Shrewsbury but not Hotspur

Dear Folk,

On this day, July 21, 1403 (a year and a day from the Battle of Angora), a rebel alliance of Northumberland, Scotland, and Wales was met by the king's force near the border of Wales. It is still remembered in one of Shakespeare's great plays, Henry IV part 1. The town and the battle is known as Shrewsbury.

Shrewsbury is not the home of the Guosim Shrews (Guerrilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower) no matter what any shrew tells you. It is a major crossing point of the river Severn, a gateway into the often obstreperous Wales, and a supply base for any expedition going in or out of Wales. The royal army of Hank IV, Lancaster king, had to take Shrewsbury before the Percy family and a feisty fighter, Owain Glyn Dwr (Owen Glendower to the English), could.

The Percies of Northumberland had helped Hank IV just a few years before take the English throne from Richard II. They were great fighters, figured the king owed them a bunch, also figured the king had gotten uppity and forgotten who had been there at the beginning. See Hank IV had sort of promised Cumbria (up toward Scotland) to the Percies but then forgot their promise and deeded it over to a rival faction.

In June 1403 Sir Henry Percy took about 200 of his men on a ride-about down to Cheshire from the north country. They were just surveying the place and looking to see if anyone else wanted to ride with them. Strangely enough, a band of Welsh archers joined them as well. Harmless enough. I mean, a guy named Percy cannot be too careful when riding around. If folks love him and want to protect him, is it his fault? I say no.

Around July 12th Hank IV happened to be out keeping the peace, attending Renfaires, kissing babies, judging pudding contests: the usual kingly stuff. He was in Nottingham when he heard that Percy was trucking around with a rather large gang of well-armed troops. He turned his folks to go meet his old friend who seemed to have some unexpressed aggression. It was only a matter of time before there was either going to be a group hug or some serious slaying.

Percy was hoping his old buddy Owen Glendower could make the shindig. Owen sent his regrets. Seems there was a Welsh Scrabble tourney planned and Owen was entered. Welsh Scrabble is a full-contact contest. The only vowels are y and w and one must be prepared to kill someone to get them. Double letter score if the slain is English. So Owen was occupied and Percies had to make do. Douglas from Scotland was also indisposed. Sigh.

The armies met in the vicinity of Shrewsbury from opposite directions a couple of days before. On the night of the 20th, the royal forces set up on much better ground than the rebels. This was important because the royals also had more troops. The estimate of the sides range from 60,000 to 14, 000 royals vs. 20,000 to 5,000 rebels. Most agree that the rebels were outnumbered three to one.

The armies waited for each other, on July 21st, out of bow range while negotiators tried to get that group hug going. Guess Hank IV finally got tired of all the talking, saw he had numbers, experience, and ground over the rebels. He gave the order to advance.

Both sides had archers. Lots of archers. The vanguard of each side found itself skewered like St. Sebastian within minutes. Heck, a good longbowman can get 12 arrows a minute up and into an enemy. Think about that. The sky was dark with goose-quilled arrows. It got to hand to hand very quickly and there the numbers paid off for the royals. Still the rebels were giving it a game try until the word went up that Hotspur (Harry Percy, heir to the Percy tribe) was dead. Things fell horribly apart. It was a slaughter that chroniclers shuddered to tell. Thousands fell.

Over three hundred knights were killed outright or died of wounds, about 20,000 men fell immediately. Several more thousand died later of wounds. It is reported that 1500 were buried in an unmarked mass grave. Harry "Hotspur" Percy was decently buried at Whitchurch in Shropshire but Hank IV was still mad about the whole Percy thing. He had Hotspur dug back up and put on display to prove he was dead. The kindly king also then had Hotspur's remains divided into quarters and ridden around the country to prove he was dead. By November (whew!) the king allowed Hotspur's wife to have what remained for burial.

Three years later, Sir Roger Hussey who lived nearby, had a church of St. Mary Magdalen erected near the site of the battle where folks could pray for all the dead. It is still there.

What have we learned? Numbers, location, experience, and archery sure can make a difference? I keep harping on archery as being important. Ballistics like arrows and bullets allow men to kill other men at a distance. Somehow it depersonalizes warfare. So do closed visors, I guess. Kings sometimes forget promises and get really mad when you remind them? How about, Scrabble tourneys can make fools of us all? That goes out to the best Scrabble player I know, Susan Howe.

As always, forward these to whomever but leave my name and sig. attached.

Thinking Mary Magdalen is a cool saint,
J. Ellsworth Weaver

SCA - Sir Balthazar of Endor
AS - Polyphemus Theognis
TRV - Sebastian (not a saint) Yeats