ANST - FW: Musing on July 21st -- Shrewsbury but not Hotspur

[j'lynn yeates]

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- -----Original Message-----
From: Ellsworth Weaver [mailto:astroweaver at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2000 01:46
To: 2thpix at surfari.net
Subject: Musing on July 21st -- 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


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