Runnymede and Lincoln Fair: A Story of the Great Charter by John G. Edgar
CHAPTER XLVII
THE SIEGE OF MOUNT SORREL
Seven miles to the north of Leicester, built on a steep and rugged hill,overlooking the river Soar, with a fair town and priory at its feet, thecastle of Mount Sorrel, in the spring of 1217, frowned with feudalpride, and seemed to bid defiance to all comers. It was not, however, soimpregnable as it looked, but had more than once changed hands duringthe terrible and sanguinary conflict then raging in England. However,the custody of Mount Sorrel was claimed as part of his inheritance bySayer de Quency, Earl of Winchester, one of the twenty-five conservatorsof the Great Charter, and held by his deputy, Henry de Braybroke, in theinterest of Prince Louis and the Anglo-Norman barons.
Mount Sorrel, however, was deemed a very important stronghold; and theEarl of Pembroke was anxious to gain possession of it for the king, withthe object, as would appear from the result, of levelling it with theground on which it stood. No sooner, therefore, did the protector’struce with Louis expire, than Pembroke mustered an army, and, carryingthe boy-king with him, marched to Mount Sorrel and laid siege to thecastle, with such an appearance of determination to make himself masterof the stronghold, that Henry de Braybroke, in great alarm, sentmessengers to De Quency, declaring that, unless reinforced, he could notlong hold out against such overwhelming odds.
On hearing that Mount Sorrel was invested by Pembroke, the Earl ofWinchester went to Louis, and entreated him to send an army to relievethe fortress without delay; and the prince, who deemed it politic at thetime to remain in the capital, summoned the Count de Perche, andentrusted him with the command of six hundred knights and twentythousand men in mail--a force composed of Flemings, French, andAnglo-Normans--a large proportion being cavalry. Robert Fitzwalter, theEarls of Winchester and Hereford, William de Roos, William Beauchamp,William Moubray, with many other barons, accompanied the Count of Percheon his northward expedition, and the citizens of London manifested whatzeal still existed among them for the invaders by furnishing funds topay the cost of equipping so many warriors. It was thought that theCount de Perche and the Anglo-Norman barons were certain to strike ashattering blow at the royal cause, and Louis, on parting with theleaders of the enterprise, believed that he was simply sending themforth to put his enemies under their feet.
Moving from London on the 30th of April, the French and Anglo-Normanssignalised their march northward by every kind of outrage. Never had theyouths and maidens of Middlesex and Hertfordshire known a May Dayassociated with such painful memories. The foreign invaders and theirAnglo-Norman allies, indeed, celebrated the festival in a way whichraised a general shout of horror, but seemed to revel in the crimes ofwhich they were guilty. They slew men, outraged women, plundered houses,and wantonly destroyed churches and abbeys as they went, pursuedeverywhere by the maledictions of the English, who vowed vengeance, andprepared the means of executing it, as if admonished by instinct thatthe day was not very distant.
The Count de Perche, however, pursued his march in triumph, paying noattention whatever to the curses and threats of the insulted and theinjured, no matter how flagrant the insult or how deep the injury, andonly eager to come up with the royalists. Pembroke, however, was wellinformed of all that was taking place, and acted with his wontedprudence. Knowing the impossibility of contending with so superior aforce as that headed by the Count de Perche, the protector raised thesiege, marched to Nottingham, and summoned the king’s adherents in allquarters to come to his support; and then removing from Nottingham toNewark-on-Trent, he calmly awaited the arrival of his friends andintelligence of his foes.
Meanwhile the Count de Perche made his way to Leicestershire, and onreaching Mount Sorrel found that Pembroke had raised the siege and gonenorthward. Perche and Fitzwalter, however, did not follow the foe. Infact, they resolved, without delay, to march to Lincoln, where there wasstill work to be done for their Lord Louis. Accordingly they marchedthrough the vale of Belvoir, and, continuing to perpetrate everyenormity as they advanced, at length reached the city which had been solong and so bravely defended by the royalists.
But in the interim Pembroke was not idle. In fact, the oldwarrior-statesman was every day proving himself, by his sagacity andenergy, worthy of the position he occupied. His efforts were even moresuccessful than he could have anticipated, and to the royal standard atNewark gathered chiefs of great name and high reputation. Thither cameRalph, Earl of Chester, William, Earl Ferrars, William, Earl ofSalisbury, William, Earl of Arundel, and William, Earl of Albemarle;thither also, from the castles which they held for the king, cameWilliam de Cantelupe, Robert de Vipont, Brian de Lisle, Geoffrey deLucy, and Thomas Bassett; thither, with his mercenaries, came Falco, whohad almost become popular by fighting very earnestly against mercenariesten times less scrupulous than his own; and thither came Philip deAlbini and John Marshal, whose crossbowmen had done such good service onthe English coast. Four hundred knights, many yeomen on horseback, and aconsiderable body of foot, formed the army which Pembroke headed to saveEngland from the foreigner; and though it was much inferior, especiallyin cavalry, to that under the Count de Perche, the old protector did notdespair of dealing with his foes in a manner satisfactory to the kingand country.
It was Friday, the 19th of May, the sixth day of Whitsuntide, whenPembroke, having made all his arrangements, prepared to leave Newark andput everything to the test. Before marching, however, the warriors ofEngland took the sacrament, and received from the papal legate whitecrosses, to mark them as men engaged in a holy war. At the same time thelegate excommunicated Prince Louis and his principal partisans by name;and, having addressed the king’s adherents in encouraging language, hesent them on their way rejoicing in the hope of a glorious victory or abrave death.
On the evening of Friday, Pembroke, too prudent to fatigue his army withlong marches when about to encounter so formidable an enemy, halted atStowe, a village with a park and a Norman church, and there theroyalists passed the night. Next morning the protector entrusted theking to the care of the legate, with whom the royal boy was to remainwhile warriors did battle for that crown which he was destined to findso thorny, and which, after causing him half a century of trouble, wouldhave been torn from his hoary head, had not his mighty son, breakingchains and defying difficulties, prostrated Simon de Montfort and thebaronial oligarchy on the field of Evesham. Pembroke was not gifted withthe genius which fifty years later guided Edward on the way to victory,nor animated, as was the greatest of the Plantagenets, by the ambitionof creating a free and prosperous nation out of hostile races, andenrolling his name in the annals of fame as one of the greatest leadersin war and rulers in peace; but the good earl was guided by aninstinctive sagacity which made him equal to the work he was called onto do, and albeit he coveted no reward save the ennobling consciousnessof having done his duty, he was not the less anxious to perform thatduty faithfully and well.
And in a cautious spirit, but with a fearless heart, Pembroke marshalledhis army skilfully in seven battalions, and set his face towards Lincolnto make the great venture, Philip de Albini and John Marshal, with thecrossbowmen, leading the van and keeping about a mile in advance, andthe baggage waggons, well guarded, bringing up the rear. Bucklersglittered and banners waved in all directions, for each knight had onthe occasion two standards, one of which was borne before him, and theother carried by the soldiers in charge of the baggage, and thus thearmy of England had the appearance of being a much more numerous hostthan it in reality was, as on that Saturday morning, in the merry monthof May, Pembroke left Stowe, and, in admirable order, took his way toLincoln.