TO-DAY IN HISTORY

Southland Times, Issue 20832, 22 July 1929, Page 6

TO-DAY IN HISTORY

JULY 22 Born: Anthony Ashley Cooper, First Earl of Shaftesbury, celebrated politician in the reign of Charles IL, 1621. Died: Sir John Graham, Scottish patriot, killed at the battle of Falkirk, 1298; Sir Henry Percy (Hotspur), killed at the battle of Shrewsbury’, 1403; Charles VII., king of France, 1461; Henry 111., king of France, assassinated at Paris, 1589; Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, 1596; Gerbrant Vander Eeckhout, Dutch painter, 1674; Pope Clement X., 1676; Francis, Lord Gardenstone, Scottish judge, miscellaneous writer, 1793; Marie Francois Xavier Bichat, eminent French anatomist, 1802; Dr George Shaw, naturalist, 1813; Joseph Piazzi. eminent astronomer, 1826. BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY. Happy are the heroes who are immortalized by the poets of their country. The brave, headstrong, irascible Hotspur; the rousing of Prince Henry to noble deeds from the wild roystering companionship of Falstaff and his friends, the imaginative, superstitious Glendower—all stand as Hfelike characters before the eye of hundreds of Englishmen, who would never have heard their names had it not been for the Bard of Avon. The powerful Percys, who had been Henry IV.’s greatest friends in the day of distress, became discontented subjects after he ascended the throne. The Hotspur, of whom Henry had said: O, that- it could be proved That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged In cradle clothes our children where they lay, And called mine Percy, his Plantagenet 1 Then would I have his Harry and he mine, took dire offence at the refusal of the king to permit him to pay the ransom of his ’■■■*<:ker-in-law, Sir Edmund Mortimer, who been taken captive by Owen Glendower. Joining himself to his uncle the Earl of Worcester, Scroop, the Archbishop of York, the Scottish Earl of Douglas, and the Welsh chieftain, he entered on the fatal insurrection which cost him his life and that of many thousands of brave men. The earl, his father, being dangerously ill, could not join the rendezvous; but Douglas crossed the border with a goodly array, and the Earl of Worcester collected a picked body of Cheshire archers, all making their way to the borders of Wales, where Glendower’s army was to meet them. Henry IV.’s skilful generalship probably saved hitn the Crown; for, hastening his army with all possible speed from Burton-upon-Trent, he contrived to get between the two rebel forces and prevent their junction. Having reached Shrewsbury and finding Hotspur’s army close at hand, he determined to give battle the next day. During the night the insurgents sent in a long list of their grievances in the shape of a defiance: “For which cause,” said they, “We do mortally defy thee, thy fautors and accomplices, as common traitors and destroyers of the realm, and invaders, oppressors and confounders of the very true and right heir to the crown of England and France; and we intend to prove it this day by force of arms, Almighty God blessing us.” Early in the morning (July’ 22, 1403), the eager combatants drew up in battle array; about 14,000 on each side, brothers in language and country, thus sadly opposed. The martial strains of the trumpets were sounded, the war-cry of “St. George for us” which had led to many a victory, was answered by “Esperance, Percy” and the bravest knights in Christendom, Hotspur and Douglas, led the charge. Had they been well supported, nothing could have resisted the shock. As it was, many noble knights were slain; the two leaders seeking the king everywhere in vain, he having put on plain clothes and forcing Hotspur to say: “The king hath many marching in his coats”; and Douglas to reply: “Another king! they grow like Hydra’s heads; I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them.” The Prince of Wales, though wounded in the face, fought with desperate courage, and for three hours the battle raged furiously; but Hotspur, being shot through the head, fell mortally wounded, and the king’s cry of “Victory'and St. George!” put the assailants to flight. Douglas, falling from a hill, was so bruised that his pursuers took him; but he was soon after set at liberty. The Earl of Worcester, Sir Richard Vernon, and some others, were executed on the field, and the great, but dearly-bought victory of Shrewsbury settled the usurper, Henry, on the throne. The body of Hotspur, found among the dead, was by Henry’s command, taken from the grave, where Lord Furnival had laid it, and placed between two millstones in the market-place of Shrewsbury, quartered and hung upon the gates, after the barbarous fashion of the times. Otterbourne tells us that the courage of the brave Percy was much damped before the battle by an incident which marks the superstitious feeling of the times. When preparing for the field, he called for his favourite sword, and was informed that he had left it at the village of Berwick, where he had rested the previous night. Startled at the na-ine of the place, he heaved a deep sigh and exclaimed: “Alas! then my death is near at hand, for a wizard once told me that I should not live long after I had seen Berwick, which I thought was the town in the north.- —Yet will I not be cheaply won.” When the king had put an end to the pursuit and slaughter, he returned thanks for his victory on the field of battle, and commanded the erection of the collegiate church of Battlefield, of which more than half is now in ruins.