Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 3 4 Earelie on the next morning betwixt foure and fiue of the clocke, notwithstanding there was a great mist that letted the sight of both parts to disco|uer the fields, the king aduanced his banners, and caused his trumpets to sound to the battell. On the other part, Edw. Hall. the earle of Warwike, at the verie breake of the daie, had likewise set his men in order of bat|tell in this maner. In the right wing he placed the marquesse Montacute,The order of the battell of both sides. and the earle of Oxford with certeine horssemen, and he with the duke of Exce|ster tooke the left wing. And in the middest betweene both, he set archers, appointing the duke of Summer|set to guide them as their chiefteine. King Edward had set the duke of Glocester in the fore-ward. The middle-ward he himselfe with the duke of Clarence, hauing with them king Henrie, did rule & gouerne. The lord Hastings led the rere-ward, and beside these thrée battels, he kept a companie of fresh men in store, which did him great pleasure before the end of the battell.

Compare 1577 edition: 1 Here is to be remembred, that aswell the king on his part, as the earle of Warwike on his, vsed ma|nie comfortable words to incourage their people, not forgetting to set foorth their quarels as iust and law|full; the king naming his aduersaries traitors and rebels, & the earle accounting him a tyrant, & an in|iurious vsurper. But when the time came that they once got fight either of other, the battell began verie sharpe and cruell, first with shot, and after by ioining at hand blowes. Yet at the first they ioined not front to front, as they should haue doone, by reason of the mist that tooke awaie the sight of either armie, and suffered the one not to discerne perfectlie the order of the other; insomuch that the one end of the earle of Warwikes armie ouerraught the contrarie end of the kings battell which stood westward, and by reason thereof (through the valiancie of the earle of Oxford that led the earles voward) the kings people on that part were ouermatched,The valiancie of the earle of Oxford. so that manie of them fled towards Barnet, and so to London, bringing newes that the erle of Warwike had woone the field.

[Which report happilie might haue béene iustified and fallen out to be true, Abr. Fl. ex I. S. pag. 727. had not preposterous for|tune happened to the earle of Oxford and his men, who had a starre with streames on their liueries; as king Edwards men had the sunne with streames on their liueries: wherevpon the earle of Warwiks men, by reason of the mist not well discerning the badges so like, shot at the earle of Oxfords men that were on their owne part, and then the earle of Ox|ford and his men cried treason, and fled with eight hundred men.]