Late Medieval Books, The Chronicle of St Albans by Abbot John Whethamstede

The Chronicle of St Albans by Abbot John Whethamstede is in Late Medieval Books.

1455 First Battle of St Albans

1459 Battle of Blore Heath

1460 Battle of Wakefield

1461 Second Battle of St Albans

Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans.

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Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans [Map], 1452-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.

First Battle of St Albans

22 May 1455. The King, accompanied by nobles and various armed men, came to the town of St. Albans, and there in the midst of St. Peter's Street, engaged in a great battle or conflict with the Duke of York (age 43). Finally, with his side succumbing, he withdrew to a private location. And the original cause or occasion of that war, or conflict, was as follows:

Indeed, it happened in times past, while the Duchy of Normandy remained under the dominion of the King, and the King used to appoint there an illustrious lord who would hold his place and maintain the newly subjected people in peace and tranquillity through the administration of justice, that after the death of the illustrious, and truly illustrious, Prince, Lord John, Duke of Bedford , who had ruled there for a long time, the King, on the advice of his Council, directed the Duke of York, his fairly close kinsman, to that place, and entrusted him with the governance of that land for a period of five years, assigning a suitable stipend for his soldiers.

Rex cum proceribus, virisque armatis variis, ad villam Sancti Albani venit, ibidemque in medio Vici Sancti Petri grande habens bellum, sive conflictum, cum Domino Duce Eboraci, tandem, subcumbente sua parte, ad privatum locum se subtraxit. Et erat belli istius, sive conflictus, causa originalis, sive occasio, talis.—

Dudum siquidem, dum Ducatus Normanniæ sub ditione Regis subsisteret, soleretque Rex dirigere illuc illustrem dominum aliquem, qui teneret ibidem suum locum, et populum, noviter subjectum, in pace et tranquillitate per ministrationem justitiæ conservaret, accidit ut, post mortem illustris, et vere illustris, Principis, Domini Johannis, Ducis Bedfordiæ, qui ibidem per tempora longa regimen legitur. habuisse, Rex, de avisamento sui Concilii, Dominum Ducem Eboraci, suum in gradu satis propinquo consanguineum, illuc dirigeret, sibique per quinquennium commisit patriæ illius regimen, ac stipendium congruum pro suis stipendiariis assignaret.

Indeed, it happened in times past, while the Duchy of Normandy remained under the dominion of the King, and the King used to appoint there an illustrious lord who would hold his place and maintain the newly subjected people in peace and tranquillity through the administration of justice, that after the death of the illustrious, and truly illustrious, Prince, Lord John, Duke of Bedford , who had ruled there for a long time, the King, on the advice of his Council, directed the Duke of York, his fairly close kinsman, to that place, and entrusted him with the governance of that land for a period of five years, assigning a suitable stipend for his soldiers.

Dudum siquidem, dum Ducatus Normanniæ sub ditione Regis subsisteret, soleretque Rex dirigere illuc illustrem dominum aliquem, qui teneret ibidem suum locum, et populum, noviter subjectum, in pace et tranquillitate per ministrationem justitiæ conservaret, accidit ut, post mortem illustris, et vere illustris, Principis, Domini Johannis, Ducis Bedfordiæ, qui ibidem per tempora longa regimen legitur. habuisse, Rex, de avisamento sui Concilii, Dominum Ducem Eboraci, suum in gradu satis propinquo consanguineum, illuc dirigeret, sibique per quinquennium commisit patriæ illius regimen, ac stipendium congruum pro suis stipendiariis assignaret.

In this swelling of spirits, they, along with the Lady Queen and the Prince, taking their journey towards the south, proceeded along a road more agreeable to them until they came to the town and Monastery of the First Martyr of the English, St. Albans; plundering, despoiling, and devastating everywhere they passed, especially on this side of the Trent. They took with them whatever they could find or lay their hands on, whether in clothes or money, in cattle or sheep, or in any other goods; sparing neither churches, nor ecclesiastical property, nor monasteries, nor chapels, nor any other places that had been consecrated and devoted to the Lord's service; behaving worse in this respect than barbarian leaders and more wicked than pagan princes.

In qua inflatione spiritus, iter suum, una cum Domina Regina et Principe, versus partes Australes arripientes, perrexerunt per viam eis acceptiorem, quousque venirent ad villam et Monasterium Anglorum Protomartyris, Albani; utrobique in omni loco per quem venerant, et præcipue citra Trentam, deprædantes, despoliantes, devastantesque, ac secum etiam rapientes quicquid aut in pannis aut pecuniis, in pecoribus aut pecudibus, aut in quibuscunque rebus aliis, invenire seu reperire poterant in ipsis; nec ecclesiis parcentes, nec ecclesiasticis, nec monasteriis nec monasticis, nec capellulis nec capellulatis; immo, nec aliquibus locis aliis que sacrata fuerant, et in sortem cesserant Domini Salvatoris; pejores in eo facto ducibus barbaricis, paganisque principibus deteriores.

Battle of Blore Heath

23rd September 1459. Battle of Blore Heath.

Indeed, even in that grave and significant conflict, which the Earl of Salisbury (age 59), with a small band of common people, was recently known to have engaged in against the Lord Audley (age 61) and almost the entire militia of the Counties of Chester and Shropshire, where the multitude yielded to the few, though the few were skilled, valiant, and well exercised warriors, the multitude, numbering barely ten thousand, was defeated, conquered, and put to flight. Reflecting on this, the King, along with the saying of Seneca, "It is not the number of persons, but rather the virtue of the few, that wins battles and overthrows enemies," deliberated within himself. He resolved to attempt other means before resorting to arms. He dispatched a suitable and capable messenger to them, offering peace through the mouth of a certain relative of theirs, namely, Richard Beauchamp , the Bishop of Salisbury. He offered them the opportunity to reconsider their intentions, to send their people back, and to repent of their actions. Furthermore, he himself was willing to grant a general pardon for all their individual transgressions, treating them henceforth as dear kinsmen and more favourably than ever before.

Battle of Wakefield

30 Dec 1460. Battle of Wakefield.

Hearing this, the northerners, and their leaders, who always schemed and plotted, sat diligently, and often mixing honey with gall and sweet marjoram with bitterness, observed how the southerners were somewhat lax in their camps. The southerners wandered in search of provisions, not being always on their guard, and not fully prepared in arms against the enemy's ambushes and invasions. Then, contrary to the promised faith and before the appointed day of battle, they rushed upon them, overwhelming them with the weight of their multitude, causing many to fall in the field and some to flee from the field; they captured two of the said lords in battle and treated them, especially the Duke of York, with much mockery. For they set him upon a small anthill and made a humble wreath made of marsh grass and placed it on his head in the manner of a crown, just like the Jews did before the Lord, they bent their knees before him, saying mockingly, "Hail, king without rule. Hail, king without inheritance. Hail, duke and prince, without any people at all, and without possession." With these and various other disgraceful and reproachful words against him, they finally compelled him to relinquish the claim of his rightful justice through the severing of his head.

Audientes autem Boreales, eorumque duces, qui semper in dolo, semper in insidiis, studiose sederant, frequentiusque favum cum felle, marrubium quoque cum melle, propinare consueverunt, quomodo Australes se in castris paulisper remisse regerent, vagarenturque in partibus pro cumulandis victualibus, nec se redderent omni hora bene cautos, ac plene paratos in armis adversus insidias hostium, et invasiones; mox, contra fidem præstitam, et citra diem belli appunctuatum, irruerunt super eos, moleque suæ multitudinis ipsos opprimentes, coegerunt plures in campo cadere, nonnullos de campo fugere; duos vero Dominos dictos ceperunt in bello ipsosque, et præcipue Ducem Eboracensem, multum ludibriose intractavere. Nam statuentes eum super unum parvum formicarium colliculum, et quoddam sertum vile, ex palustri gramine confectum, imponentes per modum coronæ super caput suum, non aliter quam Judæi coram Domino, incurvaverunt genua sua coram ipso, dicentes illusorie, "Ave, rex, sine regimine. Ave, rex, absque hæreditate. Ave, dux et princeps, absque omni populo penitus, et possessione." Et hiis, una cum aliis variis, in eum probrose opprobrioseque dictis, coegerunt ipsum demum, per capitis abscissionem, clameum relinquere suæ justitiæ vendicationis.

They led the Lord of Salisbury with them to the castle at Pontefract, and there, by the hands of some wicked, evil, and importunate men, they decapitated him. And in these few events, it is evident the Duke's return to the realm, his entry into Parliament, his journey to the northern parts, and finally such a departure, with fate overseeing, from the earthly and transient kingdom to the heavenly and eternal realm, as is hoped, perpetually without end.

Dominum autem Sarisburiensem duxerunt secum usque castrum apud Pontem fractum, ibique, impiam, improbam, et importunam, quorundam perversorum, decapitaverunt eum. Et patet in hiis paucis, fuit Domini Ducis regressus ad regnum, ingressus ad Parliamentum, progressusque ad partes Boreæ, ac demum cujusmodi recessus, fato novercante, a regno terrestri et transitorio ad regionem, prout speratur, cœlestem, et permanentem æternalitar sine fine.

Therefore, for a more immediate and recent recollection of the day, place, and year, the passing of the said Duke, along with the brevity of his hereditary name, is further chronicled here in brief metrical style, in these words:

In the thousandth years, one hundred four times, and six

Thrice ten days, in the twelfth months of December,

Near Wakefield, in the county of York,

The Duke, lord of the town,

Engaged in combat with the northern people,

And many lords led the way, and met them head on.

Where he learned fate is second to fortune,

And voids delay, The Duke and his son,

and the renowned Earl as well,

Together fell. The lots of chance, their fate foretold,

The heir to the throne was short-lived, as history unfolds.

Their passing mourned by many a soul,

A kingdom's right, the right was his.

(The names and surnames of those illustrious men who fell in the said battle, in the battle, namely, fought at Wakefield, are recorded elsewhere in another, slightly shorter register.)

Unde, in promptiorem recentioremque reminiscentiam de die, loco, et anno, decessus dicti Domini Ducis, superque brevitate nominis hæreditarii sui juris, scribitur hic ulterius de hiis omnibus brevi stilo metrico, sub hiis verbis:

Anno milleno, centum quater, X quoque seno,

Ter denoque die, duodeno mense Decembre,

Infra Eboracensem, juxta Wakefelde, Comitatum,

Dux, dominus villæ, fertur pugnans habuisse

Conflictum grandem contra gentem Borealem,

Ac proceres plures, præerant qui gentibus ipsis.

Quo docuit quia sors quod res fortuna secundas

Vitat habere moras, cecidit Dux, natus et ejus,

Ac Comes insignis. Sors belli, sors fait ipsis

Obvia, sicque satis regni fuerat brevis hæres,

Omen et id letum tulerat mutamine mœstum,

Deflendum multis; jus regni, jus fuit ejus.

(Nomina et cognomina illorum virorum illustrium, qui ceciderunt in bello dicto, in bello, videlicet, commisso apud Wakefelde, vide alibi in Registro altero, parumper breviori.)

Second Battle of St Albans

17 Feb 1461. The Northerners indeed, upon approaching the town of the aforementioned First Martyr, and hearing that the King was nearby with a great army, along with some of his Lords, immediately entered the said town, desiring to take a route through its center and direct their army against the King's army. However, they were compelled to retreat by a few archers near the Great Cross, who stood in their way, and they fled with disgrace to the western end of the town; where, by way of the lane leading from the very end towards the North, up to the village of St. Peter, they obtained entrance and there engaged in a great conflict with a certain band of the King's army. Then, after quite a few were killed on both sides, they escaped to a heath called "Bernards Heath," near the northern end of the town, where they encountered with some larger forces, such as four or five thousand of the advance guard of the King's army, a much greater, indeed, a very fierce conflict for the time being. For if the Southerners had known how to press, persist, and endure as fiercely as they knew how to engage in battle and fight at the outset, they would undoubtedly have put all those boasting and blustering Northerners to flight again with disgrace to their homes, and forced them to curse, condemn, and even abhor the day and hour they presumed to leave their hiding places. But because, according to Vegetius, 'De Re Militari,' in every region those people who are Southern or Eastern, born nearer to the sun, have less blood than others because they are more dried out by the sun, therefore they are softer and more tender within themselves, and consequently less able to fight hand-to-hand against enemies: as also agrees with a certain Metrical writer, thus writing,—

"Whatever regions are exposed to the warmth of the sun,

the excessive mildness of the climate makes them too soft ,"

therefore the Southerners, who were fiercer at the beginning and superior in the field, were soon broken too quickly, and even faster, as they looked back and saw no one from the great army of the King rushing to their aid or preparing to help them, they soon turned their backs to the Northerners, fled through bushes and thickets, through hedges and woods, through various other impassable and watery places, to avoid the hands of the enemy and to save their lives."

Venientes utique Boreales ad villam dicti Proto-martyris, et Dominum Regem, cum exercitu magno, cum nonnullisque Dominis suis, deprope jacentem audientes, mox intraverunt villam dictam, cupientes per medium ejus iter arripere, et exercitum suum dirigere contra exercitum Regis. Attamen per paucos arcitenentes, deprope Magnam Crucem sibi obvios, compulsi erant retrorsum recedere, fugereque cum dedecore ad finem Occidentalem ville; ubi per venellam, quæ ducit ab ipso fine versus Boream, usque ad vicum Sancti Petri, impetrantes sibi ingressum, habuerunt ibidem cum quodam manipulo plebis de exercitu Domini Regis conflictum magnum. Deinde, non paucis tamen ex utraque parte prius interfectis, evadentes usque ad brueram, vocatam "Barnet Heath," prope finem ville Borealem jacentem, habuerunt cum quibusdam copiis amplioribus, ut, puta, cum quatuor vel quinque millibus de præcursoribus exercitus Domini Regis, conflictum majorem, immo, permaximum, et pro tempore satis ancipitem. Nam si scivissent Australes adeo acriter instare, perstare, et perseverare, sicut sciverunt inire prœlium, in principioque pugnare, fugassent infallibiliter istos boantes balatrantesque Boreales omnes iterum cum dedecore ad suas sedes, coegissentque eos damnasse, condemnasse, ac etiam execrasse, diem et horam in quibus egredi præsumpserunt de latibulis suis. Sed quia, secundum Vegetium, "De Re Militari," in omni regione populi illi qui Australes sunt, vel Orientales, propinquius soli nati, minus aliis habent sanguinis, quia magis per solem desiccati, ideo molliores tenerioresque in se sunt, et ex consequenti ad pugnandum contra hostes cominus inhabiliores: prout etiam concordat secum Metricus quidam, ita scribens,—

"Quicquid ad Eoos tractus, cœlique teporem,

Vergitur, emollit nimium clementia cœli,"

ideo Australes, qui acriores fuerunt in principio, superioresque in campo, frangebantur posterius cito nimis, in tantoque citius, in quanto respicientes retro, et neminem videntes de prægrandi exercitu Domini Regis accurrentes, sive se disponentes ad præstandum succursum ipsis, mox dorsum dederunt Borealibus, fugeruntque per rubos et dumos, per sepes et sylvas, per locaque alia varia, invia et inaquosa, ad declinandum manus hostium, et ad salvandum vitas suas.