The principal commanders in Henry’s army, were, Jasper Duke of Bedford, {186a} John Earl of Oxford, {186b} George Earl of Shrewsbury; {186c} Richard Neville, Lord Latimer, {186d} Edward Lord Hastings; {186e} George Lord Strange, son of Thomas Earl of Derby; {186f} Sir John Cheney, and Sir Edward Fielding. {186g} Thomas Brandon, brother of Sir William Brandon {186h} (who was the standard-bearer of Henry, and was slain at the battle of Bosworth), had the honour of bearing Henry’s shield at the battle of Stoke. {186i} The Earl of Lincoln and his forces being posted upon the hill, Henry, on the 16th of June, 1487, {186j} drew up his army in three lines, in the open space to the southward or south-east of Stoke, and offered the earl battle, which the latter, notwithstanding the disparity of their forces, courageously accepted. [Picture: The Field of the Battle of Stoke] The act of attainder {187a} passed against the earl and his adherents, furnishes some evidence of guns having been used by the earl’s forces; as the act states them to have been armed with “swerdys, speris, marespikes, bowes, gonnes, harneys, brigandines, hawberkes, and many other weapyns and harneys.” If, as that act seems to state, the earl had artillery with his army, which were used at the battle, they would naturally be placed, on the slope of the hill before described, and would be fired from thence upon the royal army drawn up on the lower ground. The earl descended the hill, with his troops in good order, and attacked the royalists with great intrepidity, in hopes, that, by breaking their first line, the fugitives from it, would fall back upon those in the rear, and throw them into confusion; but, after bravely fighting for three hours, during which, the half-naked Irish, undisciplined, and only armed with darts and skins, obstinately maintained their ground, although Henry’s archers kept constantly thinning their ranks, and the English and Germans fought with the utmost valour, they were totally routed, with great slaughter. The Earl of Lincoln, Lord Kildare (or, as several authors call him, Lord Thomas Gerardine or Fitzgerald), Sir Thomas Broughton; Martin Swartz, the commander of the foreign auxiliaries; and most of the other leaders of the earl’s party, died sword in hand. {187b} The impostor, Lambert Simnel, and the priest his tutor, were taken prisoners, {187c} and Lord Lovel was never afterwards heard of; it has been said, that in endeavouring to escape by crossing the Trent, he was drowned in the river. Some writers state, that he was slain in the battle; but in the account given in the before-mentioned journal, he is said to have been “put to flight” [escaped]. {188a} Whether he perished in crossing the Trent, fell in the battle, or fled, and contrived to secrete himself, so as to elude discovery, will probably never be satisfactorily ascertained. {188b} He had been a steadfast supporter of