Battle of Radcot Bridge 1387-12-19
The Battle of Radcot Bridge was fought on 19 December 1387 at Radcot Bridge in England, a bridge over the River Thames now in Oxfordshire but then the boundary between Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It was fought between troops loyal to Richard II, led by court favourite Robert de Vere, and an army captained by Henry Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby.
Timeline:
1386
• July – John of Gaunt leaves England to make good his claim to the Crown of Castile.
https://mittelzeit.blogspot.com/2019/03/john-of-gaunt-1st-duke-of-lancaster.html
• October – the Wonderful Parliament is held, and appoints a commission to oversee the court and government.
1387
• 24 March – Hundred Years' War: A Franco-Castilian fleet is defeated off Margate.
• 14 November – a group of powerful nobles known as Lords Appellant raise arms against the King, demanding the arrest of members of the royal court.
• 20 December – Battle of Radcot Bridge: Lords Appellant defeat Richard's army. The king is imprisoned until he agrees to replace all the councillors in his court.
1388
• February – the entire court of King Richard II is convicted of treason by the Merciless Parliament, under the influence of the Lords Appellant, and are all either executed or exiled. Richard II effectively becomes a puppet of the Lords Appellant.
The Battle of Radcot Bridge
During the troubled times of King Richard II's reign, when his uncles and their allies, the 'Lords Appellant' were trying to impose their will on the immovable King, the young monarch did loose power for a short time in the Winter of 1387-88. Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, the King's uncle and chief adversary, took the opportunity to accuse the Richard's favourite, Robert De Vere, Earl of Oxford, of treason. De Vere escaped to the West Midlands where he gathered together an army of some fifteen thousand men. Quickly, he marched them south to both defend himself and reinforce the King's followers in London.
Gloucester immediately led troops north to close the roads from the Midlands and the King's western reinforcements, originally heading for Burford, found themselves obliged to head quickly south. Gloucester's deputy and nephew, Henry Bolingbroke, the Earl of Derby (later to become King Henry IV), had taken up a more southerly position, along with Thomas de Mowbray, the Earl Marshal. They blocked off any route across the Thames by encamping on the island between the Pidnell and Radcot Bridges on the Berkshire-Oxfordshire border, near Faringdon. Bolingbroke was a cousin of De Vere's repudiated wife (Philippa de Coucy). He regarded him as a scoundrel and yearned to meet him in the open field.
De Vere's army arrived at the twin Thames bridges, only to find the first sabotaged and the second guarded by Derby's troops. Gloucester's men were still closing in from the north. The Royalists turned and deserted at the first shock of Bolingbroke's pikes. They could only surrender or else make desperate rushes over or through the river in an attempt to escape. Mounting a fresh horse, De Vere pushed forward but, with Pidnell Bridge demolished, the terrified Earl was forced to have his mount leap into the river and face up stream. Hugging the bank, he lightened his load by dropping his gauntlets, sword and casque. At Radcot Bridge, stood a company of archers. Dodging their deadly arrows through the stream again, he sought a ford but none was to be found. As night came on, he slipped from his horse, put off his cuirass, plunged into the stream, and swimming across, escaped with the loss of everything but life and limb.
Hiding in the woods by day, De Vere stole away into the western shires where, for a while, he was safe. His enemies believed him dead. Horse, casque, sword and cuirass being found next morning by the riverbank, his pursuers fancied that he had been drowned. However, he eventually managed to flee to France, where he died in exile. With their victory at Radcot Bridge, the 'Lords Appellant' were able to gain a short-lived control over the country. This culminated in the merciless parliament in which King Richard's main allies were condemned.
Pidnell is the more northerly of the two bridges and Radcot the southerly, while the villages are the other way round. The present Radcot Bridge, spanning the southern branch of the River Thames and the Berkshire-Oxfordshire Boundary, is of 14th century date and is therefore the one that stood during the battle.
Background:
In August 1387 King Richard retaliated; he assembled a Council of magistrates at Nottingham and attempted to redefine the Royal Prerogative so as to render the Wonderful Parliament treasonous. The leaders of the Parliament, including Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, hit back during the Miraculous Parliament of November 1387. During this session, Woodstock and the Earls of Warwick and Arundel submitted an appeal which accused several of Richard's closest friends of routinely deceiving the King for their own profit.
Richard responded by summoning Woodstock and the other Lords Appellant to the Tower of London; all three refused.
This was open dissent, and both Richard and the Appellants knew the implications of such defiance. According to the author of the Eulogium historiarum, Richard asked Woodstock whether his companions were willing to take arms against him, to which the Duke replied: "we do not rebel or arm ourselves against the King except in order to instruct him".
Pushed further by Richard, who protested that Parliament did not have the right to command a King even in the case of "the meanest kitchen boy", the Duke darkly reminded his nephew of his own standing: "But I am the son of a king".
Fearing deposition, King Richard ordered that the citizens of London should take up arms. De Vere was despatched to Cheshire, where King Richard had assembled an army of five thousand retainers, under the direct command of Sir Thomas Molineux, Constable of Chester. De Vere now took these southwards towards London.
The most direct routes to the capital were blocked by Arundel's men, so de Vere decided to cross the Thames at Radcot, near Faringdon. However, the bridge itself was under the guard of Derby's troops; they had also partly dismantled its structure. Undeterred, de Vere gave the command to storm the crossing. At this point, a larger force of Derby's men arrived from the north, effectively surrounding the Cheshiremen. De Vere managed to escape the field, eventually making his way to France; once it was known that he had fled, his army promptly surrendered. Among the handful of casualties was Molyneux himself, who was killed during the abortive attempt to cross the Thames.
After the battle, Woodstock and the other Appellants held a council with Richard at the Tower. Richard had no means of resisting their demands, and it was agreed that a further Parliament should be called in February 1388. The resulting Merciless Parliament saw a fullscale purge of Richard's household.
The Lords Appellant Part 2: Radcot Bridge
Merciless Parliament
The Merciless Parliament, a term coined by Augustinian chronicler Henry Knighton, refers to the English parliamentary session of February to June 1388, at which many members of Richard II's Court were convicted of treason. The session was preceded by a period in which Richard's power was revoked and the kingdom placed under the regency of the Lords Appellant. Richard had launched an abortive military attempt to overthrow the Lords Appellant and negotiate peace with the kingdom of France so he could focus all his resources against his domestic enemies. The Lords Appellant counteracted the attempt and called the Parliamentary session to expose his attempts to make peace. Parliament reacted with hostility and convicted almost all of Richard's advisers of treason. Most were executed and a few exiled. Parliament was dissolved after violence broke out in Kent and the Duke of York and his allies began objecting to some executions.
‘Good Parliament’ of 1376 ..
The Wonderful Parliament.
