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| 1549 Part Two |
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Page 7 of 10 The Battle of Sampford Courtenay Humphrey Arundell had received heartening news in the form of a promise from Winchester that 1,000 men, plus three cannons to be stolen from Selsey Church, would join with the Cornish forces, defeat Russell and march upon London. With the arrival of this news, Arundell decided to regroup his forces at Sampford Courtenay. What Arundell did not know was that a traitor stood close to his side – his own secretary John Kessell, who had been covertly supplying intelligence of Arundell’s movements and plans to Russell from the outset. It was he who informed Lord Russell that his own master had remustered the Cornish troops. This took Russell by surprise, having laboured under the impression that the Cornish had already been defeated. The news also interrupted his plans to send 1,000 men into Cornwall by ship to cut off his enemy’s retreat but, by now, his own forces had been again strengthened by the arrival of a force under Provost Marshal Sir Anthony Kingston. He now had an army of more than 8,000, vastly outnumbering what remained of his opposition, but the threat of those few being reinforced from Hampshire forced his hand. Russell moved his forces out on August 16th, camping overnight at Crediton. Next morning, scouts from both sides bumped into each other, resulting in a skirmish and the capture of a Cornish captain named Maunder, a signatory of the Articles of Demand. The main force of the Cornish army had dug in on high ground just outside Sampford Courtenay, while a detachment led by Humphrey Arundell waited in the village itself. He knew that this was to be their last stand. Just as in 1497, when the men of Kent had falsely promised to support Cornwall, so the Winchester promise had turned out to be completely hollow. The Cornish and their Devonian allies were on their own against Russell’s huge army. The choice was simple – cut and run, or stand and fight. The Cornish did what all Celts do when their backs are against the wall. They chose to fight. Again, Lord Russell opted for a three-pronged approach. Heavy divisions led by Lord Grey and Sir William Herbert stormed the Cornish encampment, while Russell himself would follow behind. This was not as simple as Russell had envisaged, the Cornish camp being more strongly manned than he had thought. A vicious gun battle, lasting a good hour, gave time for Russell’s two other divisions to make their move. One consisted of the Italian arquebusiers under Spinola, the other being the German lanzknechts. With almost the entire English force ranged against them, the Cornish withdrew into the village, where they came under heavy bombardment. Russell was still some way behind his main force and, at this point, Humphrey Arundell chose to use one of Russell’s favourite ploys against him, leading a detachment to attack the English forces from behind. This created so much chaos and confusion as to cause Russell to later write that it: “wrought so much fear in the hearts of our men as we wished our own power a great deal more, not without good cause”, even though he vastly outnumbered his Cornish enemy. Once again, the battle might have been won for the Cornish had they possessed a cavalry. |
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