Shrewsbury 1403

1. The Battle of Shrewsbury began with an archery duel, unleashed by both sides. Here, leader of the rebellion against King Henry IV, Henry Percy – known as ‘Hotspur’ - is in discussion with two of the Cheshire knights mentioned in the sources, Sir Richard Venables and Sir Richard Vernon, as his Cheshire and Welsh archers, wearing the livery of green and white associated with the deposed Richard II, and the red and black of Percy, loose their arrows at the Royal Army.

2. Henry, Prince of Wales, is shot in the face with an arrow while leading an attack on the rebel vanguard.

The contemporary chronicler Thomas Walsingham’s account of the battle describes the scene: ‘Meanwhile the destruction dealt by the arrows, which were flying like a hailstorm from both sides, was very great. Prince Henry, then fighting his first battle, was shot in the face by an arrow; boy though he was, he did not falter, but with courage beyond his years, disregarding his wounds, cheered on his troops to vengeance.’

The removal of the arrow, lodged deep in the young prince’s head, is described in a detailed account left by the surgeon, and was a remarkable feat of surgery. Despite the severity of the wound, Henry would recover to go on to become one of England’s most famous warrior kings, Henry V.

At the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, the then 16-year-old Prince Henry was in excruciating pain after he was shot in the face by an arrow. But he fought on despite his injury and rallied his troops! He kept being present in the thick of battle, "never ceasing either to fight where the battle was strongest, or to encourage his men where their hearts were most daunted." According to contemporary chronicler Thomas Walsingham: "Meanwhile the destruction dealt by the arrows, which were flying like a hailstorm from both sides, was very great. The Prince, then fighting his first battle, was shot in the face by an arrow; boy though he was, he did not falter, but with courage beyond his years, disregarding his wounds, cheered on his troops to vengeance." At Shrewsbury, the royal forces led by Henry's father King Henry IV won against the rebel nobles led by Henry "Hotspur" Percy. The battle was very violent. After the initial exchange of arrows by longbowmen the two sides met in a brutal melee in which the king and the prince had to personally fight, exposing themselves to great danger. Prince Henry was surrounded by brave and loyal warriors who protected him such as Sir John Stanley, a proven military man, and great magnates, such as the earls of Arundel and Warwick! The pain from the arrow must have been great, since the arrow and its shaft could not be removed. It was only possible to remove it after the battle with the help of the finest royal physicians! The procedure was carefully detailed. Surgeon John Bradmore, who was called in to help the young prince, noted that "the head of the aforesaid arrow remained in the furthermost past of the bone of the skull for the depth of six inches." He had to design a custom tool to remove the arrowhead by "moving it to and fro, little by little." The wound was then cleansed, using a syringe filled with white wine, before being filled with wads of flax soaked in a purifying solution of white bread, barley flour, honey and turpentine oil. The wound needed twenty days to heal. Prince Henry would later be crowned as king in 1413 becoming one of the most known warrior-kings of the Middle Ages as Henry V, winning the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. The image I posted is from the book from the Osprey series, Shrewsbury 1403: Struggle for a Fragile Crown by Dickon Whitewood. It was made by the wonderful artist Graham Turner.

3. The hand-to-hand fighting around King Henry IV was the fiercest across the whole battlefield, the king becoming a clear target of the rebels. Here, the Earl of Douglas cuts down the Royal banner-bearer, while Sir Walter Blount reaches out to try to stop the banner falling to the ground. Behind, George Dunbar warns the King of the perilous situation he is in and urges him to withdraw.