'I have saved the bird in my bosom.' Sir Ralph Percy spoke those words as he died, deserted by his commanders, surrounded by Yorkist soldiers, on a stretch of Northumbrian moorland a couple of miles north of Powburn. No one has ever been quite sure what he meant. Some scholars read it as loyalty to the House of Lancaster, the bird being his honour. Others see a personal oath, a sworn promise kept to the end. Whatever Percy meant, his enigma has outlived the Wars of the Roses, the kings he fought for, and even the road that brought the armies to the moor.
By the beginning of 1464, the Lancastrian cause was in trouble. The Yorkists held the throne in the person of Edward IV and wanted to settle their northern border with the Scots. English parliament was due to meet at York on 5 May to discuss terms, but Lancastrian raiding in Northumberland and North Yorkshire made the journey dangerous for the Scottish negotiators. Lord Montagu - John Neville, brother of the future Kingmaker - was sent north with a small force to escort them safely. Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, tried to ambush Montagu near Newcastle and failed. Montagu kept moving, gathering troops as he went. By the time he reached Hedgeley Moor he commanded five or six thousand men. A Lancastrian army of five thousand, led by Somerset and including Lords Ros and Hungerford alongside Sir Ralph Percy, was waiting.
Both armies opened with the customary exchange of archery. Montagu then advanced his line across fifteen hundred yards of open moor. He had to halt and re-form when the Lancastrian left flank, two thousand men under Ros and Hungerford, faltered, broke, and scattered before the lines even closed. When the Yorkists hit what remained of the Lancastrian centre, it gave way. Most of Somerset's army fled the field. Sir Ralph Percy alone stayed with his household retainers and made a last stand. The other commanders had abandoned him. He fell where he stood, gave his enigmatic line, and died. Percy's Cross, a square sandstone pillar, still marks the place near the A697, the road there following the line of the Roman Devil's Causeway.
Hedgeley Moor was not a decisive battle in the way that Towton or Bosworth would be. Its result was tactical: with the Lancastrian forces in Northumberland scattered, the Scottish negotiators could travel safely to York, and Edward IV's diplomats reached a settlement with Scotland that closed the northern back door. Three weeks later, on 15 May 1464, Montagu finished what Hedgeley had begun. At the Battle of Hexham, the Lancastrian army in the north was destroyed; Somerset was captured and beheaded. The Lancastrian cause in northern England was over. Percy's last stand had bought his side nothing strategic. What it bought him, oddly enough, was remembrance.
Percy's Cross is a strange little monument by a roadside, easy to drive past, easier still to overlook. Two Victorian ballads commemorate the fight: The Battle of Hedgley Moor by Frederick Sheldon, and The Legend of Percy's Cross by James Service. Both lean heavily on the dying words. The moor itself is open country still - cattle, sheep, gorse, sky - with the cross sitting east of the A697 and the Roman road running underneath it like a memory of even older armies. The bird in Percy's bosom, whatever it was, is the one detail that has refused to leave the field.
Located at 55.47°N, 1.92°W on Hedgeley Moor in north Northumberland, between Glanton and Powburn. Nearest commercial airport is Newcastle (EGNT) about 35 nm south-east. Percy's Cross sits east of the A697 (modern alignment of the Roman Devil's Causeway). Best viewed at 2,500-3,500 ft AGL with the Cheviot Hills as backdrop to the west. Limited landmarks at low level - look for the A697 north-south alignment cutting across rolling pasture and moor.