BOROUGHBRIDGE
In that same year in the summer, the earl of Hereford, Humphrey de Bohun, the lord John de Mowbray, the lord Roger de Clifford and many other barons, knights and men-at-arms and with them a great company of horsemen and footmen entered the Welsh march; and quickly and without resistance took and held several castles of the lord Hugh Despenser the younger; who was as it were the right eye of the king of England and, after the death of Piers Gaveston, his chief confederate against the earls and barons. They spoiled the said castles of the treasure and other goods that were in them, and set garrisons in them of their own men ; they seized even upon the king's castles in those parts; but they set about the king's banner and standard in them, saying that they were doing all those things not against the crown, but on behalf of the crown and the law of the kingdom of England but all these things were done by design and order of the earl of Lancaster. But the earls and barons were moved especially against the said lord Hugh because he had taken to wife one of three sisters between whom had been divided the earldom of Gloucester; and he being of exceeding greediness, by various subtle methods tried to seize for himself alone the lands and estates of the others; and he so sought occasion against those who had married the other two sisters, that he thereby united the whole earldom against him .
In this manner seizing the castles of the said Hugh, and day by day prevailing more and more against the king,
in the autumn following they as it were compelled the king to hold a parliament in London and to yield to their
will in all matters ; in which parliament the lord Hugh Despenser the younger was banished with his father and
his son for ever and their goods were confiscated ......
But after some time had passed the king by the zeal of those who were of his party drew to his side the citizens
of London and others of the south, as well earls as barons and knights, by great gifts and promises, and recalled
the two exiles aforesaid, and received them into his peace and had the same publicly proclaimed in London. Which
being made known, the party of the earl of Lancaster besieged the king's castle of Tykehil with a great army ;
and thus was begun open war in England, and their enmities were made manifest. So there was gathered together the
whole strength of the king's party south of the Trent to the number of sixteen thousand men, at Burton-on- Trent
against whom came in the second week of Quadregesima about the feast of the Forty Holy Martyrs, the earl of Lancaster
and the earl of Hereford, who was the husband of the kings sister, with barons and knights, and horsemen and archers
beside; but the earl's party quickly fell into confusion, and withdrew from the king's army, and hastened to Pontefract,
where the earl stayed with his company. But the king with his army made after them slowly, with no great slaughter
of the partisans whether of the earl or of the king. But although the earl intended to await the king there and
defy him, by the advice of those who were with him he withdrew his army towards the north.
When the news of their approach came to the sheriff of Carlisle, the lord Andrew Harclay, a knight of valour and
renown, he, thinking that they wished to enter Scotland and to call the Scots to their aid against the king of
England, by commission and writ of the king summoned the knights and men-at-arms and other stout soldiers of the
two counties, Cumberland and Westmoreland to wit, who were able to join the war, to come under the strictest penalties
to the aid of the king against the said earl. But when the said lord Andrew upon his way to join the king had passed
the night with his small company at the town of Ripon, he learnt from a scout that the earl with his army would
come upon the town of Boroughbridge which is not more than four miles distant front Ripon. Marching therefore by
night he was before the earl, and seized the bridge of Boroughbridge, and sending to the rear his own horses and
those of his men, he set all the knights on foot with sundry spearmen on the north side of the bridge ; and over
against the ford or passage through the stream he arrayed other spearmen in a scheltrum ( a solid mass ) after
the manner of the Scots, to resist the horsemen and horses wherein the enemy trusted. But the archers he ordered
to shoot thick and fast upon the foe as they came on. And so upon the sixteenth day of March, being the third Sunday
of Quadragesima, came the said earls with their army and seeing that the lord Andrew had seized the north part
of the bridge, they took order that the earl of Hereford and Lord Roger de Clifford, a mighty man who had taken
his daughter to wife, should advance with their company on foot and seize the bridge against the spearmen who stood
there and that the lord earl of Lancaster with the rest of the mounted force, should set on at the ford and carry
the stream and the crossing next to the bridge above the spearmen, and should scatter them and slay those who withstood
them.
But it fell out otherwise. For the earl of Hereford, preceded by his standard bearer, to wit the lord Radulph of
Applinsdene, and lord Roger de Clifford, and a certain knight, boldly like lions rode on to the bridge before their
company and when they charged fiercely upon the adversary, spears were thrust into the earl upon all sides, and
he fell and was slain upon the bridge, with his standard bearer and the said knight, to wit the lord William Sule,
and the lord Roger Berfelde but the lord Roger de Clifford being sore wounded with spears and arrows and driven
back, scarce made his escape with some others. But the earl's horsemen who would have crossed the stream could
not so much as enter it for the hail of darts which the archers shot upon them and their horses. This matter being
thus suddenly brought to an end, the earl of Lancaster and his men drew back from the stream nor dared approach
it nearer ; and so the whole array was beaten back. The earl therefore sent messengers to the lord Andrew and asked
for a truce until the morning, when he would either fight or surrender to him. And Andrew consented to the desire
of the earl yet all that day and all that night he held his men at the bridge and at the ford in readiness for
battle.
That night the men of the earl of Hereford dispersed and fled, because their lord had been slain the men also of the earl of Lancaster and of lord de Clifford and of the rest deserted them. Therefore when the morrow came, the earl of Lancaster surrendered to the lord Andrew, and so did the lord de Clifford and the lord de Mowbray, and all the rest who had remained with them. He then carried them to York as captives, and there they were held prisoners in the castle, awaiting in that place the will of the lord king. The king therefore greatly rejoicing at their taking sent for the earl to Pontefract, where he was now abiding in the same earl's castle; and there in revenge for the death of Piers Gaveston - whom the earls had caused to be beheaded - on the advice of the earls rivals, and especially of the lord Hugh Despenser the younger, without parliament and without holding any larger or wiser council, he pronounced sentence that he should there be drawn, hanged and beheaded ; but because he was the queen's uncle and the son of the king's uncle, the two first sentences were remitted in such wise that he was neither drawn nor hanged, but beheaded only, even as the said earl Thomas had caused Piers Gaveston to be beheaded. Another sufficient cause however was pretended and alleged, to wit, that he had made war upon the king of England in his kingdom but those who best knew the king's mind declared that for that cause the earl would never have been beheaded without delay and the consultation of parliament, nor would have been so evilly treated, but set in prison for life or sent into exile, had it not been for another cause of greater account.
So this man of the highest birth, as was said, one of the most noble and richest earls in Christendom even one
who held five earldoms, to wit, Lancaster, Lincoln, Salisbury, Leicester and Ferrars, was taken outside the town,
and like the meanest robber or ruffian was beheaded upon a little hill, upon the morrow of the day of the holy
abbot Benedict, in Quadragesima; where now, on account of the miracles which God is said to work by him, pilgrims
come together and a chapel has been built. Also in the same township were drawn and hanged the lord Garin de Lisle,
a baron of the king and three knights with him. But the said lord Andrew, for his services and for his valour was
made earl of Carlisle.
