ABSTRACT
The order of battle can only be tentatively reconstructed from stray scraps of evidence. Hooker, who was locked up in Exeter, says the army numbered ‘more than a thousand’, which can mean anything. The two forces thus crashed head on into one another, each on the alert, yet at the same time taken by surprise finding the other actually advancing against it. The royal generals found themselves in the vulnerable position of having to deploy from column into line under a hail of arrows as the billmen charged, yelling at the tops of their voices. In the crisis the limitations of the arquebusiers were exposed: no time to prime their pieces and whirl their match around to bring it to life. Many prisoners were handed over to soldiers as a reward for good service, to be ransomed and to make what bargains they could to redeem their lands and goods.
