in Gloucester, he began to prepare to return to London. However, Jasper Tudor's army was approaching and he changed his plan; to block Tudor from joining the main Lancastrian force which was approaching London, Edward moved north with an army of approximately five thousand men to Mortimer's Cross. Parhelion As dawn broke, the meteorological phenomenon known as parhelion occurred: three suns were seen to be rising. The appearance of this sun dog so soon before the battle seems to have frightened his troops, but Edward of York appears to have convinced them that it represented the Holy Trinity and that therefore God was on their side. He later took it as his emblem, the "Sun in splendour". The event was dramatised by William Shakespeare in King Henry VI, Part 3 (see below) and in Sharon Kay Penman's The Sunne in Splendour. Battle One of York's advisers, Sir Richard Croft, a local lord from Croft Castle, recommended positioning archers at the crossroads (Roman Road and Ogilby Road) in order to halt the Lancastrian advance. Pembroke's army was about a thousand men smaller than York's and, being untried in battle at that point, may not have originally planned to fight but by midday it was clear that they would have to in order to cross the Lugg. The Lancastrians commenced the attack—Butler's 'battle' (division) led the first assault forcing Edward's right wing to retreat across the road, where this flank dissolved. Pembroke faced Edward's centre division and was held off but, most decisively, Owen Tudor attempted an encirclement of the Yorkist left wing; his ‘battle’ was defeated and a rout commenced. Pembroke's centre then also broke and the battle was won. Owen Tudor's men were now in full flight: some of them were followed as far as Hereford, approximately , and where Owen was himself captured and beheaded. Aftermath The battle having intruded on York's plans to march to the midlands, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, with the captive King Henry in his train, was meanwhile forced to move to block Margaret's army's route to London on his own. He took up position north of St Albans astride the main road from the north (the ancient Roman road known as Watling Street). Although he lost the battle that followed, and Margaret of Anjou and her army could now march unopposed on to London, they did not do so. The Lancastrian army's reputation