The position of the opposing forces became a very strange one. The Empress and her followers, from the castle, besieged the bishop's palace, and were in turn themselves besieged by the Queen and her host without.[411] It was the aim of the latter to cut off the Empress from her base of operations in the west. With this object they burnt Andover,[412] and harassed so successfully the enemy's convoys, that famine was imminent in the city.[413] The Empress, moreover, was clearly outnumbered by the forces of the Queen and legate. It is agreed on all hands that the actual crisis was connected with an affair at Wherwell, but John of Hexham and the author of the Gesta are not entirely in accord as to the details. According to the latter, who can hardly be mistaken in a statement so precise, the besieged, now in dire straits, despatched a small force along the old Icknield Way, to fortify Wherwell and its nunnery, commanding the passage of the Test, in order to secure their line of communication.[414] John of Hexham, on the contrary, describing, it would seem, the same incident, represents it as merely the despatch of an escort, under John the Marshal and Robert fitz Edith, to meet an expected convoy.[415] In any case, it is clear that William of Ypres, probably the Queen's best soldier, burst upon the convoy close to Wherwell, and slew or captured all but those who sought refuge within the nunnery walls.[416] Nor are the two accounts gravely inconsistent.
On the other hand, the Continuator of Florence appears at first sight to imply that the Marshal and his followers took refuge at Wherwell in the course of the general flight,[417] and this version is in harmony with the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal.[418] But putting aside William of Malmesbury, whose testimony is ambiguous on the point, I consider the balance to be clearly in favour of the Gesta and John of Hexham, whose detailed accounts must be wholly rejected if we embrace the other version, whereas the Continuator's words can be harmonized, and indeed better understood, if we take "ad monasterium Warewellense fugientem" as referring to John taking refuge in the nunnery (as described in the other versions) when surprised with his convoy. Moreover, the evidence (vide infra) as to the Empress leaving Winchester by the west instead of the north gate, appears to me to clinch the matter. As to the Marshal poem, on such a point its evidence is of little weight. Composed at a later period, and based on family tradition, its incidents, as M. Meyer has shown, are thrown together in wrong order, and its obvious errors not a few. I may add that the Marshal's position is unduly exalted in the poem, and that Brian fitz Count (though it is true that he accompanied the Empress in her flight) would never have taken his orders from John the Marshal.[419] Its narrative cannot be explained away, but it is the one that we are most justified in selecting for rejection.
To expel the fugitives from their place of safety, William and his troopers fired the nunnery. A furious struggle followed in the church, amidst the shrieks of the nuns and the roar of the flames; the sanctuary itself streamed with blood; but John the Marshal stood his ground, and refused to surrender to his foes.[420] "Silence, or I will slay thee with mine own hands," the undaunted man is said to have exclaimed, as his last remaining comrade implored him to save their lives.[421]
On receiving intelligence of this disaster, the besieged were seized with panic, and resolved on immediate retreat.[422] William of Malmesbury, as before, is anxious to deny the panic,[423] and the Continuator accuses the legate of treachery.[424] The account, however, in the Gesta appears thoroughly trustworthy. According to this, the Empress and her forces sallied forth from the gates in good order, but were quickly surrounded and put to flight. All order was soon at an end. Bishops, nobles, barons, troopers, fled in headlong rout. With her faithful squire by her side the Empress rode for her life.[425] The Earl of Gloucester, with the rear-guard, covered his sister's retreat, but in so doing was himself made prisoner, while holding, at Stockbridge, the passage of the Test.[426]
The mention of Stockbridge proves that the besieged must have fled by the Salisbury road, their line of retreat by Andover being now barred at Wherwell. After crossing the Test, the fugitive Empress must have turned northwards, and made her way, by country lanes, over Longstock hills, to Ludgershall. So great was the dread of her victorious foes, now in full pursuit, that though she had ridden more than twenty miles, and was overwhelmed with anxiety and fatigue, she was unable to rest even here, and, remounting, rode for Devizes, across the Wiltshire downs.[427] It was not, we should notice, thought safe for her to make straight for Gloucester, through Marlborough and Cirencester; so she again set her face due west, as if making for Bristol. Thus fleeing from fortress to fortress, she came to her castle at Devizes. So great, however, was now her terror that even in this celebrated stronghold[428] she would not, she feared, be safe. She had already ridden some forty miles, mainly over bad country, and what with grief, terror, and fatigue, the erst haughty Empress was now "more dead than alive" (pene exanimis). It was out of the question that she should mount again; a litter was hurriedly slung between two horses, and, strapped to this, the unfortunate Lady was conveyed in sorry guise (sat ignominiose) to her faithful city of Gloucester.[429]
On a misunderstanding, as I deem it, of the passage (and especially of the word feretrum), writers have successively, for three centuries, represented the Continuator as stating that the Empress, "to elude the vigilance of her pursuers," was "laid out as a corpse!" Lingard, indeed, while following suit, gravely doubts if the fact be true, as it is recorded by the Continuator alone; but Professor Pearson improves upon the story, and holds that the versatile "Lady" was in turn "a trooper" and a corpse.[430]
On the 1st of November the king was released, and a few days later the Earl of Gloucester, for whom he had been exchanged, reached Bristol.[431] Shortly after, it would seem, there were assembled together at Bristol, the Earl, the Empress, and their loyal adherents, Miles, now Earl of Hereford, Brian fitz Count, and Robert fitz Martin.[432]
[388] "Porro fugiens domina per Oxenefordiam venit ad Glavorniam, ubi cum Milone ex-constabulario consilio inito statim cum eodem ad Oxenefordensem revertitur urbem, ibi præstolatura seu recuperatura suum dispersum militarem numerum" (Cont. Flor. Wig., 132).
[389] The other witnesses were Robert, Bishop of London, Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, William the chancellor, R[ichard] de Belmeis, archdeacon, G[ilbert?], archdeacon, Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, William Fitz Alan and Walter his brother, Alan de Dunstanville (Harl. MS., 2188, fol. 123). The two bishops and the King of Scots also witnessed the charter to Miles.
[390] Fœdera, N.E., i. 14.