Shrewsbury battle re-enactment

I recently attended a "re-enactment" of the battle of Shrewsbury (1403), held near the site of the battle a few miles north of Shrewsbury. The re-enactment itself was rather silly, but the great pains had clearly been taken with the reproduction armour, and the heraldry was magnificent.

   This are the rebel forces

In the centre the Percy coat of arms, a blue lion on gold, denotes the Earl of Worcester. To the right, with his back to us, is the leader of the rebels: Henry Percy, "Harry Hotspur", Worcester's nephew. He wears the Percy arms quartered with Lucy: three silver pikes, or "luces" on red (a good examply of "canting", or punning, arms), with overall a red three-pointed "label", indicating that he is the eldest son of his father, the Earl of Northumberland. To the left, the red heart on silver denotes their Scottish ally, Earl Douglas. This symbol commemorates how an earlier Douglas had vowed to take the heart of Robert the Bruce on pligrimage to the Holy Land. (In fact, he never got there, being killed in Spain on the way).  

Some of the rank-and-file archers wore on their jackets the very distinctive arms of the Visconti family, the Dukes of Milan: a serpent swallowing a child. They explained to me that they were English mercenaries recently returned from fighting in Italy!

There was a splendid warhorse on display, and also minstrels!

Not many of us are aware of how close British history was to being changed by the battle. The rebels were, of course, defeated; Worcester and other leading rebels were executed in Shrewsbury; Percy was killed and his body chopped up and exhibited in different parts of the country, by order of the King, Henry IV. But the Prince of Wales, later Henry V,narrowly escaped death when hit in the face by an arrow. A surgeon had to devise a special instrument to extract the arrow-head. This scene was also enacted: rather well, I thought. 

The battlefield church, built after the battle, was open for the occasion. It contains the coats of arms of many of those who fought for the King

This one belongs to a branch of the Corbet family, who lived nearby. It is another example of a "canting" coat of arms, a "corbie" being a raven or crow.   

All in all, an enjoyable day!