Worcester), from whence, on Monday, August 3, he marched towards Evesham, proposing on the following morning to continue his approach towards his expected friends. Prince Edward had watched his enemy's movements by the help of Ralph de Ardern', a traitorous spy in the earl's camp; and conscious also of having some spies among his own companions, he resolved to mislead them by commencing his march from Worcester at sunset towards Shrewsbury, until after a few miles he suddenly turned round and made a rapid march during the night in the opposite direction after the enemy. At daybreak on Tuesday, August 4, after mass had 1 One of the oldest families in Warwickshire, whose name still designates a district there. Thomas de Ardern, the head of the family, was on the barons' side, and, being taken prisoner at Evesham, was compelled to surrender all his lands to a Royalist kinsman, the father of Ralph. Arms, chequy, or and azure, a chevron gules.-H. Knighton; Dugd. Warw. 2 "In sua comitiva."-Walter Heming. 3 Dies Martii.-Osney Annals, p. 168. Annals of Dunstable, p. 239. Mardi la veille de Saint Oswald. Earl of Leicester. Saturday, St Peter ad Vincula, Aug. 1, at Hereford. Sunday, St Stephen, Martyr, Aug. 2, Monday, Invention of St Stephen, Tuesday, St Dominic, or Vigil of St Oswald, is marching upon Kenilworth. The question is, where was the town French Chronicle of London, p. 7. The day after the third day of August.Wykes, p. 171. The day after the Invention of St Stephen.-Trivet, p. 266. The day before the Nones of August (Chron. de Lanercost, p. 76), which was Tuesday.-Rishanger, p. 47. P. 4 There is a slight difficulty in understanding Prince Edward's march; and Mr Blaauw had evidently intended to go minutely into the question, from the number of parallel passages he had transcribed. An itinerary will shew what I mean: Prince Edward. At Kenilworth, to or towards Worcester. In the latter part of the day at or near Worcester.-Matt. West., p. 395. Goes on the North road as if towards Shrewsbury, Bridgenorth, or Stafford. (Wykes, p. 172.) Crosses the river near the town called Clive, taking up a position between Kenilworth and Evesham. (Chron. Rishang., p. 25. Trivet, p. 266.) Marches upon Evesham. (quasi Clino pro Clivo), a village about three miles north of Worcester. The difficulty is, that we must not only change the spelling but been celebrated', absolution was again freely dispensed among the baronial soldiers, as on the eve of the battle of Lewes, by the same bold prelate : "The Bissop Walter of Wurcestre asoiled him alle there, The barons were preparing to mount their horses and leave Evesham, in pursuance of their plan, when there came. into view, issuing from the folds of the hill in the very quarter where they looked for young de Montfort, a large army advancing towards them in battle array, divided into orderly squadrons, and bearing in their van the emblazoned banners of their expected friends. The sight gladdened their eyes and hearts for a time, but it was to Prince Edward they gave this fatal welcome. The heraldic ensigns were his trophies snatched from the Kenilworth captives3, and his approach had been purposely so contrived as to cut off all communication between the father and the son, and thus to appear in the direction most likely to give effect to the delusion. It is remarkable that in the first two battles fought in England after the general usage of heraldic distinctions, they should have been converted into successful engines of stratagem, and they have probably never done so much mischief since. In modern times a telescope would have revealed the create a river to satisfy this identification; as Prince Edward, marching S.E. from Clains, would not strike even an important stream for nearly eight miles. I incline to think, therefore, that the place meant is Prior's Cleeve on Avon, and that Prince Edward expected his enemy to strike the road from Chipping Camden to Stratford-onAvon and Kenilworth, and was resolved to bar him from the castle at all risks. Meanwhile the roads from Evesham on Worcester and Alcester were occupied respectively by Mortimer and de Clare, the former of whom is described by Hemingburgh (p. 323) as coming up from behind. P. 1 "Audito officio et accepto viatico."-Chr. Lanerc. 2 "The Bishop Walter of Worcester absolved them all there and preached to them, so that they had the less fear of death."-V. Chr. Lanerc. 3 W. Heming. 4 The custom was not universal when the battle of Lincoln was fought in 1216. fraud afar off, but in the absence of such instruments, the detection, when too late, was left to be made by de Montfort's barber Nicolas', who happened to be expert in the cognizance of arms, and who, without even a surname for himself, was the earliest amateur herald on record. Observing the banners while yet distant, Nicolas remarked to de Montfort that they appeared to be those of his friends, and the earl confidently answered, "It is my son, fear not; but nevertheless go and look out, lest by chance we should be deceived." Ascending the clock-tower of the Abbey3, Nicolas recognized at length, among the banners of the host advancing on Evesham, the triple lions of Prince Edward, and the ensigns of Roger de Mortimer, and other notorious enemies. He spread the alarm, but the error had continued long enough to be fatal, and little time then remained for the barons to prepare their defence. The example of the skilful tactics of Simon de Montfort on former occasions had been watched with profit by Prince Edward; and his army, though superior in numbers1, was no longer conducted in its rapid march with headlong rashness, as at Lewes, but with all the precautionary discipline which had been then employed against him. He had interposed between the two bodies of his enemies' forces, so as to be able to defeat them separately, and now, though fresh with 1 "Simonis speculator Nicolas barbitonsor ejus, qui homo expertus erat in cognitione armorum. Walt. Heming. "Venit ille in altum in cloccario Abbatiæ." Could this have been the same Nicolas mentioned by Roger Bacon as the tutor of Almeric de Montfort? (See p. 79, note 2, ante.) If so, he was so skilled a mathematician, according to Bacon, that he may have used some optical instrument to detect the enemy before others. Cap. XI. Opus Tertium, p. 35. [There was, however, a brother Nicholas, a Franciscan, who learned letters in England and became confessor to Pope Innocent IV. (1251–1261), and Bishop of Assisi.-Brewer's Mon. A few years later a Franciscan monk, Walter of Exeter, wrote of the siege of Carlaverock in 1300, from which numerous heraldic notices have been extracted in these pages. 3 "Summitas clocherii ecclesiæ Evesham conflagravit fulgure, 1261." -Chr. Wigorn., p. 446. 7° Edw.I. (1279) reparatum est campanile de Evesham."-Chr. Evesh. Leland, Collect. Vol. 1. 4 "Habuit autem Edwardus sex homines vel septem ubi Simon vix habuit duos."-Chron. de Mailros, Gale, Vol. 1. p. 231. T the pride of his victory, did not neglect to increase the power of his army, by arranging it methodically in divisions, that there might be no confusion in its advance. When de Montfort, in order to reconnoitre the Royalists, ascended a hill, or as some' say the tower of Evesham Abbey, where he had been hospitably entertained, he was so struck with admiration of their improved discipline, that the natural pride of a soldier led him to exclaim with his usual oath (alluding to a relic of the chivalrous champion of Spain recently brought to England), "By the arm of S. James', they come on skilfully, but it is from me they have learnt that method, not from themselves." At first only one division of his enemy, that led on by the Prince, had been seen by de Montfort, a small hill intervening to conceal the Earl of Gloucester's advance by a different line. When the whole danger was revealed to him, it seemed at once so overwhelming, that he gave free permission for his friends to take flight, venting his prophetic apprehensions: "May the Lord have mercy on our souls, for our bodies are in the enemy's power." While escape was still possible, a generous rivalry led each leader to persuade others to adopt that means of safety which he rejected for himself. Hugh le Despenser and Ralph Bassett*, when urged to fly, refused to survive de Montfort, and the great leader himself, when his son Henry affectionately offered to bear the brunt of the battle alone, while his father should preserve his life by flight, steadily answered: "Far from me be the thought of such a course, my dear son! I have grown old in wars, and my life hastens to an end; the noble parentage of my blood has been always notoriously eminent in this one point-never to fly or wish to fly from battle. Nay, my son, do you rather retire from this fearful contest lest you perish in the flower of youth; you, who are now about to succeed (so may God grant!) to me and our illustrious race in the glories of war1." Love and honour are ever deaf to such arguments, and all remained to perish. Though facing danger boldly in what he believed to be the cause of God and justice, de Montfort did not expect victory: "Or ever he lift his scheld, he wist it sed amys; He was on his stede, displaied his banere, He sauh that treasoun sede, 'doun went his pouvere.'" ROB. BRUNE. The enemy came rushing on, and though the surprise of the attack made the defence disordered and desperate, the barons gathered their forces into a dense body, and the contest during the two hours it lasted was obstinately fought. The emergency soon separated the zealous from the indifferent, and the Welsh auxiliaries2 were the first to shrink from the barons' ranks, and to seek concealment among the corn-fields and gardens, where many were afterwards discovered and slain. The veteran de Montfort, though the circumstances gave him no opportunity to display his talents as a general, yet fought with all the vigour and courage of a young soldier. Undaunted by the superior numbers of his foes, he met and trampled under his horse's hoofs all those opposed to him, so as to carry dismay and wonder among the Royalists. One of the knights of that party, Warren de Bassingbourne, was obliged to rouse his faltering troops by reproaching them with their defeat at Lewes : 1 Nangis. 2 W. Rish. de Bello Lew. Wallenses qui ad quinque millia æstimabantur. Chr. Roff. Fugerunt Wallenses et in transeundo flumine See [? Dee, see Eng. Hist. Soc. ed. and Knighton, c. 2453] multi submersi sunt.-Walt. Heming. Humfridus de Boun cum omnibus peditibus qui ductor eorum in acie posteriori cum sex millibus ac Wallensibus cum plurimis armatis in primo conflictu juxta locum qui dicitur Syndelston propter timorem conversi sunt in fugam. Effugerunt plures de parte Simonis et in aquâ quæ dicitur Avona submerserunt. Harl. MS. 542, p. 49. |