130 DUFFIELD CASTLE. 



Henry, with a large body of troops to chastise the daring insurgents. 

 On the approach of the royalists, Earl Ferrers collected his forces 

 round his castle of Duffield,* raising forced contributions from the 

 neighbourhood, and especially from the town of Derby, apparently 

 hoping that he might be attacked with Duffield castle as his base. 

 But Prince Henry proceeded first to Tutbury, and to the Earl's 

 possessions in the south of Derbyshire ; when hearing that a body 

 of Yorkshire rebels, under d'Ayville, were on the march to join 

 de Ferrers, he advanced across the ridges of the Lower Peak to 

 the north of Wirksworth, thus avoiding Duffield, with the inten- 

 tion of intercepting the junction of the two insurgent forces. Earl 

 Ferrers was therefore compelled to draw off his troops from the 

 neighbourhood of Duffield, and, gaining the great road to the 

 north, marched hurriedly for Chesterfield, where he arrived on 

 May 15th (1266), just as the royalists were attacking the Yorkshire 

 forces that had arrived there from Dronfield. Thereupon ensued 

 the fiercely fought battle of Chesterfield ; the conflict lasted till 

 evening, and resulted in the complete defeat of the rebels. The 

 remnant of the Yorkshiremen made their way across country to 

 join Simon de Montfort the younger, at Axholm, but the Earl and 

 others took refuge within the walls of Chesterfield. Shortly after 

 midnight, Prince Henry, having rested and refreshed his forces, 

 approached the gates and demanded the surrender of Robert de 

 Ferrers, under pain of the destruction of the town. The inhabi- 

 tants were mostly favourable to the royal cause, and he soon 

 gained admittance. The soldiers quickly dispersed themselves 

 over the borough, but the Earl could nowhere be found, when at 

 length his hiding-place was revealed by a young woman, whose 

 lover had been compelled to fight on the rebels' side, and who 

 had fallen in the battle. He had concealed himself among some 

 bags of wool in the nave of the parish church, which had been 

 deposited there for safety, according to a not infrequent custom of 



* In the historical introduction to Glover's Derbyshire, it is said that this 

 Robert de Ferrers had rebuilt Duffield castle ; but the assertion is unsupported, 

 and the ruins prove the contrary. The historical introduction in question, 

 though well written, is full of inaccuracies and quite untrustworthy. Glover's 

 History of Derbyshire, Vol. I., p. 393. 





