Prince Edward was taken prisoner by Sir Richard Crofts, and in consequence of a proclamation, made by the King’s orders, that whosoever should produce the Prince, should receive an annuity of one hundred pounds, and that the Prince’s life should be spared if he were brought forward unhurt, he was conducted by Sir Richard Crofts into the King’s presence. Here an act of wickedness and cruelty took place, similar to and equally detestable, with that which was perpetrated by Lord Clifford, a leader of the other party, against the young Earl of Rutland, after the battle of Wakefield. The King having asked, in a haughty manner, how Prince Edward had dared to invade his dominions, and being irritated by an imprudent and hasty reply from the youthful captive, struck him on the face with his gauntlet. This seems to have been considered a sufficient encouragement to others, to proceed to a deed of savage violence against the unhappy Prince, and the Marquis of Dorset, Lord Hastings, the Dukes of Clarence { 143a} and Gloucester, and some others, dragged the Prince away, and murdered him with their daggers. { 144} His corpse was buried in a common grave, in the Abbey Church, with some of the soldiers who had been slain in the battle. The King pardoned a number of the fugitives, who had taken refuge in the Abbey Church, although it did not possess any privilege to protect rebels; and he might have taken them out of it without breach of any liberty of that church; and he allowed the bodies of the noblemen and others slain in the battle, to be buried in the church, or wherever their friends or servants pleased; nor was there any quartering or setting up in public places, of the heads, or quarters, either of those who had been slain, or of those who had been executed: a disgusting exhibition, which had too often been witnessed during the wars of the Roses.
Near the centre of the choir, under the tower, is a brass plate, let into a stone slab in the floor, with the following inscription, commemorating the murder of the young Prince:—
NE TOTA PEREAT MEMORIA EDVARDI PRINCIPIS WALLLÆ POST PRÆLIUM MEMORABILE IN VICINIS ARVIS DEPUGNATUM CRUDELITER OCCISI HANC TABULAM HONORARIAM DEPONI CURABAT PIETAS TEWKESBURIENSIS ANNO DOMINI MDCCXCVI