Chapter III · THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF NORTHAMPTON. [39a]

CHAPTER III. 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.