Visits to Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century: to which are added, some miscellaneous tracts and papers upon archæological subjectsBrooke, Richard
History
Visits to Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century: to which are added, some miscellaneous tracts and papers upon archæological subjects
Brooke, Richard
Battlefields -- England; Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
King Richard III., at whose coronation, he had the honour of carrying one
of the pointed swords on the King’s left hand; {188c} and was made Lord
Chamberlain, and he had also fought for him at Bosworth Field. {188d}
His enmity to Henry VII. induced him to join the insurrection of Sir
Humphrey Stafford, and his brother, Thomas Stafford, in 1486, and take up
arms in Yorkshire, whilst they prepared to attack Worcester; but, his
troops dispersing, he was obliged to fly to Furness, in Lancashire, where
Sir Thomas Broughton received and afforded him an asylum, and from thence
he proceeded into Flanders, to Margaret Duchess of Burgundy. {188e}
Many of the Earl of Lincoln’s forces were destroyed in their flight from
the field, and in attempting to escape over the Trent, by Fiskerton
Ferry. A ravine or gully, which descends from the high ground on the
south-west side of the cliff, is now pointed out, as being the place
through which the fugitives endeavoured to pass, in order to get to the
ferry, and which, tradition says, ran with blood, and where a great
slaughter was inflicted upon them. It is from that circumstance, called
Red Gutter; and human bones, and other _indicia_ of slaughter, have been
dug up in it. It is rather difficult of access at present, from being
covered with a plantation of trees; but there is still a path through it,
and it opens upon Stoke Marsh, about thirty or forty yards to the
southward of the modern road leading over the marsh, to the ferry;
towards which the fugitives would naturally endeavour to pass through
this ravine, as the steepness of the cliff would render it difficult, in
most places, to descend in any other direction; and the contiguity of the
right wing of the royal army would prevent a retreat over the flat ground
by the high road past the church to the ferry. The Trent, in the summer
time, and the battle was fought in the month of June, is fordable for
horses and men, and, as far as I could judge by the eye, it is
thereabouts one hundred and sixty or one hundred and eighty yards wide;
and if the wreck of the defeated army could have gained the opposite
bank, it would have furnished some chance of escape, in comparative
safety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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