A. C. 1471 close at her heels, that she could not pass the Severne without expofing her rear to deftruction: it was therefore refolved in a council of war, that her army fhould be intrenched in a park adjoining to the town, and remain in that fituation till the arri-/ val of Pembroke. This fcheme was immediately put in execution; and Edward coming up, refolved to attack them in their intrenchments before they fhould be better fortified or reinforced. For this purpose he drew up his army in two lines, one of which was commanded by his brother the duke of Gloucefter, while he and Clarence took their station in the fecond. The duke of Somerset difpofed the queen's army in three lines within the intrenchments; and he himself commanded the van, that he might fuftain the first shock of the enemy. The fecond line was commanded by the lord Wenlock, under the prince of Wales, who was confidered as general in chief; and the rear was conducted by the duke of Devonshire. Edward obferving that Somerfet had left fome openings in the front, thro' which he proposed to fally, and being well acquainted with the impetuous difpofition of that nobleman, directed his brother Gloucefter, who began the attack, to decoy Somerset from his intrenchments, by giving ground and retreating with precipitation, until he should see the duke and his line in the open plain, and then to turn and renew the charge; in which cafe he should be properly fuf-i tained. Gloucester, being thus inftructed, attacked the intrenchments with great vigour, and meeting' with a very warm reception, retired in fuch hurry. and feeming confufion, that the duke of Somerset believing they fled, fallied forth from his works to pursue them, after having sent an order to Wenlock to follow and fuftain him, in case of emergency. The duke of Gloucefter having drawn his antago nift into the open plain, practifed with great fuc

cefs

tefs the leffon he had received. His troops halting, A. C. 1471.
were inftantly ranged in their former order; and he
led them back to the charge, to the aftonishment
and confternation of the enemy, who had begun
the purfuit in fome diforder, and were now fo con-
founded, that, instead of standing the affault, they
thought of nothing but faving themselves within
their intrenchments. The duke of Somerset per-
ceiving that the lord Wenlock had not stirred from
his ftation to support the firft line, was fo incenfed
that he rode up and cleft his head with a battle-ax;
and the duke of Gloucefter entering the intrench-
ments with the fugitives, made a terrible carnage."
The young prince of Wales, feeing all his army
in confufion, did not know on which fide to turn
and the duke of Somerset was fo choaked with in-
dignation, that he could hardly fpeak, much less
take the neceffary steps for reducing his troops to
order. King Edward, following his brother with
the fecond line, completed the overthrow of the
queen's army, which was routed with great flaugh-
ter, the second and third lines having betaken them-
felves to flight, without ftriking one stroke. The
earl of Devonshire and Sir John Beaufort were found
among the dead, which amounted to three thousand
the duke of Somerfet, the great prior of St. John,
and about twenty other gentlemen, retired to the
abbey-church, thinking they would have been safe
in the fanctuary: from which, however, they were Fabian.
forcibly dragged to execution. The prince of Stowe.
Wales falling into the hands of his enemies, was
brought into the presence of Edward, who, with an
air of infolence, demanded how he durft presume
to enter his kingdom in arms? To this arrogant
question he replied, with great fortitude and dig-
nity, that he had come to recover his father's crown
and his own inheritance, which Edward had unjustly
ufurped. He had no fooner pronounced these words,
No. 43.
I
which

A. C. 1471. which would have excited the admiration and esteem Prince Ed- of a generous enemy, than Edward ftruck him on ward aflafi- the face with his gauntlet, and retired; and this

nated and

the queen

feerns to have been a preconcerted fignal to the fent prifoner dukes of Clarence and Gloucefter, the lord Haftings,

to the

Tower.

Revolt of the Baftard Falcon

bridge.

and Thomas Grey, the fon of queen Elizabeth, who inftantly fell upon him like fo many wild beafts, and hewed him in pieces. His mother Margaret of Anjou, being found on the field of battle in a waggon, where the lay more dead than alive, was fent prifoner to the Tower, where the remained about four years, until the king of France payed fifty thousand crowns for her ranfom. Such was the catastrophe of this French princess, whofe ambition and arbitrary temper coft England oceans of blood and incredible mifery, and involved herself and her whole family in ruin.

1

The battle of Tewkesbury, which was fought on the fourth day of May, extinguifhed the hopes of the house of Lancafter, though there was ftill a fmall army in the field, under the command of the earl of Pembroke: but this difperfed of its own accord, upon hearing the news of the engagement, and the earl, leaving the defence of Pembroke to Sir John Scudamore, fled into Brittany, with his nephew Henry the young earl of Richmond. While Edward was thus employed in the West, Thomas Nevil Bastard of Falconbridge, who had been created vice-admiral of the channel during the adminiftration of Warwick, and loft his employment after the death of that nobleman, affembled fome veffels, and enlifting a good number of vagabonds, and people of defperate fortune, cruized along the coaft of Kent, exercifing the trade of piracy. At length his followers increafed to fuch a degree, that he ventured to make a defcent at Sandwich; and was admitted into Canterbury by Nicholas Faunte the mayor. His number daily augmenting, he began

115

his march for London, at the head of feventeen thou- A. C. 1471 fand men ; and on the fourteenth day of May entered the fuburbs of Southwark, but found himself excluded from London-bridge by the citizens, whọ had by this time received the news of the battle of Tewkesbury. He detached part of his army cross the river, with orders to attack the city in three different places, while he himself should storm the bridge; and one of his detachments forced its way through Aldgate into the city, but was repulsed by the valour of alderman Robert Baffet. This at

7

Fabian.

VI.

tempt mifcarrying, and the infurgents deferting their leader, in confequence of the disappointment, Thomas embarked on board of his fhips at Blackwall, and failed round to Sandwich. Mean while Edward, returning to London with a body of three thousand men, purfued him to the place of his retreat, and reduced the town, after Nevil had made his escape by fea; but he was afterwards taken and executed at Southampton. This infurrection in all probability hattened the Death of ideath of the unfortunate Henry, who was found king Henry dead in the Tower, to which he had been confined fince the restoration of Edward. The greater part of hiftorians has alledged that he was affaffinated by the duke of Gloucefter, who was a prince of the most brutal difpofition; while fome moderns, from an affectation of fingularity, affirm that Henry died of grief and vexation. This, no doubt, might have been the cafe; and it must be owned that nothing appears in hiftory, from which either Edward or Richard could be convicted of having contrived or perpetrated this murders but at the fame time, we muft obferve fome concurring circumftances that amount to ftrong prefumptions against the reigning monarch. Henry was of a hale conftitution, but just turned of fifty, naturally infenfible of affliction, and hackneyed in the viciffitudes of fortune; fo

I 2

that

A. C. 1471, that one would not expect he should have died of

age and infirmity, or that his life would have been affected by grief arifing from his last disaster. His fudden death was fufpicious, as well as the conjuncture at which he died, immediately after the fuppreffion of a rebellion, which feemed to declare that Edward would never be quiet, while the head of the house of Lancafter remained alive: and laftly, the fufpicion is confirmed by the characters of the reigning king and his brother Richard, who were bloody, barbarous, and unrelenting. Very different was the difpofition of the ill-fated Henry, who, without any princely virtue or qualification, was totally free from cruelty and revenge: on the contrary, he could not, without reluctance, confent to the punishment of those malefactors who were facrificed to the public fafety; and frequently fuftained perfonal indignities of the groffeft nature, without discovering the leaft mark of refentment. He was chafte, pious, compaffionate, and charitable, and fo inoffenfive, that the bifhop, who was his confeffor for ten years, declared, that in all that time he had never committed any fin that reHollinghe quired penance or rebuke. In a word, he would have adorned a cloifter, though he difgraced a crown; and was rather refpectable for thofe vices he wanted, than for the virtues he poffeffed. He founded the college of Eaton near Windfor, and King's college in Cambridge, for the reception of those scholars who had begun their ftudies at Eaton. On the morning that fucceeded his death, his body was exposed in St. Paul's church, in order to prevent unfavourable conjectures, and next day fent by water to the abbey of Chertfey, where it was interred; but it was afterwards removed, by order of Richard III. to Windfor, and there buried with great funeral folemnity.

Stowe.

Ed