Henry VI. was at Coventry when the confederate earls were in Kent. On receiving intelligence of what was taking place in London, he—or, perhaps, it would be more correct to say, Queen Margaret, {42c} in his name, obtained money by compositions for knighthood, and loans from the prelates and convents, and from such of the nobility as were attached to the Lancastrian party, and raised a large army to provide for his defence, and proceeded with the Duke of Somerset, {43a} who had recently arrived from Guisnes, the Duke of Buckingham, {43b} and other noblemen and knights, to Northampton, where the King took up his abode at the Friary. {43c} The confederate earls, at the head of the Yorkist army, proceeded northward to meet Henry, and took up a position between Towcester and Northampton. {43d} Queen Margaret, judging from the power of the Lancastrians assembled at Northampton, that they were fully able to meet in hostile conflict the forces of the Yorkists, took upon herself to encourage {43e} her friends and supporters; and when the whole of the King’s forces were assembled, they issued out of Northampton, and, crossing the river Nen, or Nene, proceeded into the meadows on the southward side of the town, and in that part of them which is close to Delapré Abbey, {43f} a religious house of Cluniac nuns in the parish of Hardingstone, strongly intrenched themselves, {44a} and awaited the arrival of their enemies, and prepared to fight them there. The position, in a military point of view, was most ill judged. It possessed no natural advantages, but the contrary; for, by placing themselves on the southward side of the river, which seems to have been done with a view to deprive their adversaries of the advantage of having it in their front, the Lancastrians seem to have lost sight of the peril and chance of destruction, in case of defeat, from having the river in their own rear; an error which caused most lamentable consequences to them after the battle. The Bishop of Salisbury, with the assent of the other bishops and of the noblemen who were on the side of the Yorkists, was sent to the King with pacific overtures, but without any satisfactory result; for, although somewhat inferior in numbers, the Lancastrians seem to have been over confident in their forces, and in the strength of their position. In the night the Yorkists removed their camp towards Northampton, and both parties prepared for battle.