Thomas Percy, at the head of five thousand men, carried the banner of St Cuthbert. In the second division, over ten thousand strong, were the musters of Holderness and the "West Riding, with Aske himself and Lord Darcy. The rear was a magnificent body of twelve thousand horse, all in armour: the knights, esquires, and yeomen of Richmondshire and Durham.[1]
In this order they came down to the Don, where their advanced posts were already stationed, and deployed along the banks from Ferrybridge[2] to Doncaster.
A deep river, heavily swollen, divided them from the royal army; but they were assured by spies that the water was the only obstacle which prevented the loyalists from deserting to them.[3]
There were traitors in London who kept the insurgents informed of Henry's movements, and even of the resolutions at the council board.[4] They knew that
- ↑ 'We were 30,000 men, as tall men, well horsed, and well appointed as any men could be.'—Statement of Sir Marmaduke Constable; MS. State Paper Office. All the best evidence gives this number.
- ↑ Not the place now known under this name—but a bridge over the Don three or four miles above Doncaster.
- ↑ So Aske states.—Examination: Rolls House MS., first series, 838. Lord Darcy went further. 'If he had chosen,' he said, 'he could have fought Lord Shrewsbury with his own men, and brought never a man of the northmen with him.' Somerset Herald, on the other hand, said, that the rumour of disaffection was a feint. 'One thing I am sure of,' he told Lord Darcy, 'there never were men more desirous to fight with men than ours to fight with you.' Rolls House MS.
- ↑ 'Sir Marmaduke Constable did say, if there had been a battle, the southern men would not have fought. He knew that every third man was theirs. Further, he said the King and his council determined nothing but they had knowledge before my lord of Norfolk gave them know-
