Beaufort Herald2009 Iss7

Beaufort Herald Beaufort Companye Newsletter July 2009 Volume 3, Issue 7 Inside this issue: Cry “Godde for Harry, Englande & St Geoorge !” A gentleman from Brampton 2 Newark were excellent. Who would have thought so many people would be Balttlefield Commands 2 secret mummers :-) Battle if Guinnegate 3 So hands up, who would like mumming plays at more events? And who wants Medieval Fast Food 4 to take part—We have the scripts and Courtney Bonnville feud 5 most of the costumes ….its up to you. How to make your livery 6 & 7 JAYNE E .. George Bewick 8 Louder than a riot 8 The Beauforts on Tour Cookery Corner 8 Meet the Common ladies 8 Well its July already and the markets are waiting, “I will not buy too much, I will not…. Who am I kidding!” with Tewkesbury racing towards us In the next issuer: closely followed by Kelmarsh and ♦ Charles the Bold exhibition Wakefield. ♦ Daggers & Knives Big events, with greater emphasis on ♦ More personalities the action. But both Rievaulx and Relaxing at Newark ♦ Ludford Bridge Have you noticed how many Long may this continue groups have wanted to work with us so far this season? Also it makes sure we don’t just rest on our lau- Oxfords, Saville's, Wood- rels, and continue to strive ville's, Stanley's, Hospitillar & to improve. Burghs to name some. And very interesting & ex- All of which have brought citing, what next? their own unique blend of ac- Next Issue— August 2009 tivities and skills to events A 1 Personalities of the Wars of the Roses Sir John HARLEY (b<1447 d>1494) Beaufort Companye Newsletter of Brampton, nr Knighton, Herefordshire Battlefield Commands Evidence of medieval verbal battle field commands Arms: Or a bend cotised sable. is virtually non existent in contemporary written Livery Badge Lion Rampant Gules sources. One of the exceptions are the French chronicle accounts of the Battle of Agincourt which Motto: Virtute et Fidele, (Valour and Faith) record that the English used the command "Nestroque ". Sir John Harley was the eldest son of Jeffrey de Harley of Bramp- ton (d1448-1449) by his second wife Julia Burley, daughter of Sir Many modern historians have tried to translate this John Burley. His grandfather, Sir Brian de Harley had successfully back into its original English form and the tradi- defended Brampton Castle against the welsh rebel Owen Glyndwr, tional view is that it was the order given by the and had benefited from the attainder of the Mortimer's, by being archery captain, Lord Erpingham, to loose the first made custodian of Wigmore Castle and associated lordship. The volley of arrows and was the French mis- 4 Wigmore connection may account for his Yorkist leanings. hearing "Now - Strike". Other alternatives associated with the order to the archers are "Knee- Little is known of Sir John Harley before 1471 when he fought for Stretch", for the front row of archers to kneel, and the Yorkists at both Barnet and Tewkesbury, where he was "Nock-Stretch", an alternative (and in the writers knighted on the field of battle at Gastons, near Tewkesbury, 9 th 1 opinion a much more "medieval") version of the May 1471, by Richard of Gloucester. In February 1474 he was on more common "Nock-Draw" used on re-enactment a commission to array the lieges of Herefordshire against William, fields today. However Juliet Barker, in her recent John and Thomas Herbert and John and Roger ap Vaughan. 2 He 2 book on Agincourt, reassesses the point in the bat- was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1480 and was present at the corona- tle at which the order is supposedly given and tion of Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII in 1487. 5 He was liv- 4 based on the fact that three French chroniclers have ing in 10 Henry VII (1494), as he appears in a deed , wherein Wil- Erpyngham giving the order before the English liam Hoskins conveys lands in Byton and to him and Joan , his moved to their new position suggest that it was not wife. She was a daughter of Sir John Hackluyt of Eyton and they an order to loose arrows at all but a general order to had two children; Richard and Alice (married Richard Monington). advance toward the French battle line. Tantaliz- There is some confusion over whether it was he or his son Richard ingly the command "Knee-Stretch" is now who was elected Sheriff of Shropshire, in 1499, it was more proba- 3,4 very similar to the "Knee-Bend" order we Beau- bly Richard. forts use today. Ms Barker's argument is given His son Richard was Sheriff of Shropshire in 1499 , and his grand- weight by the fact that immediately after the com- son, also Sir John Harley played a distinguished part in the Battle of mand a second order was given: Flodden, 1513. A descendant Sir Robert Harley , K.B, MP was a " In the name of Almyghti God and of Saint prominent Parliamentarian during the Civil War. 4 George, Avaunt Baner! and Saint George this day thyn helpe!" Battle of Tewkesbury, Peter Hammond. Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1466-77. Supposedly from the Henry V himself and some- Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1471-1485 and 1485-1509 thing more associated with a general advance than Peerage of England, Collins an order once the archers had started lobbing clo- Select Papers chiefly relating to English Antiquities, J Ives, London thyards. One final theory, and one which parallels 1773 Mark Hinsley Ms Barkers, argument is that the order meant "No Stakes" and was an order to remove the existing line of defensive stakes planted at the original Eng- lish battle line and advance with them toward the French. As it is unlikely we will ever know the truth I leave it up to the reader to let their imagination take them back to a muddy field in France and decide on their own favourite version......... 2 Beaufort Companye Newsletter The Battle of Guinnegate 1479. Following the death of Charles the Bold at the battle of Nancy 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy passed to Maximilian, King of the Romans, the son of the Holy Roman emperor, who had married Charles’s daughter Mary. Taking advantage of Burgundy’s weakness, the French aided by Rene, Duke of Lorraine and his Swiss allies, had overrun the Duchy and County of Burgundy and the Somme towns. In 1479 Phillip de Crevecour, Sieur de Esquardes, known as “Lord Cordes” to the English, had invaded Flanders, with an army of 1,100 Lances of the French Ordonnance companies (7,700 men of which 4,400 were mounted combatants) and 10,000 infantry, 8,000 “Franc-Archiers” raised in imitation of the English bowmen, some of the Paris Militia armed with Polearms, a force of crossbowmen and 37 Serpentines (cannon). Maximillian’s victory was dearly Maximillian had raised an army of 21,000 men, comprising of 16,000 Flemish bought, his losses outnumbering those pikemen, 3600 German Mercenary’s and 500 English Archers under Sir Tho- of the French, (some accounts state mas Everingham. His army was weak in cavalry a mere 800 men and in guns, that 11,000 Burgundians were killed however Maximillian was confident in the training of his infantry and settled or taken), including 1,000 prisoners down to besiege Therouanne which had recently been captured by the French, and almost all of his cavalry, to challenging Esquardes to fight. French losses of approx of 5,000 men Esquardes rose to the bait and moved on Therouanne and Maximillian took up a defensive position on the hill of Guinnegatte. The superior French cavalry attacked on a flank their march concealed by a wood, defeating the Burgundian cavalry which they outnumbered almost 5 to 1. Whilst the Franc-Archiers and French billmen drove the German crossbowmen and English archers back on to the pike phalanx. The garrison of Therouanne, marched to the sound of the guns (400 Lances and 1,500 crossbowmen) , attacked the Burgundian Camp, aided by the French mounted archers from the flanks. Unnerved by the defeat of their cavalry, their vulnerable flanks and rear and flayed by the heavy French cannon fire, the Burgundian foot began to falter. Some 4,000 of the Flemings are said to have fled at this point and a general rout was only averted by the personal ex- ample of Maximillian and Jacques de Savoie, Comte de Romont, who dis- mounted and fought on foot with their men. From then on the battle turned against the French, as the French cavalry, led by and several cannon. Maximillian sub- d’Esquardes and his second in command de Torcy, left the field in pursuit of the sequently abandoned the siege of Burgundian men-at-arms (and their lucrative ransoms), leaving their foot lead- Therouanne, for which he was much erless. Likewise the garrison of Therouanne and the mounted archers had settled criticised as the garrison had been down to pillage the Burgundian camp. The Burgundians were able to regroup gravely weakened by the battle. and de Romont, with a portion of the infantry drove the French out of the camp. M Hinsley Maximillian with the remaining infantry withstood the attack of the Franc- Archiers who unable to penetrate the front of the pike blocks and suffered sorely from the shot of the Germans and the English interspersed among the pike. The French foot were ultimately routed, and their cannon overrun, when belatedly the French cavalry returned to the field, halting the Burgundian advance and allowing the remainder of the French army to retire.

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