England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign TravelCook, Joel
History
England, Picturesque and Descriptive: A Reminiscence of Foreign Travel
Cook, Joel
England -- Description and travel
stately figure that is familiar in Vandyke's paintings--full armor, with
the ribbon of the Garter across his breastplate and its star on his
black velvet mantle--and made a brief speech of exhortation. The young
princes Charles and James, his sons, both of them afterwards kings of
England, were present at Edgehill, while the philosopher Hervey, who
discovered the circulation of the blood, was also in attendance, and we
are told was found in the heat of the battle sitting snugly under a
hedge reading a copy of Virgil.
[Illustration: MILL AT EDGEHILL.]
The battle did not begin till afternoon, and the mistake the king made
was in not waiting for the attack in his strong position on the brow of
the hill; but his men were impatient and in high spirits, and he
permitted them to push forward, meeting the attack halfway. Rupert's
cavalry upon encountering the Parliamentary left wing were aided by the
desertion of part of the latter's forces, which threw them into
confusion; the wing broke and fled before the troopers, who drove them
with great slaughter into the village of Kineton, and then fell to
plundering Essex's baggage-train. This caused a delay which enabled the
Parliamentary reserves to come up, and they drove Rupert back in
confusion; and when he reached the royal lines he found them in
disorder, with Sir Edmund Verney killed and the royal standard captured.
Lord Lindsey wounded and captured, and the king in personal danger: but
darkness came, and enabled the king to hold his ground, and each side
claimed a victory. The royal standard was brought back by a courageous
Cavalier, who put on a Parliamentary orange-colored scarf, rode into the
enemy's lines, and persuaded the man who had it to let him carry it. For
this bold act he was knighted by the king on the spot and given a gold
medal. There were about fourteen hundred killed in the battle, and
buried between the two farm-houses of Battledon and Thistledon, at a
place now called the Graveyards. Lord Lindsey died on his way to Warwick
with his captors. Cromwell was not personally engaged at Edgehill,
although there as a captain of cavalry. Carlyle says that after watching
the fight he told Hampden they never would get on with a "set of poor
tapsters and town-apprentice people fighting against men of honor; to
cope with men of honor they must have men of religion." Hampden
answered, "It was a good notion if it could be executed;" and Cromwell
"set about executing a bit of it, his share of it, by and by."
THE BATTLE OF NASEBY.
[Illustration: CHURCH AND MARKET-HALL, MARKET HARBOROUGH.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account