The king was, to the followers of great barons, a person
of but small consequence in comparison with their lord; and they would
draw their swords, at the latter's order, as willingly against a king
as against a foreign foe. That it was their duty to do so was so fully
recognized that, in the troubles between the king and his nobles, while
the latter were, if defeated, executed for treason, their vassals were
permitted to return home unmolested; and it was not until the battle of
Barnet that Edward, enraged at the humiliation that he had suffered,
when he had been obliged to fly to France, gave orders that no quarter
was to be shown to Warwick's vassals and retainers.
Northumberland and Hotspur were still smarting under this treatment of
Mortimer when, eight days after the battle, the messenger they had
despatched to the king, in Wales, with the report of their great
victory, and the capture of Douglas and other important nobles,
returned with an order from the king that these prisoners were not to
be ransomed.
This order was received with passionate indignation by the earl and
Hotspur. Although not altogether contrary to the usages of the age,
since similar orders had, more than once been, issued by Edward the
Third; the ransom of prisoners taken in battle was regarded as one of
the most important sources of revenue, and as the means of defraying
the expenses that nobles and knights were put to in aiding, with their
vassals, the king in his wars.
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