POLITICAL HISTORY turned back, tired but exultant, to seek their friends, of whose success in the struggle proceeding out of their sight at the foot of the hills they appear to have had no doubt. Meanwhile the fortunes of the rival parties had fared very differently on the other parts of the field. The left wing under the King of the Romans had pressed forward, but had been staggered by the shower of stones and arrows directed upon them from the high ground, and Montfort seeing his advantage hurled his reserves upon them. The fight was stern, but the advantage of the ground was with the barons, and also, probably, the advantage of better discipline ; for if we may judge from the Dover Chronicle, the previous night's debauchery had unfitted many of the knights for fighting, as Henry Percy acknowledged that several knights on taking the field ' could scarcely see their opponents or hold their swords ' ; it is true the pious chronicler ascribes this to the influence of the spirits of St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. George,' rather than the wine of the Prior of Lewes. At last the royalists broke and fled ; many leaders, including Fitz-Alan, Bardolf, Percy, Bohun,' and Robert Brus, John Comyn and John Balliol who were in command of the Scottish contingent, surrendered.^ The King of the Romans, with his young son Edward, fled to a windmill, where he was captured by a young squire or knight, whom Robert of Gloucester calls Sir John de Befs.^ This rather ignominious downfall of the avaricious and magnificent King was a subject of great delight to the people and political ballad-mongers of the time, whose mockery must have been very trying to the ' ever august ' Richard. The defeat of the left wing, and the absence of the right wing in its rash pursuit of the Londoners, left the centre, under King Henry, to bear the full weight of the attack by the concentrated forces of the barons. The fighting was desperate, Henry himself being in the thick of it and having two horses killed under him, besides being wounded severely ; but here too at length the royal forces had to give way.* Their natural goal would have been the castle, but the barons seem to have worked round to the north and secured the Westgate, thus forcing them to seek refuge in the priory, whose great precinct wall constituted a formidable defence. Thus, when Prince Edward and his comrades reached the town the castle, to which they first turned, and the priory, to which the Prince afterwards forced his way, were the only points not in the enemy's hands. Seeing the desperate state of affairs a large number of the royalist leaders, including the King's brothers,. William de Valence and Guy de Lusignan, the Earl of Warenne and Hugh Bigot fled through the town and across the bridge over the Ouse, where many of the fugitives were drowned, to Pevensey castle and thence to France.^ Their flight was dishonourable, but they could have done nothing to retrieve the day had they remained, and they were able to do much for • Gerv, of Canterbury (Rolls Ser.), ii. 238. 2 Blaauw, op. cit. 198. 3 Ibid. 203. * Ibid. 198. 6 Ibid. 205. 499
