Lord Wenlock not having advanced to the support of the first line, but remaining stationary, contrary to the expectations of Somerset, the latter, in a rage, rode up to him, reviled him, and beat his brains out with his axe.
Gloucester and his troops, pursuing those that fled with Somerset, forced their way into the intrenchments, and were supported by the King, who conducted himself very valiantly; the Lancastrians soon gave way, the second and third lines making little resistance; the rout became general, and was attended with great slaughter; and upon the camp being forced, almost all such of the defenders as stood their ground were killed.
The Lancastrians fled towards the town, and were hotly pursued by the victors, the King and others joining in the pursuit, and many of the fugitives were slain, and “at a mill in a meadow fast by the town, a great sort were drowned. Manie ran towards the towne, some to the church, and diverse to the abbeie, and other to other places, where they thought best to save themselves.” [142a]
In this decisive battle, and in the pursuit, about 3000 Lancastrians were slain, with the following leaders:—The Earl of Devonshire, Lord John Beaufort, Lord Wenlock, Sir Edmund Hamden, Sir William Wittingham, Sir William Vaux, Sir Nicholas Hartry, Sir John Delves, [142b] Sir William Fielding, Sir John Lewkener, Sir William Lermouth, Sir John Urnan, Sir Thomas Seymour, Sir William Rouse, and Sir Thomas Fitzhenry. [142c] The Duke of Somerset, the Prior of St. John, and other individuals of distinction, escaped from the field, and sought refuge in the neighbouring Abbey Church. They were pursued thither by King Edward, who attempted to enter the church with his sword drawn, but was stopped at the porch by a priest, with the Host, [142d] who prohibited his defiling the sacred edifice with blood.
Prince Edward was taken prisoner by Sir Richard Crofts, and in consequence of a proclamation, made by the King’s orders, that whosoever should produce the Prince, should receive an annuity of one hundred pounds, and that the Prince’s life should be spared if he were brought forward unhurt, he was conducted by Sir Richard Crofts into the King’s presence. Here an act of wickedness and cruelty took place, similar to and equally detestable, with that which was perpetrated by Lord Clifford, a leader of the other party, against the young Earl of Rutland, after the battle of Wakefield. The King having asked, in a haughty manner, how Prince Edward had dared to invade his dominions, and being irritated by an imprudent and hasty reply from the youthful captive, struck him on the face with his gauntlet. This seems to have been considered a sufficient encouragement to others, to proceed to a deed of savage violence against the unhappy Prince, and the Marquis of Dorset, Lord Hastings, the Dukes of Clarence [143a] and Gloucester, and some others, dragged the Prince away, and murdered him with their daggers. [144] His corpse was buried in a common grave, in the Abbey Church, with some of the soldiers who had been slain in the battle. The King pardoned a number of the fugitives, who had taken refuge in the Abbey Church, although it did not possess any privilege to protect rebels; and he might have taken them out of it without breach of any liberty of that church; and he allowed the bodies of the noblemen and others slain in the battle, to be buried in the church, or wherever their friends or servants pleased; nor was there any quartering or setting up in public places, of the heads, or quarters, either of those who had been slain, or of those who had been executed: a disgusting exhibition, which had too often been witnessed during the wars of the Roses.
Near the centre of the choir, under the tower, is a brass plate, let into a stone slab in the floor, with the following inscription, commemorating the murder of the young Prince:—
NE TOTA PEREAT MEMORIA
EDVARDI PRINCIPIS WALLLÆ
POST PRÆLIUM MEMORABILE
IN VICINIS ARVIS DEPUGNATUM
CRUDELITER OCCISI
HANC TABULAM HONORARIAM
DEPONI CURABAT
PIETAS TEWKESBURIENSIS
ANNO DOMINI
MDCCXCVI
The inscription was written by the late Rev. Robert Knight, vicar of Tewkesbury, and was placed there in 1796, in accordance with a tradition that the body of the Prince had been interred there. It was ascertained, by an examination some years ago, that the slab upon which the brass plate is affixed, was over a stone coffin. The latter was examined, but it did not exhibit any appearances to denote its having been the place of the deposit of the young Prince’s remains. [145a]
In the addition to Camden’s Britannia, by Gough, it is stated, that there was a monument in the chancel of the church, to the memory of George Duke of Clarence and Isabel his wife; and that near the entrance of the choir, under a large grey marble flag, stripped of its brasses, Prince Edward was interred after his murder. “This deed is supposed to have been done in a house since rebuilt, now Mr. Webb’s, an ironmonger, on the north side of the High Street, near the Tolsey. His bones and coffin were discovered by the breaking of the stone.” [145b]
Two days after the battle, Edward caused Somerset and other fugitives to be taken from the sanctuary of the Abbey Church. They were brought before the Duke of Gloucester, who officiated as high constable, and the Duke of Norfolk the marshal, by whom they were condemned to death; and accordingly, on Monday, the 6th of May, [146a] the Duke of Somerset, John Longstrother the Prior of St. John of Jerusalem, Sir Humphrey Audley, Sir Gervase Clifton, [146b] Sir William Grimsby, Sir William Cary, Sir Henry Rose, Sir Thomas Tresham, [146c] Sir William Newborough, Knights; Henry Tresham, Walter Courtenay, John Flory, Lewis Miles, Robert Jackson, James Gower, John Delves, [146d] son and heir to Sir John Delves, [a/][146d] and other gentlemen of rank, were executed in the market-place of Tewkesbury, a small triangular space, where the three principal streets meet. [146e] The corpses of the Duke of Somerset, Lord John Beaufort, and the Earl of Devonshire, were interred in the Abbey Church.