Now when that valiant and famous knight Sir Andrew de Harcla, sheriff of Carlisle, heard of their approach, believing that they intended to go to Scotland to ally themselves with the Scots against the King of England, acting under the King's commission and authority, he summoned, under very heavy penalties, the knights, esquires and other able men of the two countries, to wit, Cumberland and Westmorland, all who were able to beat arms, to assemble for the King's aid against the oft‑mentioned Earl [Lancaster].  But when the said Sir Andrew, on his march towards the King with that somewhat scanty following, had spent the night at Ripon, he learnt from a certain spy that the Earl and his army were going to arrive on the morrow at the town of Boroughbridge, which is only some four miles distant from the town of Ripon.  Pressing forward, therefore, at night, he got a start of the Earl, occupying the bridge of Boroughbridge before him, and, sending his horses and those of his men to the rear, he posted all his knights and some pikemen on foot at the northern end of the bridge, and other pikemen he stationed in schiltron, after the Scottish fashion, opposite the ford or passage of the water, to oppose the cavalry wherein the enemy put his trust.  Also he directed his archers to keep up a hot and constant discharge upon the enemy as he approached. 

On Tuesday, then, after the third Sunday in Lent, being the seventeenth of the kalends of April [16 March 1322], the aforesaid Earls arrived in force, and perceiving that Sir Andrew had anticipated them by occupying the north end of the bridge, they arranged that the Earl of Hereford and Sir Roger de Clifford (a man of great strength who had married his daughter) should advance with their company and seize the bridge from the pikemen stationed there, while the Earl of Lancaster with the rest of the cavalry should attack the ford and seize the water and ford from the pikemen, putting them to flight and killing all who resisted; but matters took a different turn.  For when the Earl of Hereford (with his standard‑bearer leading the advance, to wit, Sir Ralf de Applinsdene) and Sir Roger de Clifford and some other knights, had entered upon the bridge before the others as bold as lions, charging fiercely upon the enemy, pikes were thrust at the Earl from all sides; he fell immediately and was killed with his standard‑bearer and the knights aforesaid, to wit, Sir W de Sule and Sir Roger de Berefield; but Sir Roger de Clifford, though grievously wounded with pikes and arrows, and driven back, escaped with difficulty along with the others.

The Earl [of Lancaster's] cavalry, when they endeavoured to cross the water, could not enter it by reason of the number and density of arrows which the archers discharged upon them and their horses.  This affair being thus quickly settled, the Earl of Lancaster and his people retired from the water, nor did they dare to approach it again, and so their whole array was thrown into disorder.  Wherefore the Earl sent messengers to Sir Andrew, requesting an armistice until the morning, when he would either give him battle or surrender to him.  Andrew agreed to the Earl's proposal; nevertheless he kept his people at the bridge and the river all that day and throughout the night, so as to be ready for battle at any moment.

But during that night the Earl of Hereford's men deserted and fled, because their lord had been killed, also many of the Earl of Lancaster's men and those of my Lord de Clifford and others deserted from them.  When morning came, therefore, the Earl of Lancaster, my Lord de Clifford, my Lord de Mowbray and all who had remained with them, surrendered to Sir Andrew, who himself took them to York as captives, where they were confined in the castle to await there the pleasure of my lord the King.

Extract translated from the Latin in Rothwell, English historical documents, 1189-1327, London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1975 275‑6.