Stories of the Scottish Border — Chapter 14 Hexham and Queen Margaret
*Hexham and Queen Margaret* The town of Hexham stands on the south bank of the Tyne, rising gradually up the hill and presenting a most picturesque appearance.
About two miles above Hexham the North and the South Tyne meet, and the combined river is broad and noble, and the hills around Hexham give strength and beauty to the scene.
The commanding appearance and central position of the priory church adds its note of dignity, and the total effect of the town is very pleasing to the eye.
There is no doubt that from very early times there was a town in this fine natural position.
The burial-grounds of primitive races have been discovered here, with stone and bronze implements.
The Romans had a town here of some importance, although it was four miles south of their great wall.
A Roman tombstone was discovered here, nine feet by three and a half feet, showing a Roman officer on horseback, overthrowing in fierce fight a savage and scowling foe.
This fine relic is set up in the church, and is not the only thing to see there.
The original church upon this spot was built in 674, in the reign of King Egfrid of Northumbria.
Wilfrid, the very able and influential Bishop of York, was the man who presided at the building of it, and there were bishops at Hexham for a couple of centuries.
In 875 the Danes ruthlessly burnt the town; and nearly one thousand years later, in 1832, there was found buried in the ground a bronze vessel containing about nine thousand Saxon coins of the eighth and ninth century, evidently buried to protect this treasure from the invaders.
Those who buried them were probably slain before they had time to dig them up again.
There was a legend of another treasure hidden between Hexham and Corbridge, and King John came to Hexham in 1201 to search for it.
He returned in 1208 and in 1212, but found nothing.
Time passed, and this tale of hidden treasure ceased even to be local gossip, but in 1735 by accident it was found.
The present handsome priory church must have been built about the time of King John's visits to Hexham.
It is a noble building, well worth a visit.
In 1725, when some work was being done in the church, a wonderful discovery was made.
It was found that there was an old Saxon crypt, a narrow vault with several passages, underneath the church!
This was so carefully hidden that it was evidently intended as a place of refuge in danger.
It was built of Roman stones, several of which have Roman inscriptions.
The Scots several times attacked Hexham.
Once Sir William Wallace came there with his army, but he would not let his Scots damage the church, so that Hexham, on the whole, had a less stormy life than many of the Border towns, although in 1537, when Henry VIII.
caused the monastery to be suppressed, the prior and five of the leading monks were hanged before the gates as a gentle reminder that they were to live there no longer.
But by far the most stirring event in Hexham's history was the battle which raged there in 1464. The Wars of the Roses do not form a pleasing episode in English history.
They were pitiless, and treachery was mingled with bloodshed; desertions and executions were the accompaniment of every battle.
Edward IV.
was coldly cruel and unscrupulous, one of the blackest figures of a black time.
But romance centres round Queen Margaret, the dauntless and resourceful wife of the feeble King Henry VI.
, with whom Edward disputed the throne.
She it was who, making up for her husband's weakness, urged ever bravely and hopefully the cause of her son.
Thus she pressed on to the very end, till that son, worthy of his heroic mother, proudly answered the taunts of his base enemies, even though in their power, preferring speedy death to any lessening of his tragic dignity, and dying before the eyes of the successful and exultant Edward.
In this fierce drama, Hexham was but an episode.
The Lancastrians had scattered after their heavy defeat at Towton.
Margaret in person had begged a little help of the King of Scotland, a little more of the King of France.
The Borderland was favourable to her, and she gathered her forces together there, King Henry VI.
staying in Alnwick Castle.
Lord Montague, brother to the powerful but crafty Earl of Warwick, was warden of the East Marches for Edward, and he hastily collected the Yorkist forces.
He was swift, able, and unscrupulous.
He attacked a small body of Lancastrians on Hedgeley Moor, only ten miles from Alnwick, and defeated them, killing their leader, Sir Ralph Percy, son of Hotspur.
As this gallant man died he consoled himself by saying, "I have saved the bird in my bosom," by which poetical phrase he meant that he had saved his honour by being true to his queen.
In May the greater battle of Hexham was fought.
King Henry was there in person, with the dauntless Queen Margaret and her son, and their brave general, the Duke of Somerset.
They marched out of Hexham to attack Lord Montague; the battle began by the village of Linnels, on the south side of the Devil's Water, a stream that runs into the Tyne.
The fight was desperate, for both sides knew that no quarter would be given.
It is said by some that the Scots, having no interest in the war, deserted Margaret; anyway, bit by bit the Lancastrians were forced back, to the very streets of Hexham itself, two miles away.
In these narrow streets, in the quarter that is still called Battle Hill, the last desperate fighters on the side of the Red Rose made their final and unavailing stand.
At last the remnant fled, and no doubt many a Hexham maid and dame, at the risk of her own life or limb, hid that day some devoted follower of Margaret.
The gallant Duke of Somerset was taken prisoner, and there and then was brought to the block in the market-place and beheaded.
The cruel Montague had not the true soldier's respect for a brave enemy, whose blood thus mingled with that of his men.
Other nobles were taken as prisoners to Newcastle, but Edward also was devoid of mercy, and all perished.
[Illustration: _The Final Battle in the Streets of Hexham_] Till the last moment the queen hoped on.
She was not daunted by scenes of strife and bloodshed.
When defeat was an accomplished fact, she and her young son fled to the Dipton Woods, where they fell into the hands of rough men, some say a party of Yorkist stragglers.
Whilst these men were eagerly dividing and quarrelling over the queen's jewels, she and the prince slipped away.
Deeper into the dangerous woods they had to go, for worse than robbers were hunting for them around Hexham.
Suddenly an outlaw stood in their path with drawn sword.
Even after that day of stir and terror Margaret's courage did not fail her.
She boldly declared to the man that she was the Queen of England, and with her was her only son.
Now, if he chose to betray them he could do so; but if he had that natural nobility that hailed gladly great chances to do great deeds, now was his time to prove himself a man, and to save the ill-fated prince and his queen.
The robber bowed before her as though she were on her throne, and as if the trees were her army around her.
He swore to die a hundred deaths rather than betray his rightful sovereign and her prince.
He honourably kept his word; and through his safe guidance and steady devotion, both queen and prince were able to join King Henry in Scotland, to which place he had safely escaped.
Thus the bandit of Hexham proved himself to be a truer man than either Lord Montague, or Warwick, the King-maker, or King Edward IV.
of England.
*Chapter XV*
