THE 700th anniversary of one of North Yorkshire’s most significant battles, which features one of the most excruciating deaths of all time, is to be commemorated this weekend.
The Battle of Boroughbridge took place on March 16, 1322, where the Great North Road crossed the River Ure, and ended with one nobleman being flukily disembowelled, another being famously hanged in York, and with King Edward II finally ridding his kingdom of a northern earl who had caused him problems for a decade.
Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was the second richest man in England after his cousin the king, and he had become the leader of discontented noblemen who were opposed to the weak king and his clique of favourites.
At the Battle of Burton Bridge in Staffordshire on March 10, the king’s army had defeated Lancaster, who returned to his stronghold of Pontefract castle. Edward II declared him a traitor, and sent his army after him, and Lancaster – who was in alliance with Robert the Bruce, the Scottish king – decided to retreat further up the Great North Road.
But Sir Andrew Harclay, Earl of Carlisle, collected 4,000 men from Cumberland and Westmoreland and moved east to intercept him. Sir Andrew was in Ripon when a spy told him of Lancaster’s movements and so he travelled four miles south-east to take command of the north side of Boroughbridge’s timber bridge over the Ure and a nearby ford.
The Battlecross, Aldborough - it was in Boroughbridge until 1852 when it was moved down the road to its current position. A ceremony on Saturday at 9.30am here will mark the 700th anniversary of the battle
When Lancaster arrived in the town, he wasn’t expecting to find Sir Andrew lined against him. It gave him a terrible choice: take on Sir Andrew so he could cross the bridge and continue north, or turn south and take on the king’s army.
He chose to fight Sir Andrew, who organised his pikemen into a new schiltron formation – a shield wall – to prevent Lancaster crossing the bridge, and placed his longbow archers to defend the ford.
Lancaster had about 700 knights and a couple of thousand men. They attacked in two columns. Lancaster personally led the charge against the ford, while Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Roger de Clifford, lord of Skipton, attacked the shield wall on the bridge.
The archers rained down such a torrent of arrows on Lancaster’s men at the ford that they were forced to retreat, while Clifford was “sore wounded in the head” on the bridge.
Edward II: his forces were victorious at Boroughbridge
The unfortunate Hereford suffered a worse fate. A chronicler, who was sympathetic to him, recorded: “As the noble lord stood and fought upon the bridge, a thief, a worthless creature, skulked under the bridge, and fiercely with a spear smote the noble knight into the fundament, so that his bowels came out there.”
It would seem that Sir Andrew had deliberately stationed beneath the bridge some of his pikemen. They were armed with their long spears, one of which penetrated the Earl of Hereford’s backside, killing him on the spot. This scene is memorably depicted during the Kynren live show at Bishop Auckland.
Having seen such a gory disembowelling of one of his commanders, Lancaster asked for a truce and promised to give Sir Andrew word in the morning whether he would fight or surrender. However, overnight, Sir Simon Ward, the sheriff of York, arrived with further royalist reinforcements, and the rebels were rounded up in Boroughbridge.
Lancaster was taken back to his home of Pontefract Castle where he was rapidly tried, found guilty of treason and beheaded on March 22.
About 30 other rebels were also executed, including Roger de Clifford, who was taken to York Castle where he was hanged in chains from the castle’s largest tower on March 23. That tower is today one of York’s greatest attractions and is, of course, called Clifford’s Tower in his honour.
Clifford's Tower is named after Roger de Clifford who was executed there after being captured on Boroughbridge bridge
The victory at Boroughbridge could have been a decisive moment for Edward II. He had crushed the man who had been gnawing away at his reign for years, and then he turned his attention on Robert Bruce. However, his invasion of Scotland in August 1322 ended in ignominy when his army ran out of food and, famished, had to retreat.
This encouraged the Scottish to sweep south after them, ravaging the north of England. Edward holed up in Rievaulx Abbey until October 14, when his army was defeated at the Battle of Byland, forcing him back to York.
Unfortunately, he had left his wife, Queen Isabella, at Tynemouth Priory, and she had to escape the Scots by an unpleasant sea journey. She turned on Edward and in 1326 with her lover, Roger Mortimer, deposed the king and replaced him with their son, Edward III.
Some sources say Edward II died in Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire in 1327 of natural causes while under arrest. Other sources say he died in the manner of the Earl of Hereford on Boroughbridge bridge – only with a red hot poker, inserted in the same fashion, being the deliverer of death.
ON Saturday, the Boroughbridge & District Historical Society has arranged a day of commemorative events with the Battlefields Trust.
It begins at 9.30am with a wreath-laying at the Battlecross memorial in Aldborough. From 10am to 4pm, there will be a living history display in the Back Lane car park in Boroughbridge, and an art display by schoolchildren in the Library Jubilee Room.
At 10.30am and 2pm, there will be battle and weapon demonstrations on the car park, and at 11.30am and 3pm (weather permitting), Louise Whittaker, of The Battlefields Trust, will lead guided walks of the battlefield.
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