is not unfrequent in more northern latitudes, a paihelion, or mock sun. To 

 the eyes of the amazed troops three suns appeared in the sky, which gradually 

 merged into one. " The iii sunnes sodainly joined al together in one." — Halle. 



" Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun ; 

 Not separated by the racking clouds, 

 But severed in a pale clear shining sky. 

 See ! see ! they join, embrace, and seem to kiss, 

 As if they vow'd some league inviolable : 

 Now are they but one lamp, one light, one sun." 



Henry VI., pt. 3, act 2, sc. I. 



Edward "improved the occasion" as adroitly as did his ancestor, William, when 

 he converted his fall, while stepping ashore at Pevenscy Bay, into a formal 

 "seizin" of the soil. "Yonder three suns," cried Edward, "are the three 

 Lancastrian leaders, Pembroke, Tudor, and "Wylshire, whose glory shall this 

 day centre upon me." The prophecy proved a true one, and probably helped not 

 a little to produce its own fulfilment. 



The battle quickly began, and soon became general along the whole front. 

 It was fought with the greatest obstinacy. The first success fell to the Lan- 

 castrians. The Earl of Pembroke was opposed to the right wirig of Edward's 

 army, which was its weakest point, and attacked it with such vigour as to 

 compel it to give way. It retired, however, still fighting bravely, and he, too 

 eager to complete its overthrow, pursued the retiring troops for a distance of 

 three miles. Meantime the main body of the Yorkists, under Edward himself, 

 forced by the nature of the ground to take the solid column, afterwards so fully 

 carried out by Napoleon, fell with irresistible force on Lord Omiond's division, 

 which was immediately opposed to him. Lord Oimond's troops were chiefly 

 Irish, and so terrible were the wounds made on their half-naked bodies by the 

 bills in the hands of the Herefordshire men, that though they fought bravely 

 they were soon broken and forced into flight. The strong columns of the 

 Yorkists then fell with the same force on Sir Owen Tudor's "Welshmen, who, now 

 left unsupported on either side, had to bear the whole brunt of the battle, and 

 were gradually compelled to give way. 



When the Earl of Pembroke returned the battle was lost. Instead of 

 f allin g on the flank or rear of Edward's troops in the narrow valley, as he had 

 hoped to do, he had to meet the same strong column that had overcome 

 the other division in the open plain. He fought with the utmost valour to 

 redeem the day but in vain. It was a second battle as fiercely contested as the 

 first. The Lancastrians, under the brave old Sir Owen Tudor, had called up their 

 last reserves, and then came the news that the Yorkists in Leominster had 

 arisen and seized the unguarded baggage at Kingsland. Thus attacked in front 

 and rear, the flight became general, and the victory complete. 



The precise number of troops engaged on either side is not known. At 

 sunset of this " bloody Candlemas Day," as it is locally called, the Lan- 

 castrian army no longer existed. Three thousand eight hundred men lay dead 

 and dying on the field (Halle), and many others were taken prisoners. Edward's 

 loss did not exceed four hundred or five hundred men. The Earl of Pembroke 



