Notes on The Battle of Lewes by Sir Charles Oman
1. See
Annals of Dunstable.
2. Wykes.
1264
3.
Knighton
4. Wykes
1264
- 5
. Blaaw and Prothero seem undoubtedly right on this point of
topography.
6.
Rishanger, p.3'.
7.
Including Simon de Montfort the Younger, Peter de Montfort and his sons Peter and William, Adam of Newmarch, one
of the greatest of the barons of the Welsh border, Baldwin Wake, William de Furnival, all
captured at Northampton, William Bardolf, captured at Nottingham, and the young Earl of
Derby, who had keen taken in his own castle of Tutbury
8 Simon had broken his leg in the previous
year, and was forced to use this carriage for many months.
9 Of the twenty-four laymen who signed for
the barons' party in 2263, the
following were at Lewes -Earl Simon, Ralph Basset, William le Blound, Humphrey de Bohun,
John de Burgh, Hugh Despenser, John Fitz-John, Henry de Hastings, Henry de Montfort,
William de Montchensy, Nicholas de Segrave, Robert de Ros, Geoffrey de Lucy, John de
Vesey, Richard de Vipont-fifteen in all. Simon junior de Montfort, Peter de
Montfort, Adam of Newmarch, Baldwin Wake, William Marshall, had been captured at
Northampton; William Bardolf at Nottingham. Richard de Grey was holding Dover
CaSfle. Nothing is known as to the whereabouts of Walter de Colville and Robert de Toeny.
10 H. Knighton, p.247 of Rolls Series
edition.
11 There are some difficulties in the array
of the Royalists, as in that of the baronial host. On the whole I am compelled to conclude
that Earl Richard led the
centre,
and the king the southern wing. I imagine that the position of the king on the left must
have been due merely to the hurry and haste of the muster. Being encamped in the priory,
he drew up in front of it. For by all medieval military etiquette he should have led the
right or centre, and not taken the post of least honour. Hut there was no time to
rearrange the host, and each body fell into line as best it could.
12 "Paene primus H. de Hastings,
audaciae formidinem anteponens, e proelio fugit" (Wykes. 1264).
13 Chronicle. de Mailros, 1264
14. Some of the
Royalist chroniclers call the chariot a "vas dolositatis," and say that Simon
hung his banner on it and placed it on the height specially to distract the enemy from the
main battle. This is most improbable; he would certainly not have exposed to certain death
Le Blound, one of his most trusted followers, and the whole affair was (no doubt) a mere
chance,
15. Chronicle
of Lanercost. This authority has some graphic touches given on the authority of an
eye-witness, hut is often vague and erroneous e.g. it says that the barons formed only
three battles, and that one of them was led by Hugh le Despenser.
- from The Art of War in the Middle Ages
by Sir Charles Oman
- Published 1991 by Greenhill Books
- Original, 1898 Methuen
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