The earl descended the hill, with his troops in good order, and attacked the royalists with great intrepidity, in hopes, that, by breaking their first line, the fugitives from it, would fall back upon those in the rear, and throw them into confusion; but, after bravely fighting for three hours, during which, the half-naked Irish, undisciplined, and only armed with darts and skins, obstinately maintained their ground, although Henry’s archers kept constantly thinning their ranks, and the English and Germans fought with the utmost valour, they were totally routed, with great slaughter. The Earl of Lincoln, Lord Kildare (or, as several authors call him, Lord Thomas Gerardine or Fitzgerald), Sir Thomas Broughton; Martin Swartz, the commander of the foreign auxiliaries; and most of the other leaders of the earl’s party, died sword in hand. { 187b} The impostor, Lambert Simnel, and the priest his tutor, were taken prisoners, { 187c} and Lord Lovel was never afterwards heard of; it has been said, that in endeavouring to escape by crossing the Trent, he was drowned in the river. Some writers state, that he was slain in the battle; but in the account given in the before-mentioned journal, he is said to have been “put to flight” [escaped]. { 188a} Whether he perished in crossing the Trent, fell in the battle, or fled, and contrived to secrete himself, so as to elude discovery, will probably never be satisfactorily ascertained. { 188b} He had been a steadfast supporter of King Richard III., at whose coronation, he had the honour of carrying one of the pointed swords on the King’s left hand; { 188c} and was made Lord Chamberlain, and he had also fought for him at Bosworth Field. { 188d} His enmity to Henry VII. induced him to join the insurrection of Sir Humphrey Stafford, and his brother, Thomas Stafford, in 1486, and take up arms in Yorkshire, whilst they prepared to attack Worcester; but, his troops dispersing, he was obliged to fly to Furness, in Lancashire, where Sir Thomas Broughton received and afforded him an asylum, and from thence he proceeded into Flanders, to Margaret Duchess of Burgundy. { 188e}
Many of the Earl of Lincoln’s forces were destroyed in their flight from the field, and in attempting to escape over the Trent, by Fiskerton Ferry. A ravine or gully, which descends from the high ground on the south-west side of the cliff, is now pointed out, as being the place through which the fugitives endeavoured to pass, in order to get to the ferry, and which, tradition says, ran with blood, and where a great slaughter was inflicted upon them. It is from that circumstance, called Red Gutter; and human bones, and other _indicia_ of slaughter, have been dug up in it. It is rather difficult of access at present, from being covered with a plantation of trees; but there is still a path through it, and it opens upon Stoke Marsh, about thirty or forty yards to the southward of the modern road leading over the marsh, to the ferry; towards which the fugitives would naturally endeavour to pass through this ravine, as the steepness of the cliff would render it difficult, in most places, to descend in any other direction; and the contiguity of the right wing of the royal army would prevent a retreat over the flat ground by the high road past the church to the ferry. The Trent, in the summer time, and the battle was fought in the month of June, is fordable for horses and men, and, as far as I could judge by the eye, it is thereabouts one hundred and sixty or one hundred and eighty yards wide; and if the wreck of the defeated army could have gained the opposite bank, it would have furnished some chance of escape, in comparative safety.