ILLUC

f I celle nuit. ïhat night — the sarae night. ï Sievant, an old form for suivant.

bury, et, ce venu à la connaissance du [roif] ], il départi après eux avec tout son hôte et ordonnance, et tant exploita, qu'il vint le dit troisième jour de Mai dedans trois milles de Tcwksbury, où il se logeaaux plains champs, et au matin s'avança en belle bataille, et vint devant la dite ville de Tcwksbury, où il trouva ses dix rebelles en bataille en un merveilleux fort champ ; et, en commandant sa cause et querelle à notre bénoit Créateur, marcha sur eux le quatrième jour de Mai, et à l'aide de notre bénoit Créât émeut et obtint la victoire de ses dits rebelles, où le dit Edouard, Jean frère du dit duc de Somerset, appelle marquis de Dorset, le conte de Bouchier, || le seigneur de Wenlock, avec plusieurs autres notables chevaliers et ecuyers, furent tués : et là fut pris Emond appelle duc de Somerset, le prieur de Saint Jean, avec plusieurs autres chevaliers et ecuyers. §

^ There is a word déficient here : without doubt roi is to be supplied.

|| le conte de bonchiere. The cari of Devon (or Devonsliire), is certainly here meant : whether the singular mode of writing it, which appears in the text, originates with my tianscriber or with the author of the Ghcnt MS. I cannot détermine.

§ Our writer does not seem to hâve been aware that the redoubtable Queen Margaret was among the prisoners taken at the battle of Tewksbury : or if he knew it, it is inconceivable why he should not bave mentioned it. The Croyland monk relates this battle without much détail :

" Itaque, quum uterque exercitus juxta villam de Tcwksbury peditatu atque situ nimium defatigatus ultra progredi non posset pugnam et conflictum diu ancipitem inierunt. Tandem potitus est rcx Edwardus pTaeclara Victoria, interfectia de parle reginœ, tum in campo, tum p< (|

32 LA 11EV0LTE

ultricibus quorundam manibus, ipso principe Edwardo unigenito régis Henrici, victo duce Somersetise, comiteque Devoniœ, ac aliis dominis omnibus et singulis memoratis. Capiturque regina Margareta, servata incolumis, ut ante regem triumphantem curru veheretur Londonias ; quod et factum est."

de wATuvrcK. 83

Additional NOTE TO CHAI'. II.

" Margaret of Anjou, who was as active and resolute as evcr, called the victorious Edward again into the field only five days after the battle of Barnet. Many circumstances had detained her on the continent, and it was her fortune to land at Plymouth with her son Prince Edward and a body of auxiliaries, chiefly French, on the very day on which Warwick was defeated and slain. In part probably, on account of theirold antipathy to the French queen, who now came surrounded with Frencbmen, and in part because they were weary of this civil war, the people opposed her progress, and, by securing the bridges and fords of the river Severn, prevented her joining the forces under the earl of Pembroke in Wales. On the 4th of May, king Edward, with his brothers Clarence and Gloucester, fell upon her on the left bank of the Severn, near Tewkesbury. Her troops had thrown up some intrenchments from which they had repulsed the Yorkists ; but the Duke of Somerset had the folly to quit this position and, sallying forth, he ordered the mass of his troops to follow him, which some did and others did not. Those who sallied were driven back with dreadful loss, and those whostayedbehind were suspected of treachery, for no gênerai was now sure of his officers. Somerset rode up to the lord Wenlock, who had remained behind the intrenchments, and knocked out his brains with his battle-axe. The banner of the audacious Richard duke of Gloucester was already within the Lancastrian Unes ; Edward and Clarence now followed, and the affair of Tewkesbury terminated in panic, confusion, and murder. Margaret of Anjou, who had survived so many catastrophes, and escaped from so many battles, remained a prisoner at last, and with her was taken her son the prince of Wales, who was now only in his eightecnth year. " What brought you to England ? " cried the ungenerous Edward. " My father's crown and mine own inheritance ! " boldly replied the royal youth. Edward brutally struck him on the mouth with his gauntlet, and then Clarence and Gloucester, or their attendants (or, according to an earlier account •vhich does not mention Clarence and Gloucester, Edward's servants)

i : LA REVOLTE

despatched him with their swords in the king's tent.* ïhe duke of Somerset, with the grand prior of St John 's Sir Humphrey Audely, Sir Gervis of Clifton, Sir William Gainsby, Sir William Cary, Sir Henry Rose, Sir Thomas Tresham, and seven esquires, escaped from the field, and took sanctuary in a church in Tewkesbury. This sacred kind of asylum had long been respected, and to this principle and feeling Edward had recently owed the préservation of his wife, his children and his best friends, whom the Lancastrains had permitted to live undisturbed in the sanctuaries they had chosen in London and Westminster. But the king and his brothers were regardless of thèse circumstances, and Edward broke into the church at Tewkesbury sword in hand. A priest, bearing the sacrament, threw himself between the savages and their victims, and would not move till the king promised to pardon ail who had taken sanctuary there. Thèse men, who might hâve escaped, tarried in the church, trusting in the royal pardon, from Saturday the 4th of May till Monday the 6th, when they were dragged from the foot of the altar and beheaded. Margaret of Anjou's heart did not break at thèse exécutions and the murder of her child ; she lived for five years the prisoner f of her conqueror, was then ransomed by Louis XI, and died in France about eleven years after the fight at Tewkesbury." Pict. Hist. of England.

* " Con. Hist. Croyl. — Fabyan — Hall — Stow. The monk of Croyland, a contemporary, says the prince was slain " ultricibus quoiundam manibus" (by the avenging hands of certain persons), but names nobody as the murderers. Fabyan, who was a boy at the time, says, ' He (the king) strake him with his gauntlet upon the face ; after which stroke, so by him received, he was by the king's servants incontinently slain.' Hall, who wrote in the time of Elizabeth, was the first to name Clarence and Gloucester."

f " She was at first confined in the Tower of London, afterwards at Windsor and then at Wallingford. Ail that Edward would allow for the support of herself and servants was a pittance of five marks per week."

Comment le duc de Somerset et le prieur de Saint Jean, avec plusieurs autres chevaliers et ecuyers, qui

PRIS AVAIENT ETE A LA BATAILLE, FURENT DECOLLES EN LA VILLE DE TeTVKESBURL

Or donc cette bataille ainsi achevée, le roi se trait en la ville de Tewkesburi, en laquelle lui là venu le sixième jour du dit mois de Mai fît décoller Emond duc de Somerset, le prieur de Saint Jean, avec plusieurs autres chevaliers et écuyers, et divers autres gentilshommes, avec eux, qui avaient été de long temps provoqueurs et continueurs de la rébellion, à rencontre du roi et de la dite ville.

Alors, ces choses faites, le roi se parti le septième jour du mois dessus-dit, et alors lui vindrent nouvelles que certains de ses rebelles du nord commençaient à faire assemblées et commotions du peuple à rencontre de lui en la querelle du roi Henri, pour laquelle cause il se tira devers eux, et vint en'sa cité de Coventry le onzième jour du dit mois : où il se raffraichit et son hôte, et envoya de nouvel pour autres ses sujets. Et incontinent que ses dits rebelles du nord entendirent sa venue vers eux, ils départirent leurs bandes et compagnies, et se retrairent : et aucuns d'eux, c'est à savoir le seigneur de Cannis et autres, furent pris, et aucuns ont envoyé et fait moyens devers le roi pour avoir grâce : et les cités, villes et diverses contrées se sont soumises et assurées en leur obéissance au roi.

Ainsi donc, le quatorzième jour de Mai, fut su que la rebel lion commencée au Nord ne pouvait nuire, mais que tout le dit pays sera bien pacifié : et en cette saison le roi fut ad-

DU WARWIGK. 37

certené t que le bâtard de Fauconberghe avec aucuns soldoyers de Calais et maronniers avaient traîtreusement conspiré à rencontre de sa' "majesté royale, assemblé grand peuple au pays de Kent, en la querelle du dit roi Henri, et le dixième jour de Mai vint devant la cité de Londres, disant qu'ils voulaient avoir le dit roi Henri hors de la Tour, et qu'ils iraient querre J le roi où ils le pourraient trouver, eux nombrant dixhuit mille hommes.

Ces nouvelles venues à la connaissance du roi, incontinent envoya grant partie de son hôte pour conforter et secourir sa cité de Londres, lesquels se partirent de Coventry le quatorzième jour de Mai, et lui-même en personne se partit de Coventry le seizième jour du dit mois tirant devers ses dits rebelles.

Alors donc ses dits rebelles, connaissais qu'il se disposait de venir à Rencontre d'eux avec grand nombre de gens, laissèrent leur propos de passer la rivière de Tamise et venir devers lui.

t Adcertene — informed — apprised; an old Anglo-Norman participa, now obsolète.

% querre — ' seek ont :' hence thc English vrord quest, still in use.

Comment le bâtard de Fauconbergh, avec ses complices, assaillirent la cite de londres, ou ils bouterent le feu en plusieurs lieux : comment eux de la cite saillirent sur eux, et en deconfirent plusieurs et les autres mirent