Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 47245-h.htm or 47245-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47245/47245-h/47245-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/47245/47245-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See https://archive.org/details/battlesofenglish00geor Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by tilde characters is in bold face (~bold~). A carat character is used to denote superscription. Characters enclosed by curly brackets following the carat are superscripted (example: 14^{th}). BATTLES OF ENGLISH HISTORY [Illustration: _Map I._ _Outline Map of England & Wales._] BATTLES OF ENGLISH HISTORY by HEREFORD B. GEORGE, M.A., F.R.G.S. Fellow of New College, Oxford Methuen & Co. 36 Essex Street, W.C. London 1895 Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, London & Bungay. PREFACE It has been the business of my life to teach history: and the informal division of labour which comes to pass in a University has led me to pay special attention to the military side of it. This aspect of history involves much comparison of statements and weighing of evidence, and is therefore calculated to be very useful to those for whom the study of history is, not their permanent occupation, but the means of completing their mental training. Campaigns and battles present in an exceptionally clear shape the stock problems of history, what was done, why it was done, what were the results, what ought to have been done, what would have been the consequences if this or that important detail had been different. It is however not easy to gain from books a clear general idea of a campaign or a battle, harder perhaps than to obtain a similar grasp of the work of a legislator, or of the drift of a social change. To the ordinary historian the military side is only one aspect of his theme, and very possibly an aspect which interests him but little. He narrates the facts as given him by his authorities: but when these are vague, as mediæval writers mostly are, or discrepant, as modern writers are who mean to be precise and write from different standpoints, he need be something of an expert to make his narrative lifelike. On the other hand, purely military works are, very reasonably, technical: they are written for experts, to whom the technical language is familiar, and they often go into considerable detail. Ordinary readers are apt, consequently, to want help in obtaining from them a clear idea of the outline of events. Like Pindar's poetic shafts, they are φωνᾶντα συνετοῖσιν, ἐς δὲ τοπὰν ἑρμηνέων χατίζει.