moved via Banstead to Blackheath, an area of high ground south-east of the city, which they reached on 16 June. No Kentish uprising had materialised, however. On the contrary, forces of Kentish men had been mobilised against them under loyalist nobles, the Earl of Kent, Lord Abergavenny, and Lord Cobham. Since the King had now mustered a large army in London, the outlook for the rebels was clearly grim, and there was much dismay and disunity among them that night in their camp on Blackheath. An Gof was adamant in preparing for battle. But many wanted to give themselves up: the original call to arms had not always been to commit the treason of direct warfare against the King, but to make him change his chief advisors and taxation policies. There were thousands of desertions from the insurgency that night. Battle of Deptford Bridge Setting and deployments The Battle of Deptford Bridge (also known as Battle of Blackheath) took place on 17 June 1497 on a site in present-day Deptford in south-east London, on the River Ravensbourne, and was the culminating event of the Cornish Rebellion. After leaving the West Country and approaching London, the insurgency had failed to attract enough new support or to move quickly enough to catch the king unprepared. The insurgents were now on the defensive. The king had mustered an army of some 25,000 men while the rebels, after late desertions, were down to 10,000 men or fewer. They also lacked the supporting cavalry and artillery arms essential to the professional forces of the time. The king had spread word that he would attack the rebels on Monday 19 June, but in fact he did so early on the 17th. He regarded Saturday as his "lucky day". His forces were composed of three battalions, deployed so as to surround the high ground of Blackheath where the rebel army had camped and where its greater part was still positioned. The fighting The strongest of the king's battalions, under Lord Daubeny, attacked along the main road from London. This involved crossing Deptford Bridge (near the point where Ravensbourne River becomes Deptford Creek before joining the river Thames). The rebels were well enough prepared to have positioned guns and archers there, which inflicted severe casualties on the company of spearmen under Sir Humphrey Stanley tasked with securing the bridge. Stanley's company nevertheless succeeded in driving off the gunners