The Field of the Battle of Barnet
Warwick (wounded).—“Ah, who is nigh? come to me, friend, or foe,
And tell me, who is victor, York or Warwick?
Why ask I that? My mangled body shows,
My blood, my want of strength, my sick heart shows,
That I must yield my body to the earth,
And by my fall, the conquest to my foe.”
Shakespeare’s Henry VI. part 3, act v. scene 2.
(A Field of Battle, near Barnet.)
The Battle of Barnet was fought on the 14th of April, 1471, at a place formerly called Gladmore Heath, but which is now completely enclosed, about a mile north-west from Barnet, in the county of Middlesex, between the Yorkists, under King Edward IV., and the Lancastrians, commanded by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, 205 the King-Maker, in which the latter was slain, and the Yorkists were completely victorious.
I visited the field of battle on the 9th of July, 1856. The accounts of the battle given by the old historical writers are so imperfect, that they do not throw any light upon the precise positions which the hostile armies respectively occupied; and I could not, when upon the spot, obtain much new information of moment, relative to the battle.
After Edward IV. had returned from the Continent, and had landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, he proceeded to York, and from thence towards London; and the Earl of Warwick, who was posted with his forces at Coventry, marched from it in pursuit of him:—
Warwick.—“I will away towards Barnet presently,
And bid thee battle, Edward, if thou dars’t.”
Shakespeare’s Henry VI. part iii. act v. scene 5.
The Earl of Warwick expected that the city of London would hold out against Edward, until he could arrive to its relief. On his march, he received the disastrous tidings, that Edward had been joyfully received into London; that Henry VI. was a prisoner; and that Warwick’s son-in-law, George Duke of Clarence, 206a had renounced his engagements, and had gone over, near the town of Warwick, with all his forces, to Edward.
The Earl of Warwick was now in a situation of great peril, and, under other circumstances, would probably have attempted a retreat, but he was in the face of a superior army, and was some days’ march from any place of safety; he was too far advanced to retreat; and, although Clarence offered his mediation between Edward and Warwick, the latter proudly rejected it, and resolutely prepared for battle.
Edward had the superiority of numbers, as his army had become greatly increased, since Clarence had deserted the Earl of Warwick, and had joined the Yorkists.
During the night preceding the battle, the Earl of Warwick and the Lancastrians were encamped on Gladmore Heath, on the north-westward side of Barnet, and they had posted a small advanced guard in that town. Edward, having advanced from London to Barnet, dislodged the few Lancastrian forces posted in it, and drove them towards the main body; he, however, did not suffer his men to remain in the town, but encamped in the open field, nearer his enemies than they were aware; and one old writer states, that he caused his people to keep as silent as possible, in order to prevent the Lancastrians from knowing the exact position of his army. 206b
Both parties used artillery; 206c and some historians state, 206c that they fired at each other, in the course of the night. We are also told, that the guns of the Earl of Warwick, were constantly fired at Edward’s forces during the night, but with little effect, in consequence of overshooting them, from their lying nearer than was supposed. 207a
On Easter Sunday, the 14th of April, 1471, the day commenced with a thick fog, and both armies were placed in order of battle. On Edward’s part, the van was commanded by Richard Duke of Gloucester; 207b the middle, by Edward in person, assisted by the Duke of Clarence (having with them King Henry as a prisoner); and the rear was under the command of Lord Hastings; 207c besides which, Edward had a considerable body of men in reserve.
The Earl of Warwick gave the command of the Lancastrian right wing, which consisted of horse, to his brother, the Marquis Montague, 207d and the Earl of Oxford; 207e the left wing, also consisting in a great measure of horse, was under the command of the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Exeter; 207f and the middle, which consisted principally of archers and bill-men, was commanded by the Duke of Somerset. 207g
The battle commenced very early in the morning, Edward having between four and five o’clock, advanced his banners, and caused his trumpets to sound for battle; and as soon as the opposite forces got sight of each other, the conflict commenced with archery, and they shortly afterwards, encountered each other with hand blows. In consequence of the fog, the armies were inadvertently not drawn up exactly opposite each other; the Earl of Warwick’s right wing, under the command of the Earl of Oxford, extending a little beyond Edward’s left, which stood to the westward; and in consequence of it, that part of his army was rather overmatched; 207h and we may readily believe, that from the same cause, Edward’s right wing outflanked Warwick’s left. By reason of that circumstance, and the fierceness and intrepidity, with which the Earl of Oxford attacked his enemies, he had at first a considerable degree of success; he broke a part of the ranks of the Yorkists, and several of the fugitives fled to London, and gave out that the Lancastrians were victorious. This, however, proved to be of no eventual advantage, and gave no encouragement to the other forces of Warwick, because the fog prevented their being fully aware of it; beside which, some of Oxford’s men commenced pillaging, instead of following up their first success. An unfortunate mistake also occurred in consequence of the fog: the device of the Earl of Oxford, a star with rays, being mistaken for that of Edward, the sun in splendour; 208 and the Lancastrian archers shot at Oxford’s troops, which caused Oxford and many of his men to suppose it to be the effect of treachery, and to quit the field.
The Duke of Gloucester gave proofs of the undaunted courage and daring spirit, for which he was always conspicuous, and which his enemies have never ventured to deny; he fought valiantly against the Lancastrians; and his two esquires, John Milwater and Thomas Parr, were slain at his feet.
Warwick, at the head of his troops, attacked the part of the Yorkist army, in which Edward was; and the battle was for a long time, obstinate and bloody. Edward, however, brought up his reserve at an opportune moment, and at length, the Earl of Warwick was slain, and a complete victory was obtained by Edward, over the Lancastrians. John Neville, Marquis Montague, and several knights, of whom Sir William Tyrrel was one, also perished. The Duke of Exeter was wounded, and left for dead upon the field, 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. The Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Oxford fled, in the company of some northern men, towards Scotland; but changing their plans, Somerset made for Wales, in order to join Jasper Earl of Pembroke; and Oxford escaped to France, from whence, he not long afterwards returned, with some men, and seized the fortress of St. Michael’s Mount, on the coast of Cornwall, which he held for several months, against King Edward’s forces.
On King Edward’s side, there were slain, Lord Cromwell; 209a Lord Saye; 209b Sir Humphrey Bourchier, son of John Lord Berners; 209c Sir John Lisle; 209d and about 1500 men; but the loss on the Lancastrian side is said to have amounted to about double that number, Edward having given orders not to give any quarter. Most of the slain were buried on the plain where they had fallen, and where, according to Stow, a chapel was afterwards built, in memory of them, of which there are now no remains; but he states, that when he wrote, it was a dwelling-house, and the upper portions remained. Some of the bodies of the persons who had been of a higher rank, are said to have been removed, and interred in the church in Austin Friars, London.
The bodies of the Earl of Warwick, and the Marquis Montague, were conveyed in a cart to London, and for three days lay in Saint Paul’s Cathedral Church, with their faces exposed to view, so that no person could doubt their deaths; and they were then buried with their ancestors, in Bisham Abbey, in Berkshire, where they remained until the dissolution of monasteries, when the abbey was destroyed, and all knowledge of the exact spots where they were interred, is now forgotten.
Such was the end of the career of the great, valiant, and powerful Earl of Warwick, who has been not incorrectly described as the “proud setter-up and puller-down of Kings,” 210a and who had been mainly instrumental in dethroning Henry VI. and making Edward IV. a King; and again, in dethroning Edward, and restoring Henry.
Warwick (wounded).—“For who liv’d King, but I could dig his grave?
And who durst smile, when Warwick bent his brow?
Lo, now my glory smear’d in dust and blood!
My parks, my walks, my manors that I had,
Even now forsake me; and of all my lands,
Is nothing left me, but my body’s length!”
Shakespeare’s Henry VI. part iii. act v. scene 2.
(A Field of Battle near Barnet.)
From the accounts given by the old historians, 210b it is clear that cannons or some other description of firearms were used at the battle of Barnet. Besides which, W. Hutton, F.S.A., states that the keeper of the Red Cow Tavern, near the obelisk after mentioned, preserved a ball of a pound and a half weight, which he dug out of the ground. 210c
An obelisk of stone, apparently about eighteen or twenty feet high, commemorative of the battle, 210d and of the place 210e where it was fought, was erected by Sir Jeremy Sambroke, Bart., in 1740.
It stands about a mile beyond Barnet, and just beyond the small village of Hadley, and is in the county of Middlesex, but near the borders of Hertfordshire, and on the right side of the high road, close to the point where the roads diverge in one direction to South Mims and St. Alban’s, and in the other to Hatfield.
It stood originally close to the tavern called the Two Brewers, to which it is still very near; but about fourteen or fifteen years ago, it was removed thirty-two yards more towards the South Mims side, where it now stands. 211
The obelisk is often called Hadley High Stone, and contains the following inscription:—
HERE WAS
FOUGHT THE
FAMOUS BATTLE
BETWEEN EDWARD
THE 4TH AND THE
EARL OF WARWICK
APRIL THE 14TH
ANNO
1471
IN WHICH THE EARL
WAS DEFEATED
AND SLAIN.