CHAPTER V.

THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF MORTIMER’S CROSS. {67a}

_Edward_.—“Dazzle mine eyes, or do I see three suns?”

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“’Tis wondrous strange, the like yet never heard of. I think it cites us, brother, to the field, That we, the sons of brave Plantagenet, Each one already blazing by our meeds, Should notwithstanding join our lights together, And overshine the earth, as this the world. Whate’er it bodes, henceforward will I bear Upon my target, three fair shining suns.”

SHAKESPEARE’S _Henry VI._ part iii. act 2, scene 1. (_Near Mortimer’s Cross_.)

THE victory gained by the Lancastrians, at the battle of Wakefield, seemed at the first view, to decide the fate of the adverse party. Richard Duke of York, the claimant to the throne, and the leader of the Yorkists, was slain; Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, was wounded, taken prisoner, and afterwards beheaded at Pontefract; and the army of which they were commanders, was completely destroyed. A most formidable enemy, however, soon presented himself to notice. Edward Earl of March, {67b} the eldest son of the Duke of York, was considered by great numbers of persons, as the rightful heir to the throne of England; he was descended from the Mortimers, Earls of March, and had claims to the crown, from his descent through his mother’s side, from Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., through Philippa (the only daughter and heiress of the Duke of Clarence), who married Roger Mortimer, third Earl of March and Lord of Wigmore; besides which, he was also descended from Edward III. in another manner, because his great-grandfather, Edmund of Langley, was the fifth son of Edward III. He was a young man whose personal appearance and manners were very prepossessing; he gained the hearts of men in a warlike age, by his courage and excellence in martial exercises; and his noble and powerful alliances, combined with his lineal descent from the great families of Plantagenet and Mortimer, had a potent influence in his favour, with vast numbers of all ranks; besides which, he was young, talented, and daring, and was well qualified under those circumstances to fight his way to a throne.

At the time when his father perished at Wakefield, Edward was occupied, by the direction of the former, in raising forces in the marches and the borders of Wales: a district where he had immense patrimonial possessions, and where the circumstance of his being of the lineage of the Mortimers, gave him great sway and influence. He was at Gloucester when he received the account of his father’s death. After having raised a large army, which some writers have stated to have amounted to as many as 23,000 men, he prepared to march against Queen Margaret, and avenge the death of his father.

Edward had, according to the accounts given by several of the old historians, proceeded as far as Shrewsbury, when he received tidings, that James Butler, Earl of Wiltshire, {69a} and Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, {69b} half brother to King Henry the Sixth, had assembled a large army of Welsh and Irish, in order to attack him; and Edward, in consequence of that intelligence, {72a} was induced to return promptly in order to encounter them.

The two hostile armies met and fought, on Candlemas Day, the 2nd of February, 1461, {72b} in the parish of Kingsland, in Herefordshire, between Leominster and Wigmore, not far from East Hereford, and very near Mortimer’s Cross; {72c} from which place the battle acquired its name.

In those days the appearance of so unusual a phenomenon in the sky, as a parhelion, or mock sun, was considered a strange and unheard-of prodigy, which had its weight with ignorant men, as an omen of good or bad fortune, exciting within them either hopes or fears. The rare phenomenon, of the appearance of three suns in the sky, presented itself to view, on the morning of the battle; and, after showing themselves for some time, they suddenly joined and seemed to form one sun.

“Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun; Not separated by the racking clouds, But sever’d in a pale clear shining sky. See, see! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss, As if they vow’d some league inviolable: Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun.”

SHAKESPEARE’S _Henry VI._, part iii. act 2, scene 1. (_Near Mortimer’s Cross_.)

Edward had the sagacity to affect to believe, or really did believe, that this natural phenomenon {73a} was an omen of his success. He afterwards, in commemoration of it, assumed the sun in its splendour, as his device or badge. {73b}

Edward with his forces courageously attacked {73c} the forces of the Earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire, and after a severe battle, completely defeated them; and about 3800 of the Lancastrians were slain. The Earls of Pembroke and of Wiltshire escaped by flight; Sir Owen Tudor, {73d} father of the Earl of Pembroke, and second husband of Queen Katherine, the widow of Henry V., and the mother of Henry VI., was taken prisoner, beheaded at Hereford, and was buried in a chapel of the Grey Friars Church; {73e} and Sir John Scudamore and his two sons, David Lloyd, Morgan ap Reuther, Thomas Griffith, John Throckmorton, Thomas Fitzhenry, and other gentlemen of consideration, were also taken and beheaded there: a fearful retaliation for the murder of the young Earl of Rutland, and the execution in cold blood, by the Lancastrians, of some of the prisoners, who had been taken at the battle of Wakefield. {74a}

The victorious Edward then proceeded with his army to join the King-making Earl of Warwick, who had recently been defeated by the Lancastrians at the second battle of St. Alban’s. They effected a junction at Chipping Norton, near Cotswold, and, with their united armies, marched towards London, where Edward was proclaimed King by his partisans shortly after his arrival.

The field of the battle of Mortimer’s Cross is in the parish of Kingsland, five mile north-west by west from Leominster, close to the fifth milestone of the turnpike road, leading from Leominster to Wigmore and Knighton, at the place where a byroad joins the turnpike road, and where a stone pedestal or monument, which will be more particularly mentioned afterwards, stands at the point of junction of those two roads, which was erected to commemorate the battle. {74b} Mortimer’s Cross is nearly a mile and a quarter further on the turnpike road, leading towards Wigmore.

It may perhaps be taken for granted, that the old historical accounts are correct in stating, that previous to the battle, Edward had marched as far as Shrewsbury, had returned to meet the Earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire, and that the two earls had raised a large portion of their forces in Wales; and if so, it is tolerably certain that the Lancastrians advanced from Wales into Herefordshire, towards the Earl of March’s possessions {75a} at Wigmore and on the borders of Wales; consequently the vicinity of Mortimer’s Cross was a very natural spot for the hostile armies to meet. There is a gentle ascent in the road from Mortimer’s Cross to the field of battle, and to the spot where the pedestal stands, consequently the Yorkists had a slight advantage of ground; and they were drawn up facing the westward, whilst the Lancastrian army faced the eastward.

Mortimer’s Cross is not a village, but merely consists of a respectable but small country inn, called the Mortimer’s Cross Inn, and one or two other houses, at a junction of four roads; where in former times a cross is said to have been erected by one of the Mortimers; but it has long been removed, and I could not learn, upon inquiry, that it had been there within the memory of man.

Relics of the conflict have been occasionally dug up in the fields in front (to the westward) of the pedestal, and of the point of junction of the two roads. When I first visited the field of battle, on the 16th of May, 1854, I met with a husbandman at work there, who had lived near it many years, and who informed me, that some years ago, in ploughing in the next fields immediately to the right and left of the turnpike road, after leaving the pedestal and the place of junction of the two roads, he had not unfrequently discovered remains of bridle-bits, stirrups, fragments of iron, and, amongst others, long pieces of iron, which, from their shape and size, he concluded had been sword-blades, besides other indications of the battle.

Within the recollection of the Rev. R. D. Evans, rector of Kingsland, some arms, swords, and spear-heads, were found on the field of battle, and were presented to the Museum at Hereford. {76a} He also showed me, when I visited the field of battle in 1856, a large buckle, perfectly plain, conjectured to have formed part of the trappings of a horse; a small buckle, rather ornamented, probably intended for a sword-belt, both of iron or steel; and a small silver coin, seemingly a groat, all found upon the field of battle in 1854. {76b} I have also been informed by him, that there was within his recollection, in a close near the field of battle, a mound said to have been a place of burial of those slain in the battle, but that it is now quite ploughed down, and no vestige of it remains. Although the field of battle is now entirely enclosed, there were old persons living, when I visited it in 1855 and 1856, who recollected large parts of it, when the thorn fences of its enclosures were small, and not much grown, from having been recently planted, and even when a portion of the land near the pedestal was open and unenclosed.

The ruins of Wigmore Castle are little more than four miles further than the field of battle, on the road from Leominster, from which it is about nine miles and a half distant; and when I was on three occasions in the neighbourhood, I did not hesitate to prolong my excursion, and visit the remains of a castle which in days of yore was of importance, and a principal residence of the Mortimers and of Richard Duke of York. Leland does not give any information of moment respecting the castle, but merely states concisely, “Wigmore Castle a XX myles from Shreusbiri, standing on a Brooket sumtime almost dry.” {77}

The ruins are upon a considerable eminence, and are sadly shattered, both by time and wilful spoliation, though they still are interesting, and of commanding appearance.

So much of the castle has been destroyed, that it is not possible to determine with accuracy its original plan and arrangements. Some of the outside walls, an arch, and other small parts of the principal gateway, and some considerable portions of the keep, still remain, much of which are covered with ivy; the moat is also tolerably perfect in most places; and the ruins of the keep stand within the castle upon a naturally high elevation, which has been considerably raised by artificial means. The keep has formerly been further strengthened by an interior moat, which separated it from the rest of the castle.

Most of the walls have been built of a slaty kind of stone, which has a tendency to splinter and crumble from the effects of the weather and frost, so that the remains do not appear likely to have a very long continuance. In approaching the entrance, there are some appearances visible, of a rampart and ditch, extending to the right, and also for a little distance to the left, of the gateway; there are not, however, any signs of masonry upon the rampart; but, if it formerly formed part of the outworks or outward defences of the castle, it probably has been fortified with palisades or stakes.

The church and little village of Wigmore are close to the castle. The church is a plain stone Gothic edifice, of great antiquity. It contains sedilia, and also a piscina, both of remarkable construction: the former being literally stone seats separated by stone partitions perfectly plain, without any canopies or arches; and the latter being placed on the acute angle of some masonry near them. The roof of the church is of a very unusual description, as it is of massive oak timber, waggon-shaped, and apparently of great age; and a large part of the outside wall of the north side of the nave is built with the stones set in the herringbone fashion, which is now very rarely to be met with, and is usually considered a proof of its remote antiquity.

A chapel, now demolished, originally stood on another part of the north side of the church, as is proved by the piscina still remaining on the outside of it; and the arch through which the entrance was obtained into it from the church, being still apparent in the north wall.

Considering the great utility of the castle, as a bridle to incursions from the borders of Wales, formerly a hostile country, its importance to the lords of the Welsh marches, and its having been a residence of the powerful Mortimers, who had more than once caused kings to feel uneasy on their thrones, I was a little surprised not to find it of more extensive size; nor did I consider its position to have been naturally as strong, as might have been expected, for such a fortress.

Here the traveller finds himself in a district upon the borders of Wales, which in a remote age, and when the principality was considered as a hostile country, was a part of the Welsh marches, and the personages in command there, were designated Lords Marchers. {78a} They were so called, from the word _marche_, or limit. They had Courts of Marche, in which they tried causes of different kinds, and especially offences against the public peace, which went by the name of Marche Treason. {78b} The Mortimers often held that important office upon the borders of Wales.

There were in Wales, and the borders of England, adjoining the principality, 141 manors, of large extent, possessed by the Lords Marchers, who enjoyed almost regal rights upon their lands, and administered justice within their several districts, without the intervention of the King’s judges. {79a} The excessive authority and local jurisdictions of the Lords Marchers, in this debatable land, were abolished by an act of Parliament, in the time of Henry VIII. {79b}

The drive from Leominster to Wigmore is interesting and pleasant. The view from Wigmore Castle is extensive and beautiful; an amphitheatre of mountains forms a background, between which and the castle, is a very extensive plain, over which, in days of yore, the powerful Mortimers could survey, from the towers and battlements, their vast possessions, and, as mighty feudal lords, they also could despotically command the property, services, and even the lives of nearly all who resided within the district.

The pedestal or monument before noticed, erected near the fifth milestone of the turnpike road, to commemorate the battle of Mortimer’s Cross, contains the following inscription:—

THIS PEDESTAL IS ERECTED TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF AN OBSTINATE BLOODY AND DECISIVE BATTLE, FOUGHT NEAR THIS SPOT, IN THE CIVIL WARS BETWEEN THE AMBITIOUS HOUSES OF YORK AND LANCASTER, ON THE 2ND DAY OF FEBRUARY 1460 {80a} BETWEEN THE FORCES OF EDWARD MORTIMER EARL OF MARCH (AFTERWARDS EDWARD THE FOURTH) ON THE SIDE OF YORK, AND THOSE OF HENRY THE SIXTH ON THE SIDE OF LANCASTER.

THE KING’S TROOPS WERE COMMANDED BY JASPER EARL OF PEMBOKE; EDWARD COMMANDED HIS OWN IN PERSON AND WAS VICTORIOUS: THE SLAUGHTER WAS GREAT ON BOTH SIDES FOUR THOUSAND BEING LEFT DEAD ON THE FIELD, AND MANY WELSH PERSONS OF THE FIRST DISTINCTION WERE TAKEN PRISONERS, AMONG WHOM WAS OWEN TUDOR (GREAT-GRANDFATHER TO HENRY THE EIGHTH, AND A DESCENDANT OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS CADWALLADER) WHO WAS AFTERWARDS BEHEADED AT HEREFORD: THIS WAS THE DECISIVE BATTLE WHICH FIXED EDWARD THE FOURTH ON THE THRONE OF ENGLAND, {80b} WHO WAS PROCLAIMED KING IN LONDON ON THE FIFTH OF MARCH FOLLOWING.

ERECTED BY SUBSCRIPTION IN THE YEAR 1799.