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THE BARONIAL ARMY |
EDWARD II's ARMY |
# killed by a Welshman hiding under the bridge at Boroughbridge. |
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Thomas, Earl of Lancaster and cousin of King Edward II, was the leader of the discontented barons, but his force was too small to cope with the royal army, and he was still further weakened by the defection of Sir Robert de Holland, whom he had raised from the humble office of his butler to the dignity of knighthood. Failing to secure a position at Burton-upon-Trent, the earl and his followers retreated northward to his castle of Pontefract. Here a council of war was held, at which it was decided to march to Dunstanburgh in Northumberland, where they expected aid from the Scots. Arriving at Boroughbridge, they found the country people in arms, and Sir Simon Ward, Sheriff of Yorkshire, William, Lord Latimer, Governor of the city of York, and Sir Andrew Harcla, Governor of Carlisle and the Western Marches, ready to oppose their further progress. The forces met on the 16th of March 1322; the first discharge of arrows from the archers of the royal army threw the Lancastrians into confusion, still they strove manfully to hold their ground against superior numbers. Hereford with the men-at-arms, attempting to force the passage of the river, was slain by a Welshman secreted below the wooden bridge, who thrust up his lance through one of the crevices. Lancaster led his men lower down the stream, but was repulsed by the archers on the opposite bank. He had in former times given Harcla his knighthood, and he now offered him one of the five earldoms in his possession, if he would desert the king's cause; but Harcla's loyalty was proof against the bribe. His courage now began to fail, and he solicited a truce till the following morning, in the hope that the expected Scottish help might arrive during the night. But this faint ray of hope vanished with the morning's dawn, and retiring to a chapel, he knelt before the crucifix in prayer, saying "Good Lord, I render myself to Thee, and put myself into Thy mercy." He was conducted first to York, where he was mocked by the crowd and pelted with dirt, and thence to Pontefract, where he was confined in the tower of his castle. Shortly afterwards the king arrived at Pontefract, and Lancaster was arraigned in the hall before the king, Aylmer, Earl of Pembroke, Edmund, Earl of Kent, John de Brittany, Earl of Richmond, and Sir Robert Malmethorpe. He was condemned, without the formality of a trial, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; through respect however to his royal blood, the punishment was changed to decapitation. Placed upon a wretched horse, he was paraded through the streets with a friar's hood upon his head, and subjected to the most ignominious insults. At the place of execution he was made to kneel with his face towards Scotland, and his head was then severed from his body. The fate of Lancaster involved that of many others. Never since the Conquest had such havoc been made among the ancient nobility; never since then had the scaffold been drenched with so much noble blood as on this occasion. No less than ninety-five barons and knights were taken prisoners, and afterwards tried for high treason. A number of his followers were executed the same day at Pontefract, and others afterwards at York.