Note 101b — Chapter VI · THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF TOWTON. [81a]

There is a statement in Thomas Sprott’s Fragment, printed by Hearne, that the battle commenced at four o’clock in the afternoon, continued all night, and terminated on the following afternoon, which is quoted in Turner’s History of England, vol. iii. p. 229; but that statement, which seems to be only the tale of an anonymous writer, is not entitled to any weight, when put into the scale, against the accounts given by the old historians, respecting the commencement and termination of the battle. Mr. Turner has even improved upon the statement, and says that the armies fought by the light of fire and torches. Armies in those days did not usually fight by torch or fire light. When did any old historical writer mention such an event occurring in any of the wars of the English, of that century? The statement seems to be completely erroneous; and the mistake has perhaps arisen from confounding the engagement which took place at Dintingdale, on the 28th of March (and possibly at four o’clock in the afternoon), with the great battle on the 29th of March. It is, however, not unlikely, that each army endeavoured to harass the other, by frequent discharges of cannon, during the night before the battle. As some proof of the probability of such an occurrence, we are expressly told in Holinshed’s Chronicles, p. 684, that during the night before the battle of Barnet, the Lancastrians continually discharged cannons at the camp of Edward IV., and by Leland (see 1 Lel. Coll. fo. 504), that they fired guns at each other all the night.