Shakespeare's Kings (95 page)

At
first
light
on
Easter
Sunday,
to
a
deafening
blast
of
trumpets,
he ordered
the
advance.
The
fog
had
grown
thicker,
to
the
point
where it
took
him
a
little
time
to
discover
that
he
had
sli
ghtly
mistaken
his position:
his
line
outflanked
Warwick's
on
the
right
and
was
itself outflanked
on
the
left.
One
end
of
the
Yorkist
line,
moreover,
was unable
to
see
the
other
-
though
this
ultimately
proved
an
advantage: when
Edward's
left
wing
was
broken
by
the
Lancastrians
under
the
Earl of
Oxford
and
took
flight,
the
right
remained
unaware
of
the
fact
and fought
on
undismayed.
Again
the
superbly
armoured
figure
of
the King
himself,
commanding
the
centre
and
towering
above
his
soldiers, dominated
the
battle.
He
and
they
fought
furiously
for
three
hours, first
wearing
down
Warwick's
men
and
ultimately
driving
them
back. By
mid-morning
it
was
all
over,
with
perhaps
a
thousand
men
-
Montagu among
them
-
lying
dead
on
the
field.
Warwick
himself
leaped
on
to
his horse
and
fled;
but
he
was
captured
in
nearby
Wrotham
Park
and
cut down
on
the
spot.
His
body
and
his
brother's
were
carried
to
London
and on
the
King's
orders
were
exposed
for
two
days,
'open
and
naked',
in St
Paul's,
not
as
a
grisly
triumph
but
in
order
to
refute
any
dangerous rumours
that
they
might
still
be
alive.
King
Henry,
who
had
been
fitted with
armour
and
optimistically
placed
in
the
thick
of
the
fighting,
somehow
escaped
without
a
scratch
and
was
taken
back
to
the
Tower.

That
same
evening,
after
three
weeks
during
which
she
had
been delayed
again
and
again
by
contrary
winds
in
the
Channel,
Queen Margaret
—
now
forty-one
—
and
her
son
Prince
Edward
landed
at Weymouth.
Next
day
she
went
to
Cerne
Abbey;
it
was
there
that
she was
joined
by
Somerset
and
the
Earl
of
Devonshire,
who
told
her
of Warwick's
defeat.
She
was,
however,
given
a
warm
reception
in
the west
country,
where
there
was
an
immediate
general
rising
in
Dorset, Devon
and
Cornwall.
At
this
point
she
had
two
choices
before
her. She
could
march
directly
on
London,
either
taking
the
coast
road
or by
way
of
Salisbury;
alternatively
she
could
head
north
to
Lancashire and
Cheshire,
where
her
principal
support
was
to
be
found
and
where there
was
a
chance
that
she
might
meet
up
on
her
way
with
Jasper Tudor,
who
was
believed
to
be
rallying
troops
on
her
behalf.
Either way,
as
she
was
well
aware,
Edward
would
not
give
her
an
easy
journey.

Nor
did
he.
His
agents
had
watched
her
every
movement
since
her arrival,
and
when
she
chose
the
second
course
of
action
he
knew
of her
decision
almost
as
soon
as
she
knew
of
it
herself.
The
several
feints that
she
deliberately
made
in
an
attempt
to
put
him
off
the
scent
were of
no
avail:
on
the
very
day
-
29
April
-
that
she
arrived
in
Bath,
he and
his
army
reached
Cirencester.
Hearing
of
this
she
withdrew
to Bristol,
whence
she
advanced
up
the
Severn
valley,
Edward
following her
on
a
parallel
course
through
the
Cotswolds.
On
3
May,
after
an all-night
march,
she
reached
Gloucester,
only
to
find
its
gates
-
and
the Severn
bridge
behind
them
-
firmly
closed
against
her.
Her
troops, now
scarcely
able
to
drag
one
foot
in
front
of
the
other
—
they
had marched
with
full
equipment
nearly
fifty
miles
in
thirty-six
hours,
across difficult
country,
in
unseasonably
hot
weather
and
with
little
water
-were
obliged
to
struggle
on
for
another
ten
miles
to
Tewkesbury,
where a
shallow
ford
would
enable
them
to
cross
the
river.

Unfortunately
for
them,
however,
they
were
never
able
to
make
use of
it.
Arriving
in
the
late
afternoon,
they
and
their
horses
were
utterly exhausted.
They
could
think
of
nothing
but
a
few
hours'
rest;
and
the next
morning,
Saturday
4
May,
Edward
was
upon
them.

It
was
a
hard-fought
fight.
The
Yorkists
had
the
advantage
of
va
stly
superior
fire-power,
from
their
archers
and
hand-gunners
alike,
and their
adversaries
soon
found
themselves
cowering
under
a
deluge
of arrows
and
shot.
Somerset,
who
was
in
command,
had
no
choice
but to
go
over
to
the
offensive
and
launched
a
sweeping
attack
on
Edward's left
flank.
Thanks
to
the
wooded
terrain
with
its
hedges
and
sunken lanes,
he
was
able
to
take
the
Yorkists
momentarily
by
surprise;
but Richard
of
Gloucester,
commanding
the
vanguard,
sped
to
his
brother's aid.
Just
as
they
were
beginning
to
drive
back
the
attackers
they
were joined
by
a
mobile
column
of
200
men-at-arms,
who
had
been
ordered off
by
Edward
before
the
battle
to
guard
against
possible
ambush
in
a wood.
Swooping
down
from
the
higher
ground,
they
made
short
work of
the
retreating
Lancastrians.
Young
Prince
Edward,
who
had
been put
in
nominal
command
of the
'middle
ward'
of the
army
and
had
in consequence
not
been
involved
in
the
flanking
attack,
did
his
utmost to
encourage
his
men
to
stay
and
fight;
but
they
had
seen
the
fate
of their
companions,
and
soon
they
too
took
to
their
heels.