We merged with the main royal army at Ludford Bridge, a location confronting the Duke of York’s vast castle, which bristled with guns and archers and fluttered with the banners of the participating rebel lords – York’s falcon and fetterlock, Salisbury’s green spreadeagle and Warwick’s bear with ragged staff. We could glean little notion of their strength, but our twenty thousand-strong royal force occupied a host of tents under a forest of multi-coloured battle standards and hoisted high above them all were the royal leopards and lilies, flying beside the king’s gold-fringed personal symbol of an antelope. There was no mistaking the presence of the monarch in these Lancastrian lines. It would be treason for any of Henry’s subjects to attack.

I found him in his silk-lined tent, seated in state at the head of a polished oak table conferring with his commanders. ‘This is a sorry situation, Jasper,’ he said dolefully in welcome.

How I wished his squires would call in his armourer because, as usual, he looked swamped by his mail-shirt. However, he appeared a good deal more alert than he had at our last meeting, conscious of the tension among his companions and the knife-edge on which his kingdom was poised.

I knelt to kiss his hand and he motioned me to rise and take a seat beside him. From his distracted expression, encouragement was badly needed. ‘Your army looks in good heart, my liege,’ I said. ‘And your commanders have the duke successfully pinned down. I would call it a satisfactory situation.’

‘That is what I keep telling his grace.’ The grey-bearded Duke of Buckingham, Constable of England, was seated at the king’s other hand, wearing his cuirass, mud-splashed as if fresh from the field. ‘The Yorkists are holed up like the rats they are. We have them trapped. They have been dodging about all over the country avoiding us and now they have to come out and fight.’

‘That is exactly the problem, Humphrey,’ complained the king. ‘York, Salisbury and Warwick are all my cousins. I do not wish to fight my own kinsmen and subjects. I want my realm to be at peace. I will offer them one more chance to come and swear allegiance and be pardoned.’

Buckingham’s face suffused but he nevertheless spoke in a measured tone. ‘Cousin he may be – albeit a distant one – but you cannot pardon Salisbury, my liege. He has already committed treason by crossing swords with a royal army and killing your commander Lord Audley. And there can be no denying that York and Warwick have raised their standards against their king. That is surely rebellion, which requires more punishment than a kiss on the cheek and a smack on the purse.’