Note 246 — Chapter X

Both sides claimed the victory. May, who thinks that Essex, by his injudicious conduct after the battle, lost the advantage he had gained in it, admits that the effect was to strengthen the king's side. "Those who thought his success impossible began to look upon him as one who might be a conqueror, and many neuters joined him."—P. 176. Ludlow is of the same opinion as to Essex's behaviour and its consequences: "Our army, after some refreshment at Warwick, returned to London, not like men that had obtained a victory, but as if they had been beaten."—P. 52. This shows that they had not in fact obtained much of a victory; and Lord Wharton's report to parliament almost leads us to think the advantage, upon the whole, to have been with the king. Parl. Hist. ii. 1495.