the French when their wings began to close inwards
to cut off the retreat of the imperial centre. The battle closed with
the celebrated stand of Reginald of Boulogne, a revolted vassal of King
Philip, who formed a ring of seven hundred Brabancon pikemen, and not
only defied every attack of the French cavalry, but himself made
repeated charges or sorties with his small force of knights. Eventually,
and long after the imperial army had begun its retreat, the gallant
schiltron was ridden down and annihilated by a charge of three thousand
men-at-arms. Reginald was taken prisoner in the _melee_; and the
prisoners also included two other counts, Ferdinand and William
Longsword, twenty-five barons and over a hundred knights. The killed
amounted to about 170 knights of the defeated party, and many thousands
of foot on either side, of whom no accurate account can be given.

See Oman, _History of the Art of War_, vii. pp. 457-480; also Kohler,
_Kriegsgeschichte, &c_., i. 140, and Delpech, _Tactique au XIII
siecle_, 127.

BOVEY BEDS, in geology, a deposit of sands, clays and lignite, 200-300
ft. thick, which lies in a basin extending from Bovey Tracey to Newton
Abbot in Devonshire, England. The deposit is evidently the result of the
degradation of the neighbouring Dartmoor granite; and it was no doubt
laid down in a lake. O. Heer, who examined the numerous plant remains
from these beds, concluded that they belonged to the same geological
horizon as the Molasse or Oligocene of Switzerland. Starkie Gardiner,
however, who subsequently examined the flora, showed that it bore a
close resemblance to that of the Bournemouth Beds or Lower Bagshot; in
this view he is supported by C. Reid. Large excavations have been made
for the extraction of the clays, which are very valuable for pottery
and similar purposes. The lignite or "Bovey Coal" has at times been
burned in the local kilns, and in the engines and workmen's cottages,
but it is not economical.

See S. Gardiner, _Q. J. G. S._ London, xxxv., 1879; W. Pengelly and O.
Heer, _Phil. Trans._, 1862; C. Reid, _Q. J. G. S._ lii., 1896, p. 490,
and _loc. cit._ liv., 1898, p. 234. An interesting general account is
given by A.W. Clayden, _The History of Devonshire Scenery_ (London,
1906), pp. 159-168.

BOVIANUM, the name of two ancient Italian towns, (1) UNDECIMANORUM
[_Boiano_], the chief city of the Pentri Samnites, 9 m. N.W. of Saepinum
and 18 m. S.E. of Aesern