On the morning of the 22d, the memorable BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY commenced; the skirmishing began under the walls of the Castle Gates, but the principal scene of action was about three miles distant, at a place called BATTLEFIELD. The armies on both sides amounted, it is said, to 40,000, and the contest was severe and sanguinary. Fate, however, decided that the efforts of Henry against this powerful faction should be victorious—a faction, which, having contributed to place him on the seat of government, now sought to dethrone him. The king is recorded to have fought with an ardour worthy the crown he was defending, and the spear of his warlike son, the future hero of Agincourt, did wonders. In fact it was one of the most decisive battles recorded in early English history. Upwards of 2000 nobles, knights, and gentlemen, and 6000 private soldiers, are said to have fallen in the engagement. Most of the dead bodies were buried on the spot, over whom Henry, in gratitude for his victory, piously erected a college of secular canons to pray for the souls of the slain. The more distinguished were interred in the Dominican and Augustine Friaries of the town. The gallant Hotspur was discovered among the slain covered with wounds, and dispatched to Shrewsbury, where Henry satiated his revenge by the ignominy of dismembering the lifeless remains, the head and quarters of which were exhibited over the gate at York, and afterwards delivered to his wife for interment. The Earl of Worcester, Sir Richard Vernon, &c. were beheaded. Shakspeare, in his Henry the Fourth, has given vividness and immortality to this battle, and humourously peopled it with heroes of the most fanciful description. The Cambrian chieftain, Glendower, with an army of 12,000 men, marched as far as Oswestry, and was by some means unable to arrive in time to join in the action; for had he reached ere the king’s forces were victorious, the result might have terminated very differently for the king and his valiant son. Gough states a tradition, that Glendower proceeded to Shelton, and ascended a lofty oak (the trunk of which is still remaining near the Oswestry road), from whence he might reconnoitre and gain the earliest intelligence of the event of the battle. The royal blood of this noble Welshman was in no respect chilled by the defeat of his confederates, for in the next year he carried his ravages even to the gates of the Welsh Bridge, destroying much of the suburb of Frankwell and several townships in the vicinity. In 1460, Edward IV. marched with an army of 23,000 men from this town to the battle of Mortimer’s Cross, and he chose this place for the residence of his queen, where she was delivered of her second and third sons, Richard and George Plantagenet.