Battles of English HistoryGeorge, H. B. (Hereford Brooke)
History
Battles of English History
George, H. B. (Hereford Brooke)
Battles -- Great Britain
himself took refuge in a wind-mill, doubtless on the spot now known as
Kingstone,[11] where he eventually surrendered. By this time the king's
own division had also been broken, and though part escaped into the
priory, most part of them were cut off from both it and the castle,
and were slaughtered in the streets of the town. The only hope of
retrieving even partially the fortunes of the day lay in the prince,
who after pursuing the Londoners to his heart's content, had caught
sight on his return of Montfort's carriage, and assuming that the earl
was lying helpless in it, made a dash to seize him and the baggage. The
carriage however contained three citizens of London who had entered
into some plot against Montfort, and had been carried off as prisoners
and left there for safety; but in the confusion of the sudden onslaught
the poor citizens were killed by their own friends. By the time
prince Edward had got back to Lewes it was growing dark; many of his
companions, including earl Warrenne himself, seeing that all was lost,
fled over the bridge, which soon became a scene of frightful confusion,
hundreds being drowned in the river, or forced into the tidal mud and
there suffocated.
The foregoing account of the battle of Lewes is partly conjectural:
the chroniclers are as usual wanting in precision of language, and
not altogether in accord; and there is always room for doubt as to
the identification of localities vaguely described. It agrees with
the conformation of the ground, and with the ascertained facts:
particularly it explains the king being driven into the priory, and
the earl of Cornwall into a wind-mill. With the royal right wing gone,
after the prince had dashed on the Londoners, Gloucester would have had
no real difficulty in pressing the king's right, so as to cut him off
from the castle, which would be an obvious advantage. Again Montfort's
own troops, whether in the right centre or in the second line, would
naturally have come down on Richard of Cornwall's right, and separated
him from the king, and unless the story of Richard's barricading
himself in a wind-mill is altogether an invention, which there is not
the slightest reason to imagine, it could only have been the Kingstone
mill. Wind-mills, beyond most things, remain for centuries on the same
spot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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