_Marchudd AP CYNAN __+
|
_Karwedh AP MARCHUDD _|
| |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Jafeth AP KARWEDH
|
| _____________________
| |
|______________________|
|
|_____________________
_William "Als Gernons" DE PERCY _+
| (1034 - 1096)
_Alan "The Great" DE PERCY _|
| (1069 - 1120) |
| |_Emma DE PORT ___________________
| (1030 - ....)
|
|--Walter DE PERCY
|
| _Gilbert I DE GANT ______________+
| |
|_Emma DE GANT ______________|
|
|_Alice DE MONTFORT ______________+
__
|
_Frosti _____________|
| |
| |__
|
|
|--Skjalf FROSTASSON
|
| __
| |
|_____________________|
|
|__
_Henry DE PERCY _________________+
| (1320 - 1368) m 1350
_Henry PERCY _________|
| (1341 - 1408) |
| |_Mary PLANTAGENET _______________+
| (1320 - 1362) m 1350
|
|--Henry "Hotspur" PERCY
| (1364 - 1403)
| _Ralph, Lord of Raby DE NEVILLE _+
| | (1291 - 1367)
|_Margaret DE NEVILLE _|
(.... - 1372) |
|_Alice DUDLEY ___________________+
(.... - 1373)
[42]
Percy, Sir Henry. (Called Hotspur.) English nobleman, soldier; son of
Henry Percy (1342-1408), 1st Earl of Northumberland. In 1402 he fought
with his
father at Homildon Hill, and captured the Earl of Douglas. Angered by
the refusal
of Henry IV to accept Douglas as ransom for his (Percy's)
brother-in-law, Edmund
Mortimer (whom Henry IV was holding prisoner), Percy associated himself
with Owen Glendower in his war against the king, and was killed at
Shrewsbury in
1403.
Shakespeare introduced him (on a basis of the accounts in Holinshed) as
a
jesting, fiery-tempered solider in his Henry IV, first part.
Henry Percy (AKA Harry Hotspur) was born on the 20th of May 1366 at
Alnwick Castle. His father had already been endowed with the Earldom of
Northumberland and his Mother Mary Plantagenet was the Granddaughter of
the ruthless King Edward the III. At the age of 8 years Lord Harry
accompanied his father on a campaign against Du Guesclin as a page,
wearing the badge of Percy the Crescent and the manacles. In 1376 he
witnessed the bloody fights between the Scots and the English. At 11
years he was knighted at the Coronation of Richard the II to become Sir
Harry Percy Knight by the Kings hand.
In the autumn of 1388 Berwick the major border power point was captured
by the Scots. This was a slight on Earl Percy’s watchfulness. The siege
of Berwick lasted nine days, the final victory being led in person by
Sir Harry Percy to whom his father had granted him this most dangerous
honour. Sir Harry leapt through with sword shouting ‘esperance’ the
Percy motto. He was just 12 years old and was protected by stalwart
Northumbrian’s to make sure that he came to no harm. No quarter was
given and no Scots survived. But revenge was quick and the Scots tore
Northumberland apart for leagues. King Richard intervened on the advice
of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster also a cousin of Richard (as Hotspur
was). This intervention by Lancaster was motivated by his desire to see
his son Henry Bolingbroke nominated as Richards’s successor. This
caused much mistrust between Lancaster and the Percies who were loyal
to Richard and eventually led to the troubles culminating in the battle
of Shrewsbury in 1403.
During this time all of England began ringing with the fame of Harry
Hotspur who with his youthful good looks and absolute fearlessness had
caught the popular fancy. Gentle and simple swore that never since the
days of the black Prince had England seen such a Knight as him. Sir
Harry was now known by the sobriquet Hotspur so named by his Scottish
foe for his devastating speed in battle.
In 1386 Earl Percy entered into a solemn covenant with the Scots Earl
of Douglas for the peace and protection of the border. Douglas and
Percy set their seals at the water of Eske on the 15th day of March.
But still the border skirmishes continued across the frontier and these
cross road fights were almost a weekly occurrence as private armies
went against the covenant of the wardens to loot rape and pillage the
countryside.
All this came to a head in 1388 when a Scots army led by Douglas and
Montgomerie and numbering 50,000 men and invaded the North as far as
Newcastle laying waste to the whole country side. Their aim was to
confront Lord Harry Percy who was constable of Newcastle. But in
pushing so recklessly Southward Douglas had failed to take cognisance
of Earl Percy’s movements. He had deliberately withdrawn to Alnwick and
had let Douglas pass on his way allowing him time to collect a sizeable
army.
No sooner had Douglas set down before Newcastle than Earl Percy took
his cue and set forth with his assembled army to cut off the enemy’s
retreat. Douglas had allowed himself to be drawn into a cleverly
devised trap. Douglas was keener to scrap with Hotspur in chivalrous
combat than to dwell on strategy and he soon challenged Hotspur to
single combat, which was accepted. A course was set before the
Newcastle gates and the two champions advanced unattended to the
encounter.
Douglas had the advantage of age and strength being 8 years older than
Hotspur who had barely attained his majority. But in all other respects
the combatants were fairly matched. They met ‘mounted on two greete
coursers, with sharpe grounde speares at the utterance’. Fortune did
not favour Hotspur that day and he was struck hard on his side and
flung from his saddle to the ground and was concussed. Fearing that he
might fall into the hands of the Scots Hotspur’s men rescued him back
within the walled town.
This untoward event was galling to the Northumbrian’s as much as it
filled the Scots with fresh vigour and the victorious Douglas
immediately ordered a general assault on Newcastle. Again and again
they attacked only to be beaten back each time. Hotspur and his brother
Ralph fought in the forefront of the garrison. So resolute was their
defence that Douglas raised the siege and began to retire towards the
border.
Before he left however he rode up to within earshot of the town wall
followed by his esquire holding Hotspur’s captured lance and Pennon.
Earl Douglas shouted up to the battlement.
" Syre ", he said " I shall bear this token of of your prowess into
Scotland, and shall set it high in my castle of Dalkeith that it may be
seen from far off ". Hotspur shouted down in reply. " Ye may be sure ye
shall not passe the bounds of the countrye tyll ye be met withal in
such wyse that ye shall make none account thereof ". To which Earl
Douglas replied. " Well Syre come you this night to my lodgyngs and
seek for your pennon. I shall set it before my lodgynge, and see if you
will come and take it away ".
Hotspur had already received the cheering news from Alnwick of his
fathers advance Meanwhile Douglas waited at Otterbourne for Hotspur’s
arrival not knowing that Earl Percy was also on the march with his army.
Most authorities say that the battle of Otterbourne engagement began
during the evening of August the 19th 1388 a Wednesday according to the
Julian Calendar. Hotspur had indeed followed Douglas but did not bother
to wait to join his father’s army from Alnwick. It was not in the Percy
way to wait to launch an attack and so Hotspur broke the battle upon
the Scottish foe though it was late afternoon. Even so the Scots were
clearly surprised at the speed with which Hotspur had travelled and
their hastily formed line was shattered by the Northumbrian’s first
onslaught. But darkness came quickly saving the Scottish a rout.
Douglas shouted out for his men to rally or to never think upon
Scotland again. The Scots rallied and counter attacked as the moon
shone out sweeping down upon the Northumbrian’s. To make matters worse
the Bishop of Durham’s troops coming from the South mistook Hotspur’s
force for Scots and attacked from the rear. Hour after hour the fight
went on until Earl Percy’s garrison arrived and turned the tide of the
battle. Hotspur and Douglas fought in fantastic hand to hand combat,
Hotspur mortally wounding Douglas who kept cheering his men on from his
bloody position on the ground. The Scots fled and Hotspur and his
brother Ralph took after them in hot pursuit only to be captured for
being so rash. Hotspur and Ralph Percy were ransomed after a brief
sojourn across the border.
The death of Douglas and the cruel slaughter of Otterbourne awed the
border into a peace more lasting than it had known for many a long
year. The cessation of hostilities gave the Earl of Northumberland time
to attend to turn to the most pressing issue of the King. Richard II
had allowed himself to to fall into the ways of his unhappy ancestor,
Edward Carnarvon. Richards’s favourites, chief among whom was Robert De
Vere were elevated to positions of power at the expense of the old
nobles so that they could be dominated by the feeble mind of the King.
For a time Earl Percy and Hotspur kept aloof and even thought to become
peacemaker between Richard and the increasing animosity of the old
guard. But the pressure was already being applied on Richard through
Parliament and he reluctantly relented. De Vere and his cronies fled
and Earl Northumberland took advantage of the Royal repentance by
introducing numerous reforms.
Richards fickle favour shone also upon Hotspur and he was made Governor
of Carlisle and Warden of the West Marches and a Knight of the Garter
joining his father and uncle Thomas in this proud distinction.
Hotspur’s elevation though was beginning to cause some jealous
irritation with Earl Percy’s (and Richards) cousin the powerful John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster who wanted the crown of England for his own.
From the Scottish border fresh invasions had begun and by 1393
Northumbria was laid bare. Lancaster deliberately criticised
Northumberland and Hotspur in Parliament gaining them a Royal reproach.
In 1396 Hotspur accompanied Richard to his meeting with the French King
at Guisnes and during the same year Sir Thomas Percy (Hotspur’s uncle)
with Hotspur among his Knights went in full state to conduct the child
queen, Isabel of France to English territory.
In the meantime King Richard had grown weary of well doing and had
permitted his favourites to surreptitiously return to their old places
at court. Most of the great Barons and the commons generally regarded
the return of Richards’s evil counsellors with anger and disgust. Only
the intervention of the Clergy was needed to precipitate a revolution,
which Lancaster was lobbying hard for. Sir Thomas Percy had become
spokesman for the clergy and his influence saved the day for the King
and civil war was stayed and Sir Thomas was elevated to Earl of
Worcester but the time was drawing near when even Earl Thomas could no
longer uphold his master.
All his life ‘Old John of gaunt’ had been a menace to the peace and
prosperity of England, but the evils which he had wrought when living
were nothing to those he bequeathed to England upon his deathbed. The
unscrupulous Lancaster passed away on February the 4th 1399 beginning
what was to be a most terrible eighty years of rapine and bloodshed,
which we now call the "Wars of the Roses".
Lancaster’s intrigues to place his own son Henry Bolingbroke in the
position of next heir to the throne had already done its damage with
Northumberland and Hotspur. These same ambitions had not unnaturally
drawn upon Bolingbroke the dislike and suspicion of the King. Richard
acted quite foolishly and without council revoking the letters patent
granted to the heir of Lancaster and confiscating all his estates and
banishing him for life to France. There was great outcry at his
Majesties arbitrary proceeding. Fearing their own chastisement the
great Lords including Northumberland and Hotspur protested so
vehemently against Bolingbroke’s despoilments that the King ordered
their arrest. Sir Thomas, Earl Worcester (the kings Lord Steward)
warned his brother and nephew in time and they escaped the tower by a
swift journey Northward to Warkworth. Richard sent several emissaries
to them commanding them to return but this they wisely refused to do,
pleading unsettled conditions on the border. Sentences of banishment
and confiscation were therefore pronounced against them and they
remained under arms in their own territory.
Richard postponed the execution of the warrants against Northumberland
and Hotspur due to troubles in Ireland. He set sail for Waterford in a
fleet commanded by Worcester! Richard had hardly set foot in Ireland
when Hotspur opened communication with his cousin Bolingbroke inviting
him to return to attempt the recovery of his inheritance by force of
arms. To this Bolingbroke cunningly agreed.
The Percies had no intent whatsoever to forward the banished
Plantagenet Bolingbroke as a candidate for the crown. They rather had
in mind their regent until the young Mortimer Richards chosen heir
became of age should it be necessary. After all Bolingbroke was a blood
relative and had to all intents and purposes been unjustly treated by
the King. Should Richard have returned to find them unprepared it would
surely place them in jeopardy.
Henry Bolingbroke landed at Ravenspur on the 4th of July that same year
where he met with Northumberland and Hotspur. From Ravenspur they
travelled to Doncaster where wise Northumberland compelled the young
Lancaster to sign a solemn oath not to lay claim to the crown but to
rest content with the goodly estates and titles of his father.
A transcript from the metrical version of Chaplain William Peeris:
"The said Henry of Darby (Bolingbroke) after he was entered into the
land.
At Doncaster in the Whiet-frears was sworn on the sacrement,
To the said seventh Henry, 1st Earl of Northumberland,
And to the Lord percy his eldest son, being there present,
With his uncle the Earl of Worcester, that he would be content
His owne inheritance onely to claim,
Which was the dukedom of Lancaster which of right he would obteine;
And not to usurpe the crowne upon his prince King Richard;
And after he was perjured, and of his oathe had no regarde."
When the King returned in haste from Ireland he found that the might of
the nation swayed against him and his armies had disbanded. Seeing that
his power had vanished Richard commanded Worcester to break his staff
of office and dismiss the Royal household. He then despatched the Duke
of Exeter to Chester where Bolingbroke lay with a great army. Asking
that Northumberland visit him. From this point on the story of
Northumberland and Hotspur’s role varies widely suffice to say that
Bolingbroke was so determined in his quest for the crown that any sense
of honour or duty was merely a pipe dream. What ever thr truth Richard
abdicated and on September the 29th 1399 Bolingbroke read it out to
Parliament and Richard was imprisoned in the Tower.
Whether it be true that the Percies wittingly assisted Bolingbroke to
climb the throne or whether they were duped by John of Gaunt’s right
worthy offspring is still the subject of much conjecture. What is
certain though is that Northumberland knew that his son and heir
Hotspur had equal right to the crown as Henry Bolingbroke knew so
jealously.
A short time after his accession the new King Henry IV saw fit to seek
the goodwill of his north - country kinsmen by loading them with many
new honours and his first signature as King was attached to a charter
making Northumberland Lord High Constable., and he shortly thereafter
granted the Percies the Isle of man and its dependencies. Hotspur was
granted the Wardenship of the Eastern Marches and the Justiciaryship of
North Wales while he was also named Governor or Constable of Berwick,
Roxburgh, Bamburgh, Chester, Carnarvon and Flint.
But the political climate on the border was unstable. When the George
Dunbar the Scottish Earl of March was banished from Scotland by the
mighty Douglas on treason he fled to Alnwick and the Percies refused to
surrender him staring another round of bitter border clashes that led
to outright war. Although Dunbar was the Percies hereditary enemy Henry
IV wanted Dunbar to help with his expert strategic experience. The
devastation to both sides of the border was so continuous and fierce
that there was no food to be had by man or beast. In March 1401
Northumberland and Douglas endeavoured to patch up their differences to
no avail.
All the while the first signs of ill will between the new made King and
the House of Percy were becoming obvious. Hotspur urged the
strengthening of Carlisle and Berwick castles as protection against
possible invasion, but the King took no notice of the appeal. On Good
Friday 1401 Conway castle was somehow betrayed to the Welsh but Hotspur
succeeded in recovering the stronghold after a month’s siege. When he
wrote to the King requesting funds to pay for his endeavours the King
refused to pay anywhere near the full amount. This was the first sign
of King Henry’s duplicity against the Percies whom he feared. Again
Hotspur wrote pleading for the money telling his Majesty that his
troops remained unpaid. But the King and his council turned a deaf ear.
Hotspur wrote.
" remember how I have repeatedly applied for payment of the kings
soldiers who are in such distress as they can no longer endure owing to
the lack of money… I therefore implore you to order that they be paid…
If better means cannot be found… I shall have to go to you in person to
claim payment, to the neglect of other duties."
CLICK HERE for a transcript of the original document in the language it
was written.
Hotspur had also written to the King warning him that serious trouble
might result from lack of payment to his soldiers. This veiled threat
was ignored and declined to offer Hotspur any financial relief although
his exchequer was well filled. In September Hotspur resigned his
ungrateful post of Justiciary of North Wales and went North to assist
his father in the endeavour to preserve peace with the Scots, which was
destined to failure.
In May 1402 a considerable body of Scots raiders crossed the border and
proceeded to plunder and slay until Hotspur with a considerable force
encountered them at Nesbitt Moor. The Scots marauders were taken by
surprise and Hotspur’s force won a complete victory. Thousands of Scots
were slain and their captain Hepurn and many other notable men of
distinction fell into Hotspur’s hands.
To avenge the defeat at Nesbitt a second Scottish expedition invaded
England in August this time commanded by the Earl of Douglas. Thirty
French Knights of great distinction accompanied the army which numbered
over 12,000 picked men. They ravaged Northumberland as far as Durham
and to the Wear. Returning homeward weighed down with their plunder the
Douglas army was intercepted 6 miles north of Wooler by Harry Hotspur.
Sitting at the lead with Hotspur was none other than the banished Scots
Earl of March Lord Dunbar. The English occupied a strong position at
Millfield on Till commanding the main line of Douglas’s retreat. The
Scots halted at Homildoun Hill a mere bow shot away. Hotspur was all
for immediately charging the Scots down but the cautious Dunbar
succeeded in restraining Hotspur’s eagerness. At the advice of Dunbar
the battle was left to the English archers who had been drawn up in the
van. The showers of arrows that these archers sent veiled the sun. The
exposed Scotsmen were blocked in retreat by their own train and
suffered such a massacre that the battle was over in only an hour. The
Northumberland men at arms were never called into action the rout was
so effective. Five Earls – Douglas, Fife, Angus, Moray and Orkney were
taken prisoner and so was Dunbar’s revenge.
King Henry rejoiced in Hotspur’s victory and issued an edict strictly
forbidding that any of the prisoners taken should be ransomed or
exchanged. His excuse for such a course – wholly at variance with
established custom, and designed to cause certain discontent – was that
by keeping the Scottish border Lords in durance peace might be insured
between the two Kingdoms. Captives and captors alike were enraged, the
latter by the loss of their liberty, the former by what they held to be
a breach of chivalry and a deliberate insult from the throne. Henry
followed up his first order with a second desiring that all the
prisoners should be conveyed to London without delay. Hotspur who had
taken the Earl Douglas by his own hand simply refused to comply. When
the Scots and French Lords arrived in London the Kings prize Douglas
was not among them.
The King sent couriers to Warkworth demanding Hotspur’s instant
appearance at court together with that of his prisoner Douglas. The
second portion of the message was ignored but Harry Percy set out for
London by himself. On his way South Hotspur heard news that the young
Roger Mortimer the young Earl of march had been captured by Owen
Glendower on the Welsh frontier. Hotspur had recently married the Earls
aunt Lady Elizabeth Mortimer. Hotspur now had family reasons for being
interested in the fate of this unfortunate house. It must also not be
forgotten that Roger of March stood next after Richard II in the strict
line of succession to the English throne and it must have concerned
Hotspur that the legitimate heir to the throne lay at the mercy of the
wild Glendower. Hotspur hastened to London to meet the King.
Hotspur made application to henry to have Mortimer ransomed but due to
Hotspur’s lack of handing over Douglas this was denied. Angry Hotspur
replied publicly thus.
" Behold the heyre of the realme is robbed of his right and the robber
with his owne will not redeem him ".
The Kings advisors asked that action be taken against Hotspur but the
King made no effort to have Hotspur impeached. The Sovereigns motives
were more subtly crafty than those of his advisors. Henry Bolingbroke
realising the instability of his throne and the widespread popularity
of Hotspur was under the cover of fair words and the pretence of
magnanimity trying to provoke the Percies into outright war and so rid
himself of their opposition. King Henry’s political machinations were
carefully executed. In March 1403 he granted Northumberland all the
land of Douglas in persuasion to send them to the North out of London.
This was seen as a generous treatment but history ensured that this was
not the Kings reasoning. The lands on the border needed to be conquered
before they could be sequested and the king was not about to finance
these efforts as we saw previously. Hotspur and Northumberland made new
submission to the King requesting payment. But this time the King acted
and went forth with his army to quell the Percies once and for all
precipitating the civil war that had been brewing since Henry refused
to ransom Mortimer.
In the interim a son had been born to Harry Hotspur and Elizabeth
Mortimer. This offspring of their union furthermore strengthened the
alliance between the Percies the Mortimer’s and the legitimate heir to
the crown. This young boy Lord Henry Percy through Hotspur’s mothers
Plantagenet blood and the Mortimer’s royal line gave him right over
Bolingbroke’s child to the crown as reported thus.
" The King began to think that now Hotspur’s son had nearer right to
the crown than his own offspring. It was not to be borne with ".
On hearing of the Kings march North Hotspur sent his wife and babe to a
secure retreat. Then leaving his father to gather an army in
Northumberland he took a large force into Cheshire to where he was to
meet with Owen Glendower. Riding with Hotspur was the Earl Douglas and
the other Scottish nobles retained by him after the battle at
Homildoun. On arriving at Chester Hotspur sent couriers to Wales to
Owen Glendower. Glendower had released Roger Mortimer after he took his
daughters hand in marriage thus establishing an alliance in blood. Now
it became apparent what was going to happen. This newly formed
triumvirate between Hotspur, Douglas and Glendower was planning to take
England from the King.
The combination against King henry IV was beyond all questions
formidable. He rose promptly to the occasion displaying not his
qualities of unscrupulous craftiness and other ill qualities.
In Wales was Glendower with the legitimate heirs to the throne by his
side, calling his fiery Celts together in the name of liberty
pronouncing to his people the supernatural the prophecy of Merlin the
Arthurian seer.
" And now after these there shall come out of the North a Dragon and a
Wolfe, the which shall be the help of the Lyon, and bring the realme
great rest, with peace and glory. These three shall rise agaynst the
Moldewarpe which is accursed of god. Also they shall thrust him forth
from the realme and the Moldewarpe shall flee and take a ship to save
himself ".
It was written that the Plantagenets were spurned from the devil’s seed
and it was written that King henry had contacted the great pox of
leprosy under this families curse by God.
Many of the great Lords of the land joined Hotspur and Glendower. The
rest remained outwardly neutral including the Nevilles of Furnival
while secretly sympathising with the insurgents.
In the North the Earl of Northumberland made his headquarters a Berwick
drawing a great host of Scottish and English nobles to his standard.
Letters were broadcast over the realm requesting support. Worcester
left the Kings service and joined Hotspur at Chester jeopardising his
high office. He then drew up a manifesto declaring that the King had
obtained his crown by fraud and perjury. Meanwhile at Berwick
Northumberland had delayed his departure South due to illness. Had he
gone then the outcome might have been very different.
In Chester the Blue Lion of Percy hung side by side with the arms of
Douglas. The galleried courtyard was thronged with envoys and couriers
from every corner of the land.
Cheshire loyal to the memory of Richard II sent its Knights and Squires
to battle with Hotspur for Richard heir while reinforcements poured in
from Lancashire, Derbyshire and the Marches. On about the 17th of July
Worcester declared his manifesto and he and Hotspur issued a
proclamation to the effect that the Earl of March was the rightful King
of England and that Henry of Bolingbroke was deposed and that they
themselves had assumed the " style and title of joint protectors of the
Commonwealth ". They also sent out letters of defiance accusing Henry
of breaking the oath that he made at Doncaster that he would not claim
the Crown and further stating that he arranged Richards murder.
Learning that Glendower was on the march Hotspur set his force in
motion and on the morning of Saturday the 21st of July he appeared down
the Ostwestry road before the Castle Foregate of Shrewsbury. But dire
disappointment greeted him. On the walls of Shrewsbury the banner of
King Henry IV hung.
By one splendid strategic stroke the King had resolved to win or lose
all. Hearing of the revolution on the 16th of July he knew there was
only one hope of survival. That was to go into the heart of the war to
cut off the insurgents before Northumberland and Glendower could join
them. It has been suggested that Earl Dunbar promoted this strategy the
Scottish refugee on whose advice Henry commissioned.
At the site of the Royal standard over Shrewsbury Hotspur drew back
along the Whitchurch road for about three and a half miles and chose a
position of considerable strength on the slope of the Hayteley field to
the left of the road in the Parish of Albright Hussey. A mass of
tangled pea vines and three small ponds protected his front. The King
advancing from Shrewsbury took up a position at the foot of the slope.
Then he sent messengers to Hotspur asking Hotspur and Worcester to come
forward into the Royal line in order to avert bloodshed. Perhaps under
the circumstances this was sincere on Henries part but his proven
duplicity led the Percies to believe otherwise.
Glendower and Northumberland had been sighted to the West and North
respectively although both at least a days ride away. Hotspur refused
to go in person to the King worried about assassination, but he allowed
Worcester to go on his behalf. King Henry asked Worcester to convey
terms of peace to Hotspur proposing the Prince of Wales as guarantee.
Worcester did not trust Henry and advised Hotspur not to harken to
them. Worcester went to the King with Hotspur’s final response. " I put
no trust in thee ". To which Henry replied " I pray the Lord that thou
and not I may be held responsible for the blood spilt this day. "
Before the ranks of clattering horse and armour had begun to move an
omen happened which blanched the cheeks of Hotspur and his friends.
Turning to his Esquire Hotspur called for his favourite sword, the
staunch crescent handled weapon with which he had won so many fights.
The Esquire replied that the sword had been left behind were they
camped the previous night a village called Berwick. Hotspur groaned and
cried that his plough had reached its last furrow. A soothsayer had
long aside prophesied that Harry Percy would die before Berwick, but
naturally the Northern hero had thought this to be the Berwick on the
border not a tiny hamlet in Shropshire and Hotspur was know to have a
very suspicious nature.
Hotspur’s fears soon left him and taking a leaf out of Dunbar’s book he
placed the Cheshire archers (the most renowned soldiers in England) at
the foremost line of fight. Not long after this and before
Northumberland or Glendower could offer Hotspur their support King
Henry gave the word to attack. " En avent baner ! " Hotspur’s force
reacted shouting out " Esperance! Esperance Percy! " To which the Royal
troops shouted " St George ".
The Cheshire archer’s arrows hummed into the fray, six shafts a minute
in an endless whirring cacophony of feathers. The arrows broke a part
of the Royal line and Hotspur’s army surged forward. Hotspur charged
ahead the haughty Douglas by his side. Douglas saw what he thought to
be the King. Hotspur attacked easily killing him. Shouts went out the
King is dead but alas the King had been taken to the rear by Dunbar who
had put several Knights dressed in the Kings livery in the midst of the
battle confusing the enemy. The kings soldiers would have given in then
except another fake King ran forward only to be chopped to death by
Douglas’s mighty axe. Hotspur did noy shelter under such devious
tactics but he could not tarry long under such conditions. Lifting his
visor so that all could see him he launched forward shouting "
Esperance " and calling on those that loved the right to follow. But a
chance arrow falling from aloft imbedded itself in his forehead into
his brain. On seeing this, the King shouted out " Harry Percy is slain
". Few of the insurgent army survived or left the field alive as the
sun set on the cause of Mortimer
_Robert WELSH _______
| (1730 - 1794)
_George WELSH _______|
| (1757 - 1837) |
| |_____________________
|
|
|--Jane WELSH
| (1790 - ....)
| _Moses CANNON _______
| |
|_Nancy CANNON _______|
(1763 - 1834) |
|_____________________
[491] Married John Pollock 1