Category: Battle Of Barnet

John de Vere 13th Earl of Oxford

8/3/2018

On the 10th of March 1513 occurred the death of John de Vere, the 13th Earl of Oxford.

Oxford was at Barnet with Richard Neville in 1471, he escaped to France, but was back in the country by 1473 seizing St Micheal's Mount in Cornwall. Following his surrender of the island, he fled once again to France but returned 'with a vengeance' as the saying goes after joining Henry Tudor's cause.

He was an important player in Henry's taking of the throne at Bosworth in 1485 and the defense of it a year later, he was at the head of the forces against the Cornish Rebellion at Blackheath in 1497.

Under Henry's reign Oxford was involved in the Warbeck and Tyrell affairs, and with country stable, he died in his seventies at Hedingham Castle, one of the few men to die of ill health and not on the Wars of the Roses battlefields.

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Birth of Anne Neville

10/6/2017

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The 11th June 1456, the birth of Anne Neville, daughter of Richard, Earl of Warwick and Anne Beauchamp and sister of Isabel.

On the death of their father at the Battle of Barnet in 1471 they would become heiresses, not only of the Neville inheritance, but of the vast Beauchamp estates.

Despite their childhood friendship and their affection for each other you cannot dismiss the fact that this inheritance played a big part in the marriage arrangements of Richard Duke of Gloucester to Anne and his brother George Duke of Clarence to Isabel.

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The Arrivall: 10th April to 13th April 1471

7/4/2017

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The second reign of King Henry VI began on the 3rd October 1470, it lasted six months. Richard Neville, Henry's champion had played the game and lost and Edward IV had all the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. Edward returned to England from exile arriving at the beginning of March accompanied by William Hastings and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, they disembarked onto English soil at Ravenspur on the east coast of England, the very port Henry IV had landed seventy years before to claim the English throne, Edward's desire was no only to reclaim his crown but deal with Neville.

Spurn Head Yorkshire - looking towards the now lost village of Ravenspur

After leaving Humberside, Edward made his way to London via Beverly, Wakefield, Nottingham and Leicester and with no obvious Lancastrian force to oppose him he arrived in the city on the 10/11th April 1471 where he would stay until the 13th. It was here in London that Edward was proclaimed England's king once more.

The Arrivall by Graham Turner http://www.studio88.co.uk/index.html

In the two days Edward spent in London he visited St Paul's Cathedral for prayers and to give thanks, he was reunited with his wife who presented him with his six month old son who had been born while his mother was in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. Following discussions with his councilors Edward spent his last night at his mother's home of Baynard's Castle, the next morning his troops were armed and departed heading north along Watling Street.

By the 13th the Yorkist forces had arrived at Monken Hadley, a small village just twelve miles from London. Edward made his camp next to the village church on a hill that overlooked the town of Barnet, that night Edward placed his troops in their battle positions, the following morning he would find that they were very close to Richard Neville's lines.

The king's force at Barnet, according to the unknown writer of The Arrivall, numbered nine thousand, but it is thought there were far more than this, Edward himself had landed in England with about two thousand, six thousand men joined his army at Nottingham, three thousand at Leicester, the Duke of Clarence now reconciled with Edward, brought around seven thousand, however Warwick commanded many more.

It was on Easter morning, the 14th April, that had dawned grey and foggy, that the Battle of Barnet took place.

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Death of Richard Neville at Barnet.

15/4/2016

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14th April 1471

There are several different versions regarding the death of Richard Neville.

Philippe de Commines suggests that it was John Neville's fault that Warwick died that day. John Neville, Warwick's younger brother had persuaded Warwick to dismount his horse and fight at ground level, as pictured here, but despite Edward IV's attempts to save his cousin, Neville died at the hands of the Yorkist infantry.

Another version says he was killed while fleeing.

According to Sir John Paston, who escaped death at Barnet, the total amount of lives lost was two thousand, including several important nobles. John Neville died that day along with his William Tyrrell. On the side of the Yorkist those who perished were Sir Humphrey Bourchier and William Fiennes.

With the death of Richard Neville, did history lose

"the greatest, as well as the last of those mighty barons who formerly overawed the crown" or
"a man driven by pride and egotism, who created and deposed kings at will."

Historians are in two minds about this, and I do have some sympathy for him however, but it is into the latter category that most believe that he fits.

Shakespeare has something to do with how we perceive Neville today, and if we dismiss his writings on Richard III then we must do the same for Richard Neville. But unlike Shakespeare's Richard III, there is evidence to back up the words
written about him.

Personally, I believe Warwick could have been one of history's heroes if he had stayed true to Edward IV and his cause, but he sacrificed all by being 'true to himself.' That, of course, is a trait that could be commended, but not in Richard Neville's case. Despite his power, wealth, and all he achieved he was a selfish man of the worst kind. If he did not get what he wanted then he would go somewhere else to get it.

Did Edward mourn his passing?

Maybe! Richard, Duke of Gloucester certainly did, even then there was disagreement as to the King Maker's character.

After Barnet, the bodies of both Neville brothers were said to be displayed in London and then taken to Bisham Priory in Berkshire.

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Battle of Barnet: 14th April 1471

11/4/2016

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On the 11th of April 1471 Edward IV entered London unopposed, supplied his troops with arms and left again heading north, and on the 13th he arrived at Monken Hadley, two days later.

The Yorkist forces made their camp next to the village church on a hill that overlooked the town of Barnet, that night he
placed his troops in their battle positions, the following morning he would find that they were very close to Warwick’s lines.

Edwards force at Barnet, according to the unknown writer of The Arrivall, numbered nine thousand, but it is thought there were far more than this, Edward himself landed with about two thousand, six thousand men joined his army at Nottingham, three thousand at Leicester, the Duke of Clarence, who had now switched his allegiance again, brought around seven thousand, but Warwick commanded many more.

Easter morning dawned grey and foggy, Edward instructed that no fires be lit and no noise be made so not to give their position away but eventually the noise of the clash of sword on sword could be heard.

The Battle of Barnet had begun and it ended with it the death of Richard Neville, the man who was said to be the
second most powerful man in England. Of the battle the Arrivall states that Edward fought

‘manly and vigorously assailed in the midst and strongest of their battle, where he,
with great violence, beat and bore down afore him all that stood in his way … ..nothing might stand in the sight of him
and the well assured fellowship that attended truly upon him’.

The Yorkist did not have it all their way, the Lancastiran army came very close to victory, however the weather was on the Edwards side, for Warwick's soldiers, unable to see clearly through the fog, could not differentiate between their own forces and that of their enemy and attacked their own men in error confusing the Earl of Oxford's badge of the star with Edward’s emblem of the sun. According to English chronicler John Warkworth, who wrote of the battle at the time, Oxford’s soldiers considered themselves betrayed and fled, crying ‘Treason! Treason!’.

Eventually the battle went the way of the Yorkists, their leaders watched as the Lancastrian army disappeared into the mist.
It is estimated that both sides lost over one thousand men, among the nobility were Sir Humphrey Bourchier and William Fiennes fighting under Edward and under the Lancastrian flag Sir William Tyrrell and John Neville, the King Maker's younger brother. Of Richard Neville Charles Oman in his book “Warwick” writes:

“He (Warwick) began to draw back towards the line of thickets and hedges which had lairn behind his army. But there the fate met him that had befallen so many of his enemies, at St Albans, and Northampton, at Towton and Hexham. His heavy armour made rapid flight impossible; and in the edge of Wrotham Wood he was surrounded by the pursuing enemy, wounded, beaten down and slain.”

There are a number of different versions regarding the death of Richard Neville. Philippe de Commines suggests that it was his brother's fault that Warwick died that day. Montagu had persuaded Warwick to dismount his horse and fight at ground level, he subsequently died at the hands of the Yorkist infantry. Another version says he was killed while fleeing.

The battlefield monument at the at Monken Hadley.

With the plunge of a Yorkist sword Edward had dealt with Warwick, he also had suppressed a number of important Lancastrian nobles. However, John de Vere, the formidable Earl of Oxford, was out but not down, but the two most important members were still at large. Margaret of Anjou and her son had set foot in England the very same day its soil ran red with Warwick’s blood. Within three weeks, the Lancastrian forces under Edmund Beaufort had taken up arms, but they would, once again be defeated.

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John de Vere 13th Earl of Oxford

Birth of Anne Neville

The Arrivall: 10th April to 13th April 1471

Death of Richard Neville at Barnet.

Battle of Barnet: 14th April 1471

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