Identifier: countiesofenglan01ditc (find matches)
Title: The counties of England, their story and antiquities
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson), 1854-1930
Subjects: Great Britain -- History England -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : G. Allen
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Now what was all this quarrel about ? Was it not
simply the objection of a certain section of the Stafford-
shire squires to forget their old patron, the Black Prince?
They had rallied round him as bowmen and won his
warm approval. They were proud both of their skill
with the bow and their famous leader. One of them had
chosen the celebrated Cheshire bowmen for him; and
though Henry IV. was Duke of Lancaster, and as such
their chief lord, yet so fond were they of the father of
Richard II. that they clung to the son, with all his faults,
when their chief lord, Henry IV., rebelled against him
and had him cruelly done to death at Pontefract.
But Henry V. was the Prince Hal of Falstaff, and
now coming to the throne he determined to act firmly
and yet to show mercy. So the offenders got off. For
war with France was coming on, and the turbulent spirits
were needed there. All, therefore, began to go well again
for a time. Yet the local feeling remained, and it was
impossible but that the Wars of the Roses should be
keenly felt here. Indeed, one of its battles took place
on Staffordshire ground. The Audley's owned Heeley
Castle as their principal stronghold. It was only a few
miles from Eccleshall Castle. In the sad tragedy of
Blore Heath, September 3rd, 1459, the Lancastrian queen
fled, after the battle was lost, to the protection of the
Text Appearing After Image:

TUTBURY CASTLE

STAFFORDSHSIRE 225

bishop at Eccleshall. But Lord Audley, her com-
mander, and very many of his 10,000 men were left dead
on the field. They had endeavoured to stop the progress
of the Yorkists under Lord Salisbury; and although the
latter had but half as many men, he contrived to lead
the Lancastrians into the deep valley of a brook, pre-
tending to fly before them. Then he returned upon
them and crushed them as they scrambled up out of the
hollow. No wonder the Sowe ran blood that day.
But the Lancastrian cause had another tower of
strength in the county. The Stafford knot had long
been formidable as the badge of the Stafford family;
and when Humphry, Earl of Stafford, married Anne,
daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, brother of John of
Gaunt, and both of them sons of Edward III., Stafford
allied itself with Tutbury, and both eventually made
common cause for the Red Rose. But Humphry fell in
battle, and his son, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham,
after prevailing on the citizens of London to offer the
crown to Richard III., revolted in favour of the Earl
of Richmond.

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