ON THIS SPOT {204} IN THE REIGN OF HENRY III THE BATTLE OF EVESHAM WAS FOUGHT AUGUST IV 1265 BETWEEN THE KING’S FORCES COMMANDED BY HIS ELDEST SON PRINCE EDWARD AND THE BARONS UNDER SIMON DE MONTFORT EARL OF LEICESTER; IN WHICH THE PRINCE BY HIS SKILL AND VALOUR OBTAINED A COMPLETE VICTORY, AND THE EARL WITH HIS ELDEST SON HENRY DE MONTFORT, EIGHTEEN BARONS, ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY KNIGHTS, AND FOUR THOUSAND SOLDIERS, WERE SLAIN IN THE BATTLE. THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF BARNET. _Warwick_ (wounded).—“Ah, who is nigh? come to me, friend, or foe, And tell me, who is victor, York or Warwick? Why ask I that? My mangled body shows, My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart shows, That I must yield my body to the earth, And by my fall, the conquest to my foe.” SHAKESPEARE’S _Henry VI._ part 3, act v. scene 2. (_A Field of Battle_, _near Barnet_.) THE Battle of Barnet was fought on the 14th of April, 1471, at a place formerly called Gladmore Heath, but which is now completely enclosed, about a mile north-west from Barnet, in the county of Middlesex, between the Yorkists, under King Edward IV., and the Lancastrians, commanded by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, {205} the King-Maker, in which the latter was slain, and the Yorkists were completely victorious. I visited the field of battle on the 9th of July, 1856. The accounts of the battle given by the old historical writers are so imperfect, that they do not throw any light upon the precise positions which the hostile armies respectively occupied; and I could not, when upon the spot, obtain much new information of moment, relative to the battle. After Edward IV. had returned from the Continent, and had landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, he proceeded to York, and from thence towards London; and the Earl of Warwick, who was posted with his forces at Coventry, marched from it in pursuit of him:— _Warwick_.—“I will away towards Barnet presently, And bid thee battle, Edward, if thou dars’t.” SHAKESPEARE’S _Henry VI._ part iii. act v. scene 5.