{164} Baker, in his _Chronicles_, fo. 232, states, that Richard’s “vanguard was led by the Duke of Norfolk, which consisted of one thousand two hundred bowmen, flanked with two hundred cuyrassiers, under the conduct of the Earl of Surrey; the battel King Richard led himself, which consisted of a thousand bill-men empaled with two thousand pikes; the rereward was led by Sir Thomas Brackenbury, consisting of two thousand mingled, with two wings of horsemen, containing fifteen hundred, all of them cast into square maniples, expecting the Lord Stanley’s coming with two thousand, most of them horsemen.” Instead of Sir Thomas Brackenbury, Baker probably meant Sir Robert Brackenbury, who lost his life in the battle; but in either case, he appears to be in error, as to the commander of the rear of Richard’s army, which not only other old historians, but even Baker, on the next page, states, to have been commanded by the Earl of Northumberland. “In this battel Henry, Earl of Northumberland, who led King Richard’s rereward, never strook stroke.”—Baker, fo. 233. {165a} Philippe de Commines, 5me livre, fo. 151. {165b} _Rot. Parl._ 1 Henry VII. (A.D. 1485) vol. vi. folios 275 and 276. See Appendix No. 3. {165c} Hutton’s _Bosworth Field_, pp. 82 and 97. {165d} John Howard was a son of Sir Robert Howard, by Margaret, daughter of Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and was a faithful supporter of Edward IV., who created him a baron in 1461. Richard III. created him Duke of Norfolk on the 14th of June, 1483. He had the honour of being placed in the vanguard of Richard’s army at the battle of Bosworth. {165e} Thomas Howard, son of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, before mentioned, was created Earl of Surrey in the first year of Richard III. He also had the honour of having a principal command in Richard’s vanguard; and, according to some accounts, he was taken prisoner, but, according to others, he escaped from the field, and afterwards, upon an amnesty being published, he submitted to Henry. He was imprisoned for a considerable period, but was at length reconciled to Henry VII., and was made Lord Treasurer of England in the sixteenth year of his reign; and was created Duke of Norfolk in 1514, the fifth year of Henry VIII.’s reign. {165f} Henry Percy, fourth Earl of Northumberland of that name, was the son and heir of Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland, slain at the battle of Towton. (See Chap. VI.) At the battle of Bosworth he commanded the rear of Richard’s army, but he is considered to have been lukewarm and indifferent, and his forces are said not to have struck a blow; he immediately submitted to Henry, and was taken into favour by him, and was made one of his Privy Council, and was slain in the fourth year of his reign at a place called Cock Edge, near Thirsk, in Yorkshire, by the populace, in an insurrection on account of a tax imposed by Parliament, which the King had ordered him to levy.