HENRY OF LANCASTER, KING OF ENGLAND, COMBATS THE PERCIES AND WELSHMEN, WHO HAD INVADED HIS KINGDOM, AND DEFEATS THEM.
About the month of March, in this year, great dissensions arose between Henry, king of England, and the family of Percy and the Welsh, in which some of the Scots took part, and entered Northumberland with a considerable force. King Henry had raised a large army to oppose them, and had marched thither to give them battle; but, at the first attack, his vanguard was discomfited. This prevented the second division from advancing, and it being told the king, who commanded the rear, he was animated with more than usual courage, from perceiving his men to hesitate, and charged the enemy with great vigour. His conduct was so gallant and decisive that many of the nobles of both parties declared he that day slew, with his own hand, thirty-six men at arms.
He was thrice unhorsed by the earl of Douglas’s spear, and would have been taken or killed by the earl, had he not been defended and rescued by his own men. The lord Thomas Percy was there slain, and his nephew Henry made prisoner, whom the king ordered instantly to be put to death before his face. The earl of Douglas was also taken, and many others. After this victory, king Henry departed from the field of battle, joyful at the successful event of the day. He sent a body of his men at arms to Wales, to besiege a town of that country which was favourable to the Percies[30].
JOHN DE VERCHIN, A KNIGHT OF GREAT RENOWN, AND SENESCHAL OF HAINAULT, SENDS, BY HIS HERALD, A CHALLENGE INTO DIVERS COUNTRIES, PROPOSING A DEED OF ARMS.
At the beginning of this year, John de Verchin[31], a knight of high renown and seneschal of Hainault, sent letters, by his herald, to the knights and esquires of different countries, to invite them to a trial of skill in arms, which he had vowed to hold, the contents of which letters were as follows:
‘To all knights and esquires, gentlemen of name and arms, without reproach, I Jean de Verchin, seneschal of Hainault, make known, that with the aid of GOD, of our Lady, of my lord St George, and of the lady of my affections, I intend being at Coucy the first Sunday of August next ensuing, unless prevented by lawful and urgent business, ready on the morrow to make trial of the arms hereafter mentioned, in the presence of my most redoubted lord the duke of Orleans, who has granted me permission to hold the meeting at the above place.