Battle of Shrewsbury The Battle of Shrewsbury was a battle fought on 21 July 1403 , waged between an army led by the Lancastrian King , Henry IV , and a rebel army led by Henry " Harry Hotspur " Percy from Northumberland . The battle , the first in which English archers fought each other on English soil , demonstrated " the deadliness of the longbow " and ended the Percy challenge to Henry IV . At least part of the fighting is believed to have taken place at what is now Battlefield in Shropshire , England , some three miles north of the centre of Shrewsbury . It is marked today by Battlefield Church . Background . The Percys had previously supported Henry IV in a war against Richard II , which ended when Henry took the throne in 1399 . They subsequently supported him in Wales , early in the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr , and in Scotland , in both negotiations and conflict against the Scots . King Henry IV had been supported by a number of wealthy landowners to whom he had promised land , money and royal favour in return for their continued support . However , when the war ended , lands in and around Cumberland promised to the Percys were instead given to a rival . This was enough to spark them into private revolt , which may have been increased when monies promised by the King never materialised . The Earls of Northumberland and Worcester therefore publicly renounced their allegiance to King Henry . They charged him with perjury based on his claiming the throne instead of just his old lands and titles ; his taxing the clergy despite having promised not to without the consent of Parliament ; imprisoning and murdering King Richard II , and not permitting a free Parliamentary election and refusing to pay a just ransom , requested by Owain Glyndŵr , who was then holding Edmund Mortimer . Henry Percy raised a small group of retainers initially ( probably about 200 ) in early July 1403 and started the long march south to meet his uncle , Thomas Percy , 1st Earl of Worcester . Although some nobles , such as Lord Bardolf , joined him , he recruited most of his army in Cheshire , an area hostile to Henry IV , and which provided many experienced soldiers , notably its Cheshire archers , some of whom had served as Richard II ' s bodyguard . It appears that he may have hoped to be reinforced by a Welsh force under the self - proclaimed Prince of Wales , Owain Glyndŵr . This did not happen , and it appears that Glyndŵr , at the time fighting in Carmarthenshire , was unaware that Hotspur had acted . Nevertheless it appears some Welsh forces from the Cheshire borders may have joined him . The rebels then marched towards Shrewsbury , the heavily defended county town of Shropshire . King Henry IV himself only became aware of these developments on 12 July , apparently while he was marching an army north to assist the Percys against the Scots and received the news at Burton - on - Trent . He may well have anticipated the Percys ' change of heart but nevertheless instantly switched plans to meet the immediate threat posed by the Percys . He changed direction and marched west towards Shrewsbury with his army . Estimates of the sizes of the two armies vary widely , and the medieval chronicles are subject to the usual exaggerations . Annales Henrici Quarti states 14 , 000 Royal troops , far fewer than Waurin ' s estimate of 60 , 000 . Although Henry ' s army is generally agreed to have been larger , John Capgrave writing in the Chronicle of England quotes Percy ' s army as 14000 . Both forces arrived near the town on 20 July 1403 and set up camp to the north and south of the Severn River , which loops around the town . Hotspur based himself initially at the house of a William Betton , his army camping close to the town . The next day the King ' s forces crossed the River Severn at Uffington , about a mile to the east of Shrewsbury endeavouring to cut Percy ' s line of retreat on Chester . This they failed to do and the armies took up position in a field that was variously named : " Haytleyfield " , " Husefeld " , " Berwykfeld " , " Bolefeld " etc . What is certain is that the battle commenced in the manor of Harlescott about a mile south west of where Battlefield church now stands . ( The owner of this manor , Richard Hussey swore to this fact under oath in the escheator ' s court in January 1416 ) . The battle took place in a large field of growing peas . For much of the morning the two forces parleyed . Thomas Prestbury , the Abbot of Shrewsbury and the Abbot of Haughmond were used by King Henry to offer terms . Hotspur declined any terms and Thomas Percy spoke to the King , trading insults . It appears that Henry Percy was somewhat inclined towards accepting the King ' s position , while his uncle Thomas Percy was not . Whatever the case , negotiations ended near noon , and the two forces advanced closer for the fight . In the meantime one rebel soldier , later pardoned , went over to the royal army . Battle . King Henry raised his sword . The battle opened with a massive archery barrage , arrow s killing or wounding many of the men before they could meet hand to hand in the field . Of the two forces , the Percys ' Cheshire bowmen proved generally superior . Thomas Walsingham recorded how the King ' s men " fell like leaves in Autumn , every one [ arrow ] struck a mortal man " . According to the Dieulacres Chronicle the King ' s right wing under the command of the Earl of Stafford ( who was killed ) fled from the field . It is not impossible that far more than this wing fled as well , as there is evidence that some baggage was looted and after the battle the Cheshire rebels were " prosecuted " for taking some 7 , 000 horses with them . Prince Henry , Prince of Wales was hit in the face with an arrow during the fighting , sustaining a terrible wound . He later recovered due to the skilled treatment of the Physician General using honey , alcohol and a specially designed surgical instrument . He was left with a permanent scar . However , enough of the King ' s men remained on the field , particularly those on the left wing under the command of the Prince of Wales . Perhaps in desperation Hotspur attempted to address this imbalance with a charge aimed at killing the King himself , the Royal Standard was overthrown and Sir Walter Blount , its carrier , hacked down by Archibald Douglas , 4th Earl of Douglas . However Hotspur was killed in the attempt , apparently being shot in the face when he opened his visor . His death was initially not realised , and some point soon afterwards the Northumbrian knights hailed the death of Henry IV and acclaimed ' Henry Percy King ! ' . Henry IV was of course very much alive and retaliated by shouting ' Henry Percy is dead ' , the absence of a reply confirmed that Henry Percy was indeed dead . At this point the battle came to an end . It is recorded that many did not know who had won . The King ' s forces sustained greater losses than the rebels , in fact Henry IV very nearly lost both his life and his throne . Aftermath . Henry Percy was initially buried by his nephew Thomas Nevill , 5th Baron Furnivall at Whitchurch , Shropshire , with honours , but rumours soon spread that he was not really dead . In response the King had him disinterred . His body was salted , set up in Shrewsbury impaled on a spear between two millstones in the pillory in the marketplace , with an armed guard and was later quartered and put on show in various corners of the country . His head was sent to York and impaled on the north gate , looking towards his own lands . His quarters were sent to Chester , London , Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne . In November his grisly remains were returned to his widow Elizabeth . She interred them in York Minster at the right hand side of the altar . Thomas Percy , 1st Earl of Worcester , Sir Richard Venables , Sir Richard Vernon and Sir Henry Boynton were publicly hanged , drawn and quartered in Shrewsbury on 23 July and their heads publicly displayed , Thomas Percy ' s on London Bridge . Battlefield Church is said to have been erected over the site of the mass burial pit dug immediately after the battle . It was built initially as a memorial chapel , on the orders of King Henry IV and paid for by him , with prayers and masses being said continually for the dead on both sides . The chapel was replaced in 1460 by a church , which was further restored in 1862 . A drain being dug in a corner of the churchyard inadvertently may have opened part of the burial pit . Workmen were surprised by the mass of bones which they thought showed the hurried nature of the burials . It is not impossible however that they had merely unearthed a charnel pit containing bones of a variety of different ages . In 2006 , the BBC show ' Two Men in a Trench ' established virtually nothing at all except to prove that an area to the west of the church was not in fact a graveyard . It is worth noting that there were two other 15th century churches associated with battles . The one at Towton no longer exists , while that at Wakefield does . Neither were built close to centre of fighting of the battles they commemorated . The battle itself and many of the key people involved appear in Shakespeare ' s Henry IV , Part 1 . References . Online :