The Battle of the Spurs

The Battle of the Spurs or (Second) Battle of Guinegate took place on 16 August 1513. It formed a part of the War of the League of Cambrai, during the ongoing Italian Wars. Henry VIII & Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor were besieging the town of Thérouanne in Artois (now Pas-de-Calais). Henry's camp was at Guinegate, now called Enguinegatte.

In May 1513 English soldiers began to arrive in number at Calais to join an army commanded by George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Steward of the Household.

Shrewsbury commanded the vanguard of 8,000, & Charles Somerset, Lord Herbert the rearward of 6,000. King Henry VIII had arrived in person at Calais on 30 June 1513 with the main grouping, of 11,000 men. The army was provided by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey The English army included several different types of martial forces including cavalry, artillery, infantry & longbow using hardened steel arrows designed to penetrate armour more effectively. In front of the English king marched 800 German mercenaries.

Henry VIII had joined the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in the Holy League on 13 October 1511 with Venice & Spain to defend the Papacy from its enemies & France with military force.

Henry promised to attack France at Guyenne, landing 10,000 men at Hondarribia in the Basque Country in June 1512. This army was conveyed by the admiral Edward Howard, and commanded by Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset. It remained at Bayonne till October supporting Ferdinand II of Aragon's action in the Kingdom of Navarre, though undersupplied and in poor morale. Maximilian joined the league in November. Louis XII of France hoped that Scotland would aid France against England.

The French had hoped to catch the besieging army unprepared by moving out before dawn; however, the English 'border prickers' (light cavalry from the Scottish borders) were out and they detected the movement of the larger of the two bodies of French cavalry. Henry VIII drew up a field force from the siege lines sending out a vanguard of 1,100 cavalry, following this with 10,000–12,000 infantry. La Palice's force encountered English scouts at the village of Bomy, 5 miles from Thérouanne; the French, realising that the English were alert, checked themselves on the edge of a hillside. The stradiots then began their rather forlorn attempt to contact the garrison, riding in a wide arc towards the town.

The day was soon called the "Battle of the Spurs" (in French: La Journée d'Esperons) because of the haste of the French horse to leave the battlefield. In the summer of 1518 the English ambassador in Spain, Lord Berners, joked that the French had learned to ride fast at the "jurney of Spurres."
The same evening the Imperial Master of the Posts, Baptiste de Tassis sent news of the battle to Margaret of Savoy from Aire-sur-la-Lys in Artois;
Early in the day the Emperor and the King of England encountered 8,000 French horse; the Emperor, with 2,000 only, kept them at bay until four in the afternoon, when they were put to flight. A hundred men of arms were left upon the field, and more than a hundred taken prisoners, of the best men in France; as the Sieur de Piennes, the Marquis de Rotelin, and others.
Henry sent his account to Margaret of Savoy on the following day. He mentioned that the French cavalry had first attacked Shrewsbury's position blockading the town, capturing 44 men and wounding 22. An Imperial cavalry manoeuvre brought the French horse within range of the guns, and the French cavalry fled.

The chronicle writer Edward Hall gave a somewhat different account. Hall, who says the French called it the "battle of the Spurs", centres the action around a hill, with English archers at the village of "Bomye." He has the French cavalry break after a show of English banners organized by the Clarenceux Herald, Thomas Benolt. Hall mentions that Maximilian advised Henry to deploy some artillery on another hill "for out-scourers" but does not mention any effect on the outcome. Although Henry wished to ride into the battle, he stayed with the Emperor's foot soldiers on the advice of his council.
After a three-mile chase, amongst the French prisoners were Jacques de la Palice, Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard and Louis d'Orléans, Duke of Longueville. Although reports mention the Emperor's decision for his troops to serve under Henry's standard, Hall's account suggests friction between the English and Imperial forces, during the day and over prisoners taken by the Empire, who were "not brought to sight" and released. Henry returned to his camp at Enguinegatte and heard reports of the day's actions. During the fighting the garrison of Thérouanne had come out and attacked Herbert's position. According to the report, three English soldiers of note were killed, with 3,000 French casualties. Nine French standards were captured, with 21 noble prisoners dressed in cloth-of-gold.