BROOKE'S VISITS TO ENGLISH BATTLE-FIELDS OF THE WARS OF THE
ROSES.* Tn-E period during the civil wars of the Roses is generally held to be one of the most obscure in English history, from the lack of • Visit* to .Pields of Battle in England of the Fifteenth Century; to which are added, some Niscellaneons Tracts and Paperx upon Archwological Subjects. By Richard Brooke, Esq., F.S.A. Published by Russell Smith, London ; Mawdsley, Liverpool.
trustworthy chronicles or narratives. This scarcity, as regards original authors at first or second hand, may be accounted for by the fact that men were too busy or too frightened to write, when writing was a rare art, and those who were penmen probably wrote with the same painstaking slowness as Eastern scribes at present. Acts of Parliament, records, and public documents exist, from the fact that an Englishman scarcely thinks an af fair settled till it is reduced to "black and white," though they may perhaps be fewer in number than in more regular times. Enough, however, remains, to those who should examine the original authorities, instead of contenting themselves with perusing
the quaint and racy old chroniclers of the Tudor times, to produce a more complete and lifelike history than we have. But
then, the drudgery must be considerable, not only in reading many of the records, but in learning to read them. More of cer tainty and living spirit would be thrown into the narratives by a topographical knowledge of the spots where principal oc currences took place. If ancient historians undertook long and laborious travels to inspect the site of great events, there is no reason why the moderns should not make little trips for the same purpose.
The Visits to Fields of Battle only contributes to the last por tion of historical enlightenment on the wars of the Roses. Those wars Mr. Brooke commences with the battle of Shrewsbury, and ends with the battle of Stoke, where the last hopes of the house of York perished with the Earl of Lincoln,—if much solid hope could be founded on an enterprise with Lambert Simnel at the head, and the prospect that Lincoln, if successful, would have quarrelled with the real Earl of Warwick, son of "false, fleeting, perjured Clarence," since Lincoln was of the same relationship to
Edward the Fourth. Including these two actions, Mr. Brooke has visited ten battle-fields, eight of which were fought between 1455 and 1486, the last being the field of Bosworth. Fuller information than has been transmitted to us he cannot impart, scant and general as that is : the features of the "fields,' sometimes the very site itself, are matter of argument and inference, cultivation and improvement having so greatly altered the former appearance
of the country ; for industrial improvements cause more thorough change than barbarian destruction. Mr. Brooke, however, does one thing. By description, plan, and commentary, he shows that war was waged with a narrow knowledge of its principles, or that the leaders, the Lancastrian leaders especially, were very regardless of them. At Teuton and Tewkesbury, for example, they fought with rivers close in their rear, so that defeat was converted into destruction ; at Blue Heath, they broke their force into fragments by crossing a river in presence of the enemy, induced thereto by a feigned retreat of part of the Yorkists,—a piece of tactic continually practised in the middle ages, and with greater success than so frequent a stratagem would seem to deserve. Though no new facts may be given as to the battles, a great deal of incidental information is furnished respecting the actors, and much old collateral and modern topographical knowledge brought before the reader. The biographical particulars respecting the nobles, knights, and even gentry who fought in those battles, pre sented in the foot-notes, show how much may be gathered in the least fruitful field of English history: the antiquarian par ticulars from the neighbourhood of the "fields," as to churches, castles, bridges, and the like, are useful to the inquirer. The account of the author's own explorations, with his descriptions of the actual present and probable past, the weapons that have been dug up, the bones that have been found, and his own small adventures, have freshness from the obvious earnestness of the narrator in his task.
Being about a volume, Mr. Brooke has taken the opportunity to publish other arclueological papers. Sonic of them are architectural descriptions, and of limited interest. One is on the use of fire-arms by the English in the fifteenth century ; which he shows to have been more frequent than is generally supposed, though from their imperfection and cost they might not be in common use. Another paper is on the probable extinction of wolves in England ; showing clearly enough that Hume was incorrect in his assertion that wolves were extinct under Edgar. We think, too, he proves that the wolf was found in the Midland counties as late as the time of Edward the Third ; for there is a charter of that monarch, dated 1336, granting to John Lord Roos a right to hunt "the fox, wolf, hare, and cat, throughout the King's forest of Nottinghamshire." Mr. Brooke conceives that the wolf was extinct in the Southern counties about the beginning of the Tudor dynasty, but might be met in the Northern as late as the early years of James the First, supplied from Scotland, where they were then plentifuL This opinion, however, is only inference. There is a paper on the ancient family of Wyche, or De La Wyche, of Cheshire ; whose seat of Alderly gives a cognomen to Baron Stanley "of that ilk," to which he scarcely seems entitled. The paper is of little interest in itself, but it adds another item to the "sic transit gloria" moral. Mr. Brooke's family had, as luckily he himself now has, a farm hard by the mansion, of which the father of the last representative of the Be La Wyches was tenant. This was lately the position of that last man
" The last time that I heard anything of the son of old William Wyche was in September 1848,• when I learnt that he had been for some time an ostler at a small inn at Knutaford, and had since been a labouring gardener at Manchester or in its vicinity, and was then in very indifferent circumstances, and out of work. Such has been the falling away and sad reverse in the fortunes of the old and once high and influential Cheshire family of Wyche or De la Wyche!"
There are some curious documents in the appendix, more en rious in a certain way than the text itself. Mr. Froude is writing a history of England founded on the statutes ; and for the civil branches of history they are most important documents ; but they require to be tested, not implicitly received. It may be suspected that the quaint and graphic recitals of the old ads are sometimes a little coloured ; that the evil or abuse to be reformed does not lose in the description. The acts of attainder quoted by Mr. Brooke are evidently not trustworthy even as to all but tangible circumstances. The following passage from the sweeping attainder of the Lancastrians, after the second battle of Barnet, not only calls Henry the Sixth an usurper,— which, as the third in succession and the once acknowledged sovereign of the men who so termed him, he could not historically be termed,—but paints the "holy Henry" as an encourager of the atrocities charged, whether truly or not, on the Lancastrians. The style of the act is not very clear, but there is no mistaking the drift of the writers.
"And where the acid Henry Usurpour, clissimilyng the destruction of other lordes and persones of the same reame, by his writts, called to assist hym to attend uppon his persone' to resiste and represse another commotion of people, by his assent and willegadered, and waged not oonly in the North parties, but also outs of Scotlond, commyng from the same parties with Margarete late called Quene of Englond, and Mr son Edward, late called Prynee of Wales, extendyng to the extreme destruction of the acid Reame, namely of the South parties therof, wherof experience sheweth the clerenes, respect had to the spoils by theym of Godds chirch, of Chalesaes, Crosses of sylver, Boxes for the Sacrament, and other onourmenta longyug therunto, of defoulvyng and ravisshing religious wymmen, wedowes and maydens, of unmanly and abhomynable entretyng of wymmen beyng in the naturall labour and bataille of travailyng of child, by the moyne therof piteously diaperaged, Haven aorowyng the lost therby of the Soules that shuld have been of the felauship of Cnstendom and of the Mese of Heven, not abhorryng of unmanly, unnaturall and beestly cruelte to drawo wymmen beyng in childebedde from their bed& naked, and to spoile hem of all her goods, a piteous desolacion. The same Henry, actour, factour and provoker of the seid commocion, and aasentyng of covyne with the acid Marg:arete, Henry Due of Somerset, and Henry late Erie of Northumberlond, in a battaille to be shewed unto hym, and offered of fraudulent dissimilacion, in a feld beside the tonne of Semt Albones, the xvn day of Feverer last past, not joynyng, his persone and blode to the defence, tuition and salvacion of the same Lordes and persones commen to assist hym by his auctorite and commaundement, lyke a victorious and a noble captayne, but lyke a disaeyvable coward, ayenst princely and lmyghtly duetec, sodenly, privately and shamefully refused theym, sufferyng and procuryng to disseivably th'effucion of their blode, and horrible murdre and deth, not havyng therof sorowe, pitee or compassion."
With the downfall of the Plantagenets style improves; and Henry Tudor, like the wise man he was, imports into the opening of his act of attainder against the Yorkists both philosophy and religion. If the act stood alone, however, the reader would reverse the real facts of history, and suppose that Richard the Third was the invading adventurer: he would lose two years chronologically; for the Tudor' not having reached the Bourbon or Napoleonic refinement, dates his reign from his de facto rule. " Forasmoehe as every king, prince, and liege lord, the more Me that he be in estate and prehemenence, the more singularly he is bound to the advancement and preferring of that indefferent vertu° justice; and promoteinge and rewardinge vertue, and bi oppressing° and punishinge vice : Wherefore oure soveraigne lord, calleinge unto bye blessed remembraunce thys high and grate charge adjoyned to hys royal' majestic and estate, not oblivious nor .puttinge out of hys godly mind the unnaturall, mischeivous, and grete perjuries, treasons, homicides and murdres, in shedding of infants blood, with manic other wronges, odious offences, and abominacons ayenst God and man, and in espall oure said soveraigne lord, committed and doone by Richard late Duke of Glouc', calling° and nameinge hymself, by usurpaeon, King Richard the Ills ; the which, with John late Duke of Nortr, Thomas Erie of Surrie, Francis Lovell Knt Vise' Lovell. [And a great many others, including Richard Ratcliffe, William Catesby—the " rat " and 'cat" of the distich which cost the writer his life, and Richard Watkins, Herrauld of Arms.] the xxist dale of Augus, the first yere of the reigns of oure soveraigne lord, assembled to theyme atte Leieestre in the countee of Leicestre a grete hoste, traitorously intendinge, imagining° and eonspireinge the destruccon of the Kinges royall psoune, oure soveraigne leige lord. And they, with the same hosts, with banners speed, mightyly armed and defenced with all manner armes, as &Imes, bowes' arrowes, speres, gloves, axes and all other manner articles apt or needfullto gef and cause nightie battalle agen oure said soveraigne lord, kept togedre from the said xxiio dale of the said month thanne next following°, and theyme conduced to a fold within the said shyre of Lekestre, there hi grate and continued deliberacone, traiterously levied weave ayenst oure said soveraine lord, and his true subjects there being in his service and assistance under a banner of oure said soveraine lord, to the subversion of this realme, and comon weale of the same.'
"The act then proceeds to declare Richard Duke of Gloucester, otherwise called King Richard La, and all the noblemen, knights, and other persons comprised in the act, convicted of high treason, and disabled and forejudged of all honours, dignity, preEminences &t. &e. and all their castles, manors, lordships, lands, goods, &c., forfeited to the i.ing."
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