by Griff Hosker
I peered over the wall. I was lucky in that I could see some standards. I recognised the banners of Sir Richard Venables and Sir Richard Vernon. I knew how many knights they commanded. I also spied Archibald, Earl of Douglas. He was laughing with some knights whose livery I could not see. The prisoner had become the ally! This was true treachery! There appeared to be many archers. When the battle came it would not be easily won. Gradually my archers returned to me and tapped me on the shoulder. The last to return was Stephen the Tracker. I nodded and followed him. We had gone but four hundred paces for I was counting when horsemen suddenly burst out of the undergrowth. Perhaps we had been seen, I did not know, but any horseman was an enemy.
Instinct took over and I drew my sword and, as I turned to the sound of the hooves, slashed blindly. Luck was on my side and my blade bit into the side of the horse’s head. It reared and fell, crushing its rider. My archers were quick and their bows were strung. Stephen the Tracker nocked an arrow and released it into the chest of a second horseman. The fallen horse and rider, along with the dead man at arms meant that the other horses had to avoid them and my archers, at almost point-blank range could not miss. The longer we stayed the more chance there was that more men would come and overwhelm us.
“Run!”
I stood and waited on the path. Sure enough, a rider loomed up out the dark. He had expected me to join the others and run. His instincts made him swerve and I slashed across his leg. I cut through his leg, stirrup and into his horse. He fell from the saddle and was dragged a few paces. When it stopped, I ran and, tearing the left leg from the stirrup, clambered on the horse. I felt a thump in the back as an arrow hit me but it was a war arrow and I was unhurt. I reached my men at the same time as Stephen the Tracker. The archers who had not accompanied us had bows at the ready and the four horsemen who thought they had me met a sudden and speedy death. I dismounted the horse and mounted Hart. “Let us ride. We have done all that we can here!”
We rode hard until dawn and then stopped. There was no sound of pursuit and our horses were done in. While we watered them at a stream, I spoke with the archers who had accompanied me. From them, I worked out that we faced an army of over ten thousand men. With the garrison in Shrewsbury and the men we led, the Prince had no more than a little shy of three thousand men. Unless his father reached us, we would be in trouble.
Our exertions and the need to conserve our animals meant that we did not reach the castle until dark. While my men saw to our horses I went to the Prince. He was with Sir John and he was keen to speak with me. I gave him the news and he nodded, “My father and the Earl of Stafford are bringing twelve thousand men. God willing, they will reach us and we will outnumber the enemy.”
“Prince Henry, they have many archers. From what we learned they are forcibly making all archers serve them.”
“Then I am glad that we have the Earl of Worcester and his men.” I nodded. “Eat and get some rest. Tomorrow we prepare the defences.”
I did not get a full night’s sleep. I was woken by Captain Edgar, “Lord, wake! The Earl of Worcester, Thomas Percy, has fled the castle to join his nephew.” I jumped to my feet. I took little pleasure that I had been right. The Earl knew of our preparations and our defences. We ran to the gatehouse. There were dead sentries and the gates gaped wide.
The Prince had them closed and then sent Sir John to discover what had happened. His face was ashen when he returned, “Prince, we are undone. The Earl has taken with him: five knights, ninety-six men at arms and over eight hundred archers. Worse, I have discovered that he has robbed your house in London and used the money to pay for this treachery! You have just twelve hundred men left to face Hotspur and his army!”
It was a disaster and Hotspur now greatly outnumbered us! I turned to Harry who had followed me, “Dress and rouse our men!”
The Prince did not panic. “We have food for a siege and my father is coming. We know that and I am guessing that Hotspur does not.” He turned to me, “And Glendower? Is this a clever plan to allow him to attack us from the Welsh side?”
I considered the matter and then shook my head, “I think that might have been the original plan, but our chevauchée into Wales may have made him change his ideas. He was supposed to draw us away from Shrewsbury to allow Hotspur to sneak south and surprise the garrison at Shrewsbury. We did what we did too quickly and your wise decision to return here and not head down the Tywi might have saved the realm! Glendower may be coming but from the Tywi valley, it will take him at least a sennight to fetch an army hither. We face Hotspur and the men he has gathered.”
The Prince nodded and turned to his steward, “Have the people of Shrewsbury fetched into the castle and tear down all of the houses which abut the walls.”
As he hurried off, I said, “I will set sentries to watch the horses and then have the walls manned. The enemy knows we have scouted their camp and Hotspur will act quickly. With Worcester at his side and knowledge of our paltry numbers, he will seek to take us first. You would make a valuable hostage.”
The Prince laughed, “First he would have to defeat us and then take me alive!”
For one so young Hal had great courage. All now counted on his father doing that which he had promised and coming to our aid. We had walls to man for the initial assault would be on the town and then the curtain wall. It would take some days for Hotspur to build war machines to take the castle. We had fewer than a thousand archers left to us and our knights numbered just thirty. More than fourteen thousand men would be attacking our walls. As I hurried to the camp I wondered if my knights were with the King. I had thought them safe but they would now be in as much danger as Harry and I. I saw the clever machinations which had brought us to this pass. It was no wonder that Hotspur had been so calm when I had told him of the King’s decision for he must already have put in place the plans for Glendower and Mortimer to do that which they did.
My men had acted quickly. “Captain Edgar, I want two of your men to remain here and guard our horses. Sir John will arrange for others but I want our mounts secure.”
“Aye lord.”
“Alan, get our men to the town wall. We will not be able to hold it long but we can slow up the enemy. I will follow with the men at arms.”
Mailed and ready I led my men through the castle and the town to the walls which surrounded Shrewsbury. Sir John and his men were tearing down buildings which were close enough to the curtain wall of the castle. If they were not destroyed, they could be fired and the castle would fall. My archers were already on duty at the town gate. The castle was so strong that the town walls were a hindrance to an enemy rather than an obstacle but if we could slow down an attacker and make them bleed it would help us in the long run and archers could slow any enemy down. There would be protection from the walls and height. Until they gained the walls an attacker would be in the open and we could kill them. Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester, would have told his nephew that there were buildings he could fire and he would live up to his name and race to get to us.
“Edgar, intersperse our sergeants amongst the archers. Harry, have you the horn?”
“Aye, my lord.”
I shouted, “Men of Weedon, when Harry sounds three blasts we retire to the castle but we do so facing the enemy. We know the streets of Shrewsbury and they do not. Use that knowledge to our advantage.”
“Aye, lord!”
It was early afternoon when the Prince arrived on the walls. Since noon he had sent men to join us. Almost half of his archers were on the curtain wall. He and Sir John stood next to us. I pointed to his surcoat, the lions and the fleur de lys marked him as the Prince. “That will draw men to you, Prince Henry. It would be safer to wear a plainer surcoat.”
“I am Prince of Wales and I would not hide behind another man’s coat. If I am marked to die then so be it but I have Sir William Strongstaff at my side and members of my family are ever safe when you fight at our side. I am content to be so marked.”
Sir Joh
n said, “If they come after dark then our archers will have no targets.”
“I know but if darkness does fall then I shall send the archers back to the castle and we will watch this night.”
The advance of the enemy host was marked by a few villagers who lived at Harlescott, a mile north of the castle and town, rushing down the road to avoid the advancing rebels. They were admitted and the wooden gates slammed shut. “They come!” The Prince looked at me and nodded. He lowered the snout visor on his helmet.
“Archers, nock! When you see an enemy do not wait upon the command but loose! These are rebels and traitors; the order is, kill them!”
Hotspur had done as I would have done and sent archers on horseback guarded by sergeants to take the gates. They rode, not in a column but in a loose line across the fields and past the smallholdings which lay to the north of us. Alan of the Woods and my archers knew the range. They had had most of the day to inspect the killing fields before us. I saw as I looked down the wall, that he had commanded some archers to change arrows. There were men in plate and mail. They needed bodkins. The enemy were confident, perhaps overconfident. The defection of almost half of the garrison might have led them to believe that we would surrender as soon as we saw them. Whatever the reason they did not stop when they should have and arrows plucked them from their saddles. Barely six men managed to escape the killing zone and gallop back out of range. Horses wandered disconsolately towards the river. Water was always a lure for horses and their masters lay dead or dying. I saw one sergeant try to raise himself. A single bodkin slammed into his back and he lay dead.
The Prince nodded and lifted his visor to speak with me, “I see Alan of the Woods has not lost his skill.”
“Aye, Prince Henry. If he has an arrow aimed at you then you are a dead man!”
The enemy were now warned and they halted short of the line of bodies. I heard horns as whoever commanded the vanguard organised their men. This time the archers came on foot. They had bows strung and arrows nocked. Sergeants bearing shields preceded them. The thirty odd dead men had been a warning. Our archers still had a slight advantage. The fighting platform was just three paces high but it meant our arrows could strike theirs before they could reply. We would not send our arrows at their sergeants. It was their archers who were the threat. Cheshire archers had a good reputation!
The shields helped the enemy but Alan and our archers still managed to hit archers who exposed an arm, a leg and even a head. Twenty more men were hit before they were within range and they began to release their arrows. More than half of the garrison archers had defected and they now outnumbered us. Ironically, the Prince and the sergeants on the walls were safe for the archers who attacked used war arrows to try to clear our archers from the walls. The duel went on until I saw the sun begin to dip in the west. We were losing too many men. I was about to mention that to the Prince when he said, “As soon as it is dark, they will breach the walls. Now is the time to retire to the castle walls.”
“Harry, sound the horn.” As the notes rang out and men departed, I said, “Edgar, our sergeants will be the rearguard. Prince Henry get inside the gates as quickly as you can!”
He laughed, “Still commanding the future King of England! Some things never change and I, for one, am glad! I will obey Will Strongstaff!”
I waited until he had descended and then turned to leave. The enemy had realised that we had quit the walls and were racing to the gates. They had no ladders and they would have to break down the gates with the poleaxes wielded by the sergeants. We had time but it would take some time for the five hundred men who had guarded our walls to get through Shrewsbury’s gate. We formed a block of warriors six men wide and five men deep. We walked backwards through Shrewsbury’s deserted streets. Doors gaped open and there were items scattered around the houses showing the speed the burgesses had shown when leaving their homes. I could hear the crack of metal on wood and then there was a cheer as the gate was splintered open. The sun had dropped behind the hills and a gloom had settled upon Shrewsbury. Arrows flew and struck our helmets, plate and mail. None did damage. Then the first of the sergeants hurtled down the road. They had long weapons and we had swords, axes and daggers but this was not an open battlefield. There were houses to the side and the only swing the enemy could make was overhead. With men behind it would be a restricted swing and the first five men who ran at us discovered that to their cost. A knight tried to swing his poleaxe overhand. He caught the helmet of a man behind. It slowed his swing and as the axe came down, I blocked it with my sword and rammed my dagger under his right arm. Blood spurted across my hand and he fell. The other four met similar deaths and the enemy now had a barrier of bodies.
We used the hiatus to take another forty steps and found ourselves in the place where buildings had been cleared. I heard, from the walls, Alan of the Woods shout, “The gate is clear, lord! You can turn and run!”
I trusted my archers and I said, “You heard the Captain! We have done all that we needed. Now run.”
As we turned, I heard a double whoosh of arrows. Alan of the Woods and my archers sent theirs towards the enemy and a blindly loosed shower struck us in the back and heads. Natty Longjack fell. An arrow had pierced his left shoulder and the force of the arrow had knocked him from his feet. Harry and I sheathed our swords and picked him up. I felt a thump on my back as an arrow hit me there and then Harry and I half dragged and half carried the wounded sergeant. We made the gates and they were slammed behind us. We were now truly besieged.
Natty smiled wanly in the fading light, “I owe you a life, lord and you too Master Henry!”
“Before this is over, Natty, there will be many lives lost. Get to the healer!”
Chapter 19
The enemy set fire to the rest of Shrewsbury. Perhaps they hoped that the wind would come to their aid and spread to the castle. It did not and dawn found us facing each other across a blackened field of charred and burned buildings. The men of Cheshire and Northumberland then made the mistake of taunting our men. We had lost archers on the walls and we had not had time to recover their bodies. Their heads, complete with right hands stuffed in the dead mouths were embedded in the ground just beyond bow range. Or so they thought. One of their men decided to drop his breeks and bare his arse at us. Alan of the Woods could send an arrow further than any man I knew and he carefully chose a war arrow, nocked it and sent it into the buttocks of the Northumbrian. He fell screaming and blood spurted.
Much Longbow nodded in satisfaction, “Unless they have a healer close at hand that is a dead man!”
He was proved correct. Within a few moments, the man stopped twitching as the widening pool of blood spread. I heard a command given and the archers pulled back. Hotspur thought he had all the time in the world to break us down without too great a loss of men. Once again, he was proved wrong. In the late afternoon, one of the camp guards ran up to the gatehouse where the Prince, his steward and I had spent the day. He pointed to the south-east, “Lord, there are outriders from your father. He and the army are crossing the river at Alcham. He will be here by dawn. He has the Earl of Stafford with him!”
The word spread and men cheered. The same news must have reached Hotspur for, as darkness fell, his army headed up the north-west road to the village of Berwick.
Prince Henry nodded, “He has not let me down and now we have a chance.”
By dawn, the King’s army was marching along the loop in the river. The Prince and his father had hailed each other across the river. I saw the banners of my son and knights amongst the host of knights who followed King Henry. I also saw that along with the Earl of Stafford, the Earl of March was with them. “Let us march to Haughmond Abbey. We will camp there and seek battle with Hotspur.”
“Aye, and I will send scouts to find where he has fled.”
We chose four of my archers and they headed north and west after the rebel army. We headed up the road to the Abbey. The Prince left a garrison at the castle for we ha
d men who were not mounted and then we rode to the Abbey. By nightfall, father and son were reunited. While the two Henrys spoke, I joined my son and my knights. I saw the relief on Thomas’s face, “My mother feared that your illness would have weakened you!”
I laughed, “That was months ago but it is good to see my knights.”
“And I also bring news, you have another grandson, Henry.”
I was overjoyed, “And mother and child are well?”
Thomas laughed, “Mary was made for bearing children!”
I now had even more reason to return home. All that was needed was to defeat Hotspur, no easy task, and then Glendower! When my scouts returned, they said that the enemy was in Berwick which lay a few miles west of us on the other side of the Whitchurch Road. The King held a council of war. I was not invited. I was satisfied that Sir George Dunbarre was there. He had an old and wise head upon his shoulders for I had seen, in the borders, his skill. They did not need me. I did not mind for I was able to spend the time with my knights and sons. Their company was preferable. I was about to turn in when I was sent for by Geoffrey, one of King Henry’s pages, “His Majesty would like to speak with you, Sir William.”
I went alone to speak with him. The Prince was there and the Earl of Stafford as well as his standard bearer Sir Walter Blount. The King began without preamble, “Sir William, I thank you again for all that you have done for my son. We did not invite you to our council for it was a council of peace and not war.”