York, the
Duke of Ireland, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Robert Tresilian, and Sir
Nicholas Brember. Brember and Tresilian were publicly executed, the
others secured their safety by flight.
Years passed, and Richard recovered his authority, when he punished
the lords appellant, sparing only his cousin Hereford and the Duke of
Norfolk. Some conversation appears to have passed between these
nobles, and Hereford accused Norfolk of having expressed his suspicion
that Richard would yet revenge himself upon them for their past
offence, and especially for the affair of "Radcot Bridge," when the
Duke of Ireland's forces were dispersed.
Norfolk denied the charge, and the King permitted the quarrel to be
decided by wager of battle. The 29th of April, 1398, was appointed for
the trial; the place, Coventry. The noblemen had put spurs to their
horses, when Richard, under the advice of his council, stopped the
combat, and banished the offenders--as guilty of treason. Norfolk's
sentence was for life; Hereford's for ten years.
The Londoners were incensed at losing their favourite, Hereford, and
when his father, the aged John of Gaunt, died on the Christmas
following his son's banishment, and Richard seized his estates, the
general indignation was extreme; for the King had granted legal
instruments to both the exiles, securing to them any inheritance which
might fall to them.
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.