Richard Brooke

“ OF WOLVES IN ENGLAND. [287a]
“Cruel as death, and hungry as the grave!
Burning for blood! bony and gaunt, and grim!
Assembling wolves in raging troops descend;
And pouring o’er the country, bear along,
Keen as the north wind sweeps the glossy snow.
All is their prize. They fasten on the steed,
Press him to earth, and pierce his mighty heart,
Nor can the bull his awful front defend,
Or shake the murd’ring savages away.” ”

“ The earl descended the hill, with his troops in good order, and attacked the royalists with great intrepidity, in hopes, that, by breaking their first line, the fugitives from it, would fall back upon those in the rear, and throw them into confusion; but, after bravely fighting for three hours, during which, the half-naked Irish, undisciplined, and only armed with darts and skins, obstinately maintained their ground, although Henry’s archers kept constantly thinning their ranks, and the English and Germans fought with the utmost valour, they were totally routed, with great slaughter. ”

“ It furnishes us with an impressive moral, and appears like an awful and just retribution, that so soon after the Duke had assisted in, or at least countenanced, the murder of Prince Edward, after the battle of Tewkesbury, his own death by violence, by the tyrannical orders of his brother, Edward IV., should have occurred, and his corpse should have been deposited in the Abbey Church, within sight of which the murder was committed. ”

“ It is remarkable for having two very old willows growing in the hedge adjoining the road; and more of them were not very long ago growing there. A small compartment of the field was, within the recollection of the recent vicar of Sandal, fenced off from the remainder of it, and planted with red and white roses, which must naturally be supposed to have been done to commemorate the battle, or the death of the Duke of York. ”

“ It is very easy to understand, that the Lancastrians retired from before London, and proceeded northward, after the junction of the forces of Edward with those of the Earl of Warwick, in consequence of the then superiority of the Yorkists; but, if as we are told, the Lancastrians shortly afterwards mustered for the battle of Towton about 60,000 men, and the Yorkists only about 48,660 men, we should naturally have expected that the Lancastrians would have been the assailants. It seems contrary to good policy, in military affairs, to wait with a superior force to be attacked. ”

“ 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. ”

“ History is replete with instances of the extreme caution and reluctance, with which the English adopt innovations upon ancient customs, even when recommended by the probability of improvement. Their implicit belief in the excellence of the long bow, and the proud recollection of the splendid victories which they had obtained by means of it, would, for a considerable period of time, render it a useless task, to attempt to convince them, of the superiority of the newly discovered military engines. ”

“ I walked with my son, Mr. Alexander Brooke, entirely across the field of battle, commencing on the ground occupied by the left wing of the Lancastrians, along the whole line, to the spot occupied by their right wing; and we descended from thence through the meadows to the river Cock. Any antiquary inclined to pursue the same walk, should leave the Ferrybridge road, between Dintingdale and Towton, and enter the fields at the spot, where he may observe one of them of very large size, nearly opposite a white farmhouse standing on the eastward side of the Ferrybridge road. ”

“ It cannot admit of a doubt, that the meadow and valley before mentioned, and many parts of the meadows lying between the foot of the declivities from the north side of the village of Towton, and the banks of the river Cock, must contain the remains of great numbers of the dead; but in most parts of the field where the battle actually raged, the soil is not in general, deep, and therefore, some parts of it would not easily admit of the interment of the dead in large pits. ”

“ There appears to be an error in the statement of Stow, that Lord Fitzhugh perished at the battle of Towton; because William Lord Fitzhugh, who married Margery, daughter of William Lord Willoughby of Eresby, died in the thirty-first year of the reign of Henry VI., and was succeeded by his son and heir, Henry Lord Fitzhugh, who was a supporter of the Lancastrian party during the life of Henry VI.; but after the accession of Edward IV., was held in respect by him, and was employed by him in the fourth year of his reign at the siege of Dunstanborough Castle, and other matters of importance ”

“ The ancient road, upon which men yet living have driven to and from Tadcaster, which is now little more than an occupation road, turns off abruptly, at the north end of, and close to, Towton village, and descends the eminence [88a] in a westwardly direction, to a continuation of the belt of meadow ground before mentioned, where it arrives at the river Cock. This descent by the ancient road is so steep, that it is a matter of surprise, how the heavy coaches formerly in use, and waggons, could safely pass up and down it, yet it was even in modern times part of the great north road. ”

“ As we have the clear evidence of writers of such authenticity as Holinshed and Camden, that in the time of Elizabeth, all parts of Scotland abounded with wolves, and as there was nothing to prevent those animals from rambling across the Border, either in search of prey, or for bringing forth their young, or in consequence of any other natural instinct, it would be impossible, at that time, with a scanty population, and with the desolation incident to the unsettled state of the Borders, to keep the northern counties of England always free from them, and to prevent their breeding there. ”

“ It is easy to believe, that some amongst the undisciplined Lancastrian archers, would begin to shoot too soon, just as young troops will even now occasionally fire too soon; but when we reflect that there were several men amongst the leaders on both sides, who had served in France, and had had much experience in war, it is difficult to suppose that such a circumstance had any material influence in the result of the battle, or that they would allow their men to exhaust their quivers, by shooting in such a useless manner ”

“ During the night preceding the battle, the Earl of Warwick and the Lancastrians were encamped on Gladmore Heath, on the north-westward side of Barnet, and they had posted a small advanced guard in that town. Edward, having advanced from London to Barnet, dislodged the few Lancastrian forces posted in it, and drove them towards the main body; he, however, did not suffer his men to remain in the town, but encamped in the open field, nearer his enemies than they were aware ”

“ The bodies of the Earl of Warwick, and the Marquis Montague, were conveyed in a cart to London, and for three days lay in Saint Paul’s Cathedral Church, with their faces exposed to view, so that no person could doubt their deaths; and they were then buried with their ancestors, in Bisham Abbey, in Berkshire, where they remained until the dissolution of monasteries, when the abbey was destroyed, and all knowledge of the exact spots where they were interred, is now forgotten. ”

“ When he fought at the battle of Blore Heath, there was exhibited a melancholy and revolting but very common effect of civil war; relatives fighting against each other; for his brothers-in-law, Sir William Troutbeck, who had married Margaret, the oldest sister, and Sir Richard Molyneux of Sefton, who had married Elizabeth, the second sister of Sir William Stanley, were both slain in that battle. ”

“ Although I have not succeeded in discovering, that any person is previously mentioned, as being the keeper, by royal authority, of bears and apes in England, I have discovered in the 5th vol. of the Rotuli Parliamentorum, proofs in three different instances, in the reign of Edward IV.; one of which is as early as 1461, of the fact of a keeper (Ralph Hastings, Esq.) , having been appointed, by letters patent of that King, to what would, in more modern times, be called the Royal Menagerie, in the Tower of London. ”

“ Before the battle commenced, the Queen and Prince Edward rode about the field, encouraging the men, and promising them rewards and booty, if they acquitted themselves well.
Both of the armies used cannons. The King’s army was well furnished with great artillery, which was well placed to annoy his enemies, and the Duke of Gloucester galled them severely with discharges of arrows; and the Lancastrians repaid them in p. 141the same manner with shot of artillery, and arrows, although they had not as many guns as the King had. ”

“ Thomas Lord Scales, of Nucels, in Herefordshire, was a commander of celebrity in the French wars. After being compelled to surrender the Tower of London, subsequently to the battle of Northampton, in 1460, he endeavoured to escape by water; but, being discovered by some of the Earl of Warwick’s men, was captured and put to death by them. ”

“ There are several interesting particulars to be observed, on an inspection of the field of battle and its vicinity, and a visit to the river Cock, which tend very much to corroborate the old historical accounts. We learn, that at first the Lancastrians retired from the field in some order, but soon became disordered, and retreated in great confusion. It is easy to believe, that with the ground then unenclosed, or only partially enclosed, near Towton, they would at first retire in tolerable order, until they had passed the village ”