Battle of Shrewsbury

July 21, 1403

Henry IV and his son Prince Hal met the rebel Percys on a field of pea plants that turned to mud under cavalry. Hotspur, visor raised for a breath of air, took an arrow through the mouth. The fifteen-year-old prince, shot in the face, refused to leave the line. Shakespeare would later dramatize the battle in Henry IV, Part 1, making Hotspur one of English literature's most vivid figures.