Story: The Battle for Wales, 1138
Captain Curtice sat calmly astride his horse, surveying the ground for the coming battle. He had no reason to feel anxious. The ground was open and fairly level, with a slight camber that favoured the English. The two armies were roughly evenly matched. But Captain Curtice rated the English bowmen and billmen above the Portuguese militia. And England had one more regiment of knights than their enemies. Moreover, the English general - Robin Lambert - had comfortably seen off a smaller Portuguese army and Captain Curtice had no doubt he would repeat the trick today.
Captain Curtice knew what he was supposed to do. General Lambert’s plan was much the same as he had employed before: open up frontally with longbows; advance to engage the front with infantry and then drive round the flanks into the rear to finish off the enemy missiles before moving back to lend decisive support to the main infantry melee. Captain Curtice’s regiment of knights was deployed on the left of the English line.
The battle opened with a missile duel. By Captain Curtice’s estimation, the longbowmen were getting the better off it - thanks to their superior range, height advantage and loose formation. The Portuguese crossbowmen seemed indecisive in their response - moving backward and forward, often intermingled with the main Portugese line and thus exposing that to the showers of fire arrows aimed at them.
Despite the advantage lying with the English, General Lambert pushed his spearmen and billmen onwards. The enemy crossbowmen were causing considerable casualties and the general wanted to hurry the battle on to its inevitable conclusion. As the English infantry advanced, regiments of skirmishing Portuguese crossbowmen fell back to the rear. On the flank, this was the moment Captain Curtice had been waiting for and he spurred his knights against the helpless Portuguese missile troops, caught in loose order. One regiment was destroyed in short order - Curtice spurred his men on against a second, position even further to the rear of the Portuguese line.
The Captain was not to know it at the time, but his counterpart - the captain of the regiment of English knights on the left flank was not so fortunate. Attempting to pull off a symmetrical manoeuvre to that of Captain Curtice, they were counter-charged by a regiment of Portuguese knights. That particular melee became one of mutual assured destruction. General Lambert moved his own escort up from its position as a central reserve to the English right flank to replace the stalemated regiment of mailed knights.
The battle reached its peak with the arrival of two regiments of town militia from the Caernarvon garrison. With this addition, General Lambert felt confident to order a charge across the line.
Unfortunately, General Lambert had committed all his forces to the battle but the Portuguese Prince Alfonso still had one critical reserve: his own escort of elite knights. These charged General Lambert’s own escort, which was working its way round the Portuguese left.
At this crucial moment in the battle, disaster struck. General Lambert was caught up in a mob of enemy spearmen and fell.
With the death of the English general, the attack began to falter. The militia started to lose heart and the longbowmen - skirmishing in loose formation - could provide no resistance to the invigorated Portuguese army. The Portuguese counterattack could not be stopped even the death of Prince Alfonso - like Lambert slain by lowly spear militia.
Far to the rear of the Portuguese army, having pursued its skirmishers off the field, Captain Curtice looked back in horror at the way the battle had turned. The English army was dissolving. Here and there, a regiment might rally but soon they crumbled under the onset of their Portuguese pursuers. The vengeful escort of the slain Prince was particularly effective, rounding up large numbers of fleeing Englishmen as prisoners and running over any regiment that attempted to stand.
Curtice spurred his regiment forward, running down any broken Portuguese regiments and then racing for the main army. As the Portuguese themselves were running flat out in pursuit of the fleeing English it took Captain Curtice’s knights some time to get back into the battle proper. The fact that the Portuguese were preoccupied with the pursuit of the English meant that they did not recognise the threat Curtice’s regiment, still near full strength, represented. Had the Portuguese turned and provided a coherent defence, there would have been little Curtice’s men could have done. But as it was, Curtice was able to engage individual Portuguese detachments, sometimes even charging them in the rear as they hastened after the broken English main army. The toughest resistance was provided by the Prince’s wrathful escort, but these warriors were too few to stop a full regiment of knights. By the time, Curtice reached the main surviving regiments of Portuguese spearmen, these forces were as shaken and vulnerable as the main English army had been when Lambert fell. Curtice ordered one last charge but its target soon broke and with it, the morale of the Portuguese crumbled. Curtice eagerly accept the surrender of the Portuguese, fearing that attempting a pursuit would merely provide them with an opportunity to rally.
Captain Edward Curtice's pivotal role in the battle for Wales did not go unnoticed.
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