Henry lost at Lewes and was on the losing side at Evesham, but he did have one victory when, on April 5-6, 1264, his forces stormed Northampton and captured the entire garrison, including eighty knights and barons. Even though he had a lot of help from a treacherous prior on the inside, his triumph put him in excellent position to make short work of the Montfortians. Instead he lingered in the north, exacting payments where he could and letting his men have their way in this technically hostile territory. So quick did Northampton fall that Simon had got only as far as St. Albans with a relief force when word of it reached him. He took it in stride, telling his men that it was the nature of warfare for the advantage to go sometimes to these, sometime to those. ‘Let them rejoice,’ he told Hugh Despenser. ‘Before the month of May is out they will be consumed by fear and confusion.’
