The battle of Blore Heath was fought on the spot where the Cross Field and the other fields near it on each side of the road now are; but, as the name implies, it should seem that the field of battle was open and unenclosed, in 1459. Near the middle of the Cross Field, Lord Audley is said to have been slain. A square pedestal, seemingly of great age, with a rude stone cross standing upon it, now much battered and injured, has been erected to mark the spot where he fell. On the pedestal is the following inscription, which is a good deal worn by time:—
ON THIS SPOT
WAS FOUGHT THE BATTLE OF
BLORE HEATH
IN 1459;
LORD AUDLEY
WHO COMMANDED FOR THE SIDE OF LANCASTER
WAS DEFEATED & SLAIN.
TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY
OF THE ACTION & THE PLACE,
THIS ANCIENT MONUMENT
WAS REPAIRED IN
1765,
AT THE CHARGE OF THE LORD OF THE MANOR,
CHARLES BOOTHBY SCHRYMSHER.
Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, [35] published in 1686, mentions, amongst the antiquities of that county, “The stone set up upon Blore Heath, in memory of the fall of James Lord Audley, slain just in that place;” which is an additional proof of an ancient monument having been there, during a long period of time.
Opposite the gate of the Cross Field, and at the distance of a field’s breadth, on the other side of the road, is a farmhouse and farm called Audley Cross Farm, of which that field forms a part. The farm belongs to Sir John N. L. Chetwode, Bart., and is occupied by Mr. William Hughes, a respectable and intelligent farmer, with whom I have had several conversations, during the visits which I made to the field of battle, as I was in hopes of hearing from him of some relics having been dug up; but he had not held the farm many years, and was not aware of any discoveries of that nature having been recently made. He, however, informed me, that some relics of the battle had formerly been discovered. On the 16th of May, 1856, I saw in the possession of Mr. George Goodall, a respectable farmer residing in that neighbourhood, a sword in tolerable preservation, which is said to have been found on the field of battle. [36]
Near the back of the farmhouse, in a little enclosure, is a small raised mount of earth, of a long square shape, on which a thorn-tree of rather large size is growing, which is said to have been raised in memory of some person of distinction who was slain there. If that be so, the probability is, that he was one of the Yorkists, because it is a little in the rear of the spot where their right wing must have been.
It is impossible for any one, to read the accounts of the old chroniclers and annalists, and to inspect the field of battle, without being struck with the remarkable resemblance, between the spot, and the descriptions of it, meagre as they may be, which they have left us. The stream crossing the high road, by which the Earl of Salisbury would naturally advance from Cheshire and Staffordshire, on his march towards Ludlow, the strong position of the Lancastrians, the name of Blore Heath (still preserved ages after the place had ceased to be a heath), and its contiguity to Mucklestone, as well as to Drayton, all which circumstances are mentioned by the ancient historians, combine, independently of tradition, to place the locality beyond dispute. [37]
CHAPTER III.
THE
FIELD OF THE BATTLE
OF
NORTHAMPTON. [39a]
“The King from out the town who drew his foot and horse,
As willing to give full field-room to his force,
Doth pass the river Nen, near where it down doth run,
From his first fountain’s head, is near to Harsington,
Advised of a place, by nature strongly wrought,
Doth there encamp his power: the Earl of March, who sought
To prove by dint of sword, who should obtain the day,
From Towcester trained on his powers in good array.
The vaward Warwick led (whom no attempt could fear);
The middle March himself, and Falconbridge the rear.
Now July enter’d was, and e’er the restless sun
Three hours’ ascent had got, the dreadful fight begun.”Michael Drayton’s Polyolbion, Song 22nd.
Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, [39b] having landed, in the summer of 1460, from Calais, at Sandwich, with the Earls of March [39c] and Salisbury, [39d] and having been met by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, [40a] and other persons of distinction, supporters of the party of the Duke of York, proceeded towards London. In passing through Kent they were joined by Cobham [40b] and many other personages of influence; and on the 2nd of July, 1460, they entered London, with a great accession to their forces, where they were cheerfully received by the Mayor and citizens, and of which they took quiet possession, except the Tower, into which Lord Scales [40c] and other Lancastrian leaders had retired, and which the Yorkists immediately besieged. Without waiting for its surrender, the Earls of March and Warwick, with the Lords Falconberg [41a] and Clinton, [41b] Viscount Bourchier [41c] (Earl of Ewe), the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Exeter, [41d] and other bishops and noblemen, left London with an army, a great portion of which came out of Kent, Essex, Surrey, and Sussex, amounting altogether, as some writers state, to 25,000 men, and proceeded towards Henry VI., [42a] leaving the Earl of Salisbury, Cobham, and Sir John Wenlock, in London, to take care of the city, keep the citizens firm in their fidelity, and push the siege of the Tower. [42b]
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]