That the hill in Stoke Fields above described, is that on which the Earl of Lincoln was encamped, seems to be satisfactorily proved, independently of tradition, from the circumstance, that when he entered Nottinghamshire from Yorkshire, and marched towards Newark-on-Trent, as stated in Leland’s Collectanea, [189] “Enemyes and rebelles drew towards Newarke warde, passing by Southwelle and the Furside of Trente,” he found the castle and town of Newark preoccupied by his enemy, in which Hall, Holinshed, Polydore Virgil, Bacon, Speed, and Baker, all agree, and he could not well get to Stoke, without passing through, or close to, Southwell, and then crossing the Trent: and the ford and ferry nearest to Southwell, and to those parts of the country through which he is said to have marched, is Fiskerton; which is close under the hill. Besides which, the hill is by far the strongest military position in that part of the country: in fact, the cliff occupied, as before observed, by his left wing, was almost inassailable; and the parts of the hill where his centre and right were posted, must have been exceedingly difficult of approach by hostile forces, because they would labour under the disadvantage of having to ascend an eminence, probably strengthened by artificial defences and by the natural obstacles of brushwood and other inconveniences incident to uncultivated ground. It is the only elevated ground near Stoke, of sufficient elevation to warrant the word “descends,” used by Polydore Virgil, “Comes copias educit, signoque suis dato in certamen descendit;” and, after a very careful survey of the country for miles round Stoke, no other eminence presents itself worthy of Bacon’s appellation, “the brow or hanging of a hill,” or to which his words “came down” can apply, “the earl courageously came down and joyned battel with him.”
The bones, coins, and other relics, which have been dug up, show that the conflict took place at the spot before mentioned, near the village, and close to, and in the garden of Sir Robert Bromley, Bart., in Stoke Fields, and also upon a small portion of Elston Fields. [190]
A great part of the church has evidently been rebuilt, and, except a Gothic arch communicating from the tower to the body of the church, it has not many claims to antiquity. A few brick and slated cottages have of late years been built amongst the others, in the village; but its appearance conveys to the spectator, the idea of its having undergone little change for centuries past.
The places where the human bones, &c. &c. have been dug up, show that the village of Stoke, previous to the battle, was occupied by part of Henry’s forces, because, as it was the Earl of Lincoln who commenced the attack, it is obvious, that, if the village had been occupied by his troops, the battle would have been fought on the north or the north-east side, and not to the southward of the village; besides which, that idea receives corroboration from the expression of Polydore Virgil, in reference to Henry’s movements:—“Stochum proficiscitur, ac prope castra comitis consistit.” [191a] Henry could not have drawn his forces out of the village, and approached the camp of the earl, if the former had not preoccupied the village.
This memorable battle was the last that was fought between the adherents to the rival Houses of York and Lancaster (that in 1485, called Bosworth Field, being often erroneously so considered), in which one of the House of York attempted, by arms, to obtain the crown; and it firmly secured the House of Tudor upon the throne of England. The victory was, however, purchased by a lamentable destruction of human life: about 4000 of the insurgents, and half of the van of the royal forces, are said to have perished there; probably a total loss of from 5000 to 6000 lives.
What consequences would have ensued to England, if the earl had been victorious, though it may be amusing to speculate upon them, it is, of course, impossible to form a reasonable conjecture. He had claims to the crown, according to the laws and constitution, in due course, after the daughters of King Edward the Fourth (supposing the attainders [191b] of George Duke of Clarence, and Sir Thomas Saint Ledger, to be valid, and to exclude their issue), from his being the eldest son of John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, and of Elizabeth, [191c] second sister of King Edward IV. and Richard III., and daughter of Richard Duke of York. He is described as one who possessed talents and courage; and he was encouraged by the known intentions of his uncle, King Richard III., who had declared him successor to the crown, [192a] in case that monarch should die without issue; and at his coronation the earl had the honour of carrying the ball and cross, whilst the sceptre was confided to his father, the Duke of Suffolk. [192b]
It is very clear, that the earl was not at the battle of Bosworth, fighting on the side of his uncle, not only from the total silence of historians, [192c] but from the fact, that his name does not appear in the list of noblemen, knights, and gentlemen, who were attainted, [192d] when Henry VII. called a Parliament, for taking a part in that battle; and also from the fact of his being one of the nobles allowed to attend a council of Henry VII. [192e] He appears not to have acted with sincerity, when he could so far demean himself, as to bring the impostor, Lambert Simnel, forward as a stalking-horse; and, in the words of Bacon, “neither did the earl refrain the business, for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an idol. But contrariwise, he was more glad it should be the false Plantagenet than the true; because, the false being sure to fall away of himself, and the true to be made sure of by the King, it might open and pave a fair and prepared way to his own title.” He must have been aware of the imposture, and appears to have been actively concerned in the insurrection, with the intention of benefiting himself, and the hope of successfully advancing his own claims to the crown.
It is a remarkable circumstance, that, at the time of the Earl of Lincoln’s death, his grandmother, Cecily Duchess of York, was still living; a woman who was doomed to witness, in her own family, more appalling and extraordinary calamities and vicissitudes, than are to be found in the history of any individual allied to any of the other royal families of Europe; I might, perhaps, even be allowed to go further, and to state, in the known history of any other human being.
Her nephew, Humphrey Earl of Stafford, was slain at the first battle of St. Alban’s, in 1455; his father, Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, who married her sister, Anne Neville, perished at the battle of Northampton in 1460; her husband, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, when the crown of England was almost within his grasp, and her nephew, Sir Thomas Neville, son of her brother, Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, and her husband’s nephew, Sir Edward Bourchier, son of Henry Earl of Ewe, afterwards Earl of Essex, by Isabel his wife, were slain in 1460, at the battle of Wakefield; her brother, the Earl of Salisbury, was taken prisoner there, and put to death; her second son, Edmund Earl of Rutland, although a mere child, was, at the same time, murdered after the battle, by John Lord Clifford; her half-nephew, Sir John Neville, commonly called John Lord Neville, [193a] brother to Ralph Neville, second Earl of Westmoreland, perished in 1461, in the action of Dintingdale, prior to the battle of Towton; her nephew, Sir Henry Neville (son of her brother, George Neville, Lord Latimer), was made prisoner, and put to death after the battle of Banbury, in 1469; [193b] her two nephews, Richard Neville, the great Earl of Warwick, the “proud setter-up and puller-down of kings,” and John Neville, Marquis of Montague, and her husband’s nephew, Humphrey Bourchier, Lord Cromwell, the son of Henry Earl of Ewe and Essex, by Isabel his wife, were slain at the battle of Barnet, in 1471; Edward Prince of Wales, who married her great-niece, Anne Neville, the daughter of her nephew, the great Earl of Warwick, was barbarously murdered, after the battle of Tewkesbury, in the same year; her son George Duke of Clarence, was put to death in the Tower of London, in 1477–8, his wife Isabel, who was her great-niece, having previously died, as was suspected, by poison; her son-in-law, Charles Duke of Burgundy, called Charles the Bold, or Charles the Rash, who married Margaret, her third daughter, after having by his folly and rashness, impaired his power, and placed his dominions in a state of great peril, was slain at the battle of Nancy, in 1476–7; her eldest son, King Edward IV., abandoned a warlike and active life for pleasure and excesses, which cut him off in the prime of manhood, in 1483; the first husband of her niece, Katherine Neville, William Bonvile, Lord Harrington, [194a] was slain at the battle of Wakefield, in 1460, and the second husband of her niece, William Lord Hastings, was beheaded, without even the form of a trial, in 1483; her youngest niece, Margaret Neville, married John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, [194b] who, during many years of his life, was a fugitive or prisoner, whilst she suffered from great poverty, and her son by the Earl of Oxford, died in confinement, in the Tower of London, during her husband’s exile; her son-in-law, Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, who married her daughter Anne, was attainted for his support of the House of Lancaster, lived for some time in exile, and was in such poverty, as to be obliged to beg his bread, and in 1473, his corpse was found stripped naked, on the seashore, near Dover; her two grandsons, King Edward V. and Richard Duke of York, are believed to have been murdered [195a] in the Tower of London, in 1483; her son-in-law, Sir Thomas St. Ledger, who married Anne, widow of Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, was executed in 1483, at Exeter, and attainted for treason, in joining the unsuccessful rebellion of Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham; and the latter, who was her great-nephew, being the grandson of her sister, Anne Neville, being deserted by his forces, and betrayed, was, about the same time, taken prisoner and beheaded; her grandson, Edward Prince of Wales, son of King Richard III. and of her great niece, Queen Anne, through whom she naturally expected the honour of being the ancestress of a line of English Monarchs, died in 1484; and the childless Queen, his mother, a few months afterwards, followed him to the tomb; her youngest son, King Richard III., was slain at the battle of Bosworth, in 1485; and her grandson, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, perished in 1487, at the battle of Stoke. [196a]
She died in 1495; [196b] after three princes descended from her, had succeeded to the crown of England, without taking into the account her grand-daughter, Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII., and more than one had been murdered; and, by her death, was saved the additional affliction of the loss of her grandson, Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, the last male of the House of Plantagenet, who was tyrannically and wickedly put to death, in 1499, by Henry VII.