Edward and Gloucester both advanced simultaneously to the attack.  A storm broke at the moment of the encounter, and the battle was fought in a darkness that obscured the brightness of an August day.  Leicester’s Welsh infantry broke at once before the charge of the mail-clad horsemen, and took refuge behind hedges and walls, where they were hunted out and butchered after the main fight was over.  But the men-at-arms struggled valiantly against Edward’s superior forces, though they were soon borne down by sheer numbers.  Simon fought like a hero and met a soldier’s death.  With him were slain his son Henry, his faithful comrade Peter Montfort, the baronial justiciar Hugh Despenser, and many other men of mark.  A large number of prisoners fell into the victor’s hands, and King Henry, who unwillingly followed Simon in all his wanderings, was wounded in the shoulder by his son’s followers, and only escaped a worse fate by revealing his identity with the cry:  “Slay me not!  I am Henry of Winchester, your King.”  The marchers gratified their rage by massacring helpless fugitives, and by mutilating the bodies of the slain.  Earl Simon’s head was sent as a present to the wife of Roger Mortimer; and it was with difficulty that the mangled corpse found its last rest in the church of Evesham Abbey.  His memory long lived in the hearts of his adopted countrymen, and especially among monks and friars, who despite the ban of the Church, hailed him as another St. Thomas, for he too had lain down his life for the cause of justice and religion.  Miracles were worked at his tomb; liturgies composed in his honour, and an informal popular canonisation, which no papal censures could prevent, kept his memory green.  His faults were forgotten in the pathos of his end.  His work survived the field of Evesham and the reaction which succeeded it.  His victorious nephew learnt well the lesson of his career, and the true successor of the martyred earl was the future Edward I.

No thoughts of policy disturbed the fierce passion of revenge which possessed the victorious marchers.  On August 7 Henry issued a proclamation announcing that he had resumed the personal exercise of the royal power.  The baronial ministers and sheriffs were replaced by royalist partisans.  The acts of the revolutionary government were denounced as invalid.  The faithful city of London was cruelly humiliated for its zeal for Earl Simon.  The exiles, headed by Queen Eleanor and Archbishop Boniface, returned from their long sojourn beyond sea.  With them came to England a new legate, the Cardinal Ottobon, specially sent from the papal court to punish the bishops and clergy that had persisted in their adherence to the popular cause.  Four prelates were excommunicated and suspended from their functions, including Berkstead of Chichester and Cantilupe of Worcester.  But the aged Bishop of Worcester was delivered from persecution by death; “snatched away,” as a kindly foe says, “lest he should see evil days”.