At early dawn on the fourteenth of April the two hosts fronted one another at Barnet.

A thick mist covered the field, and beneath its veil Warwick's men fought fiercely till dread of mutual betrayal ended the strife.

Montagu's followers attacked the Lancastrian soldiers of Lord Oxford, whether as some said through an error which sprang from the similarity of his cognizance to that of Edward, or as the Lancastrians alleged while themselves in the act of deserting to the enemy.

Warwick himself was charged with cowardly flight.

In three hours the medley of carnage and treason was over.