14 May in military history: Battle of Lewes, 1264

14 May 1264 · 762 years ago

The quarrel over the Provisions

English Heritage writes that in the mid-13th century a group of English barons grew dissatisfied with Henry III's rule, believing that the king gave too much influence to foreign relatives of the royal family; C. L. Kingsford, editor of the Song of Lewes, also puts the dismissal of the king's foreign councillors first in the barons' programme. Their leader was Simon de Montfort, husband of the king's sister Eleanor. English Heritage calls the conflict of 1264 to 1267 the Second Barons' War. The historian S. D. Lloyd, in the Oxford Companion to British History, writes that the victory saved "the cause of the provisions of Oxford".¹

In the days before the battle the barons wrote to the king at Lewes offering their service. The Waverley annalist and the verse chronicle of Robert of Gloucester both have Henry answer, without a greeting, that he cared nothing for their service and held them as his enemies. Kingsford dates the barons' letter and the defiant answers of Henry, Richard and Edward to 12 May, and the chronicle printed under the name of the St Albans monk William Rishanger, translated by J. A. Giles, dates the king's letter at Lewes that day and has it end: "we do not care either for your fidelity or your love, and we defy their enemies".²

A march before dawn

The barons left Fletching, which Kingsford and Rishanger's chronicle put about six miles from Lewes, before sunrise; Lloyd also places the advance in the early hours of 14 May, before sunrise. Before they set out, the chronicle says, Montfort knighted Gilbert de Clare; Kingsford, the editor of the Song of Lewes, citing other chronicles, also places Gilbert's knighting on the morning of the battle.³

Henry was lodged in the priory of Lewes and Edward in the castle. The chronicler Thomas Wykes writes that the barons came down "at first light", their lines drawn up, while the royalists knew nothing of it, "as if they meant to catch them in their beds" (our translation). The Waverley annalist says they could have taken them in their beds but for the courtesy of some who said: "Let us wait for them here and give them time to get up; for if we attacked them asleep, we would bring reproach on ourselves" (our translation). In Robert of Gloucester's verse, "The good men said that they would such villany do none". Lloyd writes that Montfort, although outnumbered, was able through his surprise advance to attack at a place and time of his choosing.⁴

Edward's charge and the king's defeat

The Londoners, on the barons' left in Kingsford's account, broke before Edward's charge; the Waverley and Dunstable annalists both have them flee. Edward rode after them, far from the field. Kingsford writes that Montfort "lost no time in availing himself of Edward's mistaken pursuit", and in Giles's translation of Rishanger's chronicle, "by his absence, he much weakened the king's forces".⁵

The chroniclers tell a ruse in three versions. Rishanger's chronicle says Montfort set his standard on a car on the hill with four London citizens who had plotted against him shut inside, and that royalist magnates, thinking the earl was there, killed them. Wykes names three citizens in the car and has Edward kill them. The Chronicle of Melrose, in Hutton's translation, has two old citizens in an iron-covered carriage hung with pennons, who at last made the royalists understand that Simon was not inside.⁶

John de Warenne, William de Valence, Guy de Lusignan and Hugh Bigod fled, as Rishanger's chronicle and Wykes both say. The sources differ on who took the king. Rishanger's chronicle has Henry, his horse killed under him, surrender to Montfort and be shut in the priory under guard. The Waverley annalist and Robert of Gloucester have him yield to Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester; Waverley says he gave Gloucester his sword because Montfort displeased him. Wykes writes that the two kings, left alone by Edward and surrounded, were forced to surrender after a stout fight. Richard, king of Germany, was taken in a windmill, according to the Chronicle of Melrose and Robert of Gloucester, and Kingsford also has him take refuge in the mill. The Song of Lewes, a Latin poem on the battle, says in Kingsford's translation: "The sword waxed strong, many fell, truth prevailed, and the false fled". Lloyd calls it a complete victory.⁷

Counting the dead

The Waverley annalist gives the king nearly 60,000 fighting men and the barons 50,000, but Kingsford, who collected the chroniclers' figures, warns: "It is of course impossible to accept any of the statements as to the numbers present as an accurate estimate; they may however roughly represent the proportions of the forces on either side".⁸

The dead are counted just as differently. The chronicle of Peter of Ickham, quoted by Kingsford, puts at 600 those killed in the battle, on the witness of the religious who buried them, with many more killed in flight or drowned; Kingsford calls this "perhaps the most moderate computation". The Waverley annalist counts nearly 3,000 killed in the battle, not counting those killed earlier or drowned. Rishanger's chronicle reports that about 5,000 were said to have fallen on both sides, a figure Kingsford writes "we may perhaps accept as an outside estimate". The Osney annalist writes that more than 15,000 fell on both sides that day, "as was said" (our translation). Among the named dead were the royal justiciars William de Wilton, killed, and Fulk fitz Warin, drowned in the river, and on the barons' side Ralph Heringaud and William Blund, Montfort's standard-bearer.⁹

Montfort's year

Edward, according to Rishanger's chronicle, came back from the pursuit, found his father in the priory and wanted to fight again; the barons sent mediators, and the next day friars brokered an agreement that Edward and Richard's son Henry would give themselves up to Montfort in place of their fathers; Kingsford, following the chronicler Hemingburgh, has Edward give himself up as a hostage on 16 May, the day after the settlement. The Dunstable annalist instead lists Edward among those Montfort's men took, and names him and Henry as hostages. The Waverley annalist and Robert of Gloucester instead have Edward go to the church of the Franciscan friars in the town, where, in Robert's verse, he "yielded him at last".¹⁰

Lloyd writes that the victory established Montfort's protectorate, which lasted until his death at Evesham in 1265, and English Heritage calls Montfort the de facto ruler of England after Lewes. English Heritage dates Edward's escape to 28 May 1265, as does a heading in W. H. Hutton's 1888 collection of sources. Montfort was killed at Evesham on 4 August 1265. More of England's battles are gathered in our list of the greatest battles in British history.¹¹ › Battle of Evesham, 1265

Also on 14 May: Jackson, 1863

During Ulysses S. Grant's campaign against Vicksburg, the Union corps of Sherman and McPherson converged on Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, on 14 May 1863. General Joseph E. Johnston, sent to take command, had telegraphed from Jackson the evening before: "I am too late". Heavy rain fell through the night, Grant and the Park Service write. Johnston reports that he evacuated Jackson "about noon (2 p. m.)", and the Park Service has Union troops entering the city around 3 p.m.. The Official Records' general summary, compiled from nominal lists, counts 2 officers and 40 men killed, 14 officers and 237 men wounded and 7 men captured or missing, 300 in all, the total the Park Service also gives. Grant's Memoirs put the Confederate loss at 845 killed, wounded and captured, with seventeen guns taken; the Park Service calls 845 an estimate.¹²