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Sunday April 10, 2005
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This document
has belonged to the College of Arms for more than three centuries.
Its importance for the study of the Battle of Evesham was only recently
realised. It is a vellum roll consisting of five pieces of
vellum sewn together end to end. Its total length is around 11 feet
and it is about eight inches wide. On one side is written a
genealogical history of England down to the time of Edward I (the Prince
Edward who won the Battle of Evesham). It is written in Norman
French and probably belonged to a family of the gentry or lesser nobility.
The other side of the roll carries a copy of an account of the Evesham
campaign. It was added to the roll, apparently around AD 1330.
The original author was certainly an eye-witness of some of the events
described, and may have spoken with other eye-witnesses. This
original author may have been a monk at Evesham Abbey, possibly our
Brother Joseph. The manuscript was found, recognised and
brought into the light by Olivier de Laborderie, of Paris. |
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In the year of the Incarnation of Our Lord one thousand two hundred and
sixty-five, on the first day of the month of August, Sir Edward, eldest son
of King Henry III, and Sir Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester with their
not inconsiderable army, when they had been given intelligence by their
scouts, left the city of Worcester after mid-afternoon. Announcing that
they were going somewhere else, secretly in the shadow of the night, they
took the road to Kenilworth and there found Simon the younger and his army
sleeping unarmed in the priory and in their tents outside the castle. With
considerable difficulty, Sir Simon made off over the castle wall and
escaped; and taken prisoner were Sir Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, Sir
William de Munchensy, Sir Richard de Grey, Sir Gilbert de Gant, Sir Adam
of Newmarket, Sir Baldwin Wake, Sir Walter de Colville, Sir John de Grey,
son of Sir Richard de Grey, Sir Hugh de Neville.... on the fourth day of
August next, because of this and for other reasons, was [restored?] ...
and a few others killed there.... between the earl of Leicester, Sir Simon
de Montfort and the other side ... increased and grew sharper that the way
of peace could not be found. King Henry and Sir Simon de Montfort have [?]
their army a little before prime, and came from Kempsey to Evesham as if
they intended to stay there for the whole of the night. But around terce
their scout informed them that Sir Edward and Sir Gilbert de Clare, earl
of Gloucester, were coming from Worcester with all their army and were
ready to do battle. And immediately everyone in the abbey and the town
shouts out and runs to take up arms. When those who were not before so
were armed and ready, Earl Simon rises and takes leave of the bishop of
Worcester, Walter de Cantilupe, with whom he had been sitting in counsel
since his arrival up until now, embraces him and receives his blessing.
And the bishop goes off as far as Blockley weeping [lit. `with hot
tears'], ordering that people should move into the church, since the
battle was starting at Evesham. Then, as if a harbinger of the painful
event that was to take place, the sun withdrew its light and an
extraordinary [?], dark, foul and frightful wind swept over the vault of
heaven. With a few large drops of rain, it quickly passed, and the sky
grew clearer and the air milder. Meanwhile, as the earl was discussing
some other matter, someone said to him: `Seeing how we have been hard
pressed for some time now, and we have not slept or eaten for three days,
and so we and our horses are almost done for and exhausted, for this
reason let us go into the church and the tower, which is very strong and
can be defended, until our allies, who are still in different parts of the
country, come to our aid, and until your army has recovered its strength.'
To this the earl immediately replied: `No, fair friend, no. One ought to
seek knights on the battlefield and chaplains in churches.' And as he came
out of the abbey gate, Sir Guy de Balliol shattered to pieces the lance
bearing the standard against the top of the gate. Then the earl said: `Now
[?], God help us -- now.' And when they came to the conduit(1) of the town
of Evesham, the earl addressed everyone together and said: `Fair lords,
there are many among you who are not as yet tried and tested in the world,
and who are young; you have wives and children, and for this reason look
to how you might save yourselves and them; cross the bridge and you will
escape from the great peril that is to come.' And to Sir Hugh Despenser he
said: `My lord Hugh, consider your great age and look to saving yourself;
consider the fact that your counsel can still be of great value to the
whole country, for you will leave behind you hardly anyone of such great
value and worth.' Straightaway Sir Hugh replied: `My lord, my lord, let it
be. Today we shall all drink from one cup, just as we have in the past.'
And with these words they leave the town. |
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Then the Welsh and the others
turned and raised a cry up to the skies, so that the whole ground seemed
to echo against this frightful noise, and thereupon they formed up into
battle order. And Sir Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, who had been
designated commander of the footsoldiers, withdrew and remained in the
rearguard, at which the earl of Leicester said: `Sir Humphrey, Sir
Humphrey, that's no way to conduct a battle, putting the footsoldiers at
the rear. I know well how this will turn out.` Meanwhile Sir Edward and
Sir Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, had knighted several men in the
meadow called Mosham between Craycombe and Evesham, and had chosen and
designated twelve of the strongest and most intrepid men-at-arms, and they
knew that they were to kill the earl of Leicester, and break through the
ranks forcibly and rapidly in such a way that they would look at no one
nor let anyone come between them until they reached the person of the
earl. And they came up the hill with their army in three divisions. And
after Earl Simon had realised that they were coming and had seen the
manner of them, and saw the earl of Gloucester's banner coming up
alongside over towards the river, he said: `How skilfully they are
advancing. Our bodies are theirs, our souls are God's.' And when the [sides.sup.+]
horse, and with his lance struck him through the neck, and it was Sir
Roger de Mortimer, for he could be recognized by his armour and
shield-straps. And straightaway all the knights of importance turned away
from him, and then some others beheaded him, cut off his hands and feet,
and riddled his body, long since dead, all over with wounds. And no [such]
torment has ever been heard of.' they cut his private parts clean off. And
then whatever was left of the knights, men-at-arms, esquires and
footsoldiers, if there were any, took flight and scattered completely, and
the others pursued them and from every side killed them. And such was the
speed of their flight that many thought the water in the river [lit. `the
river of water'] to be safer than the land, with the result that a
multitude of them drowned, and in that place where they thought to have
refuge and succour, they incurred danger and death; God alone knew how
many of them there were. And in this battle there fell together with Earl
Simon his son Sir Henry, Sir Hugh Despenser, Sir Peter de Montfort, Sir
John de Beauchamp of Bedford, Sir Ralph Basset of Draicote [recte
`Drayton'], Sir William de Mandeville, Sir William de Evereux, Sir Thomas
of Astley, Sir Guy de Balliol, Sir Richard Trussel, Sir William of
Birmingham, Sir Robert of Crepping and several other knights whose names
were not known, and several others who had gone to the bottom of the river
fully armed. Prisoners taken were Sir John ritz John, Sir Henry of
Hastings, Sir John de Vescy, Sir Nicholas of Segrave, Sir Peter de
Montfort the younger, and Guy de Montfort. Sir Humphrey de Bohun was
captured as he fled and taken to Beeston, where he was kept under close
arrest until he died in prison. On Sir Edward's side fell Sir Hugh de
Troyes, Sir Adam de.... and a few others. And then Sir Edward and his side
pursued those who survived all over the fields, and everywhere killed
them. Within the town, the abbey courtyard, the cemeteries and the
monastery church the dead bodies lay thick and dense on the ground like
animals, and, what was horrendous to see and painful to speak of, the
choir of the church and the inside walls and the cross and the statues and
the altars were sprayed with the blood of the wounded and dead, so that
from the bodies that there were around the high altar a stream of blood
ran right down into the crypts. And this lasted from terce until
mid-afternoon. As if so much evil were not yet enough for them, whatever
was valuable in the abbey and the churches and the town they took and
carried away. And because not all the dead had been killed on the
battlefield, and their bodies lay scattered all over the fields, and
throughout the whole town, the entire abbey and the churches and the great
garden, and some lay drowned in the river, no one knew how many there were
except God; to whom is the power and the glory, world without end, amen. |
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A detailed article about this narrative, its discovery,
interpretation and contents appeared in the April 2000 issue of the
"English Historical Review". Click
here to visit the English
Historical Review website. |
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