After these events had taken place, the king received intelligence on the 16th of this month, that Margaret the pretended queen, in virtue of her usurped claim, accompanied by her son Edward the pretended Prince of Wales, with their adherents, were arrived in the kingdom, having landed on the western coast, and were advancing to encounter him with all the force they could muster, and that, bending their march still more to the west, they were making for the city of Exeter, where, with the assistance of numerous partizans in Cornwall, Somersetshire, and Dorsetshire, and other counties adjacent, the Duke (of Somerset), aided by the Earl of Warwick, had been enabled to espouse openly the quarrel of King Henry.

The said Edward and Queen Margaret were in a short time joined by great numbers of the people; in consequence of which, on the 22d day of the same month, our sovereign lord resumed the field without delay, and moved forward with such rapidity, Edward and the queen advancing equally on their side, that he soon came to within eighteen miles of the place where they were posted, viz. in the city of Bath, and where, according to the information he received, they purposed to give him battle. Immediately on the receipt of this intelligence, the king drew up his army in the finest array, and remained under arms the whole of the night, in the hopes of fighting the said Edward and Margaret towards break of day; but Margaret and her son, when they had learned the king’s resolution, and in what fine array his army was drawn up, changed their plan, and taking another route, marched with their whole force towards a strong city called Bristol, into which they were admitted through the aid and assistance of certain rebels, and were recruited by a supply of men, provisions, and money. Hereupon they resumed sufficient courage to sally forth out of the said city, and to offer the king battle as before; and on the 2d day of May, they chose and appointed a field for the combat, about nine miles from the town; as soon as this was made known to the king, he immediately advanced within two miles of Edward and Margaret; but they, as soon as the king’s approach was proclaimed, broke up their camp, and marching during that night and the following day, being thirty-six miles, reached, with their whole army, the town of Tewksbury.

Intelligence of this being brought to the king, he instantly pursued them with his whole force, and made so rapid an advance, that on the 3d of May he came within three miles of Tewksbury, and there lay encamped in the open fields: the following morning, the king moved forward in the finest order, and came before the town, where he found the rebels drawn up and marshalled in a wonderful strong position. The king hereupon recommending his cause and quarrel to our blessed Creator, attacked on the 14th day of May, and, through the aid of our blessed Creator, obtained a victory over his said rebels. In the battle, Edward, the brother-in-law of the aforesaid Duke of Somerset, called Marquis of Dorset, Earl Bourchier, and the Lord Wenlock, with many other noble knights and squires, were slain; and there were made prisoners, Edmund, stiled Duke of Somerset, the Prior of Saint John^a, with divers other knights and squires.

Note a. John Lonstrother