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| The Bloody Meadow Source¹ |
Sir Edric Acaster could barely lift his arms, yet he stood with his mates as another wave of Yorkists plunged down the slope.
"Jesus, Sir Edric, there are more than I can count, will they not let us run in peace?"
"Mind your tongue, Graham. Best not take His name in vain when it seems we stand on the brink of eternity!" Sir Edric managed to bring his shield up in time to parry a billhook being thrust at his face. His war hammer ended the threat when he swung it into the side of his attacker's head.
Blood and shattered bone splashed over Sir Edric as he took a step back, they were nearly up to their knees in the freezing water of the Beck already. Some men were crossing over the dead bodies of their comrades just behind him, but he and his squire, Graham of Masongill, were determined to stand and buy time for the remainder of Henry's army.
Sir Edric's blood ran cold as he saw a group of archers take up position just up the slope as the Yorkist footmen drew back to give the bowmen a clear shot at the men struggling along the banks of the surging river.
"Shield, Graham!"
He heard his squire gasp as an arrow hit him full in the face. It had been a glancing blow, not a killing wound, but painful enough as the arrow went through his mouth and out of his right cheek.
Tears were streaming from Graham's eyes as he fell to his knees, "Ah God ..."
"Your blasphemy does you no credit, Graham. Hold still!"
Covering them with his own shield, Sir Edric knelt and took the arrow in his fist, he snapped it in two, which caused Graham's eyes to stream even more. As he yanked the shaft from the mouth of his friend, he yelled at him, "Spit lad, or you'll drown in your own blood!"
On his knees, Graham tried to clear the blood from his mouth, he ran his tongue around, he'd lost a couple of teeth as well. Shaking his head, he saw his shield on the ground, surprisingly he still held his axe in his right hand.
"Up Graham, up! If we must die this day, let us die together!"
Rufus was moving to his right, thinking to go up the hill in that direction then perhaps come down on the retreating enemy from there. As he did so, he heard his name being called out. In no immediate danger, he turned.
"Thomas? Where have ye been laddie?"
Thomas looked a sight, blood and vomit stained his tabard, he was carrying an axe, rather than the billhook he had brought with him to the field, and his eyes were lifeless as if he had seen things which no man should have to see.
"Ah Rufus, we're missing the slaughter, come now, let us not hang back."
Thomas strode past Rufus, heading down towards the Beck where the struggle seemed to be winding down.
Rufus followed his friend, wondering what had gotten into the lad.
Thomas just wanted to kill and keep killing. A wounded Lancastrian had mocked the young foot soldier as he had knelt on the field and cried hot tears at the devastation all around him.
The man had been staggering in the direction of the retreat, his left arm dangling uselessly by his side, nearly severed by a sword blow.
"What's the matter, laddie? Never seen a battle before? Go home and back to your mother's teat, you don't belong on this field with the men!"
Thomas had looked at the man in shock. He was moving off, Thomas looked for his billhook, the shaft had been shattered. Seeing an axe he picked it up.
Getting to his feet, he had run after the man, "Turn and fight you bastard, I will show you who is a man!"
The man had turned and said, "Alright boy, I'll fight ..."
His eyes had grown very wide when he beheld the look on Thomas' face and seen the axe in its downwards arc towards his head. He tried, in vain, to parry the axe with the hammer he held in his right hand.
After the man had crumpled to the ground, head split like a melon, Thomas had wrenched the axe from the man's ruined head and continued down the hill. He would show these bastards who was a man.
He saw his friend Rufus, after a brief word, he continued down to the slaughter.
Sir Edric stumbled over a corpse as he and Graham tried to hold off the Yorkists. At least the blood lust of the enemy footmen had blocked the archers from loosing their shafts at them again. Both men had multiple arrows embedded in their shields.
Graham looked a sight, his mouth still oozed blood and the wound on his cheek still bled but the cold was causing that to slow down. A number of Yorkists had turned away from the sight of him, thinking him to be some walking corpse.
His right arm ached and he was beginning to have trouble raising it to strike a blow, he could still parry, but the water was nearly to his hips now. He slipped on a dead man under the water and nearly fell.
He had almost regained his feet when the point of a Yorkist billhook drove into his throat. He fell, his lifeless corpse adding yet another piece to the bloody bridge across the Cock Beck.
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| The Battle of Towton John Quartley Source |
Graham yanked on the axe, another Yorkist was pushing forward through the cluster of struggling men, he was puzzled, why was the axe not coming out. Amazingly, the man he had struck was holding the shaft of the axe with both hands, his mouth moving but no words issuing from his ruined face. But the hate that glittered in his eyes would stay with Graham for the rest of his life.
He barely brought his shield up in time to parry the sword the man to his front was trying to wield in the mob. But the blow was slow and ill-timed, moving forward, Graham drove the edge of his shield up and under the man's chin.
The man gasped as a torrent of blood flowed down from his throat and onto Graham's left hand. His grip on the shield was failing, so Graham let it go. Backing up, he felt not the bottom of the Beck, but the chest of a corpse.
He backed a few more steps, it seemed the Yorkists were content to let him go, their reluctance to cross the bridge of the dead was obvious. Graham didn't care, he was still alive.
He turned and fled into the gathering night, he was quickly lost in the gloom and the falling snow.
His battle was over.
¹ Do check out this source, the lady gives tours of English battlefields, is a reenactor herself, and has a number of great photos!
"the man gasped as a torrent of flood".....Tough reading this day's post Sarge, wreck and ruin are somber topics this early in the morning.
ReplyDeleteFixed it.
DeleteWreck and ruin are soimber topics at any time.
I'm freezing, and my arms ache. Another excellent piece that puts the gentle reader in the midst of mayhem and madness.
ReplyDeleteHaven "fallen" in a few SCA bridge battle, I can attest that the dead get trodden down. In one, on an actual small bridge a guy had built on his land for just such things, my right gauntlet got hung up on the railing as I fell, half on, half off the bridge - only about a 1 foot drop, so no real danger- I can also attest that the dead draw a small share of dedicated attacks to the head and torso "just in case." It was an interesting view of the action.
I've fought so long that my arms went all 'noodley' and refused to move with any real force.
DeleteAs to falling down, I knew one guy who wore a pig-faced bascinet (a helmet with a 'snout' that sticks out, wards blows well) in a woods battle (a battle, in a woods, not on a field or a bridge) who almost died because he fell face-first into a muddy track and his pig-face got stuck in the mud. Which actually was a way some actually died when wearing a pig-faced bascinet. Death by fashion statement.
And I can attest how one fat guy with a large shield who 'dies' (gets hit hard enough to acknowledge the blow as a 'deathly blow' which requires you to fall down 'dead') can stop a charge, serving as a tripping hazard.
I've also seen piles of 'dead,' just like they talk about in all the histories. Been on the bottom of quite a few piles. Even worse is if you are just knocked down and still 'alive' instead of 'dead' and you have to wriggle out from the pile of dead, or miraculously 'spring' to 'life' when the dead are cleared. Which also happened in the histories.
Joe - One of my "you are there" attempts. I seem to have succeeded.
DeleteBeans - Ouch, death by fashion statement!
DeleteWow! Just wow...
ReplyDeleteIn the early 60s we lived on Oahu in Hawaii & every weekend I'd go to the movies, the matinee. A cartoon, a WW2 news reel and the movie, 35 cents.
Today's story reminds me of one of the news reels where the Marines were out in a field of the "dead" shooting them all again to make sure.
Those Marines did it for a very good reason and some not so good reasons. The Imperial Japanese were known to play possum and lay 'dead' until the front line passed, in order to screw the US soldiers. That's the good reason. The not-so-good reasons are anger, hatred, just wanting to unload or take some frustrations out.
DeleteJust like in battles from Day 1 to even today.
Lots of that during the War of the Roses, especially in the latter days, which was one of the big reasons the Yorkists were given the 'no quarter' command.
Rob - In the movie Fury, the driver orders the bow gunner to "shoot those guys over there." The bow gunner replied, "But they're already dead!" The driver - "How do you know? Are you a doctor? Shoot them."
DeleteBetter safe than sorry.
Beans - A WWII vet of my acquaintance told me a story of being pinned down by a German machine gun, they couldn't go forward, they couldn't go back, and they were taking casualties. Then the machine gun team ran out of ammunition and tried to surrender.
DeleteNo, they didn't survive.
Unwritten Rule of War is that one. Lackadaisical shooting and then surrendering, as in "I fired near you but not at you because Honor," is okay. Keep shooting and screw us over, you're dead. Oh so very dead.
DeleteAnother one is once the bayonet charge starts, pretty much no quarter is given. Hand-to-Hand is only solved by death of one.
The idiots who seek to legislate war fighting need to be shot.
Rob, in the mid-70's the Rogue Theater in Grants Pass Oregon would still show those WWII newsreels after the cartoon short. I loved them and learned a lot. I would mimic the tone and accent of the narrators as a kid.
DeleteBeans - Yup.
DeleteTuna - The old newsreels were pretty cool.
DeleteListen up, you really need to do as Sarge "suggested" in his note about the "source" link under the opening photo:
ReplyDelete" Do check out this source, the lady gives tours of English battlefields, is a reenactor herself, and has a number of great photos!"
That site is magnificent, and well worth a few minutes to poke around. Most of her photos are just part of a series so just click < or > to see all in that series.
It is amazing what relics of the past still survive, even on the edge of modernity. I often wonder about the folks who live on the first row of houses adjacent to battlefields and the like. Do they have even the slightest clue about what events took place there in the past? Will there be another street of houses encroaching upon the historic site, until it is finally buried to become a soccer field, or fast food joint?
When I see old castles, forts, houses or factories, I invariably wonder about the people who created them and used them. The masons who stacked stones or bricks to build them. Who designed or directed the construction to end up with stout walls, soaring arches? What about the garrisons of the forts, the worshipers at the churches, the millers at the mills, and the agrarian peasants who provided the grist for the mill, or used its finished products?
Finally, we all owe a huge thanks to the living history (aka reenactor) community who preserve the knowledge of past events and people and skills. They are the dynamic bridge between the past and the present, bypassing the erudite academics who create footnoted tomes destined for dusty archives, and providing a living representation of the past which transfers knowledge to the general public who otherwise would be content in their ignorance of the past. The practical experience of the reenactors, and their customary passion about their chosen portrayals are at a level of understanding equal to the academics, albeit in a slightly different perspective. The nice Brit lady with the great photos and her reenactor, literary and battlefield guide work is a superb example. I know that in this eclectic group Beans, Sarge and Joe Lovell (and perhaps others) have served in the reenactor community and I thank them for that.
John Blackshoe
Well said, JB.
DeleteWhat is amazing is that so much history survived the Victorians, who spent most of their time mis-interpreting, destroying and rewriting their history. And the reenactors do have a small but significant part in it.
DeleteOne of my friends is pretty much the authority here in the US on early Mongol-Horde mongols, even though he's just a tech at a tissue harvesting company. He regularly got calls from big-headed academics for help with interpreting stuff.
The real wonder-people are those that do living-history (properly) at various museums and historical sites. You know, the ones who cook and sleep and live and dress in 'period' fashion all the time for days, weeks, months. Like those loons in France building a castle in the medieval way, and discovering exactly how they did it in the past.
t
The use of the distaff was 'rediscovered' by reenactors. A thread-weaving tool that was so common nobody really knew how to use one, until reenactors tried all the various and sundry possible ways to use one and basically worked backwards to discover the truth. And then basically had to hit the academics in the head with heavy objects to quit being told by said academics that 'they were doing it wrong.'
JB - She's got an awesome site, doesn't she?
DeleteTB - Concur.
DeleteBeans - Ah yes, gotta love the academic types. (Especially the Victorian ones!)
Delete"The real wonder-people are those that do living-history (properly) at various museums and historical sites. You know, the ones who cook and sleep and live and dress in 'period' fashion all the time for days, weeks, months."
DeleteUnlike those I call "speculative archeologists," the academics who barely know which end of an axe to hold, get a 4 hour crash course in something, spend the afternoon trying to replicate something our ancestors did, fail because they've never done a lick of work before, and then pontificate the our ancestors couldn't have done what they obviously done did (sic). Never realizing that growing up seeing something done, how it's done, and learning time do it from the age of 3 is far different than than reading about something then taking a class that basically teaches, "You hold an axe this way l, and swing it at something "
The learned and unskilled, that's how I view 'em.
DeleteSome "Academics" still to this day don't understand how deadly axe fighting and how easy to use an axe is. They think, even with actual medieval axes in front of them, that every axe is an executioner's axe (big ass axe, designed to cut through basically just on the weight of the blade alone)or a North American double-bit axe (axes for North America are bigger and heavier than European axes because our trees were and are bigger, overall, usually, and harder, usually.) Even though there are actual fight-books (instruction manuals) from the late medieval period and early renaissance that clearly show how to use an axe for war and tourney and they generally say, "These are the basic moves we've used since friggin forever and these are the defenses we've figured out just recently to mostly save your butt." Real axe fighting is a deadly swinging ballet of motion and finesse, with a side order of brutal nastiness. Using the poll (butt) of the axe to smash your enemy's teeth in was one of the more brutal non-killing blows. Then there are the moves to open up the femoral arteries or the crotch, literally open them up. (And that's why, in the SCA, if they catch you purposely targeting the groin area they'll sideline you and remove your ability to play for a while or permanently. Accidentally? That's okay. Keep doing it and you're out! (I saw one guy who got tip-shot (hit by the tip) on the cup by the forestroke and then the back-cut tip-shot again. Imagine a bruise, starting on the inside upper leg, going across the groin and down into the inside of the other leg. Spectacular bruising, much admired by everyone else in the shower room.))
DeleteAxe fighting, wouldn't want to do it myself. Of course, hand to hand is nasty in every way.
Delete" how easy to use an axe is." Deceptively easy. Hold the axe, swing the axe, recover the axe. Like Baseball, all you do is throw the ball, hit the ball, catch the ball, right? Easy, anybody can do it. But to do it efficiently and easily is another matter. Learning that the power of the axe starts with your feet and then letting the axe do the work. If you follow baseball you see it in the hitters - the swing starts with the feet.
DeleteWhen I worked for a handyman one job we had was to replace a section of sidewalk near a shopping center. Easy, pry it up, break it up, mix and pour a new section. Had a kid, early 20s, from a temp hiring hall to help me. We got it pried up enough to break up. I put him to swinging an 8# sledge to break it up while I got some other stuff done for the job. I watched him for a few minutes. Pounding away, and not cracking the slab. He was JUMPING on each swing. Like in the cartoons. Had to show him how to swing a hammer. Explain that it starts with the feet, then the hips, then the arms to get the hammer moving, but let the hammer do the work. And don't lift the hammer, let the swing and rebound "cock" it for you with minimum effort.
Same with an axe, let it do the work, not your arms.
In the SCA I prefered a longish mace with a thrusting spike. OAL about 26 inches.
Once I learned to center myself and rotate into the swing, the stupid 'make the bell ring' hammer game at fairs became remarkably easy.
DeleteI liked fighting with just about anything. My favorite 'piss people off' sword was a 3" round chunk of rattan that I shaved the sides off to give me a 3" x 1 1/4" slab-o-doom. All I had to do was start throwing that sucker and the mass would do the rest. Great to hit people across the shoulder blades when they dared to push through my shield wall.
Though the one that made even the knights kind of wince was being able to rotate and throw a shot with a 12" 'dagger' and hit people as hard as others hit with a 30" sword. Hit them hard, make them squeak or squeal and then tell them, "Nah, I hit you with a dagger blade, that wouldn't actually do anything, don't call the shot." Reset and then stab them with the pointy end, usually in an armpit.
If only I had learned how to move in Little League, I might have enjoyed it more.
Though the lady teaching belly dancing in the local group did say she liked the way I swung my hips when fighting. I could wiggle out of a hit by rotating and tilting my hips. Something she had problems teaching her students. She actually had some watch me one time. Kind of uncomfortable, all the wrong attention for all the wrong reasons. Sigh.
DeleteJoe and Beans, remind me never to piss you off.
DeleteSarge, apparently the Muse did not just go away for a bit, she went to a spa and came back invigorated. Arguably some of the finest writing I think you have done (and that is a pretty high bar, given how you write).
ReplyDeleteAnd now, of course, I want to know more. Graham could have easily survived another 34 years or so to see the Yorkist Cause defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in A.D. 1485.
(And, the more you write on this, the more my future library and travel costs are escalating...)
Bloody Henry Tudor and his sell-sword army of Frenchies!
DeleteI have my own reasons for deploring the Tudors. The Plantagenet's were willing to let Gaelic Ireland be, more or less. The Tudors insisted on complete submission and destruction.
DeleteTB - I like Graham, we'll see where his story goes.
DeleteAh yes, the Tudors.
DeleteReason enough to dislike a fellow.
DeleteHave read a portion of a medical book on treating knife, sword and arrow wounds, circa 1700 or so. Horrific, I wish I had bookmarked it as a referral to those who think guns are the source of all evil........
DeleteOlder weapons had a more "personal" feel to them, with the exception of arrows, you had to be close enough to smell the other fellow when you killed him. Nasty, as were the wounds those weapons inflicted.
DeleteNapoleon's institution of Triage - Light wounds here, critical but fixable wounds there, gonna die wounds far over there, was the beginning of the crawl from the dark days of 'You gonna die or be horribly disfigured, no matter what.' Then there was trained nurses in the 1850s (Florence Nightingale.) The next biggest was the concept of sanitation and sterilization in the 1860s by Joseph Lister. Then a huge gap until antibiotics in the late 1930s and 1940s.
DeleteBullet wounds, in comparison to hand weapons or bows and crossbows, are relatively neat and clean. Get shot by an arrow that's been rust-treated with tallow or pig-fat? Or a weapon that's been used to cut or crush into 10-20 people already, been dragged through mud and opened guts? Yeah, hard to treat even with the best medical care today, let alone in the world of no sanitation/sterilization and antibiotics. Let alone no pain killers.
It was a real thing, back in the days, that the job of your friends was to kill you if you had an ulcerated gut or some other slow life-ending injury like quadriplegia. And the job, after the battle, of the victors even if they were going to let the losers go, to finish off their non-survivable enemies. It was a very Christian thing to do, as the giver of mercy would, if no priest was present, pray the death prayer.
People today see this as 'cruel.' No, cruel is letting someone die in 3-5 days from a sucking chest wound or perforated gut or a creeping case of gangrene.
One of the purposes of the sgian dubh, ("The Black Knife", Scottish Gaelic) currently carried in the hose in modern Scottish dress, was to be used to ease the passing in the event of an injury that would end up being fatal, short or long term.
DeleteBeans - You don't let your comrades suffer, not if you can help it.
DeleteTB - A handy thing to have.
DeleteDuring the 100 Years War and War of the Roses, a dagger with a flat plate on the end of the hilt was popular, as you could use the flat plate to pound said dagger through the eye-slot of one's victim. Or in other less-armored spots. The only time you had the chance to use one like that was when said victim was on the ground, usually already dying. Or when your guys were holding him down and you wanted to end his life. One way or another, it was a mercy blow...
DeleteIndeed.
DeleteWhile I could google billhook, tabard, etc., might it make for a good post to show them, how they were used? That's merging into Beans's world, but it would be helpful. I saw the tabard link, and the artwork, which probably shows them, but I can play muse every once in a while. On a similar note, did they ever sharpen the edges of their shields?
ReplyDeleteShields were usually wood, the cheaper ones anyway. Metal shields are very heavy I would think. But jamming the edge up under someone's chin would be effective even if it didn't cut. But saw that sucker back and forth? That's gonna leave a mark.
DeleteMedieval shields, even the cheap ones, were made of wood, basically plywood, rimmed in metal, with linen glued on back and face. Sometimes also leather. Really good high quality shields had horsehair or ox-hair mixed in with the glue as that served as kind of an aramid fiber (kevlar, carbon fiber). Both sides then painted with a relatively waterproof paint and then some sort of sealer.
DeleteSome crossbowmen's pavaices, a shield designed to be used as a shield or lashed to a post to hide behind, had a thick layer of hair-enhanced glue on the front of the wood then covered by leather or multiple layers of linen, with the warp and weft alternating. This made the pavaice effectively resistant to full penetration by other hand-carried missile weapons like bolts and quarrels from crossbows and of course arrows from bows, even English (Welsh) longbows and Mongolian composite bows.
You can punch into a face or body with a shield, crush someone's hands or feet (one of the favorite tactics of Romans was to drop the scutum straight down onto the opponent's foot and crush it) and, yes, whack them in the head (armored or unarmored) to dissuade the person from standing.
As to swinging a shield back and forth, simple rule: The smaller the shield the farther the shield is held from the body. Simple, small shields are light and easy to move. Medium and large shields are held closer to the body, with the elbow often resting on the belly/chest allowing an easy swing back/forth/up/down. Large shields also often had a guie strap, a belt that runs from one side of a shield to the other, that's long enough to allow the shoulder to hold some or most of the weight of a shield and eases maneuvering. Same strap could be shortened to aid in carrying the shield on one's back.
I'll see if I can fit into my rather busy schedule a treatise on sword slinging and shield wielding, along with how to easily whack the back off of someone's head with a billhook or other polearm.
As to sharpened shield edges, some smaller shields did have sharpened edges. More in India than in Europe. But consider this. Drop a 2x4' sheet of 1/2" plywood on your foot, either bare or in sneakers. Did it hurt? Are you now hopping around like an idiot and cursing a blue streak? Yeah, even a simple plywood chunk can hurt. Now put a metal edge around it. And instead of dropping it you actually swing the edge down with force. Now you're looking at a hospital visit to get your very broken foot fixed and maybe some toes attached, and a 72 hour stay in the Psyche Ward for stupidly purposefully causing yourself harm.
In the SCA, using the edge of one's shield or the flat of the shield (at least when I was still in) to hit body parts was strictly verboten, as that could actually really friggin hurt and cause serious injury. You could use the edge against the opponent's shield or weapon, or use the flat of the shield against the opponent's shield or weapon.
My favorite tactic was to use my shield edge to hook my opponent's shield edge and yank said enemy shield away and then hit the now-exposed meaty target with my stick. Or use the bottom edge to hook their top edge and drive their shield down, and whack. Or use the edge of my shield, when fighting someone with a shield-boss held shield (small handle in a hole in the shield that is covered by a dome of metal) use my shield to contact the shield boss and yank it to my left, opening up their left side, or down, opening up their face and left shoulder, or right and open up their center core.
If this ever gets turned into a movie, you're going to have to be the military advisor!
DeleteLooking forward to your treatise, provided you can find the time of course. 😉
Maybe if horrors and issues would slow down. Been a long century this year has been. And it's got, if the rest of the year holds true to the earlier part, several decades more of horror, poop and other bad things. And that's not even considering the outside world.
DeleteIf only they would, slow down that is.
Delete