heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

144 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
And the occasions which led to these sanguinary
results were often as
trivial as they were unpremeditated.
In 1370 a drunken brawl at Roxburgh fair led to an indiscriminate
attack upon the Scotch there assembled, and some of the servants of Patrick
Dunbar, Earl of March, were slain. Failing to recover the redress he
demanded of Lord Percy, he ravaged the country round Carlisle, and carried
off some hundreds of English, as well as great booty in horse and cattle ;
and a series of retaliatory raids ensued on both sides.*
The battle of Chevy-Chase, when
" To drive the deer with hound and horn
Earl Percy took his :
way
The child may rue that is unborn
The hunting of that day,"
whether an actual or apocryphal incident, is simply an illustration of the
quarrels which ensued then, as now, on the vexed question of " "
game ;
and the battle of Otterburne originated simply with the banter arising out
of a not unfriendly trial of personal prowess, in which Hotspur was
unhorsed, and Douglas, possessing himself of his lance and pennon, taunted
him to come and take it from his tent. This of course developed a battle,
for both sides gathered their men together to secure or prevent such a
result. Froissart says
" Of all the battailes and encountrynges that I
" have made mencion of heretofore in all this my story, great or small, this
" battaile that I treat on now was one of the sorest and best foughten,
" without cowardes or feynte hartes."
Twice or thrice did the young rival leaders meet face to face in
mortal combat; and the popular tradition is that Douglas fell by the hand
of the former. At least so says the old ballad of Chevy-Chase, which has
been supposed to refer to this. And there is something very touching
in what ensued.
"The Perse leaned on his brande
And sawe the Douglas de ;
He took the dede man by the hande
'
And said, Woy's me ! for thee
To have saved thy lyffe I wolde have pertyd with
My landes for years thre ;
For a better man of harte, nore of hande,
Was not in all the north countre.' "
In 1402 the Scots made a plundering expedition under Hepburn as
far as the borders of Durham, and returning with their booty, were overtaken
at Nesbitt Heath by the Earl of Northumberland and some of the
northern lords, completely defeated, their commander taken prisoner, and
"no less than 10,000 of their number slain." f
House of Percy, vol. i.
*
p. 109, tp. 205.