‘Let him through, there!’ Henry snapped, loud enough for the soldiers to fall back instantly. ‘Stand away!’
A space opened in the heaving ranks. The herald was panting and pale as he knelt on the stones and held out a scroll sealed in white wax with the rose of York. With his free hand, he touched the wound to his head, staring in dismay at the red smear on his fingers.
Though the man appeared to be no threat, it was Somerset who took the scroll and broke the seal, allowing no potential enemy close enough to strike at his king. The dazed herald was led away out of earshot while the duke read quickly, his expression hardening.
‘Well?’ Henry demanded impatiently.
‘York asks for me, Your Highness,’ Somerset said sourly. ‘That I be brought out to him, along with Earl Percy. He claims we are an evil influence on Your Majesty and that we have spread lies about his duty, faith and allegiance. He asks for your mercy and your forgiveness for his presence with men-at-arms, but …’ he read on, his lips moving, ‘… asks only that it be noted he wants nothing for himself beyond the fair trial of those “foul whisperers” in your court.’
‘Am I mentioned?’ Derry Brewer asked.
‘No,’ Somerset said without looking up.
‘Oh, he can go to the
devil
,’ Derry said instantly. ‘I’ve been a thorn in that man’s side for years and he doesn’t even put me on his list? It is worse to be overlooked, my lord!’
The spymaster’s indignation made Somerset smile tightly as he continued to read. In turn, Derry watched the king, hoping he had headed off an eruption of anger. Henry had grown very still as Somerset read aloud, the blood draining from his face.
‘I will not have one of my lords make such demands on me,’ Henry said, his voice almost a whisper. ‘Reply to him, Somerset. Have your herald proclaim for all to hear that York and Salisbury and Warwick will be
traitors
, damned and oathsworn if they do not depart immediately from this place, to await my judgement and to pray for my mercy. Tell them that and nothing else. Then we will see.’
Earl Percy was beaming, Derry noticed. The blustery spring day could hardly be working out better for him, with the king’s anger ringing out against Percy’s own enemies. Somerset bowed and left. Derry paused only to gain the king’s permission to leave before following him, taking York’s still bleeding herald by the arm in a tight grip as the small group headed down to the barricades.
Somerset’s men had been busy from the first moment of their arrival in town, Derry realized. As well as the thorn bushes ripped from the ground, dozens of heavy tables and chairs had been roped together across the three roads in from the east. It was not an impregnable barrier – anything man had made could be torn down by others – yet Jasper Tudor had brought his Welsh archers to those points on his own initiative: small, dark men with long yew bows to defend the barriers and even clamber on to them to give the best field of view. Derry shivered at the thought of assaulting such a position. He did not envy York’s forces, if they came against the king.
Somerset helped York’s herald climb over the mass of wood and thorn, ignoring all protests as the man’s clothes snagged and tore. Even as he was sent on his way, Derry could see the herald taking in every detail of the archers. The man did not look pleased at what he saw.
A stone came from somewhere outside, looping through the air and making an archer swear in Welsh as he had to flinch away or be struck. Derry’s mouth tightened in anger.
‘My lord Tudor!’ he called loudly. ‘Do your men know King Henry has given orders to stand here and make no attack?’ It was not strictly true, but his shout was for the benefit of those who might let anger or sudden pain rule their thinking. The archer who had dodged the stone glared down at him from his position on top of the barrier, but Earl Jasper Tudor nodded, speaking in Welsh and pointing at the man until he dipped his head and turned to stare out once again. Another great piece of flint crashed down against the wood and Derry hissed a curse to himself. Somerset was busy with his own herald, but the problem was that armed men under threat of injury were not reliable at all. He heard one of the Welshmen call out a mocking insult to someone on the other side, lost to view. The man’s companions all hooted with laughter, while Derry’s spirits sank. The barrier was dry wood for the most part. He saw there were buckets of water ready in case it was fired, but there were different kinds of spark.
Somerset’s herald finished nodding through his instructions, helped by the Welshmen to climb the barricade, on the heels of York’s man. The herald was pale as he went, not enjoying the prospect of passing through jeering soldiers on the other side of the barrier.
Somerset walked over to where Derry was peering through gaps in the thorns, looking grim.
‘If York has sense, he’ll pull his men clear before someone gets a shaft down his throat or calls the wrong insult,’ Somerset said.
‘Those are Salisbury’s men, my lord. And they look as if they are spoiling for a fight. My lord, if you hear Earl Percy is intending to come down here, you might want to dissuade him. There are scores to settle between Percy and Neville and I don’t want them settled today, if you take my meaning.’
As Derry spoke, another flight of stones came over, knocking one of the archers back so that he fell screeching into the thorns, slipping down between two great oak tables. Those close to him shouted in anger and Derry saw one of them bending his bow with his teeth bared, blood running down his face. Jasper Tudor was bellowing an order, but the archer loosed his shaft and then howled in triumph. Half a dozen more took it as a signal to attack, and Tudor’s orders were lost in a roar from both sides.
Derry heard a scream of pain sound above the noise and then almost lost his footing as the entire barricade lurched, rocking back and forth. He could feel axes chopping into wood and he drew his seax knife from the sheath on his hip.
‘Christ!’ he muttered. ‘My lord Somerset, we need more men here!’
In answer to his prayers, a troop of soldiers were already running towards the blocked road, swords bared and ready. Somerset ordered them into ranks and Derry stepped back to observe the defences. The barrier was a brutal obstacle, whether those beyond it were just a small group of angry men or the first ranks of a full assault by Salisbury’s forces. It would hold for a time, with Tudor’s archers shooting in volleys, yelling a count to each other as they picked targets at close range. To Derry’s astonishment, one of them was declaiming in verse, call and answer, with all the Welsh archers joining in.
Somerset saw Derry almost dancing from foot to foot in indecision.
‘I have it here, Brewer,’ he said. ‘Go!’
Derry ran, cutting around the timbered home of some wealthy merchant and along to the second and third barriers. They were even tighter than the first, smaller alleys blocked to the height of two men and swarming with soldiers who clambered up the beams of the houses on either side to get a look at the enemy.
‘Hold this position!’ Derry shouted as he reached them, careless of his own right to give orders. ‘They don’t get past!’ The barricades were solid enough, he realized, sprinting back up the hill to the marketplace, where the king and the bulk of the royal column were still crammed in. At every step, Derry passed men jumping up from their meals and resting places, streaming down against his course towards the sounds of fighting. It was chaos, with no obvious figure in charge of any of it. Derry cursed York and Salisbury under his breath as he pounded up the hill until his breath felt like flame in his lungs.
York clenched his fists tight behind his back as he faced Somerset’s herald. The man had sunk to both knees in the presence of a duke and Earl Salisbury, but the fact that he was in Somerset’s livery rather than the king’s meant York knew what he would say before the herald opened his mouth. York’s expression darkened further as the nervous man stammered through the message he had been given. Words that had been spoken by King Henry while surrounded by his loyal lords sounded much harder in York’s own tent.
‘… you must then, d-depart from this place to await the king’s judgement and …’ The herald cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his scalp under York’s cold gaze, ‘… and pray for his mercy.’ He shut his mouth and dipped his head, praying on his own behalf that he would not be beaten or killed for carrying such a message. Back towards the town, some ruckus was beginning, with shouting voices raised in anger. It all seemed far away at that moment and the herald swallowed uncomfortably.
‘Damned and oathsworn?’ York repeated in wonder, shaking his head. ‘King Henry offers me nothing but
damnation
?’
‘I was told only to repeat the king’s words, my lord. I … I have no permission to add more.’
The shouting had become a roar and York looked up from the hapless subject of his fury.
‘Salisbury? Send someone out to see … no, I’ll go myself.’
He strode past the herald without bothering to dismiss him. Salisbury followed on York’s heels and the man was left in the empty command tent to wipe sweat from his brow.
York swore as he looked across the field and saw the barricade across New Lane rocking back and forth, cries and shouts sounding across the field. He could see archers scrabbling around on the makeshift construction, taking shots as they fought to keep their footing.
‘Have your men brought back out of range,’ York snapped. ‘Then summon the captains.’
Salisbury inclined his head without a word, careful to show no sign of his own satisfaction. The chance for peace had come and gone in a few rash words from the king. Salisbury could have blessed Henry at that moment.
The sun was still rising as thirty-two men gathered around York. Each was a veteran, well armed and sufficiently experienced to have risen to command for their noble patrons. He saw their grim determination and chose his words to suit.
‘I have received King Henry’s herald,’ York began, making his voice ring out with a sizeable fraction of the anger and betrayal he felt.
Hundreds of soldiers began to trot closer to that small group of captains as they realized their fate was being decided. The barricades were left behind for the Welsh archers to jeer at the retreating soldiers. A dozen bodies lay at the foot of the thorns and piled wood, already cooling.
‘Although it was my aim to settle this dispute without recourse to arms,’ York went on sternly, ‘I have been denied. King Henry has evil men around him who think nothing of trampling the names of York and Salisbury under their heels. Aye, and Warwick too.’ His fury swamped him so that his voice rose to a bellow. ‘Do not mistake me! My quarrel is not with the king! I am no traitor, though there are some poor fools who call me so – and who would make traitors of every man here. I do not believe my plea for justice reached the king at all, but was instead caught and held by liars and knaves. If the king had heard my suit, he would have granted me a meeting under truce.’
He paused to glare round at the assembled men, seeing that his words were reaching a vast audience. His chest swelled, while Salisbury stood in silence, watching his friend’s anger take them on, wherever it would lead.
‘Instead, I have been scorned! Cast out from the king’s grace by lesser men. All those who stand in Key Field will be hunted and hanged as traitors unless we settle this today. That is the choice I have been given. Must I choose to slink away? Must I leave my king in the clutches of whispering traitors, there to wait for a judgement that will mean the end of York?’
It was too much for the men beyond their captains. They cried out in his support, a growl of unformed words. Many of them were Yorkshire born, loyal to his house above all other claims on them. Even among Warwick’s red-coated followers, there were fists held high and voices yelling to bring down the king’s counsellors.
‘They have already shed the blood of good men who desired nothing more than peace!’ York roared at them, pointing back at the barricades and the littered corpses. ‘They will have my answer now. They will have an answer that tears down their banks of thorns and frees the king from their grasp.’
More and more cheered him, breathing faster as they listened, standing tall on the churned earth.
‘King Henry’s safety is your charge and mine,’ York warned them all. ‘He will not suffer one scratch, on the soul and honour of every one of you. I am no traitor! And I see none
here
.’
The noise had grown with every passing moment so that York had to shout at the top of his lungs just to be heard.
‘Captains! Return to your men. We will make a breach into the town and rescue King Henry from those who hold him. Go, gentlemen, in your fury. York holds the left, Salisbury the centre, Warwick the right. Form ranks for me now. Take this town for me. Save the king.
God
save the king!’
As his final words were echoed in a great hoarse bellow, the captains ran to their positions, followed by hundreds of their men, so that the crowd seemed to explode out from where York was standing. It took only moments for three battle groups of a thousand to grab their weapons and armour and race to stand facing the town.
Salisbury, Warwick and York’s son Edward were waiting quietly together as York turned to them, his face flushed from shouting. Salisbury shook his head in awe.
‘Good God, Richard. I saw your great-grandfather in you then. The blood runs true, I think.’
‘Remember that I wanted peace, first,’ York said, his gaze falling to his son. He kept his eyes on Edward, wanting him to understand. ‘I will free King Henry from those who hold him hostage, nothing more. That is my order. They may call me a traitor. I will not
be
one.’
Edward swallowed and nodded, his pride showing clearly.
‘Stay at my side, lad,’ York said, gentling his tone. He raised his head to give the formal command. ‘Earl Salisbury, if you would do me the honour, your position is the centre ground. Earl Warwick, yours is the right wing. There are three ways into the town, gentlemen. All guarded and blocked. I’ll wager I will climb the hill before you.’