Percy 6,000 were killed, among whom were Lord Percy and most of the knights and gentlemen of Cheshire; there fell on that day 2,291 men of note.” Henry having put a period to the slaughter, halted to return thanks on the field of battle, and decreed the erection of a collegiate church at Battlefield. The pious gratitude of the victorious monarch but ill accorded with the punishment he subsequently inflicted on the vanquished. The Earl of Worcester, Sir Theobald Trussel, and Sir Richard Vernon, were executed at the high cross of Shrewsbury, and their heads exposed to public view on London bridge. Hotspur’s body, which was found among the slain, was placed between two mill stones, in the market place, after which it was quartered, and hung on the gates of Shrewsbury, and other places in the kingdom. The King released Douglas without ransom, because he feared the Scots would avenge the death of a man so dear to them, and from similar motives he afterwards accepted the submission of Northumberland. During the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, which deluged England with blood, almost to the total extinction of her ancient nobility, the town of Shrewsbury espoused the party of the White Rose. In the records of the corporation is preserved a letter from Richard, Duke of York, requesting the burgesses to assist him with men in the enterprise he meditated of removing his rival, Somerset, from power. After his defeat and death at Wakefield, his son Edward, Earl of March, went to Shrewsbury, and obtained in its neighbourhood a powerful levy, which enabled him to revenge his father’s cause, in the great victory of Mortimer’s Cross. He was shortly after proclaimed king. The attachment of the inhabitants, and the great strength of the town, induced him to choose it as the asylum for his queen during the subsequent vicissitudes of the war. Whilst she resided here she had two sons, Richard and George Plantagenet; the latter died young, and the former, with his elder brother, Prince Edward, was, according to history, murdered in the Tower, at the instigation of their uncle, the Protector. On the usurpation of the crown by Richard III. his agent, the Duke of Buckingham, deserted him and fled into Wales, where he took up arms, and endeavoured to excite a general insurrection against the tyrant whom he had formerly served. Being abandoned by his followers, he fled in disguise into Shropshire, and concealed himself in the house of his steward, who, tempted by the price offered for his apprehension, betrayed him to John Mytton, sheriff of the county. He was immediately taken to Shrewsbury, where, by the king’s peremptory order, and without trial, he was executed on a scaffold erected before the High Cross.