Battle of Shrewsbury

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Battle of Shrewsbury
Depiction of the battle from A Tour in Wales (1781) by Thomas Pennant
Depiction of the battle from A Tour in Wales (1781) by Thomas Pennant
date July 21, 1403
place Shrewsbury
output Defeat of the Percys
consequences The House of Lancaster continued to provide the English king
Parties to the conflict

Royal Arms of England (1399-1603) .svg Kingdom of England

Percy-Lucy quartered.svg House Percy

Commander

Royal Arms of England (1399-1603) .svg Henry IV of England
Prince Henry

Percy Lucy (C) .svg Henry Percy † Thomas Percy, 1st Earl of Worcester
Modern arms of Percy, svg

Troop strength
14,000 men <14,000 men
losses

approx. 3,000 fallen

approx. 2,000 fallen

The Battle of Shrewsbury took place on July 21, 1403 north of Shrewsbury , Shropshire .

The leaders of the troops were on the one hand King Henry IV of England from the House of Lancaster and his son, who later became King Henry V , on the other hand Henry "Hotspur" Percy of Northumberland . Percy led part of the English nobility , which under his leadership had allied themselves with Welsh and Scottish troops and rose against the king. The battle ended in Percy's crushing defeat.

background

The death of Henry "Hotspur" Percy (illustration from 1864)

Henry Percy supported Henry IV in various battles, especially against Richard II for the English throne. Previously, Heinrich had promised him in particular the county of Cumberland and a number of political freedoms. When Henry did not keep his promises as king, the house of the Percys rebelled against the king. Henry Percy announced that the "rightful" King Richard II was still alive and intended to reclaim the throne. Heinrich IV had to oppose this provocation in order to maintain his claim to the throne.

Course of the battle

First Henry IV tried to negotiate with the Percys, whereupon Henry "Hotspur" Percy got involved in pretense, as he hoped for the arrival of the Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr . Heinrich recognized this ruse, however, and started fighting. The fight began with a massive longbow barrage of 2,000 archers on Henry IV's side and 870 on Henry Percy's side. Long archers were highly specialized units with a high level of training. Trained long archers could shoot up to ten arrows per minute over ranges of up to 200 meters. Percy's well-trained archers were initially able to assert themselves and caused Heinrich's troops considerable losses. However, Henry had enough soldiers left, especially those on the left wing under the command of the Prince of Wales. Since the hoped-for support from the Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr did not materialize, Hotspur had no chance against the numerically superior army of the king. He was killed in battle.

theatre

The battle and its key characters appear in the play Henry IV by William Shakespeare .

  • William Shakespeare : King Henry IV. 1st part, fourth act, p. 212 ff. Shakespeare's dramatic works, volume 1; 1825.
  • Edith Pargeter: A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury . 1989, ISBN 0-7472-0151-X (English); First performed as a play at Shrewsbury Music Hall on May 22, 2003

Web links

literature

  • Juliet Barker : Agincourt. Henry V and the Battle that made England . Back Bay Books, New York et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-316-01504-2 .
  • Jonathan Davies: The Battle of Shrewsbury 1403 (= Medieval battle series). Stuart Press, Backwell 2008, ISBN 978-1-85804-235-0 .
  • A. Dunn: Kingdom in Crisis. Henry IV and the Battle of Shrewsbury . In: History Today 53, 2003, ISSN  0018-2753 , pp. 31-37.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alastair Dunn: A Kingdom in Crisis: Henry IV and the Battle of Shrewsbury. In: History Today. August 2003, accessed on July 21, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Inga Menn: Richard II .: The wolf in sheep's clothing or the lamb among wolves? LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, p. 248f.
  3. ↑ Inga Menn: Richard II .: The wolf in sheep's clothing or the lamb among wolves? LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, p. 34.
  4. ↑ Inga Menn: Richard II .: The wolf in sheep's clothing or the lamb among wolves? LIT Verlag Münster, 2011, p. 36.
  5. ^ Matthew Strickland, Robert Hardy: The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose. Sutton Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0750931671 .
  6. ↑ James Mackintosh: History of England , Volume 1, Part 2. Campe 1831.
  7. ^ Theater Review: A Bloody Field by Shrewsbury. In: BBC . May 23, 2003, accessed July 21, 2018 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 44 ′ 51 ″  N , 2 ° 43 ′ 6.6 ″  W.