British Battles on Land and Sea

Front matter

QUEEN ELIZABETH ADDRESSING HER TROOrS AT TILBURV. British Battles On Land and Sea BY James Grant, Author of "Old and New Edinburgh," "The Romance of War," &c. WITH NUMEROUS I LLU STRATfONS. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited: LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK cV MELBOURNE. [all rights reserved.] CONTENTS.

PAGB Introduction i Hastings, 1066 4 Battle of the Standard, The, 1 138 . . . .10 Damme, 1214 15 Bouvines, 1214 " . . .16 Dover, 1217 17 Lewes, 1264 21 Evesha.^, 1265 . 22 Channel, In the, 1293 24 Stirling Bridge, 1297 26 Falkirk, 129S 30 Bannockburn, 1314 ....... 35 Halidon Hill, 1333 43 Sluys, 1346 45 Cressy, 1346 . ■ 47 Durham, 1345 . . . . . . . . 52 Winchelsea, 1349 . . . - . . -57 Poictiers, 1356 58 Black Prince in Spain, The — Najera, 1367. 62 Sea-fight, 1378 66 Otterbume, or Chevy Chase, 1388 ... .68 Homildon, 1402 71 Shrewsbury, 1403 74 Agincourt, 141 5 76 Bauj6, 1421 82 Crevant, 1423 ........ 86 Vemeuil, 1424 87 Roverai, 1429 89 Blore Heath, 1459 93 St. Albans, 1461 94 Towton, 1461 95 Chipping Barnet, 1 471 98 Tewkesbury, 1471 100 Bosworth, 1485 105 Stoke-Bardolph, 1487 no Sea-fights, 1489, 1490 112 Downs, In the, 1511 116 Bretagne, Off, 1512 ««7 Flodden, 1513 119 Haddenrig, 1542 i-^> Ancrum Moor, 1545 128 Isle of Wight, 1545 . 130 Pinkie, 1547 • 134 PAGE Leith, Siege of, 1560. • 142 Zutphen, 1586 148 Drake, Exploits of Sir Francis 153 Spanish Armada, The, 1588 158 Groyne, The, 1589 166 Sea-fights off Flores and Cape Corrientes, 159 1 . . 171 Drake and Hawkins, Last Expedition and Death of Admirals, 1595 176 Cadiz, The Capture of, 1596 179 Porto Rico, 1598 185 Cezimbra, In the Bay of, 1602 189 Cagliari, Sea-fight with the Turks oft", 1617 . . 194 IsleofRhe, The, 1627 197 Newbum Ford, The Rout at, 1640 .... 206 Edgehill, 1642 212 Stratton and Lansdown, 1643 217 Round way Down and Newbury, 1643 • • .221 Marston Moor, 1644 227 Naseby, 1645 ........ 236 Kilsythe, 1645 242 "Unlawful Engagement," The, 164S . . . 251 Cromwell in Scotland, 1650 257 Dunbar, 1650 257 Cromwell in Scotland — Inverkeithing, 165 1 . . 268 Worcester, 1651 273 Dundee, The Sack of, 165 1 281 Blake, Exploits of Admiral, 1652 . . . .286 Dutch, Three Days' Battle with the, 1653 . . .292 Point of Gober, and Camperdown, 1653 . . . 296 Glencairn, The Expedition of, 1653 . . . . 301 Blake, Last Exploit of, 1657 306 Dunes, before Dunkirk, The, 1658 .... 310 Lowestoft, Naval Engagement off, 1665 . . . 315 Dunkirk, Four Days' Battle off, 1666 . . . 321 North Foreland, Off the, 1666 320 Pentland Hills, 1666 329 Dutch in the Medway, The, 1667 . . . . -333 Southwold Bay, 1672 337 Prince Rupert and the Dutch, 1673 . . . • 341 British Troops under Marshal Turenne . 345 St. Denis, 1678 35° Bothwell Bridge, 1679 ... • • • 352 Tangiers, 1680-4 ,..■••• 36° VI PAGE Irish at Cremona, The, 1702 ..... 470 Vigo Bay, 1702 473 Benbow in the West Indies, 1702 . . . . 479 Blenheim, 1704 4$2 Capture of Gibraltar, 1 704 ..... 4^9 Malaga, 1704 493 Marbella Point, 1705; Ostend, 1706 .... 501 Ramillies, 1706 504 Almanza, 1707 508 Oudenarde, 1708 ...... . 513 Lisle and Wynendale, 1708 519 The Castle of Alicante, 1709 525 The Cruise of Commodore Wager, 1709 . . . 529 Malplaquet, 1709 . .

" 532 Sheriffmuir, 1715 539 Affair of Preston, The 548 Cape Passora, 1718 554 Glenshiel, 1719 556 Expedition of General Wade, The, 1724 . . . 561 Gibraltar, 1727 565 Portobello, 1739 567 Carthagena, 1 741 569 Dettingen, 1743 . . . . „ . -574 PAGE Sedgemoor, 1685 364 Last Siege of Edinburgh Castle, 1689 . . . 371 KilKecrankie, 1689 380 Dunkeld and Cromdale, 1689 386 Haughs of Cromdale, The ..... 389 Bantry Bay, 1689 . . . . » . . -393 Siege of Londonderry 395 Newton Butler, 1689 400 Surprise of the Bass Rock, 1689-94 .... 404 Beachy Head, 1690 408 The Boyne, 1690 . . . . . . .411 Aughrim, 1691 . . . . . . .417 Limerick, 1691 422 La Hogue, 1692 . . . . . . . 425 Island of the Scots, 1693-7 430 Steenkirke, 1692 434 Landen, 1693 . . 438 Lagos Bay — St. Malo, 1693 443 Camaret Bay, 1694 ....... 447 Commodore Wilmot's Expedition, 1695 . . . 452 Namur, 1695 455 Pursuit of the Baron de Pointis, 1697 . . ' . 462 Darien Expedition, The, 1698-9 .

Chapter I. Hastings

1066. The most important battle ever fought on English soil is unquestionably that of Hastings ; not only because of the great strength of the invading force, the perfect success of the enterprise, and the dreadful misery which fell upon the conquered English for several generations, till the Norman element became blended, if not altogether lost, in the Saxon, but also on account of many incidents peculiar to that short and terrible war. promise that which is mine, and also that which belongs to him. He must be the victor who can give away both his own and that which belongs to the foe." The Normans were then in the zenith of their military glory. In France they had acquired a noble territory ; a few of their adventurous knights, by overcoming Italians, Greeks, and Germans, had laid the foundation of the opulent kingdom of Naples and Sicily : and thus the friends of William were as confident of success as they were resolute and fearless.

From the day of the accession of Harold, the son of Godwin, to the English throne, the dread of a Norman invasion haunted him, for William of Normandy had sworn to stake on the issue of battle his personal right to that throne, which he claimed as the bequest of the Confessor ; and during the summer of 1066 all his dukedom and the territories of his adherents resounded with the notes of preparation. He received a banner consecrated by the Pope ; and through all Maine and Anjou, Poitou and Bretagne, Flanders, Aqui taine, and Burgundy, the mail was burnished, the spear flashed, and the steed galloped ; while lawless barons, whose ruined castles now stud the Rhine, wild robbers from the base of the Alps, knight, varlet, and vagrant, we are told, all mus tered to join this holy banner, that was to be the guide to the pillage and conquest of England.

Every harbour and roadstead in his dominions and in those of his allies was busy with preparation throughout the summer and spring of that eventful year.- Workmen were employed at all the ports, building ships, setting up masts, and stretching sails. William had need of ships to cope with that Saxon navy which was the legacy of Alfred; for now " the last of the Saxon kings " had assembled at Sandwich the largest fleet and army that England had ever seen, to resist the coming invaders, though the population was not then supposed to exceed 2,000,000, while two of the present English border counties, Westmoreland and Cumberland, belonged to the King of Scotland. Thierry estimates the entire fleet of William as amounting to 400 ships with masts and sails, and more than 1,000 transport boats (Hume says 3,000 sail) ; while his army, now fully collected, was care fully organised by him according to the tactics of the day, and its fiery masses were welded together by the powerful and combined influences of love of glory and adventure, fanaticism, conquest, and plunder.

" Good pay and broad lands to every one who will serve Duke William with spear, with sword, and bow," was said on all hands; and the duke him self added to Fitz-Osborn, as in perspective he parcelled out the fair land of England in fiefs to his Norman knights, " This Harold hath not the strength of mind to promise the least of those things that belong to me. But /have the right to THE LANDING OF WILLIAM. Hastings.] 5 They mustered 60,000 men. Among them were Eustace, Count of Boulogne, Ameri de Thouars, Hugh d'Etaples, Guillaume d'Evreux, Geoffrey de Rotau, Roger de Beaumont, Guillaume de Warrenne, Roger de Montgomerie, Hugh de Grantmesnil, Charles Martel, and other knights and nobles, whose muster-roll of names, as given by Grafton, in his " Black Letter Chronicle," published in 1572, amounts to 753.

Among them was Rene, a monk of Fe'camp, who substituted a shirt of mail for his cassock, to follow William with a ship and twenty men-at-arms, on receiving the promise of an English bishopric. The rendezvous was the mouth of the Dive, between the Seine and the Orme, and thence the armament was to sail in the middle of August. Sir Hastings, he formed an entrenched camp, and set up "two wooden castles'," by which are perhaps meant simply palisaded ramparts. Bodies of his mailed cavalry now overran the adjacent country, pillaging and burning the timber-built houses of the people, who sought in vain to hide their goods and cattle in the forests. Some sought refuge in the chuiches and burial-places, but even there they were massacred without mercy by the Normans. Yet, in addition to the consecrated banner, William wore on his right hand a ring sent him by the Pope, with one of St. Peter's hairs set in it ; and thus, as Hume remarks, all the ambition and violence of this invasion were safely covered over by the broad mantle of religion.

Harold was at York when tidings of it came. His most gallant leaders had perished at Stamford Bridge. That victory was in some measure his ruin, and for years to come the ruin of England j and but for the unfortunate land ing of Harold Hardrada, Duke William and his Normans might have had another tale to tell of Hastings. On examining his forces Harold found them sorely cut up and diminished ; but though Earl Gurth, his brother, a man of con duct and courage, urged a protraction of the war, Harold, on being reinforced by fresh troops Robert le Blount, styled "DuxNavium Militarium," was commander of the fleet. North-west winds de layed William till the be ginning of September. Ere this the Saxon fleet at Sandwich had melted away, being unprovisioned. Just at the time, too, when Harold's presence was all important on the south coast, he was called north wards to repel a Norwegian army that had landed under the banner of Harold Hardrada, the last of the Scandinavian vikings.

He routed them TROPHY OF NORMAN AND SAXON ARMOUR (1066). utterly at Stamford Bridge, on the 24th September; and then, when the weather was mild and serene, and a brilliant sun was shining on the snow-white cliffs of England and on the waters of the Chan nel, Duke William and his army crossed that open strip of sea, and landed on the undefended shore, at convenient points between Bexhill and Win chelsea, on the feast of St. Michael, the patron of Normandy. from London and other places, was deaf to his argument, and fired by native courage, elated by victory, and justly incensed by the arrogance of the Normans, he vowed that " he would give battle in person, and convince his subjects that he was worthy of the crown they had set upon his head." So confident was he of success, that at London he manned 700 ships to prevent the escape of the Normans, and sent a message to the duke offering him a sum of money if he would quit the shores of England without further effusion of blood.

This offer William rejected with mocking disdain; and in return sent certain monks requiring him to resign his crown or hold it of him in fealty, to submit their cause to the arbitration of the Pope, or fight him in single combat. Carefully watching the disembarkation of his troops and their mailed horses, William was the last who stepped on the shore. He stumbled and fell as he did so, and rose with his gauntlets covered with mud, which being deemed a bad omen by some of those about him, he said, " What is the matter? I have thus taken seisin of this land ; and so far as it reaches, by the splendour of God, it is yours and is mine ! " "The God of battles will soon be the great Arbiter of all our differences," was the quiet res ponse of Harold ; but he was conscious that dread Concentrating his forces on the green slopes at sHastings. 6 was generally known in both armies that a battle would be sought on the morrow.

The English were merry ; they drank much ale, and were heard singing old Saxon songs : while among the Norman host we are told that the night was passed in prayers and pious processions; and that, notwithstanding the wild, lawless, and warlike spirits which com posed it, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, went through the camp, ex horting to repentance, urging prayer, blessing, and hearing confessions. of the papal excommunication affected his Saxon followers, and perhaps would prevent them making a resolute stand against the invaders. Harold was undoubtedly a man of heroic courage, and had slain many of the Norsemen with his own hand at Stamford Bridge. He remained six days in London ere he marched against William ; and there came with him " Earl Gurth his brother, Earl Leofwin his brother, all his thanes, his franklyns, his housecarles, and the men of London and of Kent, and very many cf the men GROUP OF NORMAN SOLDIERS (A.D. I066). of the southern and eastern shires of England : and the king marched on through the land of the South Saxons, and he came to a hill which men then called Senlac, whereon now is the town of Battle, and there he pitched his camp by the hoar apple tree," which was perhaps some tree held sacred by the Saxons in the days of heathendom.

Accompanied by his brother, Gurth, he rode forward in person to reconnoitre the Norman camp, after having secured his own by palisades. They are said to have quarrelled as «.o the line of action to be adopted, but to have been silent when they returned as to the subject of dispute. On the evening of Friday, the 13th October, it On the following morning Duke William rose early, heard mass, and received the holy commu nion ; then gathering around him the leading knights and nobles of his army, he told them that he had come, bent to take that which was his — the crown King Edward had left him — and concluded by re minding them of the ancient prowess of the Normans — how " they had won their land in Gaul with their own swords ; how they had given land to the kings of the Franks, and conquered all their enemies every where ; while the English had never been famed in war, the Danes having conquered them and taken their land whenever they would."

This harangue, though probably a fable, is recorded by Henry of Hastings.] DUKE WILLIAM'S HARANGU1 7 HAROLD AT THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS {seepage 9). [Hastings. 8 and firmness to their footing. The Saxons wore their hair and beard long and flowing ; the Normans had the former shorn and the latter closely shaven. There was a tribe in Wales then named the Venta, who excelled with the bow, and that weapon is frequently referred to in the poems of Ossian ; but save during the Heptarchy, when we read that Offrid, son of the King of Northumbria, was killed by an arrow in a battle fought in 633, near Hatfield, in Yorkshire, little relating to the bow appears in the Saxon annals. (See Moseley on "Archery.") Harold drew up his army in order of battle on a rising mound, with his flanks and front protected by deep trenches, intending to sustain an attack, but avoid, if possible, the heavy-armed cavalry, a force in which he was inferior.

In rear of the trenches were ballistæ and other engines for casting stones. Huntingdon and William of Poictiers. Then the whole army marched from Hastings to the hill called Telham, whence they could see the camp of Harold; and then the Norman knights put on their coats of mail, assumed their heavy helmets, and ex changed their light hackneys for their great barbed battle-horses. William, probably in his haste, put on his chain shirt with the back to the front. "A good sign and a lucky one," said he, laughingly, as he reversed it ; "a duke shall this day be turned into a king." The present aspect of the field is very different now from that which it presented on Harold's birth day, the fatal 14th of October, 1066. No building stood there save a lonely Saxon fane, known as the Church of St. Mary-in-the-Woods, for the use of the peasantry who dwelt in the adjacent forests.

The future abbey embraced the centre of Harold's position. His standard waved on Senlac Hill, and on a similar eminence was that of William. Between these a beautiful valley of green meadows and luxuriant woods winds away in a north-easterly direction towards Hastings, where it meets the sea. Then the plain was all desolate and wild. In the centre was his royal standard, depicting a warrior in the act of fighting, worked in gold and studded with precious stones, perhaps the handi work of his queen, Algitha, or of Swans-hause ("Edith with the Swan's Throat"), whom Harold loved so well when he was Earl of the East Angles. Besides this, the English had one other great banner, charged with the golden dragon of Wessex. William rode a Spanish barb ; he wore a surcoat above his chain-mail, and a case of holy relics at his neck, and carried in his right hand a truncheon of steel.

By his side rode Toustain the Fair, bearing the beautiful banner which Pope Alexander had blessed — a perilous honour, which two barons had declined. The Kentish men formed his first line, together with the Londoners, who guarded the standard. All these men were mailed, and armed with javelins, swords, and heavy battle-axes ; but the other troops who came from the south and east had no iron de fensive armour — few had swords, bows, or axes, and many had pikes, pitchforks, or anything they could get wherewith to arm them. Harold dismounted, with his brothers Leofwin and Gurth ; and there on foot, with his battle-axe in his hand, stood the last Saxon king of England, prepared to conquer or die, beside his standard, on the very spot where the high altar of the suture minster rose, and where then there was amid the waste nought but " the hoar apple tree."

The formation of the Norman army was altogether peculiar. It was drawn up in three long lines. The first, formed of archers and light infantry, was led by Roger de Montgomerie ; the second, com posed of heavily-mailed men-at-arms, was led by Martel ; and the third, led by William in person, was entirely composed of cavalry — knights with their squires, and yeomen — and its length was so vast that it far outflanked the first two. Splinted armour had not been introduced ; the Normans therefore wore tippets and shirts or hauberks of minute iron rings, with high saddles and steel frontlets for their horses. There was a strong resemblance between the military equipments of the Normans and Saxons at this period ; and though the latter wore tunics of iron rings, much of their armour was composed of leather only, and consisted of over lapping flaps, generally stained of different colours, and shaped like scales or leaves.

It was called corium by the writers in the succeeding century, and corictum in the Norman law. In addition to the ringed byrne, the Saxons had a kind of mail com posed of iron bosses sewn on leather, and the short mantle added grace to the figure ; while the cross-gartering, composed of thong, gave a lightness Precisely at nine o'clock the whole Norman army began to move forward in three great lines, all marching in unison, and loading the air with the hymn or battle-song of Roland, the peer of Charle magne, who fell at Roncesvalles. This song was led by Taillefer, or "Cut-iron," the minstrel, who rode in front, tossing up his sword and catching it. With the morning sun shining on the arms and armour of 60,000 men, those lines came down the green slope, their parti-coloured pennons and banners waving, their grey but glittering shirts of mail, and their gaudy surcoats of silk or fine linen, em broidered or painted with the heraldic cognisances which from that day forward were to be those cf the future aristocracy of England.

THE DEATH OF HAROLD. Hastings.] 9 The Normans came on with spirit and alacrity, and ere long the clouds of arrows and cross-bow bolts filled the air from both front lines. " God is our help ! " was their cry, as they flung themselves against the palisades which fringed the edge of Harold's trench protecting his front, and strove with mailed hands to tear them up and force an entrance for their cavalry. the duke, who a few minutes after slew him with his own hand. Earl Leofwin fell next under the sword of Roger de M.ontgomerie ; but still the half blind Harold stood, axe in hand, beside his standard, with the orb of his shield full of Norman arrows. - Twenty knights now swore to take the standard or die in the attempt, just as Harold fell disabled and faint with loss of blood. Ten fell; among these was Robert Fitz-Ernest, whose skull was cloven by a battle-axe at the moment his hand was on the pole.

However, the survivors succeeded in tearing down the English standard, and planting in its stead the consecrated one which had come from Rome. The golden dragon, " that ancient ensign, which had shone over so many battle-fields, was never again borne before a true English king," as it, too, fell into the hands of the Normans. Then four knights, one of whom was Count Eustace oi Boulogne, rushed upon Harold as he lay dying. They recognised him by his rich armour and royal insignia, and barbarously killed him with many wounds, sorely mangling his body. " Christ's Rood ! The Holy Rood ! " was the incessant battle-cry of the Saxons, who shot their arrows thick and fast, hurled their javelins, and hewed with their axes, cleaving shields of iron and hauberks of tempered steel asunder. Many fell fast before and behind that formidable palisade, and the Norman writers tell us how dreadful the fight was, " and how the English axe in the hand of King Harold, or any other strong man, cut down the horse and his rider by a single blow."

Harold and his brother fought there among the foremost. He lost an eye by an arrow, and though consequently half blind and in agony, he still con tinued to fight ; while William ordered his archers to press forward, and "instead of shooting with level aim" to discharge their arrows with a curve, so that they might assail the English rear. Horse and foot, knight and pikemen, now poured like a living tempest sheathed in iron on the Saxon trenches. Still the fight was not done, nor was it over till the setting of the sun, for the housecarles and other picked Saxon warriors fought with the courage that is born of vengeance and despair, in deep and miry ground, broken and disordered, against the mighty force of the Normin chivalry. No prisoners were taken, neither did any Saxon take flight till darkness came on, and by that time there lay on the field of Hastings 15,000 Norman dead, and a still greater number of the vanquished, stated at "threescore thousand Englishmen," which is certainly an exaggeration of the truth.

" Our Lady of help ! God be our help ! " was the cry ; but so terrible was the execution done by the English battle-axes, mauls, and spears, that they were driven down into the ravine between the two hills, where men and horses, killed, wounded, or dying, rolled over each other pell-mell, and many men were even smothered in their armour and their own blood. William had three horses killed under him, and on the third occasion a cry arose that he was slain. On this he remounted and rode along the now shattered line, with his helmet in his hand, that all might see him, exclaiming, " I am here — look at me ! I live, and, by God's help, shall conquer !" In their riotous joy at having obtained such a victory, when weary of tracking the fugitives by the light of the moon, the Normans exultingly caracoled their horses over the bodies ; while William, ordering a place to be cleared of them, pitched a great pavilion, wherein he feasted the principal nobles and knights of his army.

Next day he permitted the bodies of the English to be carried away for burial ; and though Hume records that he generously restored the dead body of Harold without ransom to his mother, Gurtha, we now know that though she offered him " Harold's weight in gold, that she might have his body to bury at the Holy Rood of Waltham," William of Poictiers, a trustworthy writer, distinctly records that the Conqueror gave a stern refusal, and ordered it to be buried under a heap of stones on the beach, adding, with a sneer which must have been bitter to every English heart, " He guarded the coast while he was alive, let him thus continue to guard it after death." Aided by his half-brother, Bishop Odo, he rallied his troops, and once more they returned to the attack with greater fury; the palisades were torn up and an entrance forced for the living mass of men and horses that poured through.

The tide of battle began then to verge from the hill to the heath near the village of Epiton, northward of the present town of Hastings. In dense masses, however, and fighting desperately, the English threw themselves around the standard, and Duke William hewed his way towards it, intent on meeting Harold face to face — a result he never achieved ; though Earl Gurth, who f. tight near his royal brother, hurled a spear at [The Standard. 10 at Chester— obviously a ridiculous fiction ; though Knighton asserts that when the recluse lay dying he owned himself to be Harold, and that the in scription on his tomb was to the same effect. Another version is that his mangled body was found on the field by "Edith with the Swan's Throat," who recognised it by a mark on the flesh ; and that she had it carefully and tenderly interred under a cairn near the rocks at Hastings, where it lay till the heart of William relented, and it was interred in Harold's own minster at Waltham.

There was a favourite fable or story long treasured by the English, to the effect that Harold sur vived the battle, and lived long years after as an anchorite in a cell near the church of St. John, So ended the great field of Hastings— the last invasion of the island of Great Britain, save the terrible battle of Largs, in 1263, when the Nor wegian army was totally destroyed by the Scots— a field which in one day made the proud and im perious Normans lords of all England, from the Channel to the border mountains. EARLY SCOTTISH CLAYMORES IN WARWICK CASTLE.

Chapter II The Battle Of The Standard

II38. The next great battle fought on English ground is very remarkable from the circumstance that in the component parts of the invading force were repre sented nearly all of the various races which are now welded together as the British people ; and it is of this fidd that, in Scott's splendid fiction, Ced ric the Saxon boasts so justly that the war-cry of his subjugated race was heard as far amid the ranks of the foe as the cri de guerre of the proudest Nor man baron. When Henry I., one of the most accomplished princes that ever filled the English throne, died by an unlucky overgorge of lampreys, in 1 135, at St. Denis, in Normandy, England had again the pros pect of a succession to be disputed in blood. By will he left his kingdom to his daughter Matilda, widow of the Emperor Henry V. of Germany; and as the nobles of England and of Normandy had sworn fealty to her, she had every reason to expect the inheritance as queen of both states.

But the A DISPUTED SUCCESSION. The Standard.! 11 fierce feudal barons had an aversion to female succession ; the feeling was so strong that it prevailed over their oaths and their good faith, and prepared the way for the usurpation of Stephen, Count of Blois, third son of Adela, daughter of the victor of Hast ings, who claimed the vacant throne in opposition to Maud, urging that he was the first prince of the blood, and that it was disgraceful for men to submit to a woman's rule. His brother, Henry, Bishop of Winchester, gained for him the leading clergy, and he was joyfully received by the citizens of London, after he had escorted the embalmed body of Henry to the Abbey of Reading, where, on the interment day, he lent his shoulder to bear the leaden coffin. public on account of many infirmities, this noble old prelate deputed an ecclesiastic named Ralph Nowel, whom, in the exercise of his usurped authority over the Scottish Church, he had named Bishop of Orkney, to act as his representative.