Visits to Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century / to which are added, some miscellaneous tracts and papers upon archæological subjects

by Richard Brooke

It is well worthy of notice, that in the year 1838, an interesting discovery took place at Salisbury. Under a brick floor, about eight inches below the surface, at the Saracen’s Head Inn, in that city, during some repairs then in progress, the remains of a man were discovered interred there; but the skull and the bones of the right arm were not with the rest of the skeleton. The bones had belonged to a man who appeared to have been decapitated, and were supposed to have been those of the Duke of Buckingham.—See the Liverpool Courier of the 12th of September, 1838, in which the above particulars appear copied from the Salopian Journal. There is nothing surprising in the fact of the bones of the arm, as well as the skull, being wanting, because formerly the different members and quarters, as well as the heads of persons executed, were not unfrequently severed from the bodies, and fixed up in conspicuous places. That was done even as recently as in the time of the wicked Judge Jeffreys, after the suppression of the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion. In the case of the Duke of Buckingham, it was very probable, as he was beheaded in 1483 for high treason, in taking arms and making war against the King, that the duke’s right arm would also be fixed up wherever his head was placed.

[50a] Hall, Holinshed; Leland’s Itinerary, vol. i. fo. 9 [10]. “The King, lying in the Friers at Northampton, ordained a strong and mighty field in the meadows beside the Nunry, having the river at his back.”—Stow’s Annals, fo. 409.

[50b] I beg to tender my thanks to Edward Bouverie, Esq., for the courtesy and attention which I received from him, when inspecting the mansion, and visiting the park and grounds, in the hope of discovering some indications of the position, occupied by one or both of the hostile armies. I visited the field of battle on the 29th and 30th of May, 1855; and on the 31st of May, 1856.

[51] Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. See Chap. II.

[53a] The paper on the Field of the Battle of Wakefield was read before a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London on the 20th of January, 1853, and the thanks of the meeting were voted for it to the author.

[53b] Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York. See Chap. II.

[53c] Queen Margaret, usually called Margaret of Anjou, was the Queen of Henry VI., to whom she was married in 1445. See Chap. III.

[53d] “appointing his son, the Earl of March, to follow him, with all his power, and came to his Castle of Sandale, near Wakefield (in Yorkshire), on Christmas Eve.”—Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. ii. Title York, p. 161. Stow’s Annals, fo. 412. Dugdale and Stow state that the Duke of York left London on the 2nd of December, and arrived at Sandal on Christmas eve. If he consumed twenty-two days in his march from London to Sandal, the delay seems very extraordinary.

[54a] According to Dugdale’s Baronage, vol. iii. p. 161, Edward, the young Prince of Wales, son of Henry VI. and Queen Margaret, accompanied her.

[54b] Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter and Earl of Huntingdon, the son of John Holland, Duke of Exeter, by his first wife, Anne, daughter of Edmund Earl of Stafford, was one of the principal leaders of the Lancastrian party; he fought at the battle of Wakefield, and at that of Towton; and after the disastrous result of the latter, fled with Henry VI., Queen Margaret, the Duke of Somerset, and others, to Scotland; was attainted in the first year of Edward IV., and his lands and possessions were forfeited. He afterwards again appeared in turbulent scenes in England, fought at the battle of Barnet, was wounded and left for dead, from seven in the morning, until four in the afternoon, when he was brought to the house of one of his servants named Ruthland, where he was attended by a surgeon; he was conveyed to sanctuary at Westminster; and afterwards went abroad, where he lived in such poverty and distress, as to be obliged at one time to beg his bread; and in 1473, his corpse was found stripped naked on the seashore, near Dover. It is shocking to think that he fought at the battle of Wakefield against his wife’s father, and at those of Towton and Barnet against her brother; besides fighting against some of his own near relations on several occasions. He married Anne, daughter of Richard Duke of York, and sister of Edward IV., but had no issue; she was divorced from him, and she afterwards married Sir Thomas St. Ledger, and was the ancestress of the House of Manners, Dukes of Rutland.