THE HISTORY
Mike
Stokes, Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council's Archeologist, wrote
the following summary of the Battle of Shrewsbury events as part of the
Heritage Lottery Fund application. He also suggested five of the six
themes for the sculptures. Mike wrote a far more detailed account of the Battle of Shrewsbury which can be found at www.battleofshrewsbury.org
Why Shrewsbury?
Topography:
The
only large area of open ground in the region is Battlefield. The Old
River bed provides an obstacle to the south of it as does the current
course of the Severn. The sandy heathland defined by the ridge to the
north is a natural venue for two forces to take up classic opposing
positions.
History:
Setting
is all. Wroxeter and Shrewsbury control the river crossings and the
heart of Wales through closing the Church Stretton Gap. From 901(ish)
Shrewsbury was a 'Royal' town, established by Aethelflaed, defined by
Roger de Mungumeri on behalf of William the Conqueror, used by Edward I
et al as a front line fortress. By Richard II's time this had declined
but royal patronage of the monastic institutions in and around the town
kept the profile viz.Richard's charter.
1403:
Control
of the vital link between Wales and England is all. Hence Hotspur's
move to Cheshire, Hal's presence versus Glyn Dwr and Henry IV's need to
take the 'site' before Hotspur could link up with the Welsh.
The Scene
Richard II
comes to the throne in 1377 at age 10. He comes to rule a country still recovering from the Black Death. Population
decimated, old Feudal system breaking down and peasantry no longer so
tied to the 'higher' landowners - beginning to take more land each and
expand their wealth potential.
1381 laws brought in to try to curb this result in Peasant's Revolt. Richard
was young, inexperienced and effete. More interested in the arts and
culture, his peers who had run the country as council were horrified
when at age 18 he took over the reins of power, had rows with his
nobles, resulting in the exile of John of Gaunt, one of the wealthiest
and largest landholders of the day (father of Bolingbroke). These descendants of Edward III fought hard in court to keep their influence but lost.
1399, Richard's fatal error - invasion of Ireland. Fatal to all who have tried ever since. Whilst
away, Henry Bolingbroke, who has been in comfortable exile in courts in
France and Germany, seizes opportunity to play for return to England,
ostensibly to reclaim the family estates and no more. This is typical of the codes of chivalry which still exist at this point but which will be gone within a few decades.
Percy
- the
Percy family have marital and blood ties to the Mortimers, Earls of
March (who have a blood claim to the throne) and also to Owain Glyn Dwr
who, it is thought, has in turn marital links to the Mortimers through
his daughter.
They
see an opportunity to set Bolingbroke in power as King, to remove
Richard and ultimately to secure their lineage through the Mortimer
connection (Edward IV is eventually that result).
Bolingbroke (soon to become King Henry IV) is supported by the Percies, first landing on the Yorkshire coast. This campaign, provision of troops and political shenanigins costs the Percies some £60,000. They
anticipate receiving this from the new King once he's been instated as
well as reward of estates in Cumbria and Westmorland, making them
effectively 'Kings' of the Scot's March - they get neither.
The estates go to the Nevilles, their greatest rivals and the King fails to pay. Eventually they receive some £40,000 - still not enough. This is because Richard had almost emptied the royal coffers for his abortive Irish campaign.
Hence,
Henry IV also seizes the Percy prisoners after the battle of Homildon
Hill in 1402 and claims the ransoms for himself, at the same time
refusing to ransom Mortimer from Glyn Dwr - presumably for both
financial and political reasons. The Percies now have a major grievance.
Grieved parties - the
peasantry have not recovered from the revolt, Black Death etc.; the
minor nobility have lost status after the Black Death; the Great Lords
are still burning after Richard's reclamation of the throne and the
number of exiles that were caused by him; those families with good
reason to have blood claims on the throne are smarting and the Percies
want due recognition of their place in society.
1403 - according
to the (pro royal) sources, King Henry IV decides to move north to
support the Percy forces against the Scots, one presumes with a
reasonable force of arms.
In
the Percy shoes we must imagine a certain amount of 'concern' at the
reports that the King has raised an army and is moving north -
especially since the Percies have been griping publicly and volubly for
three years!Hotspur,
legitimately, as Justiciar of Cheshire, Flintshire and North Wales
(appointed by Henry IV) moves with 200 men of horse to Chester to raise
his troops - mostly archers- and to test their readiness for war. This is exactly what he should have done on a regular basis on the King's behalf to fulfil his obligations.
However,
if you were in the King's shoes, marching north to an uncertain
reception, even if you really did intend to settle your account and
differences with the Percies, how would you view the knowledge that an
army was being raised by the most experienced soldier in the Kingdom in
an area already unsettled by rebellion and with the risk of alliance
with the Welsh?
This
is why young Prince Hal (the son of Henry IV and the future Henry V)
had been leading forces in the Marches since the age of 10 (a very
different mind to the 10 year old Richard II), coincidentally taught all
he knew by Harry Hotspur.
Nottingham
- The
King hears of the apparent revolt. His reaction must have been to turn
westwards to deal with the matter even if it was a misunderstanding. He could not afford to leave the potential disaster in his wake and continue northwards without settlement.
He
travels with his men, calling for forces to be raised from 14 counties
(a standard phrase) and within three or four days has amassed his army
en route to Shrewsbury (the natural Royal stronghold).
He
passes via Burton upon Trent, Tutbury and Lichfield (and presumably
eating everyone out of house and home, trampling crops etc. on the way)
and arrives somewhere near Haughmond Hill/Abbey on the eve of July 20th.
Meanwhile
- Prince
Hal (Henry IV's son) has been stationed in and around Shrewsbury as his
base for campaigns against Glyn Dwr for five years.
One
assumes he had a base, perhaps in the Abbey at the Hospitium/Old
Infirmary, with troops camping along the river around Coleham/Gay
Meadow.
Percy has arrived from the north attempting to make a huge political statement by taking Shrewsbury - the royal
stronghold. Seeing Hal's i.e the royal standards already flying on the
walls probably of the castle he is forced to retreat to Berwick where he
has the river at his back, Glyn Dwr possibly en route and if all else
fails, the road north is still open via Whitchurch to Chester, where he
can go back to trying to justify that his actions were entirely proper
and not at all a threat (ha ha).
Other protagonists - The
Earl of Worcester, Hotspur's Uncle joins the rebellion, making it clear
that it now is revolt pure and simple. Presumably he brings troops.
The
Earl of Northumberland, Hotspur's father, however, fails to materialize
and so the forces are only those of Hotspur?s Cheshire and north Wales
estates and of Worcester since no one else braves the venture. The royal
army has swelled to - well how many thousand would you like?
On July 21st
Hotspur receives
news that the royal forces are preparing to enfold him in a pincer from
south and east and soon after dawn moves his forces to high ground
somewhere north of the Old Riverbed - presumed to be the ridge north of
the church. He may still have been hoping to avoid conflict with his old
family friends.
The
King is advised of the apparently threatening troop movement and is
forced to bring his forces forward. They take up positions in the lower
ground out of bowshot (to the south of the church).
Hal
apparently moves out of Shrewsbury to a supporting position on the west
of the field but not necessarily in the main force array.
Afternoon
Negotiations
take place between the two sides conducted by Worcester for Hotspur and
the Abbots of Shrewsbury and Haughmond for the King - perhaps in or
near the chapel of the Albright Hussey or perhaps even on the site that
is later Battlefield Church.
The
night before and during the day, mass would have been celebrated by
priests for both armies, perhaps in front of wooden crosses in the
field, therby making the whole battlefiled effectively consecrated
ground.
It
is worth remembering that Hotspur's reasoning with his men was that
they were to meet and reinstate King Richard II, the rightful King -
Henry Bolingbroke being a usurper .
Those
who gathered first at Sandiway on the Wirral expected to meet Richard
(who couldn't come because he was already dead, having been incarcerated
in Pontefract and allowed to starve). When he didn't arrive, Hotspur's
men assured the troops that they would meet King Richard at Prees Heath
(its only claim to fame?) and eventually that he would be waiting at
Shrewsbury.
By
the time they got that far, like the royal forces being mustered from
the east, they would all have been on a huge adrenaline rush of fear and
anticipation of the terror of battle.
Early evening
It's
too late. Worcester has consistently told Percy that the King will not
negotiate and that battle is inevitable. The King is bound to defend his
crown and the armies are almost too highly charged to allow the main
protagonists to back off in order to 'save face'.
Jaw, jaw has become war, war.
As
dusk approaches, the King moves his men into battle positions. He
cannot risk the Percy forces simply melting away into the night. He must
settle matters once ad for all.
In
medieval warfare, the only solution to political problems like this was
for the defeat (although not necessarily death) of an opponent. It had
to be a strong public statement of power.
The Battle
Early in the evening, when all negotiation was past and battle was inevitable, the troops drew closer.
Percy's
archers loosed their arrows in a hailstorm of iron. The higher ground
probably gave them 50 extra yards range over the royal archers.
Initially
the royal forces were pinned back and seriously depleted by this
although return fire would have begun to take its toll.
Unfortunately,
the Percy forces saw the royal troops in disarray and made the mistake
of leaving the high ground to stream down and strike into the royal men.
Initially
the power of their rush into a disrupted force gave them an advantage
but the king's men were trained soldiers and soon regrouped to repel the
thrust.
The
King had himself dressed several of his knights in the royal arms as
decoys and it was only when at a point early in the hand to hand
fighting, that he raised his visor to draw breath and wipe the sweat
from his eyes, that he was spotted by Percy and a charge by Percy and
his entourage was launched.
Unfortunately
(for him) Percy also raised his visor to take stock of the situation
and was apparently picked off by an archer who shot him in the face,
killing him.
After
only moments before his men were crying out 'Harry Percy King', the
royal force were crying 'Hotspur is Dead' and the rout began.
Chronicles
suggest that the whole event had lasted less than two hours and that
the rout scattered over two or three miles back to Berwick with very few
survivors.
Aftermath
(a good album by the Rolling Stones if I remember rightly).
Young
Prince Hal, who had led a secondary charge into the Percy forces at the
point when they were assaulting the King's position, took an arrow to
the left cheek, lodging in his nasal bone.
He
refused to leave the field, broke away the shaft and fought on at the
head of his men. After the victory, he was taken to Shrewsbury Abbey for
treatment, using the latest Arabic treatises and skills used by
military physicians, the arrow head was extracted and, presumably under
opiates and soporific chants by the monks he was nurtured back to
health, the wound being kept open to suppurate naturally. After a month or so he recovered enough to retire to Kenilworth Castle for three months R & R.
Hotspur,
who had been taken for Christian burial at Whitchurch, was disinterred
for public display at Shrewsbury on the site of the butter cross on
Pride Hill to prove that he was dead and the revolt was over (think
about his claims that Richard II was still alive).
His
body was eventually quartered, par- boiled and sent for display around
the country - his head being on a spike on Micklegate Bar York. After
three months the remains were returned to his wife for burial. No one is
sure where he was actually buried but it is apparently not in either
Beverley or York Minster.
The future
Henry
IV is confirmed in his crown. He lives until 1413 when young Hal
becomes Henry V, complete with huge battle scar on his left cheek, a
feature which allows him to prove to his men in France two years later
that he is a genuine military leader and by using his Shrewsbury
experience of the longbow to wipe out almost all the French nobility in
one volley from his archers at Agincourt. The French have failed to
learn that mounted knights are at a major disadvantage when facing the
longbow. Their horses are entirely vulnerable; in the mud of Agincourt,
any knight who fell down was instantly vulnerable to a thrust from even
the lowliest footsoldier.
What was war like?
Proud, honourable, religious, honest (depending on which side you were on) could all be used.
Equally, terrifying, disgusting, vicious, bloodthirsty in its aftermath were also relevant.
Imagine
standing in a ploughed field, uneven, stony and perhaps under a crop
(of peas?) less than arms length from one other person.
You
are both armed with a bill or a sword, war hammer or pitchfork, you may
have a small shield, you may even have body armour of leather or of
cloth layered with steel plates (a jack) or maybe, just maybe, chain
mail or plate. You may have a steel helmet.
Either
way you have got a very restricted view. You cannot see what is
happening behind you or to either side of you, all you know is that you
or the man (or woman) in front of you is going to die - soon and very
nastily!
If
you take a blow to the shoulder, then your collar bone and maybe
shoulder blade will be shattered - end of story whether its your sword
or shield arm.
If
you take a blow to the helmet, the force will drive your skull
downwards so sharply that your spine will drive up into your brain!
If
you take only a glancing blow, you will be off balance long enough for
your opponent to slip the point of their weapon into a gap in your
armour - either your throat or more likely your groin, cutting the
femoral artery and leaving you to bleed to death in agony.
Even
those who may survive their wounds would be lucky to avoid serious
infection since most men went into battle without breeches or underwear
so that when fear loosened their (probably already dysenteric) bowels it
would splatter to the floor and not distract their eyes from their foe,
but would mean the most unhealthy environment possible for wounds to
fester in.
Throughout
the fight you could have smelt the sweat, blood, fear and body fluids
of all around you - not the antiseptic theatre of war we like to believe
happens today - but doesn't, because war is still the same, gut
wrenchingly terrifying but still the only way that nations accept
victory or defeat.
Commemoration
The
King, through his local agent Richard Husse, orders the construction of
a memorial, chantry chapel. Presumably on a site which had some
significance in the events of the battle, the church is set in an
enclosed two acres of Hateley Field. Archaeology suggests that there is no major burial pit here despite almost contemporary claims.
The
church is founded - i.e.work starts on construction in 1406 (presumably
memories of the event were still strong locally) and by 1409-10 it has
added a college of priests (never more than seven strong) within the
enclosed area.
This is finally dissolved in 1564 and becomes a parish/estate church for the Corbetts, later of Sundorne Castle).
Today,
it is the only memorial chapel from the whole of English history which
stands on the site if the battle which it commemorates - there were
never many, most had a cross or some other memorial.
Find out more
The Battle of Shrewsbury 1403 - 2003 - the 600th Anniversary Events site www.battleofshrewsbury.org
For BBC Shropshire's Battle of Shrewsbury fun and interactive mini-site: click here
For Channel 4's 'Monarchy' series account of the Battle of Shrewsbury: click here