rHE WARS OF I THE ROSES 1377-1471 i R, B. Mowat, M,A. The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027927494 Cornell University Library DA 250.M93 Wars of the R,OifeSi,,,ffiMiffllIl 3 1924 027 927 494 THE WARS OF THE ROSES 1377- 1471 THE WARS OF THE ROSES 1377 - 1471 R. B. MO WAT, M.A. FELLOW AND ASSISTANT TUTOR OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD limitb (3eneaIogica[ Rubles anO a ^ap tllustratmci tbc perioS LONDON CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND SON 7 STATIONERS' HALL COURT, E.G. And 5 Broadway, Westminster, S.W. 1914 s PREFACE The Mediaeval and Modern History of England are divided from one another by the Wars of the Roses. Out of the troubles of that time a new England arose. The period has been described by the historian Stubbs in a memorable passage : " Weak as is the fourteenth century, the fifteenth is weaker still, more futile, more bloody, more immoral."^ But out of the weakness came strength. The Wars of the Roses were a rough schooling to England, but they ushered in the glories of the Tudor reigns. It was a period when in Europe national states were slowly being evolved, with autocratic monarchs and con- solidated governments. Spain grew to unity and strength through her great conflict with the Moors. France, in the first half of the fifteenth century, suffered dreadfully both from civil and from foreign wars. Out of these grew the centralised government of Lewis XI. England too had her period of internecine war, during which she got rid of many troublesome elements, and emerged a strong, consolidated state. In this England was more fortunate than other countries. The caste nobility was almost completely exterminated, and the country gentlemen and the middle classes stepped into their place in the local government of the country. A new nobility had to be formed, recruited from the best servants of the State. In the century following the Wars 1 "Constitutional History," ii. p. 658. viii PREFACE of the Roses, England prospered under a strong monarchy, a nobility of service, and a wealthy middle class. Thus she was able to go through the tremendous crisis of the Reformation, without the internal conflicts which devastated other countries. It is, therefore, as being the death of the old England and the beginning of the new, that the Wars of the Roses have their great interest. Throughout this volume will be found references to the original sources of the period. There remains only to make acknowledgments to the more recent authors to whom so much is owed. First must be mentioned Bishop Stubbs. It is im- possible for anyone at Oxford to write on the history of England before 1485, without showing traces of the influ- ence of Stubbs on nearly every page. His learning and judgment have so entered into the mind and attitude of all who learn and teach at Oxford, that no one could make a special acknowledgment on every occasion where these appear. Nevertheless frequent references to the "Con- stitutional History of England " will be found throughout the present volume. And although the two last chapters in some respects may be considered as a criticism of Stubbs' views on the Lancastrian and Yorkist houses, yet this cannot in any way lessen the sense of obligation towards one who is, perhaps, Oxford's greatest historian. Next should be mentioned James Gairdner, whose edition of the "Paston Letters," with its copious and learned introduction, threw so much light on fifteenth- century England. Grateful acknowledgment is also to be made to the " Lancaster and York " of Sir James PREFACE ix Ramsay, a work of profound and exhaustive learning, full of interest, and containing the most useful material drawn with great skill and judgment from the public records. The edition of Fortescue's " Governance of England " edited by the Rev. Charles Plummer has added much to the knowledge of the Lancastrian period. Mr Plummer's admirable introduction and notes are not only full of great learning, but of most fresh and suggestive criticism, which form an excellent supplement and corrective to Chapter XVIII. of Stubbs. Finally, for any adequate understand- ing of the personalities and the military history of the period, no better guide could be found than the " Political History of England," by Professor Charles Oman. Although the present work does not follow the views, nor adopt the conclusions of these authors, and although (it is hoped) something may have been added to the knowledge of the period, nevertheless their work has gone so deep that no one who studies the history of the time can help benefiting by their researches, and feeling a profound obligation towards them. CONTENTS CHAP. PACK I. The Family Settlement of Edward III. - - i II. Constitutional History of the Lancastrian Dynasty - - - - - -7 III. The French War ..... 15 IV. The Struggle in the Council - . .26 V. Somerset and York - - - - . 46 VI. The King's Madness and the First Protectorate of York ...... 55 VII. The Second Protectorate of York and the Second Reconciliation at St Paul's - - 80 VIII. The Battle of Bloreheath and the Attainder of the Yorkists - - - - - loi IX. The Yorkists in Exile - - - .110 X. The Battle of Northampton - - - 122 XI. The Bid for the Crown . - . . 130 XII. Wakefield - - - - - - 136 XIII. Mortimer's Cross and the Second Battle of St Albans - - - - - - 143 XIV. The Accession of Edward IV. - - - 151 XV. The Northern War - - - - - 163 xii CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE XVI. Queen Margaret Abroad - - - - 176 XVII. The Capture of Henry VI. - - - 182 X'SMII. The Troubled Years of King Edward - - 189 XIX. The Last of the Lancastrians - - - 214 XX. English Society during the Wars of the Roses 232 XXI. The Breakdown of Government under Henry VI. 254 XXII. The Work of Edward IV. - - - - 265 Conclusion — The Accession of Henry VII. - 274 INDEX 277 GENEALOGICAL TABLES 1. The Surviving Sons of Edward III. 2. House of Lancaster. 3. House of York. 4. House of Beaufort. 5. House of Holland. 6. Houses of Stafford and Bourchier. 7. House of Neville. 8. House of Tudor. MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE WARS OF THE ROSES THE WARS OF THE ROSES CHAPTER I THE FAMILY SETTLEMENT OF EDWARD HI. There were many causes which produced the unhappy troubles in England known as the Wars of the Roses, but there were two things in particular without which these troubles could never have occurred : one was the family settlement of Edward HI., the other was the " over-mighty subject." These two things were intimately connected with each other. By his family settlement Edward HI. endowed his sons with great lands and inheritances : and so the royal house was split up into several powerful families, not necessarily in agreement with one another. At the same time certain other noble families grew so wealthy and powerful that in time their influence rivalled and sometimes surpassed that of the king. Some of them, too, became connected by blood with the royal house. Gradually, as the fifteenth century went on, a curious situation arose. In Spain, the nobles used to say that they were of as good birth as the king, only less rich. But in fifteenth-century England, some of the nobles might have said that they were of as good birth as the king, only richer. Towards the end of the Wars of the Roses the great constitutional lawyer, Fortescue, gravely wrote that if law and order in the kingdom were to be assured, it was necessary that the 2 THE WARS OF THE ROSES king's income should be greater than that of a great lord.i It appears that Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, known to history as the King-maker, had much more money to spare than the king had for the levying of troops. But the "over-mighty subject" is a feature of the later fifteenth century: the family settlement of Edward III. was in the later fourteenth. Edward III., the patriarch of the Lancastrian and Yorkist houses, had twelve children, two of whom died in infancy. His surviving children were five sons and five daughters. Of the sons, the eldest, Edward, born at Woodstock in 1330, became famous as the Black Prince. He died before coming to the throne, but left one son, king Richard II., who died childless, and so this line became extinct. The second son was Lionel, born at Antwerp in 1338. Lionel left only a daughter, who married Edward Mortimer, Earl of March, on the Welsh border. This line too ended in a female, Anne, who married back into the royal family by espousing her first cousin twice removed, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, the head of the Yorkist house. The third son was John, born at Ghent, or Gaunt, in 1340. John was married thrice, and left many children, and founded several important families ; the most famous of which is that known as the house of Lancaster. This came through John's eldest son, Henry of Lancaster, or king Henry IV,, whose son and grandson successively reigned before the line came to an end. The fourth son was Edmund, born at King's Langley, in Hertfordshire, in 1342. Edmund's son, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, married Anne Mortimer (as stated above), the surviving representative of Lionel of Antwerp. The fifth son was Thomas, born at Woodstock in I3SS- His only male heir died without issue in 1399. All these sons were prominent figures in history ' " The Governance of England," by Sir J. Fortescue, edited by Charles Plummer, p. 128. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 3 throughout their lives. All, with the exception of Edmund of Langley, were ambitious and desirous of power. All had great estates by the gift of their father and by marriage. If one of them became king, it was not unlikely that the other members of the royal family would be strong enough to try to control the throne. Edward of Woodstock was made Prince of Wales, Earl of Chester, and Duke of Cornwall. Lionel of Antwerp was created Earl of Clarence, that is of Clare, a great territorial "honour" in Suffolk. This property came to him through his marriage with the heiress of Clare in 1352. With her also came the great Irish estates of her family in Ulster. These estates, when united in the next century with the Mortimer estates on the Welsh march, formed a substantial part of the endowment of the Yorkist house. John of Gaunt was Duke of Lancaster, a position which carried with it exceptional territorial privileges in that part of England. He was earl of three counties — Derby, Leicester, and Lincoln, and had honours and castles in nearly every other county in England.^ Edmund of Langley was Duke of York, and held estates both in the north and in the home counties. When his line united with that of Lionel of Antwerp, the combined inheritance was enormous. The last was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, who had large estates, not merely in Gloucester, but in Buckingham (of which he was Earl), and in Northampton and Essex. Thus Edward III., by his family settlement, set up five great royal houses in England. By the extinction of the first line (1400, death of Richard I If:), of the fifth line (death of the young Duke of Gloucester in 1399), and by the union of the second and fourth lines through the marriage of Anne Mortimer and Richard of Cambridge in 1 See Map of the Lancastrian estates in "John of Gaunt," by S. Armitage-Smith, p. 218. 4 THE WARS OF THE ROSES 1410/ these royal houses were reduced to two. There was no apparent superiority of one to the other, either in birth or wealth. With their friends and supporters they divided England between them. This plan of allotting great appanages to the younger members of the royal family has often been tried in England, France, and Germany, and the result has always been bad. In the early days of the Norman rule, William the Conqueror left England to his second son, William Rufus, and Normandy to his eldest son, Robert. On William II.'s death England was held by his younger brother, Henry ; but Normandy still remained with Robert. The result of this division of the Norman power was fifteen years of warfare within the royal family. Again, towards the end of the twelfth century, Henry n. gave great appanages to his sons. The eldest, young Henry, was reserved for the throne of England, but Aquitaine was given to Richard, and, by a fortunate marriage, Brittany was secured to Geoffrey. The result was rebellion and civil war within the royal house, increased by the efforts of the youngest, John " Lack- land," to establish himself, like his brothers, in some great appanage. In France the donation of Burgundy by king John the Good to his second son, Philip the Bold, in 1363, set up the practically independent line of Burgundian dukes, who, in the course of their feud with the Orleanist branch of the royal family, plunged France into civil war, the strife of Burgundians against Armagnacs. In Germany certain ruling houses adopted the system of creating appanages. Thus the rulers of Saxony created duchies for their younger sons, with the result that at one time or another there have been in existence at least eighteen different Saxon duchies, not one of them, of course, being really strong. So, too, in the sixteenth century, appanages were created for the younger Haps- ^ The date is not quite certain, but this is the most probable year. THE WARS OF THE ROSES s burg princes, with the result that the central power was weakened, and even domestic warfare was not unknown. The reasons why this unfortunate practice of making appanages has so often been adopted are probably three : in the first place, kings, like any other men, are moved by affection for their children, and may not like their younger sons to suffer merely because these were born later than their eldest brother. In the second place, it has often been thought necessary for the dignity of the royal family that all the princes of the blood should hold great territories, and be almost equal to the head of the house. In the same way the great Napoleon planted out his own brothers as rulers of conquered states. In the third place, it has often been thought that the appanages would strengthen the royal house as a whole, and would prove useful allies of the king, and strenuous supporters of the crown. This last idea was probably very strong with Edward III. when he carried out his family settlement. The early Plantagenets had found the nobles too strong. The great territorial baronage had limited the kingly power. But these great baronial families often ended in an heiress. What could be better for the king's purpose than to join one of his sons to such an heiress, so that her great estates should be held by a member of the royal house, her power- ful family influence wielded by a prince of the blood? Edward III. thought that by this means the old centrifugal feudal spirit would be done away with, and superseded by family loyalty, by the strong ties of blood and interest which bound the younger sons to the head of the house, to the crown. But it was the contrary that happened. The old rebellious feudal spirit was not superseded by a firm family allegiance to the crown. On the contrary, the natural family affection and interest of the younger princes were drawn away into the old feudal spirit. The families of the younger princes became separatist and territorial, rivals 6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES of the crown like the old feudal baronage, but stronger because they accumulated more territories, and because by birth they were royal. The princes in the first generation might, like John of Gaunt, remain loyal to their head ; but the second and third generation felt no such close tie. CHAPTER II CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE LANCASTRIAN DYNASTY Edward III. died in the year 1377. His eldest son, Edward of Windsor, whom later ages have called the Black Prince, was already dead. So the old king was succeeded by his grandson, Richard, only son of the Black Prince. Richard's reign was a stormy one ; he was a young man of great ideas and high ambitions. But his uncles would not let him rule freely ; already the results of the family settlement of Edward III. were beginning to show them- selves. The chief danger came from the youngest uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, the fifth son of Edward III. Thomas was Duke of Gloucester, a man of strong will, and great wealth and influence. It was he who, at the head of some of the greatest barons under the name of Lords Appellant, curbed the powers of the young Richard, and kept him in a strict tutelage from 1387 to 1389. But in the last year Richard shook off the Lords Appellant, and for eight years ruled well by himself. But in 1397 he began to act in an arbitrary fashion ; a series of unconstitutional acts lost him the confidence of many people, and in 1399 his cousin, Henry of Lancaster, was able to carry out the revolution in which Richard was deposed, and Henry elevated to the throne. Henry was another member of the royal family who had great possessions. His father, John of Gaunt, had many estates, a " Lancastrian belt," which stretched across England from the Duchy of Lancaster to Essex. John had remained faithful to his nephew Richard, but his son 8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES Henry had been one of the Lords Appellant who for a time controlled the king. Richard, by stretching his prerogative, had made Henry an exile in 1398. Next year Henry landed at the mouth of the Humber, to enter into possession of the estates of his father, who had just died. Within three months (on September 30th) Henry had been recognised as king in Parliament. Richard was a prisoner, and died in February 1400 in Pontefract Castle. Thus began the rule of the Lancastrian branch of the ancient Plantagenet family. Henry IV. was able to come to the throne, not merely because he was a prince of the royal blood, but because he was a man of great posses- sions, being, through his father, heir to all the Lancastrian inheritance, and through his wife, Mary de Bohun, heir to a great part of the Bohun inheritance in Hereford, Essex, Northampton. Thus the family settlement of Edward HL was already working out its effect. Already the legitimate king had been dispossessed by a prince who had the wealth, and the influence, and the ambition of a great territorial magnate, combined with the claims that attach to royal birth. Sixty years later the family settlement was to achieve another revolution, when another prince, who was also one of the greatest territorial magnates, was to dis- possess a king whose wealth and influence were not so great as his. Henry IV. claimed the crown on two grounds : firstly, as being descended from king Henry III.; secondly, as being acknowledged by Parliament, to save the realm from " default of governance and undoing of the laws." ^ The first part of his claim can scarcely have been meant as giving him a prior right to everyone else. There were other princes who were descended from Henry III. But Henry IV. claimed this descent not so much through his father, John of Gaunt, as through his mother, Blanche of Lancaster, who was descended from Edmund Crouchback, second son of Henry III. But young Edmund Mortimer, ' See Wylie, " Hist, of Eng. under Henry IV.," vol. i. p. 15. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 9 Earl of March, grandson of Philippa of Clarence, was descended from Edward I., the elder son of Henry III. To do away with this difficulty, it was pretended by the Lancastrians that Edmund Crouchback, not Edward I., was really the elder son of Henry HI., but was passed over because of his supposed deformity. Few people, however, believed this story. So the real title of Henry IV. to the throne was a parliamentary one. He did think of claiming the throne by right of conquest. But his wise adviser, Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, dissuaded him from taking this course. For to hold the crown by conquest would be to nullify all previously existing law of the land, and to start an entirely new state of things. Such a course would have been fatal to the new dynasty, as a revolution is only acquiesced in by people who have anything to lose, if titles and property are guaranteed, and the law of the land is maintained. The Lancastrian title, therefore, depended on the recognition of Parliament given in September and October 1399. The fact that there was an elder branch of the Plantagenet family in existence did not in any way invali- date the parliamentary title of the king, which was a good one in law, and according to the ancient customs of the realm, just as the title of the house of Brunswick, estab- lished by the Act of Settlement in the year 1701, was not invalid because there was a family of prior descent in existence, namely, the Stewarts. The governing classes of the country accepted Henry IV. as king because they were afraid for their property and for their religion. Richard II., at the end of his reign, had made himself an absolute monarch, and the propertied classes could not feel themselves safe from his power. Through his first wife, Anne of Bohemia, who had been brought under the influence of John Huss, he had been attracted by the new religious thought, known in England as Lollardy. The Lollards attacked the doctrine and the lo THE WARS OF THE ROSES property of the Church. Their views on property seem to have extended sometimes from disendowment of the Church to disendowment of all the propertied classes. Thus people who had anything to lose and people who were attached to the mediaeval Church welcomed the Lancastrian dynasty as being an orthodox family that would preserve both Church and State. It may almost be said that Henry IV. and his successors were kings by a sort of contract. They owed their title to Parhament, and the conditions of their ruling were that they should give good government, that they should be constitutional in their methods, taking always the advice of their counsellors and Parliament, and that they should be orthodox and good churchmen. To the best of their ability the Lancastrians strove all through to carry out their understanding. They were loyal to the Church, they persecuted the heretics, they preserved the property of the religious corporations, and they estab- lished and endowed new pious communities. So the churchmen as a whole stood by them, and all the chroniclers who were ecclesiastics speak well of them. But though they satisfied the churchmen, they could not satisfy the laymen. The nobles and the middle classes found that " good government " did not always exist, that law and order did not invariably prevail. Except during the short reign of Henry V., the country was never quite free from disorder. The Wars of the Roses when they came were just a supreme and crucial instance of the breakdown of government, with which in a minor degree the country had long been familiar.^ The failure of government was not entirely the fault of the Lancastrians. It was due partly to the policy of Edward III., setting up appanaged houses within the royal family, and partly to the state of the nobles, who were reduced to too few numbers and who had accumulated too ' See Stubbs' " Constitutional Histoi-y of England," vol. iii. p. 279. THE WARS OF THE ROSES n much land and influence. The Lancastrian kings did their best, and doubtless would have done better had they not been too poor. Henry IV. throughout his reign was a hard-working, active king, and scrupulous to abide by the understanding according to which he had come to the throne. In all important matters he carefully took the advice of the Privy Council, his ministers were appointed with the approval of Parliament, and any legislation that_ the Commons as a whole desired was freely accepted by the king. The records of the Privy Council show the scope and variety of the business submitted to it; war, peace, finance, justice, nothing was kept from it. The king sat regularly at the council-board, and worked hard at the business of the realm. The privileges of Parliament were scrupulously maintained by Henry IV. and Henry V., and measures were taken to ensure that the Commons were freely elected. In 1406 the famous " Indenture Act" was passed, ordering that the name of the person elected in any constituency should be confirmed under the seals of the electors, and that this proof should be sent up to Westminster by the sheriff along with the writ. Thus the sheriff could not substitute the name of another candidate between the time of the election and the return of the writ. Yet although Henry IV. meant well and worked hard, his reign was troubled. The nobles who had helped him to the throne had grown too powerful and proud in the process. The great northern family of Percy was especially troublesome, and several times renewed the game of king- making, before they were finally quelled on Bramham Moor in 1408. The Scots made many raids over the border into England, though these raids were fewer when their king was a captive in London after 1406. In Wales the great rebel, Owen Glendower, remained unconquered, though often defeated, for the space of twelve years. Worst of all, the Narrow Seas, of which the English kings had long claimed the dominion, were no longer guarded. French " pirates " swarmed in the Channel, and scarcely 12 THE WARS OF THE ROSES a year passed without some maritime raid on an English coast town. Henry IV. was a man of weak health, but of valiant spirit. He shrank from no task that faced him, and it was only due to the meagreness of the resources of the crown that his government was not efficient nor unquestioned. For although Henry IV. had been a wealthy duke, he was by no means a wealthy king. After his elevation to the throne his followers had to be rewarded, and some of the crown revenues and land were alienated to them. The remaining portions of the royal income were absorbed partly by the great household expenses which the king had to maintain, partly by the public services of the crown. For in those days there was no distinction between the private and public expenditure of the king : the royal income had to provide for both. It has been estimated that the total revenue of the crown, including the income from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, the earldom of Chester, and from customs, subsidies, and other dues, was an average of little over .^100,000 per annum.^ Out of this sum all the services of the crown had to be maintained ; all the king's palaces, castles, and manors, the expenses of administration at home, the defence of the Narrow Seas, and the upkeep of the fortresses of Berwick and Calais. The maintenance of these two places alone cost upwards of .£'30,000 per annum.^ It is small wonder, then, that the administration was not completely effective throughout this reign. It is all to the king's credit that he maintained his throne and his government, and met his difficulties so manfully, and died leaving the kingdom in peace. His son, the attractive and brilliant Henry V., did much at the time to confirm his dynasty on the throne. He showed that he was superior to troubles at home by leading the forces of the nation abroad, and by gaining the succession to the crown of France. He had the great ' Ramsay, "Lancaster and York," i. p. 160. ^ Ibid., p. 158. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 13 advantage of not being a parvenu king, for his fattier had reigned before him. Whatever the circumstances of his accession, Henry IV. had undoubtedly been king, and so young Henry held the throne by hereditary right. Every- thing seemed to combine to establish his dynasty for ever. When he succeeded his father on the throne he had been a popular and long-accepted heir- apparent. He was a brilliant and successful soldier ; nothing so much stimulates the loyalty of a people as great foreign con- quests. He was the unquestioned ruler of England ; the friend and supporter of the Catholic Church ; the ally and confidant of the Holy Roman Emperor, the most legitimate sovereign in Europe. To all this he added the succes- sion to the crown of France, and so succeeded to a long line of Capets and to the throne of Clovis and Charlemagne. The Treaty of Troyes in 1420 marks the highest point to which his power reached. His realms now extended from the Tweed to the Atlantic, and to the Pyrenees. When he died he left a son to carry on his work, with the noble, valiant, and loyal John, Duke of Bedford, to guard the kingdoms during the king's tender years. No one now questioned the right of the house of Lancaster, which, strictly respecting the constitution of the country, had raised England to the highest point ever reached in the Middle Ages. For the glory of Henry V. far surpassed that of the famous "Angevin Empire" of Henry H. Henry 11. was sovereign in England, but as Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, Duke of Aquitaine, he was the " man " and inferior of the French king. But Henry V. had no one over him except God. He owed no fealty ; whether as king or duke he was free of all feudal ties. His brothers — John, Duke of Bedford, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and Thomas, Duke of Clarence — were able, vigorous, and loyal. Clarence died on the field of Beaug^ in 142 1. In the next reign the ambition of Humphrey of Gloucester caused difficulties. But at the death of Henry V. everything seemed prospering for the house of Lancaster. 14 THE WARS OF THE ROSES The family known later as Yorkist showed no dangerous ambitions. The reigning family was well supported by the Beauforts. This last family was descended from the union of John of Gaunt and Catherine Swynford. It was thus closely related to the reigning house. But though legiti- mated by Act of Parliament, they were legally incapable of inheriting the crown. Their wealth and influence made them powerful supporters of the reigning line, to which they were attached by every tie of kinship, gratitude, and interest. Their fortune depended upon those of the Lancastrian dynasty ; with this they must rise or fall. Meanwhile, the two remaining branches of Edward's family had amalgamated, Edmund Mortimer, who was the great-grandson of Lionel of Clarence, and who was the adopted heir of Richard II., died in 1424, without issue. The family of his sister, Anne Mortimer, therefore, repre- sented the line of Lionel of Clarence, who, it must be remembered, was elder brother of the progenitor of the Lancastrian line, John of Gaunt. Anne Mortimer, in 1410, had married Richard (known later as Earl of Cambridge), the son of Edmund of Langley, the fourth son of Edward III. Richard, at the end of a career of loyalty to the Lancastrian line, became involved in a conspiracy against Henry V. in 141 5. For this he was tried, found guilty, and executed at Southampton. But the family was not attainted. He left a son Richard, four years old, who was kindly treated by Henry V., and who on the death of his father's brother at the battle of Agincourt became Duke of York. CHAPTER III THE FRENCH WAR When young Henry VI., not quite nine months old, succeeded to the throne, the prestige of the crown was very high. Heniy V. had been acknowledged heir to the French throne, but when he died on August 31st, 1422, he was still uncrowned in France. His father-in-law, the mad king Charles VI., was still alive and reigning, though not ruling. But within two months (October 21st, 1422) poor Charles, "the well-beloved," had died; so Henry VI. was proclaimed king of France. Henry V. had done his work well. Renewing the claim of Edward III. to the French crown, he had fought a war of aggression for pure conquest. It was the logical converse of the expedition of William the Conqueror in 1066.^ Then a Frenchman had set himself on the throne of England, cynically alleging that he was only enforcing his legal rights. Now an Englishman, with an equally baseless pretext, had set his foot on the steps of the French throne, and his son was soon, though only for a time, to wear the crown. Within four years after the victory of Agincourt Henry V. had reduced practically the whole of Normandy, and established himself as completely sovereign duke there. In the next year (1419) the English forces overran the Isle of France, and the old king was forced to accede to Henry's terms. In the cathedral church of Troyes, on the upper Seine, on May 21st, 1420, the famous Great Peace was concluded, by which Henry became heir to the 1 Cp. Kirk, "History of Charles the Bold," iii. p. 132 fif. 15 i6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES crown of France, marrying the French king's daughter, Catherine, and governing the kingdom that soon was to be his as regent for his ailing father-in-law. There was only one check to the victorious career of Henry V. He was the legal crown prince of France, but Charles VI.'s son, the Dauphin Charles, who had been disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes, refused to acknowledge him. The Dauphin proclaimed himself to be king of France, and although the English were masters of most of France to the north of the river Loire, and also of Guienne, he maintained a heroic struggle in the country to the south of the Loire. While Henry went back to England to crown his queen, Thomas, his elder brother the Duke of Clarence, was defeated and slain by a com- bined force of French and Scots at Beaug^ in Anjou (March 22nd, 1421). This was the first serious defeat the English had sustained. Next year found Henry con- solidating his conquests, and capturing such towns as still held out against him in central France, when death overtook him at Vincennes on September ist, 1422. The defeat at Beaug6 was prophetic of the ultimate fate of the English power in France. Yet the tide did not set in favour of the Dauphin for some time. Henry VI. was king of England, king of France, duke of Normandy. The Privy Council of England sat, as usual, at London ; there was a Council at Rouen, and another at Paris. The king's uncle, the heroic John, Duke of Bedford, was appointed, according to the terms of Henry V.'s will. Regent of France and Normandy ; his brother, the unstable Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was Protector of England, while Bedford was absent. There seemed no likelihood that in thirty years the Lancastrian dynasty would no longer be recognised in France, and already would be tottering in England. Henry V. was right in his view. Success in France meant success for his dynasty in England. Merely as English king, the Lancastrians' title to the throne might THE WARS OF THE ROSES 17 be questioned. There were others hving in England whose rights might be advanced. But if the Lancastrian Hne by conquest acquired the sovereignty of France, Englishmen would proudly hail them king ; no one could say that either in law or fact the Lancastrians were not true kings. And if they, men of the Plantagenet blood, were kings in France, were they not kings of England too ? In the same way, the German kings from the tenth to the thirteenth century strengthened their title in Germany by getting themselves crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. But if the English should be driven out of France, if the Lancastrians should lose their indefeasible right by conquest to wear the crown of the Capets, then their hold on the regal dignity would be tremendously weakened. Clearly, as kings of France, by right of conquest and by solemn treaty, they had no English rival. The Lancastrian family, and the Lancastrian family alone, had conquered France and received the crown in Notre-Dame. Their right to the English crown, which some lawyers might hold to be weak, was covered over by their established possession of the historic throne of France. But once lose the regal dignity in France, and the title to the crown of England might hardly stand alone. The gradual loss of the French territories has, therefore, an important bearing on the origin of the Wars of the Roses and on the ultimate downfall of the Lancastrian dynasty. With the loss of the French territory the Lancastrian position as French king was gone. The name might remain, but by itself it meant nothing. Until the dramatic appearance of Joan of Arc in the field, the English power, under the wise and firm guidance of Bedford, went on prospering. But although the English administration in France was good, although the peasantry were treated with consideration, and the middle classes were encouraged in trade and in self-government, yet the forces of nationality, even in distracted, divided, feudal France, were too strong. When the romantic figure of t8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES Joan of Arc appeared, with her devoted and religious passion to free France from " Talbot and the English," she became a focus for all the vague, national, and patriotic aspirations of the people, whom neither the craft and per- tinacity of the Dauphin, nor the valour of the professional generals, had till then been able to rouse. The strong ally of the English in France was Philip "the Good," Duke of Burgundy. His father had been murdered by some of the Dauphin's supporters at the Bridge of Montereau, on the Seine, in 1419. Between Philip and the English, the " king of Bourges," as the Dauphin was satirically called, seemed to have little chance. In 1423 the Anglo-Burgundian forces defeated the French with their Scottish allies at Cravant on the Yonne, in the east of France. Next year, James I., the Scottish king, who for eighteen years had been captive in the Tower of London, was released on condition of paying a ransom and recalling the Scottish soldiers from P'rance. So the P'rench were left to fight their battles alone. In that year, August 17th, 1424, Bedford met an army of the Dauphin, Charles VII., at Verneuil, on the river Avre, to the north-west of France. After a severe battle, in which Bedford fought personally on foot, wielding a great pole-axe,^ the French were driven off the field. But the battle showed that the}' were not afraid to meet the best English army in a hand-to-hand conflict. The result of the victory of Verneuil was that the English were now predominant in all the land north of the Loire, with the exception of a few towns on the river itself. The war dragged on for four years more before anything decisive happened ; the English were hampered by the lack of strong financial support from home, while the king of Bourges had to witness a renewal of internecine war between some of his own followers. Meanwhile Bedford was steadily building up a solid English government in the conquered territory; and in 1428 the Council at Paris ^ Ramsay, " L. and Y.," i. 349. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 19 decided that the time was ripe for a further advance to be made. A new English general, Thomas de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, had come out to act under Bedford. Salisbury, with a good army, advanced to the Loire, and gained in all thirty-eight small towns.^ Then on October 7th, 1428, against the advice of Bedford it is said, he proceeded to invest the city of Orleans, the strongest town on the north bank of the Loire, being with its important bridge the key to the southern country. The siege of Orleans was the turning point in the history of the English occupation of France. Every effort was made by the English to take the city. The Council in London strained every nerve to provide adequate supplies of men and money for the task. But on October 22nd the Earl of Salisbury received a fatal wound, and England lost one of her most successful soldiers. Even before Joan of Arc brought the French army of relief it ought to have been clear that Orleans was not to be taken. The blockade of the English army was never really effec- tive, for all through the siege supplies were brought up the river from Blois, which was in the Dauphin's hands, and introduced into the city.^ On May 8th, 1429, the siege was raised by the English. Joan followed up her successes, and on June i8th defeated Talbot and the English at Patay on the road to Paris itself On July loth she brought the Dauphin to Rheims and had him solemnly crowned as Charles VII. In August the Maid brought her army before Paris, but failed to gain the capital. The English power slowly declined. As a demonstra- tion to the contrary, the English Council sent the young king Henry, who had already been crowned in London (1429), over to Paris to be crowned king of France there in the ancient capital of the Capets (1431). Six months 1 RaiTisay, "L. andY.,"i. 381. 2 See list of convoys, in " Vie de Jeanne d'Arc," by Anatole France, tome i. p. 269. 20 THE WARS OF THE ROSES before this coronation the Maid, who had been captured, was burned by the Engh'sh at Rouen. From this point, any successes scored by the English commanders were only temporary. Their administration in France degenerated, and they began to treat the peasants with undue severity. Philip of Burgundy began to feel that he had sufficiently revenged his father's murder on the Bridge of M6ntereau, and in 1435 he left the losing cause and took the natural line of joining his kinsman Charles VII., by the Treaty of Arras. This was on September nth. On September isth, at Rouen, the wise, noble, and loyal Duke of Bedford breathed his last. He was only forty-six years old. Next year the French army entered Paris. The English power in France was certainly doomed. Supplies of money from home, always inadequate, seem, after the year 1433, practically to have ceased.^ The north of France was no longer a place where war could be made to support war. But the English captains struggled on for eight more years. The war, except for a short time after Agincourt, had never been really popular in England, and yet public opinion would not tolerate a peace. To maintain the war became a sort of point of honour with the nation ; yet they would not pay for it. For eight years the English grimly maintained themselves in Normandy and in Guienne. After Bedford's death the commander-in- chief of the forces in France was the Duke of York, son of the Richard, Earl of Cambridge, who had been executed for treason in 1415. York, who was twenty-five years old when appointed to the French command in 1436, showed good military ability and achieved some successes. He held the position of Lieutenant-General of " France and Normandy" for two periods, 1436-37 and 1441-45. But the Council of Henry VI. had not full confidence in him, 1 See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," i. p. 453. The budget of Lord Cromwell showed a deficit of nearly ;^200,ooo, and no allowance made for war expenditure. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 21 and in 1447 he was sent out of the way to be Lieutenant of Ireland. Meanwhile, in 1444, the home government had arranged a truce with Charles VII., according to which the English gave up everything except Normandy, Guienne, and Calais, and Henry VI. was to marry the niece of Charles VII., Margaret of Anjou. The marriage was carried out next year, and the English garrisons were withdrawn from Maine and Anjou. The truce was renewed and main- tained till 1449, when the plundering forays of the ill-paid English garrisons against the friends and subjects of Charles VII. provoked the formal outbreak of war again. The English general in France, Edmund Beaufort, was a conspicuous failure as compared with his predecessor, York. Less than a year sufficed for the French to conquer the whole of Normandy, which was held by quite inadequate forces among what was now an alien and hostile population. Guienne, the oldest dependency of England, was still left. It was bound to England by a strong economic tie. It was a great wine country, and the prosperity of the countrymen of Guienne and of the merchants of Bordeaux depended largely on the wine-fleet that sailed annually to London. But by the end of 145 1 all Guienne, city by city, had been conquered too. In 1452 the Gascons asked for help from England. They found the new French govern- ment more irksome than the old English government had been. "Talbot, our good dog," who had grown old in the French war, but whose spirit was as high as ever, was sent over to their help with about 3,000 men. He soon brought the Bordelais back into English power. But next summer he flung himself on the French camp in front of Castillon, and after a severe fight suffered defeat and death at the same time. Guienne was lost. " Thus," in the words of the Burgundian Waurin, whose active life included the last forty years of the war, " by the grace and aid of God, the Duchy of Guienne was brought back into obedience to the King of France soon after the Duchy of 2 2 THE WARS OF THE ROSES Normandy and all the French kingdom, except the town of Calais, which is still left in the hands of the English. May God be willing that it, too, be brought back, if the Scripture is to be fulfilled which says, ' Better is obedience than sacrifice.' " ^ The failure to hold France ruined the Lancastrian dynasty, although undoubtedly the failure was for the good of England. The French and the English would never, in all likelihood, have done well under a common sovereign. Nor would England have grown to the strong, consolidated, imperial position which she later attained. France was too opulent, her people too brilliant, ever to be secondary to England. The greater would have drawn the less, as England, after 1603, drew Scotland. England might have sunk to be a second-class kingdom, over- shadowed by the brilliant and attractive France. The causes of the failure are not to be sought far. In the first place, the military superiority of the English was gone by the early years of Henry VI. Just as after the early victories of Edward III., du Guesclin organised a workmanlike professional army to take the place of the feudal levy, so after the victories of Henry VI., which had been partly due to the fact that the French had again gone back to the feudal system of fighting, a new profes- sional army was created by such men as the Bastard of Orleans, La Hire, and Pothon de Xintrailles. The establishment in 1437 of the perpetual tax, known as the taille, enabled Charles VII. to maintain this professional army, and especially to have regular companies of artillery — weapons in which the French showed immense superiority to the English in the later stages of the war. In the second place, the English were attempting to hold districts where, with the exception of the Bordelais, the population felt an intense dislike to them. The lack of proper supplies from England, the life in small garrison towns, varied only by feverish raids into the enemy's ' Waurin, p. 193 (Rolls Series). THE WARS OF THE ROSES 23 country, demoralised the soldiery. Even in Normandy the memory of the good administration of Henry V. and Bedford was effaced. And just as Napoleon found it impossible to hold down by garrisons countries where the population had a bitter and national hatred for them, so too the English captains, with their companies of hard- bitten soldiers, found it impossible to hold down France. In the third place, the early English successes had been partly due to the divisions of France. It was the faction fights between the Burgundian and Armagnac (or Orleanist) parties which so weakened the French monarchy. But when, in 1435, the Duke of Burgundy made his peace with Charles VII., and united his strength to the national forces, the moral as well as the material position of the French was immensely strengthened, and the flank of the English sphere of occupation was exposed to a steady and continuous attack from the east. In the fourth place, the situation of the English in France from the early years of Henry VI. was not easily defensible. The English sphere consisted of the outlying dependency of Guienne, which was strong enough so long as England retained command of the sea, and kept the ring of fortresses from Bayonne to Blaye, which defended the frontier towards the French kingdom. But the rest of the English territory was a sort of triangle, with its base from the frontier of Brittany in the west, to Calais on the east, and with its apex at Paris. The loss of the Burgundian aUiance, which safe-guarded the east of this triangle, and the loss of Paris at the apex (in two successive years, 1435 and 1436), made the English position practically untenable. In the fifth place, the administration of the home government left a great deal to be desired. One defect was that it had no united policy, the Council being divided into two parties — those who desired to proceed with the war, and those who advocated peace while it could be obtained with honourable terms. The war party was led by the king's younger uncle, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and 24 THE WARS OF THE ROSES the peace party by his great-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of .Winchester. Up till 1444 the war party gained its own way, but never completely. The war was carried on, but not at all costs : in any step taken the main consideration had to be economy. Moreover, the divisions in the Council sometimes became most acute, and twice Bedford, who was continually overworked, had to leave the direction of affairs in France and fly to London to make peace between his contending relatives. Later on the Duke of York was removed from the command in France to Ireland, and the much less capable Edmund Beaufort put in his place. But the lack of money would, in any case, have ruined everything. To maintain the war became a point of honour with the people. For any minister to propose peace was a dangerous proceeding. The peace of 1444 and the French marriage cost the minister Suffolk his life. And yet, though Parliament kept insisting on a war policy, it refused to pay for it. The revenue, even for purposes of peace, was continually shrinking. The theory that " the king should live off his own," and maintain his own war, was still believed. So the army in France was starved, and the English garrisons, stubbornly fighting, wasted away, or were pushed backwards to the sea. It is always easier, in the long run, to attack than to defend. And it is always easier to re-win a country, where one's friends are living, than to hold an alien country in spite of the inhabitants. The forces of French patriotism were continually rising ; the life of Joan of Arc inspired the whole nation, and Charles VII., whose character gradually grew stronger as the long schooling of the war proceeded, formed a centre for the national aspirations. The fifteenth century saw the birth of patriotism ; the feudal system was breaking up, and the claims of France were superseding the claims of the fief The rise of French patriotism was the doom of the English occupation. It may be granted, then, that the loss of France was not entirely the fault of the Lancastrians. Henry VI. was THE WARS OF THE ROSES 25 not a soldier ; he took no real part in the war. Under any other king the French dependencies must have been lost, sooner or later. But the effect of the loss on the position of the dynasty was disastrous. The glorious adventure of Henry V., the proudest days in the long history of England, had ended in failure abroad and financial bank- ruptcy at home. The troubles, from which since 1 399 the dynasty had never been wholly free, now rose up into .startling magnitude. CHAPTER IV THE STRUGGLE IN THE COUNCIL The gradual decline of the English power in France ran parallel with a gradual decline in the Lancastrian power at home. According to arrangements made by Henry V. at the time of his death, the care of the young king was entrusted to the two brothers of the late king, John, Duke of Bedford, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, acting with the Privy Council as a Council of Regency. Bedford, who had the superior voice, confined his attention to France. Gloucester was left to preside over the Council in England, with the title of Protector. He expected to be regent in England, but Parliament, which, since the accession of the Lancastrians had wielded great powers, refused him. Then by Act of Parliament a form of government was drawn up for the minority of the king ; Bedford was recognised as Protector in France and England ; Gloucester was to be Protector in England when Bedford was absent in France. The rest of the councillors were nominated to the number of sixteen : the most important after Gloucester were Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and his brother, Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter. This body was intended to give all its time to the business of administration, and was paid for its services. Humphrey of Gloucester, while acting as Protector, was paid .^5,333- 6s. 8d. a year^; the others received smaller payments, from the Bishop of Winchester, with ;£'200 a year, to Lord Beauchamp, who received £40. When in the next year a few other names > H. Nicolas, " Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council," iii. p. 26. =6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES 27 were added to the Council, knights received '^100, and a simple esquire ;£'40. If a councillor neglected his duty, his salarj' was reduced : in the case of those who received ;£'200 annually, £1 was taken off for each day's absence ; from those who received ;^ioo, los. for each day's absence, and so with the others in proportion, according to their wages.i The nomination of the councillors remained in the hands of Parliament till 1437, when Henry VI., who took a great interest in politics and government, began to nominate the Council himself This Council naturally had immense power. It consisted of the most eminent men in the land. The king was a child, and could not act by himself Parliament, unlike the Council, did not sit continuously. Thus it is correct to say that during the minority of Henry VI. the government of England was practically government by the Council. When, after 1437, Henry VI. began to take an active part in politics, the government of England was by king and Council together. If by the middle of the century the administration of the country had broken down, it must be attributed in some manner to the failure of government by the king and Council. As might be expected, the work of the Council was enormously varied. The records and Minutes of the Council were carefully kept through the period, and they show how industriously the business of the kingdom was attended to. The volume containing the records for the first seven years of the reign of Henry VI. proves this. One of the early acts of the Council was to sell some of the largest ships of the Royal Navy, a measure of economy which shows the poor state of the government. No foreign power, except an ally of England, was allowed to purchase any of the ships. Next, some of the less important French prisoners who, since their capture at Agincourt, had been confined in the Fleet prison, were set free. The compli- i H. Nicolas, " Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council," iii. pp. xix, XX. 28 THE WARS OF THE ROSES cated negotiations respecting the release of the captive Scottish king, James I., were then taken up. Again it was resolved that the expenses of the Duke of Orleans, who had been taken prisoner at Agincourt, should be defrayed by himself. Hitherto he had been kept at the charges of the king. The king's nurse or governess. Lady Alice Boteller, was authorised " reasonably to chastise him from time to time, as the case might require, without her being afterwards molested or injured for so doing." Later, her salary was raised from £26. 6s. 8d. to £<,2. 13s. 4d. yearly. Philip, Duke of Coimbra, son of the king of Portugal, first cousin to Henry VI., visited England in 1424 ; the Council arranged for his reception, and made the necessary orders for his expenses. The appointments and translation of bishops were taken in hand (1426), John Kemp, Bishop of London, being appointed to the see of York. The pope, however, had a nominee of his own, Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, whom he " appointed " to be Archbishop of York. But the Council vigorou.sly resisted this attempt of the pope (made periodically through- out the Middle Ages) to control the English episcopate. The pope, Martin V., saved his dignity by translating his nominee from York back to Lincoln. In the same year the Council issued a declaration of war between England and the Duchy of Brittany. Public order inside the kingdom came within the purview of the Council ; rewards were posted for the arrest of highwaymen, and the right of sanctuary, whenever claimed, was carefully inquired into.^ The Council, in fact, seems to have combined all the work of a modern Cabinet, with a great deal of the work that now falls to the great departments of State. In intention the government was good andhonest, but it was not unanimous. There was nothing like the present system of responsible government, according to which one group of men who have the confidence of a majority in ' All the above examples are taken from Nicolas, " Proceedings," iii., pp. xix-xlv. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 29 ,, ., Parliament form the whole Cabinet. In the reign of Henry VI., although up till 1437 Parliament appointed the Council, there was no homogeneity among the members. Those who were reputed the. greatest and wisest in the ' ' land were chosen as councillors, irrespective of their attitude to each other. It is obvious that this system could only work well if the members would exercise a wise , tolerance and forbearance towards each other's views. As \ i things turned out such forbearance was seldom exercised, and the Council was never able to work whole-heartedly together. The first thing which now began seriously to break up ' " the kingdom was the ambition of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. There is much to be said both for and against this man. He was an affable, popular prince, and was always liked by the citizens of London. He was brave and active, and had been wounded on the glorious field of Agincourt. He was intelligent, interested in science and literature, and a patron of men of learning, for which reason he obtained the title of the " Good Duke." In his early days he was connected with Oxford, being probably a member of Balliol College ; and one of his last acts was to leave his collection of books to the University, thus beginning the famous library now called the Bodleian. But his ambition was tremendous, so much so, that towards the end of his life he was considered to be aiming at the crown. It is not, however, likely that he went so far as this. But he did mean to be chief man under the king, and he was bitterly disappointed when, on Henry V.'s death, the Parliament refused to make him regent. The best that can be said for his public policy is that he was consistent. Henry V.'s wishes in death had been that the French war should go on till the English power in France was made secure ; and Humphrey never swerved from this design. Throughout the rest of his life he was the leader of the war party in England. The struggle in the Council falls into two parts : first, 30 THE WARS OF THE ROSES the struggle between Gloucester and Bishop Beaufort; next, that between the Earl of Somerset and the Duke of York. The latter quarrel was only settled when Somerset fell fighting in the battle of St Albans in 1455. The struggle between Gloucester and Beaufort was always going on, with every now and then a severe crisis. It must not be considered that Beaufort was always crying " Peace " with France, and Gloucester " War." On the contrary, Beaufort supported the war so long as England seemed likely to gain anything by it, and he lent or gave large sums of money to the government to carry on the war when the treasury was empty. But as the war dragged on disastrously, Beaufort naturally turned, both as a statesman and a churchman, to advocate peace. Yet what really divided Gloucester and Beaufort from the first was un- doubtedly the ambitious, high-handed actions of the duke. In March 1423 the Duke married Jacqueline, Duchess of Holland and Hainault. Jacqueline, although still young, had been twice married, and had only been relea.sed from her last union by a rather dubious divorce allowed by the Anti-Pope Benedict XIII. At the time of the marriage she had been living at the English court, as her pos- sessions and claims in the Low Countries had made her useful to Henry V. But there was a danger to England from Gloucester's marriage with her ; the Duke of Burgundy did not wish to see an English prince become Lord of Hainault and Holland. The marriage of Humphrey did much to rob England of the support of Burgundy in the French war. ' But Gloucester never stopped to count the cost. In October 1423 he set out from Calais for Hainault, which was then in the possession of Jacqueline's former husband, the Duke of Brabant. Gloucester had with him 5,000 men raised in England ; this was fully up to the numbers of the armies usually employed by the English generals in France in the reign of Henry VI. Gloucester won Hainault, and then found himself opposed by the Duke THE WARS OF THE ROSES 31 of Burgundy, to whom Jacqueline's former husband had appealed for help. In 1425 Gloucester, leaving Jacqueline in Mons, returned to England to get ready for a duel to which the Duke of Burgundy had challenged him. But he did not return, and Jacqueline, after defending Mons for some time with great spirit, had to surrender to the Duke of Burgundy. Naturally the Council were cold in their reception of Gloucester on his return, and Beaufort, who was the best man in it, had plenty of ground for complaint. Beaufort, in 1422, had been appointed Chancellor. In the absence of both Bedford and Gloucester he was at the head of the Council, and practically vice-gerent of the kingdom. This was too much for Gloucester, who com- plained bitterly of Beaufort's power. In order to vindicate his position, Gloucester demanded entrance into the Tower of London. The captain, Richard Wydville, who belonged to the party of Beaufort, refused to open the Tower to Humphrey and his following of London citizens. Civil war was only averted by the intervention of Archbishop Chichele. Beaufort wrote off to Bedford : " As you desire the welfare of the king our Sovereign Lord and of his realms of England and France, your own weal, with all yours, haste you hither ; by my truth, if you tarry, we shall put this land in jeopardy ; for such a brother you have here, God make him a good man." ^ This was written on September 21st, 1425 ; on December 20th, Bedford arrived in England. He remained till the end of March 1427,' and kept harmony in the government ; but affairs in France urgently demanded his presence, and when he returned there the friction between Humphrey and Beaufort would at once have arisen. Beaufort anticipated this by resigning the chancellorship just before Bedford's departure ; later, in May or June, he left England on a pilgrimage or " crusade " to Bohemia. Beaufort and Bedford being thus out of the way, Gloucester could again exercise his influ- > J. Stevenson, " Wars of the English in France," i. p. Ix, note 2. ^ Ibid., p. Ixi, note. 2 32 THE WARS OF THE ROSES ence freely in the Council. On July 9th he obtained from the Council a grant of 20,000 marks, or :£'i 3,333- 6s. 8d., for a new expedition to Hainault in favour of his Duchess Jacqueline.! This was a shameful use to make of the public money, when the war in France was failing for lack of funds, and the garrisons themselves were without their daily pay.^ The money seems to have been sent to Hainault, but Humphrey himself did not go, as he was then living with one of Jacqueline's former ladies-in-waiting, Eleanor Cobham, whom he married next year, 1428. Beaufort, who had been made a cardinal by Pope Martin V., remained for the most part abroad in Germany and in France till 1432. Meanwhile Gloucester was by no means allowed to have his own way in the Council. In 1428 he was sharply told by the peers that he was not Regent, but only Protector, a very different matter^; Beaufort, on the other hand, by his readiness to supply money to the government and by his devotion to the king's service, was steadily gaining more influence. In 143 1 he performed the ceremony of coronation on Henry VI. at Paris. In the same year, William de la Pole, whom Beaufort had marked out as a useful minister for the king's service, was admitted a member of the Council in England. Gloucester tried to oust Beaufort's influence by questioning his right to remain Bishop of Winchester after he had been made a cardinal. This was a knotty point which the Council was unable to decide. So nothing was done at all, and Beaufort remained bishop and cardinal till the end of his life. The ten years from 1430 to 1440 are a period of balance between the two parties in this unfortunate dispute. 1 Nicolas, " Proceedings," iii. p. xlvii, p. 271. ^ See, concerning the wages of the garrison of Calais, " Proceed- ings," iii. p. xlii. ^ " Proceedings," iii. p. xlix. Humphrey's function as Protector was simply "a personal duty of intendance to the actual defence of the land." Rolls of Parliament, iv. 326, quoted by T. F. Tout, " Dictionary of Nat. Biog.," Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 33 The logic of facts was slowly but surely confirming the arguments of Beaufort. He believed in making peace, while large portions of France might still be retained. Even Henry V. in dying seems to have contemplated the possibility of a peace with Charles VH., on condition of young Henry keeping the title of king of France, and retaining the duchies of Normandy and Guienne.^ But while the steady course of disasters after the failure before Orleans seemed to point necessarily to peace with Charles VII., any proposal for peace was immensely unpopular. Hence, although the wise counsels of Beaufort and his friends in the Council, Pole and Kemp, Archbishop of York, had great influence, because they were right, yet the theatrical attitude of Humphrey, in refusing absolutely to hear of peace and pushing forward the war in every direction, coincided with the popular fancy, and helped to keep him at the head of affairs. After Bedford's death in 143s his position was naturally strengthened ; for Gloucester had always been rather afraid of his brother, who acted as a moderating influence whenever he was in England. Moreover, Bedford's death left him heir-pre- sumptive to the throne. When the Duke of Burgundy, in 143s, left the English for the French alliance, the injured and revengeful feelings of the populace gladly found expres- sion in Gloucester's denunciations and his feverish war policy. So he was proclaimed Count of Flanders (the Duke of Burgundy, through his defection from the "lawful king of France," Henry VI., having "forfeited" this title) and was made Captain of Calais, and Lieutenant of the king in France. But his campaign in Flanders in August 1436 was quite unsuccessful, and when he threw it up and came back to London, he ought to have been discredited in the popular mind. But he maintained his position still by his unswerving opposition to all proposals of peace. When, in 1440, the Duke of Orleans, who had been a prisoner ever since Agincourt, was at last being 1 Holinshed's "Chronicles" (1586), vol. iii. p. 583. 34 THE WARS OF THE ROSES released, and in Westminster Abbey was swearing to keep the conditions imposed on him, Gloucester, when the mass began, stalked out of the church. The dying Henry V. had only commanded that Orleans should not be released till Henry VI. was of lawful age. This was Gloucester's last important act. The peace party was now in the ascendant. The mild and saintly Henry VI. was eighteen years old and able to bring his influence to bear on the side of peace. William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, the friend of Bishop Beaufort, was becoming the king's right-hand man. Gloucester had seven more years of life to run, but the opposition between him and Beaufort might now be con- sidered practically at an end. He still went on protesting, but without effect. The Beaufort party had triumphed ; and from 1440 to 1450 it governed the country under the king. This then is the second stage in the history of parties before the actual outbreak of the Wars of the Roses. The third stage is for five years from 1450, when the Duke of York returned from Ireland, and another period of opposition ensued ; namely, between him and the Beaufort party again, represented by the cardinal's nephew, Edmund, Duke of Somerset. In the period from 1440 to 1450, the government made an effort to get rid of the war with France. William de la Pole, fourth Earl of Suffolk, now the chief advocate of peace, had done good service in the French war. Born in 1396, he was a grandson of Michael de la Pole, first Earl of Suffolk, the statesman who had died in exile for his devotion to Richard II. William had been in the service of Henry V., and had gone through that monarch's French campaigns. During the minority of Henry VI. he had steadily risen in the service. After the death of the Earl of Salisbury before Orleans, in 1429, Suffolk had succeeded to the command of the army. He was taken by Joan of Arc at the capture of Jargeau, but was able to ransom himself almost at once, and return to the war. In 1431, after sixteen years of campaigning, he returned to England, THE WARS OF THE ROSES 35 and was called to the Privy Council. He had seen enough of the long drawn out war to know how hopeless it was, especially in its financially starved condition. Parliament would never increase the supplies. So he joined the party of the Beauforts. He married Alice, Countess of Salisbury, the widow of his former leader, the Earl of Salisbury, killed before Orleans. Alice's grandmother had been sister to Katherine Swynford, the ancestress of the Beaufort family. After 1440 Suffolk's efforts for peace were gradually consummated. In 1444 he was the chief English representa- tive at the Conference of Tours, where the truce, including the marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of Anjou, was arranged.^ The agreement at Tours provided for a cessation of hostilities by land and sea for eighteen months. This cessation was subsequently prolonged till the year 1449. The ceremony of marriage was performed for Henry by proxy, at Nancy, in 1445.^ Margaret was niece to the French king, Charles VII., and it was hoped that she would harmonise the discordant interests of the two countries. But Charles VII. had only allowed the marriage on the secret understanding that the English should evacuate Maine. No discussion of this condition previously to its being concluded is mentioned in the Minutes of the Privy Council, but it is unlikely that the Council did not contem- plate some such condition. As it was intensely unpopular in England, all the ministers were afraid to avow it. Only after a strong military demonstration did the French ultimatel}' obtain the actual cession in 1448. Neither Suffolk nor Queen Margaret were likely to be any more popular for this, and the position of Henry VI. was too closely bound up with theirs not to suffer with them. Suffolk (who had been made a marquess by the king .in September 1444) and Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, were now in the Council of Henry VI., along with Queen ^ Holinshed, iii. 624. ^ "L'Art de verifier les dates," iii. p. 55. Margaret's father was Regnier or Rene, Duke of Lorraine. 36 THE WARS OF THE ROSES Margaret, who was firm in support of them. The Duke of York was recalled from France in 1445, and appointed to the position of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in December 1447. The Duke of Gloucester, who of course hated the French marriage, found himself without influence. He was actually in very bad odour with the king, and was sus- pected of having sinister aims on the crown. His wife, Eleanor Cobham, was now in prison (July 1446) in the Isle of Man, under a strong suspicion of having practised "black magic" against the king. The duke was no longer summoned to the Council. Finally, in February 1447, when he came to Bury to attend Parliament there, he was put under arrest to be tried concerning an insurrec- tion which it was reported (without foundation, apparently) that he was raising in Wales. When in confinement in Bury the duke fell sick, and died on February 23rd. People said he had been poisoned, and rumour pointed to the machinations of Suffolk. But almost all sudden deaths not due to violence used to be imputed to poison. Gloucester had always been an evil liver, and had known for years that his constitution, never really strong, was ruined, and that he might die at any moment. Little more than a month later (April nth) died the aged Cardinal Henry Beaufort, " our velvet hat that covered us from many storms," ^ the last great statesman who was entirely devoted to the house of Lancaster. The king was thus left to the control of Suffolk, Somerset, and the queen. Moreover, he was to lose Suffolk and the French provinces almost at the same time. He had already injured the Duke of York by recalling him from France. His own mind was rapidly becoming unhinged. It was clear to everyone that the fortunes of the crown were in a low state. Richard, Duke of York, had returned to England from France on the conclusion of the truce and marriage of Margaret and Henry VI. After the death of Gloucester, York was heir to the throne, being the great-grandson 1 "Political Poems" (Rolls Series), ii. 221. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 37 of Edward III.; on his father's side he was descended from Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, the fourth son i-'-Hk^ of Edward III. ; on the side of his mother, Anne Mortimer, he was descended from Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. Thus his pedigree was .probaSy better than thatof Henry VI. But the Lancastrians had an indisgutablg parliamentary right to the throne, and f Richard seems at this time to have had no intention of disputing the position of Henry VI. But the Beaufort party thought him too powerful a subject to live in England at this crisis of the country's history. So he was appointed to the honourable position of Lieutenant of Ireland, in order that he might be out of the way. He did not, however, actually go to Ireland till July 1449. The truce with France still continued ; and at home the Council, under the leadership of Suffolk, continued to carry on the government, not, however, with any great success, for the statutes of " Livery and Maintenance " were not properly observed or enforced, and consequently public order was not very good. The " Paston Letters " of the years 1448 to 1450 give ample evidence of the bad state of public security in Norfolk. It is not likely that the peace in other counties was kept any better. The foreign policy which Suffolk had upheld since 1 43 1 was, if possible, to make and keep an honourable peace. The Lieutenant in France at this time was Edmund Beaufort, who was created Duke of Somerset in 1448. The pay of the English garrisons in Normandy was, as usual, in arrears ; so it was very difficult to keep them in hand, and to prevent violence and plundering. The French government had by this time realised that their cause was in the ascendant, and they gladly seized the opportunity to renew the war when a band of English soldiers made a raid across the Breton frontier in March 1449 and plundered the town of Fougeres. There is no proof that either Somerset or Suffolk was implicated in this ruffianlj' design, but the captain of the band, an Arragonese 38 THE WARS OF THE ROSES mercenary who had previously been made a Knight of the Garter by Henry VI., called Francis de Surienne, and known as " Laragonoys," stated in writing afterwards to the kinf that he had been authorised to make the attack by both of them.i Anyhow, the French were able to make an excellent casus belli out of the incident, especially as Fougeres was not at once restored by the English. Somerset, although in his earlier days he had shown himself to be a good soldier, did nothing to stop the advance of the French arms. On June 24th he capitu- lated in Caen, with 4,000 soldiers.^ From this time his career lay wholly in England, where, after Suffolk's death, he became Henry's chief adviser. But before the surrender of Caen and Somerset's return to England, Suffolk had already met his death. From the very first he had known that the truce with France and the French marriage would be unpopular with a Parlia- ment which was infatuated with the French war, although it would not pay for it. It is to his credit that he had risked this unpopularity, because he thought that peace was in the interest of his country. But he took the pre- caution, before he went on the embassy to Tours, to obtain from the king Letters Patent, dated February 20th, 1444, granting him full pardon and indemnity for any measures he should conclude with France.^ This was confirmed in Parliament in June 1445 by a petition of the Commons to the king, with the assent of the Peers, including the Duke of Gloucester. Suffolk thus had all the advantages of a complete Bill of indemnity. But the loss of France was too much for the Parliament to bear, and its anger fell, not on Somerset, but on Suffolk, who was looked on as responsible for all the evil, by reason of the French marriage and the surrender of Anjou 1 Stevenson, "Wars,"!. 282-5. Cp. " Reductio Normanniai," ed. J. Stevenson (Rolls Series), p. 6. 2 Waurin, 157. ^ Nicolas, " Proceedings," vi. p. x. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 39 and Maine. On January 1450 the Commons impeached him of treason before the Peers. He was accused of having sold England to Charles VII., that he had conspired to make his own son king, that he had promised to surrender Anjou and Maine to the French, and had betrayed the secrets of England's resources to Charles VI I.^ Suffolk defended himself successfully and with much dignity. He could have claimed to have been tried by the Peers in a complete and open manner, with evidence and witnesses. But such a trial, opening up all the history of the last few years, might have brought the crown and government into an unpleasant light, which might have ended in ruin. So Suffolk submitted himself to the king's mercy, and Henry ordered him to leave the kingdom for five years. Whether Suffolk thought this the safest course for himself, or whether he waived his right to fair trial and went abroad to save the king from the consequences of a general inquiry into the affairs of government during the last years, is uncertain.^ He quietly settled all his affairs, composed a letter of farewell to his seven-year-old son to read when he grew up, and embarked on April 30th. On May 2nd his ship was intercepted by another ship which was attached to the service of the constable of the Tower, and called "The Nicholas of the Tower." ^ He was beheaded in Dover road. If the " Nicholas " had not caught him there were other ships waiting to do so. Henry VI. and his wife were left, as it were, alone. Of their two great friends and supporters, Suffolk was dead and Somerset was still in Normandy. The other great man of the kingdom, the Duke of York, was in Ireland. It was at this time, June 1450, that one of the crowning weaknesses of the Lancastrian government showed itself — the rebellion of Jack Cade. Already, while the case of the Duke of Suffolk was still going on, there had been 1 The indictment is given in Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. pp. 152-3, 2 Stubbs (" C. H.," iii. p. 154) inclines to the last view, 3 Holinshed, iii. p. 632, 40 THE WARS OF THE ROSES riotous assemblies in various parts of the country, under a leader who took the name of " Bluebeard." These gather- ings came to nothing. But that in Kent was much more serious. The leader was an Irishman/ called Jack Cade, but he took the high-sounding name of John Mortimer, and said he was cousin to the Duke of York. People in Kent at this time were afraid that the government intended to devastate the county, in punishment for the murder of the Duke of Suffolk, in which Kentish men and ships had been involved. Therefore many men gathered around Cade, and a formal list of complaints was published. These com- plaints had considerable foundation ; they included the high taxation (for taxation was fairly high, although, owing to bad finance, the government had received little enough money) ; the exclusion of the Duke of York from the Council (he was not mentioned by name, but simply understood among the lords of the royal blood) ; inter- ference with the freedom of election to Parliament ; mis- carriages of justice, especially in cases affecting the holding of land ; and the loss of France through treason.^ These articles, along with demands for redress, were sent up to the Parliament then sitting at Westminster. It is the duty of a government to consider and redress grievances, but order must be restored first. Henry VI. saw this clearly, and although many common people, when called upon to serve, refused to fight " against them that laboured to amend the common-weal," ^ yet Henry at last got 16,000 men together, and marched against the rebels, who had got as far as Blackheath. The rebels retired into the wood at Sevenoaks. On the advice of the queen,* a detachment of the royal forces was sent on to Sevenoaks under Sir Humphrey Stafford to clear the rebels out of the wood. But in the first fight this detachment was entirely defeated and their leader killed. Cade then advanced to Blackheath, from which the royal army had retired. He bore himself so grandly and so stiffly towards ' Holinshed, iii. p. 632. ^ Ibid., 633. ■' Ibid. * Ibid. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 41 the government representatives who came to meet him, namely, Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, and Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, that no agree- ment could be arranged, and the king thought it wise to retire to the castle of Kenilworth, in Warwickshire. Thus the capital of the kingdom, where already the Lancastrian government was not very popular, was practically aban- doned to the rebels, except that the Tower was still held for the king by its captain. Lord Scales. On July 3rd Cade marched to London Bridge, and cut the ropes by which the middle portion could be raised. He bore himself grandly, being dressed in fine clothes — a "brigandine set full of gilt nails " — belonging to Sir Humphrey Stafford, who had been killed when in command of the royal army at Sevenoaks. " Now is Mortimer lord of this city," he said, striking London Stone^ with his sword. The Treasurer of the Realm, Baron Say and Sele, on whom the unpopu- larity of all the taxation fell, was given up to the rebels by the Captain of the Tower,^ and was beheaded in Cheapside. Then the rebels retired to Southwark, feeling themselves safer on the south side of the river. The mayor and chief citizens appealed to the Captain of the Tower to help them to protect their lives and goods. They saw that Cade's fair promises of good law and security were illusory, and that the rule of a mob meant fearful evils to the peaceful people. So in their troubles the citizens looked to the old soldiers who were still left in England after the French wars. Lord Scales, one of Bedford's old ' " On the south side of the high street [Candlewick or Cannon Street] near unto the channel is pitched upright a great stone called London Stone, fixed in the ground very deep. . . . The cause why this stone was set there, the time when, or other memory hereof is none." Stow, p. 84, quoted in Cunningham's " Handbook of London " (1850), p. 301. ^ Gairdner, " Paston Letters" (1904), i. p. 72, points out that Lord Scales, when he allowed Lord Say to be tried in the Guildhall in the presence of Cade, acted according to a commission of the king, issued before the retiral to Kenilworth. 42 THE WARS OF THE ROSES commanders, harassed the rebels by firing off the artillery in the Tower ; and at the same time he sent Matthew Gough, the heroic defender of Le Mans, perhaps the hardest of England's fighters in the French wars, to hold London Bridge. The citizens were organised under this tried soldier, and all the night of July 5th they held the bridge desperately against the rebels till nine o'clock next morning. The civic forces pushed the rebels back to the wooden posts at the south end of the bridge ; then the rebels drove them back again, and set fire to the houses ^ on the bridge, so that women with children in their arms could be seen leaping into the river to escape the fire. The rebels pressed over to the north side as far as St Magnus Corner, but a great rally of citizens forced them back to the southward side. Then truce was made for a day. The city was saved, largely owing to the citizens' own actions, but the valiant soldier, Matthew Gough, who had led them, was dead. Sir John Fastolf, in his will drawn up eight years later, left provision that prayers should be said for the soul of this Gough, who was an old comrade of his in the French wars.^ Meanwhile, the Chancellor of the kingdom, Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York, and William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, who, when the king went to Kenilvvorth, had remained in the Tower with the Great Seal, crossed to Southwark with a general pardon ready drawn up and sealed. They came at a propitious moment for the government, when the rebels were despondent after the fearful and unsuccessful battle of the night before. Most of them gladly accepted the pardon and went off home. Thus Cade was left with the more violent of the rebels, probably the prisoners whom he had released from 1 London Bridge was " covered with houses on both sides, like a continuous street, with ' void places ' at certain intervals, and ' chain- posts 'along the line." The houses were removed in 1757-8. Cun- ningham, " London," p. 297. 2 Gairdner, " Fasten Letters," iii. p. 157. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 43 the Marshalsea and King's Bench prisons. He gathered his plunder together, and coolly sent it away on a barge to Rochester. He himself with his band retired by land. He made an effort to gain the castle of Queenborough, but finding the captain staunch and ready to resist, he saw that his cause was ruined. He assumed a disguise and set off, apparently alone, to the woods about Lewes, in Sussex. But the new sheriff of Kent, Alexander Eden, tracked him into a garden at Heathfield, near Hastings, and, after a fight in which Cade defended himself desperately, made him a prisoner. On the way back to London the " captain of Kent " died of his wounds. The rebellion ended, and in the inquiries which followed the king is said to have behaved mercifully, having only eight men executed where he might justly have had five hundred. This was one of many local risings in England. It was clear that the administration of the country was breaking down. Even ecclesiastics were not safe. On June 29th, about the same time as Cade's rising, William Ayscough, Bishop of Salisbury, "(after he had said mass at Edington), was by his own tenants drawn from the altar, in his alb with his stole about his neck to the top of an hill, and there by them shamefully murdered, and after spoiled to the naked skin." ^ In the same year, only six months before, Adam de Moleyns or Molyneux, Bishop of Chichester, keeper of the Privy Seal, had been murdered by the soldiers at Portsmouth, whom he was visiting for no other purpose than to pay them the sums that were due (and overdue) to them before they went off in Sir Thomas Kyriel's expedition to Normandy. The rebellion of Cade would not have been formidable for a moment to a govern- ment that was really strong ; indeed, had the government been strong, rebellion would never have been thought of at all. It is probable that in England the outlying counties near the Welsh and Scottish marches had never been quite peaceful and amenable to government : but now all the ' Holinshed, iii. 636. 44 THE WARS OF THE ROSES home counties were in a similar state, with local risings and disorder. At the same time the last of the English arms were being expelled from Normandy. On August 22nd, 1450, Cherbourg, the last English stronghold, sur- rendered.i There was a dearth of great or even able men : — " The Root 2 is dead, the Swan ^ is gone. The fiery Cresset * hath lost his light. Therefore England may make great moan. Were not the help of God Almight. The Castle ^ is won, where care begun. The Porte-Cullis " is laid a-down ; Yclosed we have our Velvet Hat " That covered us from many storms brown. The Boar ^ is far into the West That should us help with shield and spear. The Falcon " fleeth and hath no rest Till he wit where to big his nest." ^^ These beautiful verses were evidently written by a partisan of the Duke of York. It was not merely the rebels of Kent who felt that the country needed him back from Ireland. His achievements in France and in Ireland had not been brilliant, but they had shown eminent qualities — firmness and a sound capacity for administration. He had always been quiet and self-restrained ; the confidence which people felt in him was not due to any form of self- advertisement. Whatever work had been given to him, he had done well. He had behaved with dignity when the governing ministers had plainly shown their dislike to him ; and he had the gift of silence. But he could ' Waurin, 161. ^ John, Duke of Bedford. ^ Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. * John Holland, Duke of Exeter. ^ Rouen. " Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. ' Cardinal Henry Beaufort. ^ Thomas Courtney, Earl of Devonshire. " The Duke of York. 1° Nicolas, "Proceedings," vi. p. xxiv. Cp. Gairdner, "Paston Letters," i. p. 66 ; " Political Poems," ii. 221-3. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 45 also act decisively ; and now he saw that the time for him had come. Some time early in September 1450 he crossed from Ireland to Wales. About the same time, before September nth, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, arrived in England, having lost the whole of Normandy, of which he had been the king's Lieutenant. Henry was faced with a problem : would he rule through Somerset or through York ? CHAPTER V SOMERSET AND YORK Henry VI. was not a strong man, either in physique or in character, although in many respects he was one of the most attractive of EngHsh kings. In piety, kindliness, and generosity he is to be compared with another saint on the throne, Louis IX. of France. By the Roman Catholic Church he is held to be a martyr, and as such has been canonised.^ Throughout his life, although not wise, he was a consistently good man, and nothing evil has ever been reported of him. He had been well brought up by his mother, Catherine of France, and by the Duke of Exeter, and afterwards by his governor, the trustworthy Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, whose duties were defined by the Council. This ordinance of the Council is a very interesting document, couched, like all the ordinances, in the first person, as if the little six-year-old king were speaking : " Henry, etc., to his chancellor, greeting. Whereas it is expedient and convenient to our youth that we be taught and learned in good manners, literature, language, nurture, and courtesy, and other virtues and learning suit- able to the royal person, in order that we may be the better able to hold and govern ourself in the preservation of our honour and estates, when we come, throusrh the grace of God, to greater age. We, with the advice and assent, etc., . . . have chosen the Earl of Warwick . . ." ^ The tutor's task was well performed, and young Henry grew up in all piety and learning, a simple, quiet man. He came of a clever family, but not a very healthy one ; ' Nicolas, "Chronology of History," p. 143. 2 Nicolas, " Proceedings," iii. pp. 276-7 (in French). 46 THE WARS OF THE ROSES 47 so, as a boy he was precocious and quick to learn. Being probably of a nervous temperament, he ought to have been kept back and not allowed to learn quickly. But the exigencies of State led the Council to bring him early into public life ; at the age of four he was brought to the High Altar at St Paul's, led by the hand between the great Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Exeter, and after the ceremony he was placed on the back of a " courser " and paraded through the streets of the city.^ Although he learned to hunt and hawk a little, he was always serious and precocious. This was the worst thing for a boy whose family history on both sides was so ominous. His paternal grandfather, Henry IV., had suffered from general weak- ness and a chronic skin disease, probably due to the_ ejccessesjof John^of Gaunt; his maternal grandfather, ''^"^'*«^ Charles VI. of France, had suffered from severe though intermittent madness. Thus, starting with a bad chance, Henry was doubly unfortunate in being thrown into a period which would have taxed the sanity of the most levelheaded of monarchs. He was ruling a country where everything seemed to be going from bad to worse : abroad there was war ; at home quarrelling in the Council, dis- putes in the palace, and rebellion in the country. Gentle and compliant as he was by nature, he must have suffered fearfully from the interested advice and requests of his courtiers. The income of the crown, on which were charged the public services of the State, was impoverished by his generosity,^ so that the soldiers were unpaid, and justice, left to itself, was openly bought and sold. Considering the poverty of the crown, it is wonderful that Henry was able to do so much for his foundations at Eton (1440) and Cambridge (1441). It is agreed that he showed much skill in buying up parcels of land to help the endowments of Eton and King's Colleges. As a man he was tall and 1 T. F. Tout, in " Diet. Nat. Biog.," Henry VI., quoting from Fabian, " Concordance." 2 Whethamstede, " Registrum" (Rolls Series), i. p. 249. 48 THE WARS OF THE ROSES spare; his picture shows him with a sweet, gentle expression on his face, and his hands Hghtly clasped. Unable to make out all the rights and wrongs of the factions between which he was torn, he allowed himself to be led passively by his handsome, spirited, and strong-willed wife. He used to complain of the noise made in the palace so that he could scarcely read his books of devotion "day or night." When more than usually tried or irritated he would say, " Forsooth, forsooth," but no oath was ever heard to pass his lips.^ Henry was entirely faithful to his friends, and in some ways this excellent quality brought him into trouble. The Lancastrian dynasty had originally justified itself as providing the country with a constitutional monarchy, one which, as contrasted with the absolutism of Richard II., would defer to the wishes of the nation. Thus Henry IV. had chosen his ministers and Council subject to the approval of Parliament. Between Henry V. and his Parliament complete accord seems to have prevailed. But with Henry VI., in some ways the most gentle and compliant of his family, a new system began. As soon as he was capable of managing his own affairs he began choosing his ministers and councillors without reference to Parlia- ment. And so to some extent he came under the old and disastrous charge of favouritism. He was said to keep in power men whom the people or Parliament dis- liked. This was not exactly favouritism ; for a favourite is usually taken to mean someone promoted to high position without having served a long and regular training in sub- ■ ordinate positions. But the ministers that Henry clung to so persistently were all tried men : Cardinal Kemp was an experienced man, and a wise and loyal servant of the crown ; the Duke of Suffolk came from a regular official family, and when he entered the Council in 143 1 he was already a veteran of the French war, with sixteen years' ' See the character in Blakman, "de Virtutibus, etc., Henrici VI.," quoted in Thompson, "The Wars of York and Lancaster," pp. 9-15. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 49 service behind him ; the Duke of Somerset, too, was no quickly raised favourite, for all the Beauforts from their boyhood had been trained to the royal service, and Edmund himself, by the year 1450, had at any rate twenty years' service behind him. Yet although Henry's advisers were no mere favourites of a whimsical monarch, they were not such as the nation at large approved of. The complaint of Jack Cade, that the Duke of York was arbitrarily excluded from the Council, found an echo in many honest hearts. For although a mediaeval king had an undoubted right to choose his own servants, who were also the ministers of State, yet that policy must be justified by success. It could only be done by a strong king, who knew the right men and what was the right thing to be done, and so was content to go his own way without fear. But Henry's dis- regard of the wishes of his Parliament was condemned by the failure of his policy. Normandy was lost ; Calais itself was in great danger ; the command of the sea was neglected ; the finances were ruined ; public order was destroyed ; the home administration was practically paralysed. Probably England was never in a more disorganised state than when Somerset and York returned to England in 1450 : Somerset with a long record of defeat behind him, York with a record of eminently respectable, although not brilliant, achievement. At this moment Henry VI. stood at the parting of the ways. The choice of York as chief adviser would be approved by the middle classes, the powerful and prosperous traders, and by a large section of the nobility ; it would give peace to the realm, but it would mean something like the adoption of a colleague on the throne. Somerset, on the other handj had no approval in the country, no recent successes to his credit, but rather the memory of failure ; but his family, only semi- royal in origin, had always acted as faithful dependents of the Lancastrian house, and would stand or fall with it. so THE WARS OF THE ROSES So Somerset was chosen, the evil genius/ he has been called, of the house of Lancaster. On September nth he was made Constable of England.^ Possibly Queen Margaret had a great deal to do with this. French queens have seldom been a success in England, being often characterised by too much will and a desire to guide affairs in their own way. Henry VI. was peculiarly amenable to such treatment, and Margaret was peculiarly able to exercise it. She was devoted to her husband and afterwards to her son, and had definite ideas with regard to government. Ever since Suffolk had brought her to England in 1445, she had identified herself with the Beaufort party. She had been suspicious of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and after his death she had been suspicious of the Duke of York. It was apparently through the influence of herself and Suffolk that York was excluded from the Council and sent to Ireland ; and it was almost certainly through her influence that Somerset was appointed Constable in 1450, a position which carried with it the control of all the military forces of England. Margaret was undoubtedly an autocratic woman, and as the Wars of the Roses developed, she became hardened and indeed brutal, showing the same propensity as bloodthirsty men to execute prisoners after battle. Had she not been a foreigner, her commanding qualities might have been tolerated and even popular. An episode in one of her journeys in England, related in the "Paston Letters," reminds the reader forcibly of Queen Elizabeth. The queen, on one occasion visiting Norwich, sent for Margaret Paston's cousin, an unmarried lady. She was much pleased with the cousin's manner, and forthwith told her to get a husband, and apparently took steps to find one.^ " Here, in the sphere of social relations, high spirit and a somewhat autocratic atti- 1 Oman, "The Political History of England," p. 334. 2 Nicolas, " Proceedings," vi. p. xxxiii. = "Paston Letters," No. 284(Maigaret Paston to John P., April 20th, 1453)- THE WARS OF THE ROSES 51 tude, if combined with kindliness and good nature, are not unattractive. But when transferred into national politics, and especially into party politics, these qualities may engender hatred. A different impression from Margaret Paston's is given of the queen in a news-letter^ written in January of the next year : " The Queen hath made a bill of five articles, desiring those articles to be granted " : the first demand was, that she should have the " whole rule " of the country ; the second was, that she should have the appoint- ment of the Chancellor, and all chief ofificers of State ; the third was, that all bishoprics and benefices should be in her gift ; the fourth was, that an adequate income should be assigned to the royal family. The writer did not " yet know" what the fifth was, but it would seem there was nothing more for the fifth article to supply. One more defect in her character was often adverted to in her life- time : she was believed to be greedy of money, eagerly taking a share of any lands that might fall to the crown, as for instance the estates of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, after his death in 1447. Yet it must be remembered that she too, like her husband, was interested in charitable founda- tions, being with Andrew Doket, rector of St Botolph's, Cambridge, the foundress and patron of Queens' College. Richard of York had a personal score to settle with Somerset, for it was to him that York felt that he owed his banishment to Ireland. In 1446, after he had kept for five years " sound, sober, and wise " government in Normandy, he had expected a renewal of his term of office, and, in fact, the Council had renewed his appointment for another five years. But Somerset, who desired the appoint- ment for himself, prevailed upon the king to annul the appointment, and give it instead to himself. This, says John Whethamstede, the contemporary Abbot of St Albans, was the " original cause or occasion " ^ of the Wars of the Roses. So Somerset went to Normandy, with 1 "Paston Letters," ii. 297 (January 19th, 1454). "- Wheth., i. pp. j6o-i. 52 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [USO disastrous results to the English power; and York was given the lieutenancy of Ireland as a place of honourable banishment. And now Somerset, after an uninterrupted series of defeats, was back in England with the high office of Constable, controlling the military forces of the crown, chief man at the Council table. Yet he was hated by the people at large, while York was almost universally looked up to as the one man who could save the kingdom. The characters of these two men are interesting. Somerset was not entirely bad. York was by no means wholly faultless. Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, was at this time forty-six years of age, a good-looking man with gentle, courteous manners, and a desire to do justice in the country. Being descended in a ^450 direct line from John of Gaunt, he stood very near the throne. The Beauforts, although legitimated in 1396 and 1407, had in the latter Act been debarred from the line of succession to the throne. This condi- tion, of course, might again have been annulled by Act of Parliament. But there is no indication that Somerset was ever tempted with this prospect. He was loyal to Henry VI. before the birth of the king's son, and after the birth of the Prince Edward he fell fighting for the royal family in the first battle of St Albans. Throughout all the attacks on Somerset, in the Council or in Parliament, Henry and the queen stood obstinately by him and made his cause their own. It is clear that they never doubted his loyalty. His character was not a great one, but he had courage, fidelity, and, as his end showed, a capacity for self-sacrifice. On the other hand, he is said to have been greedy of money, and while Governor of Normandy to have stooped to acts of doubtful honesty for the accumulation of it. The charges of maladministration are to be found in an indictment against him drawn up by the Duke of York in 1453.^ Here it is said, among other things, that Somerset ' Quoted in Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i. 103. 1450] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 53 appropriated to himself 72,000 francs which the French government handed over as compensation to the Enghsh- men who had lost their livelihood through the cession of Anjou and Maine. A contemporary historian of France, the Bishop of Lisieux, in a general way supports these charges.^ The charge of financial dishonesty is not proved. Under the Lancastrians the accounts of the government at home and abroad were very badly kept, and there must have been great opportunities for pecula- tion, especially among the subordinate officials. Salaries were, it seems, continually in arrear. A general, if he wished to keep his soldiers together, had to draw upon his private means, if he had any, to pay their wages, trusting to recover his advances from the royal funds whenever they arrived. Thus a general who had paid away from his private estate .£^1,000 to his soldiers or to the contractors for stores, might justly put into his pocket ;£' 1,000 which arrived six months or a year afterwards for the payment of the forces. If the accounts had been properly kept, and the generals' claims sent in to the government, and the moneys when they arrived duly acknowledged, no question of dishonesty could have arisen. But as the accounts were usually in confusion, and as claims against the govern- ment might refer to many years back, it is no wonder that the line between legitimate recover)' of sums advanced and sheer peculation was difficult to be distinguished. But one thing may be said in support of Somerset's honesty : he was a rich man, having inherited great sums from his uncle. Cardinal Beaufort ; out of these riches he defrayed, when he was Captain of Calais between 1451 and 1453, the wages of the garrison, to the extent of :^2 1,648. los. od. In the last year Parliament passed an Act to repay these sums to him, but it is not certain that the money was ever forthcoming.^ It would be easier to estimate the character of Richard ' Quoted in Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i. 102, note. ^ See Gairdner, "Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 128. 54 THE. WARS OF THE ROSES [1450 of York had his life been longer. But his premature death at Wakefield cut him off before his objects had been realised, and before he had been tried by the possession of full power. He was a contrast to Somerset in many ways. There is no doubt that Richard was a sound statesman and a good soldier, although perhaps fidelity was not among his most eminent qualities. He had shown himself a good governor and a good soldier in France. In Ireland his tenure of office left behind it memories and an influence which kept Ireland loyal to the Yorkist name for many a year. He saw clearly what was the evil of England, namely, lack of strong impartial government ; and during the few months that he was Protector of the Realm, in the first madness of Henry VI., he took the right measures to secure justice and order. The merchants and the middle classes were his unswerving supporters in Parliament. This is the best testimony that could be borne to the soundness of his ideas of government. He stood for justice, order, and not too much interference. The inter- ference of the Lancastrian government with the administra- tion of justice^ in the provinces is alone sufficient to con- demn that government. The rebels of Jack Cade's time had called upon Richard to come and rescue England from the internal evils that were destroying it. But the court party, the party of Margaret and Somerset, made good govern- ment impossible ; for the country hated them, and yet through the obstinacy or conscience of the king they were left at the head of affairs. York, the best statesman in the land, the firmest administrator, and the chief prince of the blood after the king, was denied office ; through the meanest sort of "backstairs" influence he was kept idle and his gifts wasted. It is small wonder that he came at last, though slowly, to the conclusion that the first condition of that " sad and wise government " which the Commons were always sighing for was to sweep away the court party, forcibly purge the Council of all elements of * Cp. "Paston Letters," No. 189, king's directions to a sheriff. 1450] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 55 weakness, and put himself, with the approval of all the peaceful classes, at the direction of affairs. It is by no means certain that York aimed at the crown, especially after the birth of Henry's son. Perhaps he would have been satisfied if he had won his way by force to the position of Protector during the rest of Henry's life and the minority of the Prince Edward. It may be that success would have spoiled him, and that once in the position of guardian he would have proved to be but an earlier Richard III. But York was a very different man from his son Richard. His moral fibre had not been weakened by a generation of civil war ; his spirit had not been soured by the consciousness of personal deformity. He had always shown great powers of self-restraint. Although he can never have forgotten that his father, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, had been executed as a traitor by Henry V., j'et he appears not to have been actuated by any feelings of revenge against the Lancastrian family. It took twenty years of court intrigue against him to rouse him to arms. He had suffered in the king's service, too, for, as was the case with so many of the Lancastrian government's officials, he had to do his work when he was offered it, with little hope of pay. During his two years as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland he received no wages, and yet he managed to maintain an efficient rule. When he returned from Ireland in the autumn of 1450, the needy home government, instead of paying up the sums due to him, could only give him the right of exporting wool to Calais for one year free of custom dues. When Henry VI., on September nth, made Somerset Constable of England, he showed clearly that the old system of government was to continue, and that York was still to be excluded from the direction of affairs. " By this insane act Henry defied the whole nation." ^ It was probably about the same time that York crossed from Ireland to Beaumaris, in Wales. Finding his entry into 1 Oman, "Political History of England," p. 350. S6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l450 Beaumaris resisted by royal officials, he passed on to some other point near at hand, and safely effected a landing. He had left his duties and deserted his post. But he left Ireland in a safer condition than it had been for mariy years, and there was plenty of work for him to do in England. York's following was augmented by accessions from his Welsh estates, and he gradually made his way towards London. A letter from one of his retainers to John Paston, dated October 6th, informs us that before this date the duke had had an audience with the king, in which the affairs of State had been fully discussed.^ York had especially urged that all men who were accused of treason should be given a lawful trial. Indeed the whole conversation was "all upon justice," and "much after the Commons' desire." So York reached London, probably by the end of September, having made the journey not altogether peacefully, for at the very last he had to beat down the spears of the guards at Westminster palace.^ In a bill or statement which he presented to Henry, Richard declared himself the king's "true liegeman and servant," and Henry sent him a written reply to " declare, repute, and admit you as our true and faithful subject and as our faithful cousin." Henry, moreover, promised in another letter to establish a "sad and substantial council," with more ample power than he had before permitted, and that York should be one of the councillors.* Further, the basis of reform was to be made as broad as possible by the summoning of " the greatest and the best, the rich and the poor." In accordance with this promise. Parliament met on November 6th to consider, as the Chancellor announced in the opening speech, three things — the defence of the realm, the defence of the king's subjects in Guienne, and the settling of disorder at home. The ' "Paston Letters," No. 142. ^ See Thompson, " Wars of York and Lanes.," p. 22 (from Rot. Pari., V. p. 346). •'' Document printed in Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 84. 1450] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 57 Commons, at any rate, fully believed in the Duke of York. Elections in those days were often corrupt. Richard did not leave them to take their own course. The " Paston Letters " show us that, in the county of Norfolk, he and the Duke of Norfolk calmly decided beforehand on the two men who were to be elected as the knights of the shire.^ It is true that only one of these two was elected, but the new candidate who was substituted was supposed to be favourable to the Duke of York. The Speaker chosen by the Commons was Sir William Oldhall, one of the duke's oldest friends and most active supporters. As Parliament was particularly invited to consider the affairs of the English in France, it was inevitable that the Duke of Somerset's conduct of the war should be inquired into. In the Middle Ages, and for many years afterwards, if a minister pursued the wrong policy, he might have to submit not only to a vote of censure and the loss of office, but to trial on a capital charge. Accordingly the complaints of the Commons were met by Somerset's being confined at the king's order to his house in Blackfriars (December 1st). But a mob, fearing that the king might condone his faults, as he had attempted to condone those of Suffolk, broke into the house, and Somerset had to fly for his life in the barge of the Earl of Devon, his brother-in-law. The Duke of York immediately denied having had any part in this riot, by proclaiming throughout the city that no man should commit disorder on pain of death. The order was duly enforced, and to show the new concord that had arisen, the king and the peers made a stately procession through the city. On December i8th the king prorogued Parliament and went to Greenwich palace, where he spent Christmas. He hoped that in the vacation the question of a trial of Somerset would be forgotten. Before the year was out he had made him Captain of Calais, the greatest post under the crown ; this appointment did not involve more than an occasional absence from England, 1 "Paston Letters," No. 148. 58 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1451 and Somerset was to combine with it the position of head of the king's household.^ The unpopular minister was to be more in the king's confidence than ever. Parliament reassembled on January 20th, and the pressure put upon the king was at once renewed that he might dismiss his unpopular ministers. It was the ^^^^ Commons that made the petitions to the king, but they were clearly inspired by York. One petition prayed the king to dismiss from court thirty of his most prominent supporters, including tlie Duke of Somerset, Alice, Duchess of Suffolk (widow of Henry's late minister), William Booth, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (made Archbishop of York two years later), the Abbot of Gloucester, who had been a member of Council for the last seven years,^ and John, Lord Dudley, who later fought for the king at the first battle of St Albans and at Bloreheath. Henry yielded so far as to send the less important of these people from court, but the position of Somerset remained untouched. Next, one of the members of Parliament for Bristol, a certain Thomas Young, in view of the fact that the king had no offspring, proposed that the Duke of York should be declared heir-apparent. This proposal seemed innocent enough, for the Duke of York, as grandson of Edmund of York and son of Anne Mortimer, would naturally, if Henry VI. had no issue, be considered legitimate successor to the throne. It is likely that there was no other possible candidate. If Henry refused to accept the petition, it would show that he had someone else in his mind. Now Henry was the last of the line of John of Gaunt in England, except the illegitimate branch of the Beauforts, who had been legitimated, however, by Act of Parliament except with regard to succession to the throne. If Henry refused to accede to Young's petition, it would appear very much as if, rejecting the Duke of York's hereditary claim, he was leaving a way open for a Beaufort to claim the throne. There were only 1 W. Wore, p. 770. 2 Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 163, note 8. I45I] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 59 two Beauforts who could be meant : Somerset, or the Lady Margaret, daughter of his dead elder brother, John. Henry rejected the petition. He knew that Somerset was an unsuccessful, unpopular minister ; he knew that the country as a whole earnestly desired him to have no power over the affairs of government ; yet he not merely refused to dismiss Somerset from the Council, but even seemed to point him out as a likely successor to the throne in preference to the Duke of York. It was perhaps at this point that people began to consider it necessary, not merely to change the ministry, but to change the dynasty.^ Such were the consequences of Henry's act in rejecting Young's petition. He himself, however, in all likelihood did not mean definitely to deny York's title to the throne (in the event of the king's dying without issue), or to recognise any claim on the part of Somerset. Henry's object was probably only to prevent a situation which would compel him to accept York as his chief minister. If York had been declared heir, his claims to a high position in the government during Henry's lifetime could not have been disregarded. But Henry and Queen Margaret were afraid of York, and were determined to keep Somerset as their right-hand man. Hence the rejection of Young's petition. Henry, of course, was acting within his rights. He might have said in justification of his action that the petition was premature and unnecessary. He and the queen were still young, and might yet have a child. This would have been a reasonable position for Henry to take up, although it would have left people uneasy with regard to his intentions towards the Duke of Somerset and the succession. But Henry went much further than rejecting Young's petition. He publicly condemned it and its intention in every way he could. He kept Somerset as 1 Cp. remarks of Thompson in " Wars of York and Lanes.," Preface, p. 6. 6o THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1451 much in his confidence as ever ; and as soon as Parliament was dissolved in June, he had Young arrested and sent to the Tower. He would no doubt have arrested Young earlier, but he feared to commit such a flagrant violation of a member's privilege when Parliament was still sitting. Yet it was bad enough to arrest Young at any time. For however rash his proposal, he had said nothing that could bring him within reach of the law. The whole episode of the retention of Somerset as minister, and still more the arbitrary and illegal imprisonment of Young, show that Henry VI. was not really a constitutional monarch. Yet the Lancastrian house had been originally elevated to the throne, to the exclusion of more legitimate princes, in order that England might be ruled constitutionally and given " good governance." Autocratic rule may be justifiable ; but it was not on any such ground that the Lancastrians could claim to rule. After the dissolution of Parliament in 1451, little happened in the kingdom for the next six months. Somerset was still the king's right-hand man, but the government was no more successful than before. Charles VH. of France went on capturing, one by one, the fortresses which still acknowledged the rule of England in Gascony. At home the local troubles, as shown at any rate with regard to Norfolk in the " Paston Letters," were going on, not very prominently, it is true, but still continuously. There are the same interminable lawsuits about pieces of land and manors ; the same hints of illegal " maintainance " by men in high position of suits brought by humbler people in the shire courts ; the same old difficulties of collecting the revenues of the kingdom. The last months of 1451 seem to have been spent by York in his estates on the Welsh march around Ludlow. Somerset was generally with the king. Guienne was being reconquered by the French ; Calais was in danger ; York was expecting every moment that a charge of high treason would be brought against him at the instigation of 1452] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 6i Somerset. Accordingly, on January 9th, 1452, he sent a letter to Henry VI. protesting that he was the king's " true liegeman," although the king was his " heavy Lord " ; and offering to swear to this on the blessed sacrament. But no notice seems to have been taken of this. On February 3rd York sent an address to the citizens of Shrewsbury, in which he adverted to the disgrace of England in the French war, the failure of the Duke of Somerset, and his own danger at the hands of the said duke, who " laboureth continually about the king's highness for my undoing, and to corrupt my blood, and to disinherit me and my heirs, and such persons as be about me." ^ York, working with the approval of Parliament and a great part of the country, had failed to get rid of Somerset by con- stitutional means. Henry VI., like Charles I. in the impeachment of Buckingham, had merely dissolved Parlia- ment, and kept the hated minister in power. So York, " after long sufference and delays," resolved to try another way. " Seeing that the said Duke ever prevaileth and ruleth about the King's person (and) that by this means the land is likely to be destroyed, (I) am fully concluded to proceed in all haste against him with the help of my kinsmen and friends." His object, he said, was " to promote ease, peace, tranquility, and safeguard of all this land " ; and all this was to be done " keeping me within the bounds of my liegeance." This was the difficulty. York was going to use force, and he expected there would follow him his tenants and retainers, his friends among the knighthood and baronage, all those who in any part of England had adopted his badge, and reckoned themselves to be of his party. The frontier town of Shrewsbury, which in the turbulent life of the march was ever ready for war, was to be his starting-point. This was York's first armed demonstration — it was a clear breach of the peace. The forces he took with him were very formidable, being at the lowest computation ' Printed in Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 97. 62 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1452 10,000 1 men, although the contemporary Burgundian, Waurin, put them as high as 20,000,^ and this figure has been accepted as correct.^ He marshalled them as a regular army and was even provided with artillery — an arm which was to play a great part in the Wars of the Roses. Henry, with a large army — 30,000 men according to Whethamstede — was ready to meet him in the open field. The gates of London were closed, and York did not attempt to effect an entry by force. Instead he went into Kent, to try his fortunes in that rich and frequently rebellious county. If the men of Kent had followed the impostor Cade, they would surely follow in even greater numbers the Duke of York himself York pitched his camp near the historic town of Dartford, where the rebellion of Wat Tyler had started seventy years before. He must have been a skilful organiser, and have moved his forces quickly. He cannot have left Wales much before the middle of February, yet by the end of the month he seems to have been encamped at Dartford. The royal army, encamped at Blackheath, was only eight miles away. Events seemed to be moving towards a great battle. But the forces of the crown were very large — about 30,000. York had only about two-thirds of that number at the most ; moreover, the people of Kent did not come flocking to his standard, and although his forces were formidable, yet there were few great lords among them. Only the Earl of Devonshire and Lord Cobham were on his side. The rest of the magnates, although many of them were distinctly friendly to him, still shrank from civil war, and so took their places in the king's army.* Even the young Earl of Warwick, then twenty-four years old, who was to be the great protagonist of the White Rose of York, was at this time with the king at Blackheath. 1 Wheth., i. p. 161. 2 Waurin, p. 265. 2 By Gairdner, " Paston Letters," Intro., i. p. 99. ■* Waurin, p. 265. 1452] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 63 It was clear that York was not in a position to fight ; and meanwhile the pious king was holding out the olive branch, through intermediaries whom York could trust. Negotiations were carried on by the good Bishop Waynflete of Winchester, Bishop Bourchier of Ely (the Bourchiers in the coming years were one of the great mainstays of the Yorkist cause), the two great Salisbury Nevilles, Richard, Earl of Salisbury, and his son Richard, Earl of Warwick. York thought it wise to accept the best terms offered, and he came to Henry's camp as a simple subject, unarmed, and with his head bare.^ He had dismissed his forces; and now (March ist) he threw himself on the mercy of the king. Henry, of course, knew that York's party was as formidable as ever, and that the duke could not be treated as a conquered rebel. He, therefore, pardoned him, and seems to have given him to understand that Somerset would be held to answer the indictment which York had drawn up and brought forward against him. The whole episode is very obscure. Whethamstede says York recog- nised the king's strength, and came and submitted himself before any promise was made to him. Others say that he did not dismiss his forces and come to the king until he had a promise that he himself should be pardoned for his rebellion, and that Somerset should be put on trial. All we can say now is that there was some misunderstanding. In complicated negotiations, when understandings, overt or tacit, are substituted for definite written and signed terms, neither party is likely to be fully satisfied, and he who gets less than he expected is sure to feel tricked or deceived. Anyhow, as matters turned out, Somerset was not put on trial, and York may have honestly believed that faith had been broken with him, and that he had been cheated. But this does not prove that Henry broke any promise. In the first interview between them at Blackheath, York may have overestimated the king's compliance, Henry may have overestimated the duke's submissiveness. ' Wheth,, i. p. 162. 64 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l452 On March loth a meeting was held in St Paul's Cathedral, and York took a solemn oath not to disturb the peace of the kingdom in the future, nor to proceed against any of the king's subjects in any other than a legal way : "thus," in the words of Whethamstede, "the Duke of Somerset escaped for the time from his hands." ^ York retired to Ludlow. The king, happy in his reconciliation of all parties, offered on Good Friday a free pardon (with a few exceptions) to all who had taken part in the late strifes, and who should apply to the Chancellor for the pardon. About three thousand people in all, including the Dukes of York and Norfolk, took out the necessary Letters Patent.^ For the next fifteen months little of note happened in England. Local riots occurred in certain places, there were the usual lawsuits about landed property, the usual difficulties in obtaining justice in the county courts. The Duke of Norfolk was sent down into his county to try and bring law and order back there, " to enquire of such great riots, extortions, horrible wrongs and hurts as his Highness is credibly informed have been done in this country." ^ Attempts were made to bring to justice some of the local men who were preying upon the county, but with little success. The king himself made a progress in the west, from Exeter to Ludlow, to pacify as far as he could all discontented elements, and to show himself as king in the Duke of York's country. In October the expedition of Lord Talbot was sent off" to Guienne, where success for some time crowned its efforts, till the fatal day of Castillon, July 17th, 1453. In January of this year a conspiracy got up by one of Jack Cade's former captains, in Kent, was dispersed. On March 6th Parliament met at Reading, where party feeling was not likely to run so high as in London. > Wheth., i. p. 163. 2 Wheth., i. p. 86 ; Gairdner, "Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. in. 3 "Paston Letters," No, 210, 1453] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 65 The object of the session was to grant suppHes, in order that the services of the crown, such as the garrison of Calais, might be paid. The Parliament proved favourable to the king's government, as was shown by the liberal grants of supply, and by the Speaker whom the Commons chose for themselves. His name was Thomas Thorpe, a noted Lancastrian, who was faithful and energetic in the royal service till he was beheaded by the Yorkists in 1 46 1, after having fought in the first battle of St Albans, from which he escaped by flight, and in the battle of Northampton.^ Parliament met in the refectory of Reading Abbey, and sat till March 28th. It reassembled after Easter at Westminster. The place of meeting proves that the royal government now felt strong enough to hold Parliament in London itself It was prorogued again on July 2nd, not to reassemble till November 12th at Reading, in order that meanwhile the Lords might get to their hunting and the Commons to their harvests.^ But before Parliament could meet again the king was attacked by insanity. ' See Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. p. 168 note, and "Paston Letters," No. 283. ' See Gairdner, "Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 129. CHAPTER VI THE KING'S MADNESS AND THE FIRST PROTECTORATE OF YORK " Now God, that syttyst on high in trone, Help thy peple in here grete nede, That trowthe and resonn regne may sone, For thanne shall they leva out of drede." ' After the prorogation of Parliament on July 2nd, the general lack of good faith which characterises these times was shown by the imprisonment of Sir William ^^^ Oldhall, who had been Speaker of the Commons in 1450, on a charge of taking part in Cade's rebellion, and in the armed proceedings of the Duke of York at Dartford. Oldhall was one of those who had accepted Henry's offer of amnesty, and had taken out Letters Patent of pardon on June 26th, 1452. The process against him was only reversed in the Court of King's Bench shortly after the victory of the Yorkists in the first battle of St Albans.^ The king had gone down to the royal palace of Clarendon, in Wiltshire, to spend July and August. On August lOth he became ill, his malady taking the form of a total loss of memory, and a lapse into childishness, so that although he could eat and drink, and sit in a chair, he could not walk nor show any comprehension of what was going on about him, recognising none of his household, not even the queen. He remained in this condition for fifteen months. The malady, of course, puzzled the physicians of the time, and indeed this species of insanity is still very mysterious. The king was frequently asked questions by ' "Political Poems," ii. p. 238, On the Corruption of the Times. 2 Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. p. 168, and "Paston Letters," No. 297. 66 1453] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 67 ministers and others, but he never gave any sign of com- prehension, and when he recovered from his insanity (December 1454) he declared that he remembered nothing whatever since he fell ill.^ It must be borne in mind that Henry's maternal grandfather, Charles VI. of France, had been subject to similar fits of madness, that the constitution of very few of the Lancastrian princes, after John of Gaunt, was really sound, and that Henry VI. had gone through a period of storm and stress and disappointment that might have unhinged a much stronger mind. When the king became incapable of performing his royal functions, the right and duty of appointing some form of regency fell, according to the Constitution, upon the House of Peers, or more strictly speaking, the Great Council of the Peers. But nothing was done for two months, as it was expected that every moment the king would recover his senses again. On October 13th a son was born to Henry and Queen Margaret. The child received the name of Edward. For eight years the king had had no heir, and everyone seems to have assumed during that time that the Lancastrian dynasty would become extinct, and that, by a mere process of waiting, the Duke of York would become king. Now that hope was frustrated. The power of England had never stood so low. Only a little over two months before (July 17th) the last battle of the Hundred Years' War was fought — Castillon in Guienne — a total and irreparable defeat for the English arms. This crisis in the history of the house of Lancaster cannot be better explained than in the words of Stubbs : " The final loss of Guienne destroyed all the hold which the government still had on the respect of the country ; the king's illness placed the queen and the Duke of York in direct rivalry for the regency ; the birth of the heir of Lancaster cut off the last hope which the duke had of a peaceful succession to the crown on Henry's death." ^ The logic of events was steadily pressing the Yorkist house to reach out for the crown. 1 " Paston Letters," No. 270. ^ stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 169. 68 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l453 But there is no sign that the Duke of York was yet aiming at it. The king himself had fallen into abeyance, but the king's government went on. No regency was declared, but the Council carried on the affairs of State as if the king was still actively at its head. This condition of affairs, however, could not continue, especially as the Keeper of the Great Seal, the Chancellor, Archbishop Kemp, was an old man,^ and nearing his end. The choice as regent lay between the queen, the Duke of Somerset, and the Duke of York. It was not long before York established himself as head of the government. Me began to prepare the way, about the time of the birth of the Prince Edward, by bringing an action in the Court of Exchequer against Thomas Thorpe, who had been Speaker of the last Parliament, and a doughty opponent of the duke. The ground of the action was that Thorpe, who was a Baron of the Exchequer, had made seizure of some arms belonging to the Duke of York in the London house of the Bishop of Durham. Whether this seizure of York's property was strictly legal is not known ; but the duke was now awarded damages in the Court of Exchequer to the extent of ;^i,ooo. Thorpe was put in the Fleet prison until he should pay this sum. Thus one champion of the Lancas- trians was, at least for a time, out of the way. The Yorkists evidently thought Thorpe a redoubtable opponent, otherwise they would not have beheaded him eight years later. The Parliament, which had been prorogued from July 2nd, met, as had been intended, at Reading on November 1 2th; but the king was no better, and so it was pro- rogued again till February. Meanwhile the old feudal assembly, the Great Council of all barons of the king, was summoned to meet on November 21st. An attempt seems to have been made, first not to summon the Duke of York, ' He was seventy-four years of age. 1454] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 69 and then, when that was found too illegal, another obscure attempt was made to warn off some of his chief friends and supporters from attending the Council. The duke naturally protested, when he came to the Great Council at West- minster, against this mean intrigue. All the lords present agreed with him. The duke in his speech had referred to his excluded friends as " diverse persons, such as of long time have been of his council." ^ This is perhaps the first reference to the existence of a distinct Yorkist party. The Duke of Norfolk, who was at this time a kind of right-hand man to York, brought forward another Bill of Charges against Somerset (who did not appear at the Council), to the effect that the previous accusations had " been sufficiently proved by the deeds that have followed thereof," and he demanded, in a somewhat curious fashion, that Somerset should be brought to trial for the loss of Calais and Guienne, according to the laws of chivalry, as found in the book called L'Arbre de Bataille} The duke was therefore arrested and put into the Tower in the first days of December.^ At the end of the year 1453, or beginning of 1454, when it was clear that only the king's personal action could prevent the Duke of York from getting the chief control of affairs, an attempt was made by Margaret and her friends to penetrate to the mind of Henry through his infant son. The prince was taken down to Windsor, and " the Duke of Buckingham took him in his arms and presented him to the king in goodly wise, beseeching the king to bless him ; and the king gave no manner answer." * It was clear that nothing was to be made out of Henry. ^ Given in Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., App., p. 336. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 230. ^ He was not released till February 7th, 1455. The Duke of York had sworn at St Paul's to be reconciled with Somerset, but the pope released him from this oath (Wheth., i. p. 163). * " Paston Letters," No. 235. 70 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1454 If the Duke of York was to be checked, force must be used. The great Lancastrian lords began to collect men and arms— the Earl of Wiltshire and Lord Bonvile in Somersetshire, the Duke of Exeter in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and others. Even the old Cardinal Arch- bishop Kemp "commanded all his servants to be ready with bow and arrows, sword and buckler, crossebows and all other habiliments of war." Thomas Thorpe was employing his enforced leisure in the Tower by drafting a Bill of Indictment against the Duke of York ; an officer of the Duke of Somerset had prudently bespoken all the lodgings available round about the Tower ; and the queen had capped these expressions of the energy of her party by sending up to the Council a Bill of Five Articles, demanding that she should be made regent, with very wide powers of government.^ But the other party was too strong, and by the time Parliament met at Westminster (not at Reading, as originally intended) on February 14th, the Duke of York had a commission from Council in the name of the king to open the proceedings. The usual business was trans- acted ; Thorpe was still left in the Tower, and a new Speaker was elected ^ ; the defence of Calais was taken into consideration ; a sad and wise Council was asked for. The way was made easier for York by the death, on March 23rd, of Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the kingdom.* He was a faithful friend of the Lancastrian house, a good man in his way, one of those sound and honest clerical statesmen who gave their talents and learning to the service of the secular govern- ment, leaving the work of their diocese to be performed largely by others. His last days were disturbed by threats of violence from the Duke of Norfolk, the over-zealous ' " Paston Letters," No. 235, ^ For the new Speaker, Thomas Charlton, see Wheth., i. pp. 136-7. ^ He had been translated from York to Canterbury in 1452. 1454] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 71 agent of the Duke of York. When the king, almost a year later, came back to consciousness, and learned that the archbishop was no more, he remarked that one of the wisest lords in the land was dead.^ One more attempt was made to extract some sign of volition from the king at Windsor, but without effect. Accordingly, on March 27th the Peers took the inevitable step and appointed a Protector. The choice fell on the Duke of York, the claims of Margaret being passed over in silence. The period of the Duke of York's first Protectorate seems to have been comparatively peaceful. England had been suffering so long from lack of governance, that the presence of a strong man at the head of affairs could not but be beneficial. The Protectorate, indeed, was short- lived, and it was not in any sense epoch-making, although some useful work was done in Parliament. But in an old- established country like England there was already a good condition of society in the country, if only peace and order could prevail. The duke, in his short time, did something to give that peace and order. The period of the Protec- torate was to be limited by the duration of the king's infirmity or the coming of age of the Prince Edward. The Council also appointed York Captain of Calais, in place of the Duke of Somerset, for a period of seven years. Thus he was at the head both of the home government and of all that was left of the English possessions abroad. The places vacated by the death of the Chancellor, Archbishop Kemp, were filled up ; the Earl of Salisbury was made Chancellor, and the Bishop of Ely, Thomas Bourchier, was made Archbishop of Canterbury. But the existing ministers, except Somerset, seem not to have been displaced. The king's son, Edward, was created Prince of Wales on June 9th. A French fleet was beaten off from Jersey and Guernsey, the islanders killing or capturing no less than 500 of the enemy. The Duke of York visited the turbulent North of England, where a feud was going 1 " Paston Letters," No, 270, 72 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1454 on between the Nevilles and the Percies. The Percies were supported by the Duke of Exeter, a most vigorous opponent of York's. But Exeter, after giving a good deal of trouble, including the difficulty of getting him out of sanctuary in Westminster, was safely lodged in the royal castle of Pontefract. A strong bench of judges, including the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and a Justice of the King's Bench, was sent into Yorkshire to deal with all criminal cases; so the hand of the law extended into the most disturbed area in England.^ The Earl of Devonshire, who was an old partisan of the Duke of York, and who, with Lord Cobham, had been the only great supporter of the duke in the critical military demonstration at Dartford in 1452, now broke the peace by a private war against the Lord Bonvile. York had him at once arrested. Lord Cobham was already in prison for having taken arms for York at Dartford ; but the duke let justice take its course, and made no attempt to release him.^ The Duke of Somerset was kept in the Tower without a trial. York has been blamed for denying justice to him. But consider- ing the charges which York had so often brought against Somerset, and also taking into account the latter's great unpopularity, one cannot help thinking that perhaps the duke was as well without a trial at this time. It prob- ably saved his life. So matters went on, till suddenly Henry recovered his senses at the end of the year, Christmas 1454. The recovery was as sudden and mysterious as the illness had been. Two days after Christmas the pious king ordered his almoner to ride to Canterbury with a thank-offering. On the 30th the queen brought his fourteen-months old son to him. The king asked what his son's name was ; and when the queen told him Edward, Henry held up his hands and thanked God. "And he said he never kpew till that time, nor wist not what was said to him, 1 " Paston Letters," No. 247 (8th June). 2 See Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 173. 1455] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 73 nor wist not where he had been while he hath been sick till now." The good Bishop Waynflete of Winchester and the Prior of St John saw him on January 7th, and when they found him speaking just Hke his old self they wept for joy. Henry was a glad man now, for he had recovered his wits fully, and had a son to succeed him ; and " he was in charity with all the world, and so he would all the Lords were."^ Well might he say so, for his recovery was really the occasion of renewed party strife and of sanguinary warfare. The first public step which Henry took was to make certain changes in the government. It was these changes that made York feel that his life was in danger, ^ and that the evils from which the land had suffered before the king's illness were to be renewed. He could not complain because he was no longer Protector. That office necessarily and properly came to an end with the recovery of the king. But he was alarmed at the other changes. A speech made by him to his supporters shows his sentiments clearly. It is reported in different words by the chroniclers, Whethamstede and Waurin ; the form of the reports is obviously apocryphal, but they agree so closely in substance that we cannot doubt their sense is authentic.^ The duke complained that Somerset had not merely been released from the Tower, but had been restored to the closest intimacy with the king ; that the man who already had lost England, Normandy, and Guienne, was now in a position to ruin the whole kingdom. Henry had obtained the release of Somerset on Feb- ruary 7th, and a month later restored to him the Captaincy of Calais, disregarding the appointment of York, which had been made during the king's illness to last for seven years. The Earl of Salisbury, another of York's appointments, ceased at the same time to be Chancellor. His place was filled by the Archbishop of Canterbury. John Tiptoft, ' " Paston Letters," No. 270. '^ Wheth., i. pp. 164-5 ; Waurin, p. 266. 74 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [145S Earl of Worcester, was removed from the Treasurership, and his place given to the queen's favourite, the Earl of Wiltshire. The dispute between York and Somerset was referred to arbitration ; a board of peers was to give judg- ment within two months, and each duke had to enter into a bond for 20,000 marks (;^I3,333. 6s. 8d.) as a pledge that they would accept the peers' award. York had no confidence in the arbitration ; this being so, he ought not to have agreed to accept it. It is clear he did not act with absolute honesty. Nor, on the other hand, was he treated quite fairly. For though he had held with distinction the greatest office in the kingdom only three months back, he now found himself no longer summoned to the Council table. The king had lost no time in letting the old clique become his sole advisers ; York and his friends were left out. Finally the king summoned a Great Council of Peers to meet at Leicester. This time York was summoned, but he feared he was only called for his condemnation. It is stated that at this time York went into the north, and called to himself the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury, and made the above-mentioned speech to them. It is not clear where exactly this meeting took place ; Waurin says it was in the city of York, but that is hardly likely. The earls agreed there was no resource left but arms. So with a band of retainers and livery- men they started off on their great adventure ; their forces numbered about 3,000 men.i On May 21st they addressed a memorial to the king, saying that they came to show their faith and allegiance, and begging him not to give confidence to the sinister, malicious, and fraudulent labours of their enemies, but to admit York and the earls to his presence.2 This was on May 2 1st, and was sent from Ware, in Hertfordshire. It is said that Somerset prevented the memorial ever reaching the king, but whether this is 1 Wheth., i. p. 167. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 282. 1455] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 75 true or not makes no difference, for Henry could not now in honour liave considered York's demands, unless the duke would lay down arms and dismiss his unlawful forces. A letter had also been sent to Archbishop Bourchier the day before ; this letter, which states that York only took up arms under compulsion, owing to the suspicions of the government towards him, is interesting as a sort of appeal to public opinion as represented by the highest dignitary of the Church in England and by the first constitutional adviser of the crown. But on the 21st the king with his forces had reached Watford from Westminster. They spent the night at Watford, and next day advanced to St Albans and took up their position inside the town. The Duke of York, with his men, was in the Key Field, just outside the town, by the river Ver.^ The town of St Albans, although one of the most ancient in England, had never achieved the dignity of the other municipalities ^ ; throughout the fifteenth century it was still subordinate to the abbey and within the jurisdic- tion of the lord abbot. This is probably the reason why it had no walls nor military defences at that time ; the monastery of St Albans would not let the townspeople or "villeins" gird themselves, like other cities, with a great wall, lest they should become too independent and filled with the corporate spirit. The monks would expect that under the shadow of this rich and powerful monastery, and hedged round by the sanctity of the Catholic Church, the town would be immune from the troubles of war. But the influence of the monastery could not save the town from being the scene of two sanguinary battles, nor did the presence of the monastery soften for the townspeople the calamities that war brings to peaceful inhabitants. The intimate connection of St Albans with the Wars of the Roses accounts for the excellence of the information in the 1 " Paston Letters," No. 283 ; Wheth., i. p. 167. 2 A charter of incorporation was granted to St Albans by Edward VI. 76 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l45S register of the second abbacy of John Whethamstede, which is one of the chief authorities for this period. The king erected his banner in St Peter's Street. One estimate gives his forces at 3,000, another at "2,000 and more." ^ The Duke of York also had about 3,000. The entrances to the town were barricaded and held against the Yorkists. So the hostile forces waited from seven in the morning till ten o'clock. Another attempt at pacifica- tion took place, but broke down on the Duke of York demanding that Somerset should be handed over to him. This Henry naturally refused to do ; " rather than they shall have any Lord here with me at this time, I shall this day, for their sake, and in this quarrel myself live or die." ^ The Duke of York recognised, too, that he must submit his demands to the arbitrament of the sword, and between eleven and twelve o'clock his forces were led to assault the town. But Lord Clifford defended the main barriers so that York could not effect an entrance. It was the young Earl of Warwick (he was now twenty-seven years old) who actually turned the defences of the king's side. For while York's assault on the barriers was fully occupying the attention of the defenders, Warwick got his men together in one body and rushed through the gardens between the Key Inn and the Chequer Inn, which stood in Holwell or Holywell Street. Once within the town they gave a great shout, " A Warwick ! A Warwick ! " as a signal for York's men to redouble their attack, and keeping close together they set upon Lord Clifford's men from behind. The Lancastrians did not stand long, for the whole fight was over in half an hour. The king's forces cannot have fought very persistently, otherwise the struggle would have lasted much longer, especially if the defenders had taken to the houses and maintained an irregular warfare from the narrow streets. But St Albans was not like Carthage or Jerusalem ; the inhabitants had no desperate determination to defend their 1 " Paston Letters," Nos. 283, 284. '- Ibid., No. 283. 1455] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 77 homes to the last. To them the fight was an alien struggle between the king with his lords and retainers, against some other great lords with their retainers. Even the forces on either side did not fight with any great deter- mination ; the rank and file seemed to have very little interest in the struggle ; when the tide turned against them they turned and fled. The killed did not number more than 120.^ Only the nobles fought as if some principle was at stake ; the roll of their dead, compared with the total number killed, was tremendous. The handsome Earl of Wiltshire, it is true, fled with Thorpe, and they " left their harness behind them cowardly." But the rest stayed till they died, or only left the field wounded. The Duke of Somerset was killed fighting for the cause, which was his more than the king's. The Earl of Northumberland, like so many Percies, met his death thus in an internecine war ; Lord Clifford, the defender of the great barricade, lost his life there, with knights and squires. Among the wounded were the Duke of Buckingham, struck by an arrow in the face — he escaped to the sanctuary of the abbey ; his son, Lord Stafford, struck by an arrow in the hand ; the Earl of Dorset, so grievously hurt that he had to be carried home in a cart. The king himself, left all alone by his standard in St Peter's Street, refused to fly in the face of defeat, although wounded by an arrow in the neck. Finally he took refuge in the house of a small tradesman until the Duke of York came to him. On the Yorkist side the losses were few, but Lord Clinton was killed and also Sir Robert Ogle, who had led 600 men from the Welsh march, and had done good service in fighting his way to the Market Place. The Duke of York's influence on the Welsh march had stood him in good stead, for the light Welsh archers were now probably the best in England, and the execution done by bow and ^ " Paston Letters," No. 285. The highest estimate was 400, ibid.^ No. 284. 78 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1455 arrow explains to a certain extent the small losses on the Yorkist side. It should be remembered that an earlier Richard, King Richard II., who had declared the house of March (the Duke of York's house) to be his heir, had kept a bodyguard of archers from the Welsh border who were devoted to him. The phrase, Welsh archers, does not necessarily mean simply men of Welsh blood. It compre- hended any who came from the turbulent march, from Chester, Shrewsbury, Hereford. Whethamstede remarks that the king's men, who were drawn mainly from East Anglia, were of a much softer type.^ St Albans was a great victory for the Duke of York. He had risked his fortune on the issue of the day and won. Had he chosen to wait one more day he would have fought with greater chances of success, although the result would not have been better. For on the day after the battle the Duke of Norfolk arrived with, it is said, 6,000 men ; and the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Cromwell, and Sir Thomas Stanley were following with no less than 10,000 men. When the Duke of York came to the king, who was in the house of a small tradesman, he protested that he was a faithful liegeman of the crown, ready to show this with all his men, now or at any time. He congratulated Henry on the removal of the Duke of Somerset, whose death, he said, was a subject of joy to all the people. So he led the king reverently to the royal quarters in the town. And on the morrow, which was Friday, he escorted the king to London, where lodgings were prepared in the palace of the Bishop of London. Henry was kept there till the feast of Pentecost was past. A Parliament was summoned in the king's name, to meet at the earliest opportunity in July. The battle was disastrous to the town of St Albans itself; for the men who composed a great part of the Yorkist forces, men of the Welsh and North march, looked on the town as their legitimate spoil, the reward that came * Wheth., i. p. 169. 1455] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 79 to them, rarely enough, for their dangerous trade of war. They betook themselves, therefore, to the horrors of the sack, unchecked by the Duke of York. The abbey itself was only saved from spoliation, says Whethamstede, by the special intervention of St Alban. For it was owing to the saint, he explains, when the royal forces first came to St Albans, that the king did not take up his quarters in the monastery ; and so the fury of the Yorkists was not drawn to the monks.i The dead lay about the streets and open places of the town, and for fear of the Duke of York's anger no one dared to bury them. But the abbot, John Whethamstede, was moved to pity, hearing especially that the bodies even of the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and the Lord Clifford were still miserably lying in the street. So he boldly rebuked the Duke of York, and asked permission to bury them. Richard agreed. The three great lords were buried together in the Lady Chapel of the monastic church. Thus the Yorkist cause was triumphant. The king was virtually a prisoner in London. A Parliament was shortly to meet, and it may be surmised that any pressure brought to bear on the electors would not generally be unfavourable to the Yorkist cause. The Duke of Somerset was dead, and his removal was the only thing which York had consistently demanded as the sole condition necessary to bring about peace. Why was it, then, that peace did not ensue ? 1 Wheth., i. pp. 173-5. CHAPTER VII THE SECOND PROTECTORATE OF YORK AND THE SECOND RECONCILIATION AT ST PAUL'S There was no more open war for two years ; the kingdom enjoyed an armed peace. The credit for this must be given to the good king, to his spirit of forgiveness and self-sacrifice. He showed himself willing to forget the past, and now that the Duke of Somerset was no more, to allow York to be his chief adviser. But the queen looked further than this. In her eyes York was the enemy of her husband and of her son. If the young Prince Edward was ever to reign, York must never be given chief power. She looked around for support ; this she found, not merely within the country, but in the court of France, from her relative, Charles VII., and in Scotland — the Scottish king, James II. (through his mother, Joan Beaufort), being a first cousin of the late Duke of Somerset, and a first cousin, once removed, of Henry VI. The Duke of York, in the course of his career, had given Queen Margaret plenty of ground for uneasiness. But her determined and incessant opposition drove him further and quicker on the road towards resisting the crown. The Duke of Somerset was gone, but as long as the queen remained, the Duke of York could never be at complete peace with King Henry. It is useless to speculate on what might have been. Margaret's suspicions appear to have been justified by the subsequent actions of York. Yet her suspicions, and method of expressing them, may have had something to do with producing those subsequent actions. After the king's return to London the infliuence of the I455J THE WARS OF THE ROSES 8i Duke of York was immediately felt in a change of ministry. " There he made new certain officers," as one of the " Paston Letters" informs us, on May 2Sth, three days after the battle of St Albans.'- The offices held by the late Duke of Somerset were divided : York became Constable of England, while Warwick, who had played a distinguished part at St Albans, became Captain of Calais ; thus one controlled all the forces of the crown inside England, while the other controlled the royal forces which were stationed outside the country. The Earl of Wiltshire, who had fled from the battle of St Albans, was superseded as Treasurer by Lord Bourchier, whose brother was already Archbishop and Chancellor. Then the great men dispersed for a time, to prepare themselves for the coming Parliament, which, it was hoped, would do much to settle the affairs of the nation. The king and queen, with their young son, went to Hertford ; the Duke of York found hospitality in the monastery at Ware ; Warwick, taking his captives and the Earl of Dorset with him, took up his quarters at Hunsdon ; his father, the Earl of Salisbury, at Rye. It is obvious that the chief Yorkists did not mean to go far from London, lest some stroke should be attempted against them there. Three of Henry's servants were thought to have planned an assassination of York in the king's chamber, but when examined on this point the men were able to clear themselves. Meanwhile careful efforts were made by the Yorkist lords to secure the return of favourable members of Parliament. The Duchess of Norfolk, on behalf of her husband, wrote to John Paston on June 8th, requesting him to use his influence to secure the election in Norfolk of John Howard (a cousin of the duke's) and Sir Roger Chamberlain.^ John Paston was only a private gentleman, and there could be little objection to his canvassing in the interests of the duke's nominees. But he apparently took a more direct way, and communicated with the under- 1 " Paston Letters," No. 285. 2 /^^^^^ No. 288. 6 82 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l455 sheriff himself, who was acting as returning officer at the elections in the county court. But after the elections were held the under-sheriff informed him that the voting had been in favour of Master Burney, Master Grey, and Paston himself Nevertheless the duke's nominees, Howard and Chamberlain, were the names returned on writs as knights of the shire, and they took their seats when Parliament met.i The Commons chose for Speaker an active Yorkist, Sir John Wenlock. This Parliament had a chequered career. Its first session lasted twenty-two days (July 9th to July 31st). One of the chief pieces of business that was done was to clear the memory of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who died under suspicion of treason in 1447. As chief of the war party towards the end of the Hundred Years' War he had been much opposed by the Beauforts and Queen Margaret. He was now publicly declared in Parliament to have been clear of any taint of treason.^ This curious and belated action of Parliament can have had no other cause at this time than a desire on the part of the victorious Yorkists to justify a great opponent of the queen, and hence to show that their own opposition had a good precedent. Following this vindication of Gloucester's memory came a vindication of all who had lately fought against the king. A declaration was made on behalf of the Duke of York, and all the lords, knights, squires, archers, and the rest who had fought at St Albans. Their innocence was established, so that no legal action could be taken against any. of them for deeds done in connection with the battle. The responsibility for the late troubles was put upon Edmund, Duke of Somerset, who was now dead, Thomas Thorpe, Baron of the Exchequer, who was now a prisoner in the Tower, and Sir William Joseph, one of the king's household. ' See note 1 of Gairdner, " Paston Letters," ill. p. 38. '-^ Wheth., i. pp. 178-81. 1455] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 83 Time was also found to consider measures for the defence of England from its foreign foes, the French and Scots, especially the latter, whose king " with the red face " had this year besieged Berwick, although unsuccessfully.^ For a time it did not seem as if the peace of England was going to be any better kept in spite of this Parliament ; for two great Yorkist lords, the Earl of Warwick and Lord Cromwell, disputed in front of King Henry, each one trying to shift the full responsibility for the fight at St Albans upon the other. Poor Henry must have been puzzled by this argument, which struck him, no doubt, as an attempt on the part of the pot to call the kettle black. Lord Cromwell began to be afraid of his life, even in London itself under the king's peace, and by his own request he had himself shut up for safety in the house of the Earl of Shrewsbury. For the Earl of Warwick and other great Yorkists were trusting to no peace, but were going about with their armour on and with their weapons ; their barges, which they used daily on the river between their houses and Westminster, were " full of weapons " too.^ The king thereupon made a proclamation against the bearing of arms, but it is unlikely that the order was obeyed. The Yorkist lords were evidently afraid of a counter-revolution. But they took a new oath of allegiance to Henry to show their loyalty. A week later the Parliament was prorogued '(July 31st). Less than three months afterwards the king was again ill. The country, it is clear, had not been much quieter in respect of local troubles. The county of Norfolk, as the " Paston Letters " show, was never quiet in the reign of Henry VI. But there is evidence from other counties too. In Devonshire, in October, there was a very bad case of arson and murder. The Lancastrian Earl of Devonshire had a quarrel with the Yorkist Lord Bonvile. Accord- ingly the earl's son went one night with a band of men ' " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 70. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 299. 84 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1456 and set fire to the house of one Radford, a friend of Lord Bonvile's. Radford was an old man, and when taken away he prayed that he might be allowed to ride. But they forced him to walk. Before he had gone an arrow- shot from the house, his throat was cut. This was only one episode in the feud between the Earl of Devonshire and Lord Bonvile. A little later the two noblemen, with large forces, met in a pitched battle near Exeter. There is some doubt about the result of the battle, but any- how the Earl of Devonshire was able to plunder Exeter Cathedral.^ The strain of affairs had again been too much for Henry. He had probably never been quite right since the wound and the shock he received at the battle of St Albans. His malady was the same as had attacked him in 1454, although now it was in a less acute form. Anyhow he was incapacitated from the task of govern- ment, and some form of regency or protectorship had to be arranged. The Parliament which had been prorogued in July met again on November 12th ; and after the usual formalities, the lords appointed the Duke of York to be , Protector. This position he held for the rest of the year and till February 1456, when the king again recovered his reason. This period — the Duke of York's second Protectorate, and the ensuing time till the renewal of the civil war — is a somewhat inglorious one for England. Three things are to be noted about it. Firstly, the king's peace really extended no further than the limits of the court, but within those limits the efforts of the king were not without effect. Secondly, local fights and disorders continued, riots in London and armed outbreaks in the counties. Thirdly, the frontiers of England were not safe : the king of Scots, James H., had repudiated a truce made in 1453, and although the English government threatened much, it did 1 "Paston Letters," No. 303, and Gairdner's Intro., "Paston Letters," i. pp. 166-7. 1456] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 85 nothing. Worse than this, the French, having previously suffered so long from Enghsh invasions, were not now to be deterred from setting foot on English soil, and plunder- ing one of the Cinque Ports. The second protectorate of York was too short to have much effect. But one thing is significant. The Commons showed more zeal in procuring the appointment of the duke than did the Lords. However, the king soon recovered, and the Protectorate came to an end. Parlia- ment had met again on January 14th, 1456. It must have been known that the king was in a fair way to recovery, for York and Warwick took the precaution of coming up to Parliament with 300 men, in coats of mail and brigandines,^ although none of the other lords brought armed companies. By February 9th the king was well again ; but according to the terms of the appointment, York's Protectorate did not necessarily come to an end till the king relieved him of it. Henry showed some inclination to continue him in office, not, of course, as Protector, but as "chief councillor and lieutenant." But the queen, " a great and strong labourid woman," ^ was not likely to allow Henry to do this. York was accordingly relieved of his office of Protector, and left without an official position. From this point the condition of the government becomes one of drifting. The ordinary machinery of government had for long been greatly disturbed : the revenue was in a bad state. The good king was too easily prevailed upon, and the result was a kind of extravagance which it is always very difficult to stop — extravagance not on himself, but in gifts to his friends, or to charitable foundations.^ Accordingly a Bill was introduced and passed, to the effect that the king should take back everything that he had given away since the first days of his reign : " all honours, castles, lordships, vills, villates, manors, lands, tenements, wastes, forests, chaces, rents, reversions, fees, farms, services, issues, profits 1 " Paston Letters," No. 322. ^ /^^-^ 3 Wheth., i. p. 251. 86 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1456 of county, presentations of priories, churches, hospitals, or free chapels, and all other revenues and what pertains to them." This Act, though passed, could never be carried out ; its manifest injustice made it impossible. It would have made all property in England insecure, and would have put into the hands of the officials charged with its administration a power of extortion, blackmail, and personal maliciousness which would speedily have pro- voked revolution. It will be remembered how the " Reduction Office " of Sweden, two hundred years later, became an engine of extortion and tyranny. Before Parliament was dissolved the Earl of Warwick was confirmed in his position as Captain of Calais. This was the strongest point left in the Duke of York's position. The political history of England now becomes very scanty. The erudite historian of the period notices that for nearly two years (January 1456 to November 1457) the records of the Privy Council are blank.^ Yet the result was better than might have been expected. " The peace is well kept," wrote John Bocking to John Paston on May 8th,^ although there was trouble in London between the citizens and the foreign merchants. The different parties were watching each other ; the king was sometimes in London, later at Shene, then Coventry. The Duke of York was much at his castle of Sandal, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The queen, with the young prince, took up her abode in the castle of Tutbury (where Mary Queen of Scots was subsequently imprisoned), in Staffordshire, — doubtless in order that she might be prepared for any movements of the Duke of York. The Duke of Buckingham, the faithful but not very vigorous supporter of the house of Lancaster, spent part of his time at Writtle, in Essex, rather ill at ease, because the Londoners were so much of the party of the Duke of York. The Earl of Warwick knew better than to go to ' Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 168. ^ " Paston Letters," No. 331. 14561 THE WARS OF THE ROSES 87 his command in Calais : for the next two months (May, June) he stayed quietly in the castle of Warwick ; no doubt he kept his armour bright all the time, and his artillery powder in a safe dry place. So the parties were dispersed till the middle of the year. The queen moved up to Chester, but York stayed on at Sandal : " he waiteth on the Queen, and she upon him."^ But he did not neglect his trusty citizens of London : the Earl of Salisbury and the two Bourchier brothers. Chancellor and Treasurer, were staying there. About the middle of August the king left London, and met the queen ; and with them the whole court went on a regular and prolonged progress through the Midlands. After visiting various places they settled at Coventry, and in October a Council was summoned there.^ The Duke of York was not excluded ; and there he came face to face with the young Duke of Somerset, a worthy successor of his father, and a determined and valiant opponent of York. Some changes were made in the ministry : Bishop Waynflete of Winchester succeeded Archbishop Bourchier as Chancellor, the Earl of Shrewsbury succeeded Lord Bourchier as Treasurer. But these changes cannot be considered as inimical to the Duke of York ; they certainly annoyed the king's strong supporter, the Duke of Buckingham, who was half-brother to the two Bourchiers. Waynflete was no partisan, and Shrewsbury was a Yorkist. The Duke of York, in fact, was on very good terms with the king, as indeed no one could help being if given a fair chance. But the queen did not tend to sweeten their intercourse. No doubt York was not very conciliatory to her ; indeed, had not the Duke of Buckingham exercised a timely influence, he might have stood in some danger at the hands of the queen's men. About the middle of October, the king with the court moved on to Chester. Winter of this year (1456) and spring of the next were 1 " Paston Letters," No. 334. 2 Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 70 ; " Paston Letters," No. 345. 88 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l4S7-8 spent at one place or another in the west, with a view possibly to divert pleasantly the delicately balanced mind of the king. In February 1457 they were at Coventry again, where a Great Council was held, and a peace made between the Duke of Somerset and the Earls of ■^457 Warwick and Salisbury, with whom the duke had a family feud, on account of the death of his father at the battle of St Albans.^ In May the court was at Hereford, and the disorders of the march were temporarily quietened by the king's presence.^ In the autumn the court moved back gradually to London, and a Great Council was held at Westminster, attended by all the great lords, including Richard of York. The proceedings chiefly concerned the trial of Bishop Pecock of Chichester for heresy.^ At the end of the month the Council dis- persed for Christmas, to meet again on January 27th. Thus the year 1457 closed in comparative peace. This happy and unusual condition of affairs must have caused much joy to the king, who would feel that his „ prayers had been answered. Now was the time * to set a seal upon it all by some public demonstra- tion of concord. So the king resolved that the Great Council should meet again on January 26th,* in order that the magnates under his influence might arrange some mutual and final reconciliation. So the great men came up to London, one after another, not punctually, however, and with no great display of enthusiasm. Each nobleman showed his distrust of the others by bringing with him to town a hundred or two sturdy fighters, dressed in their lords' particular livery. The king, who had probably been spend- ing Christmas at Windsor, came up to Westminster at the appointed time, and seems to have found very few there. This indifference and lack of common courtesy shown by the lords must have been a blow to Henry, finding himself thus treated as a man of no account. But the Duke of ^ Gregory, p. 203. 2 md,^ p_ ug, ^ Wheth., i. pp. 28 1 -g. * Ibid., i. p. 296. 1458] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 89 York, to his credit, was punctually at the appointed place, bringing with him, as a contemporary letter-writer rather quaintly says, " his own household only, to the number of 140 horse." 1 Evidently a lord who brought only one strong squadron of cavalry was showing studied moderation. Anyhow, he was not shamelessly breaking the laws against livery and maintenance, if he called them all of his own household. The third greatest Yorkist, the Earl of Salisbury (Warwick's father), was there too, with no less than 400 horsemen of the rank and file, and 80 knights and squires. Warwick, who had been at his post at Calais, would have arrived by this time too, but contrary winds delayed him. The Lancastrian lords seemed not so ready to appear. The Duke of Somerset was nearly a week late (January 31st), while the Duke of Exeter was not expected till the following week, coming with "a great fellowship and strong." When, at last, most of the great lords had come together, the Council was formally held, and the king made a speech on the subject of peace, reminding them at the end that God is charity, and that he who lives in charity lives in God, and God in him. And having made his speech, he retired with his household to the royal manor of Berk- hampstead, so that, untrammelled by his proximity, the lords might freely discuss the affair. The rich city of London was left with the lords and some thousands of armed and unscrupulous retainers; but the civic authorities, although anxious, knew how to take care of themselves, and seem to have organised a sufficient and competent police. The debates of the magnates progressed favourably. The king was near enough to be visited by lords who wished to confer with him. His desire for peace would not receive less attention because of the timely arrival of the Lancastrian Earl of Northumberland with three to four thousand people. These were not received inside the 1 " Paston Letters," No. 364. 90 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1458 city ; for the Londoners approved only of the Yorkist lords. The discussions seem to have taken place not in the Council chamber at Westminster, but in separate party conferences ; the lords (Yorkist) who lodged within the city meeting at the Black Friars, those (Lancastrian) who lodged without the city meeting at the White Friars in Fleet Street.^ By March iSth it was believed that sufficient agreement had been reached for the king and queen to come to London to celebrate it. The magnates offered to submit to his award, which was given on March 24th as follows : there was to be peace, love, and concord between everyone, and old scores were to be wiped away. In satisfaction of all animosities which had arisen out of the battle of St Albans and the troubles of that time, the Yorkist lords were to offer a certain com- pensation. On the one hand were named Richard, Duke of York, the Earl of Warwick, and the Earl of Salisbury ; on the other, Henry, Duke of Somerset, and his widowed mother, Henry, Earl of Northumberland, and his mother, John, Lord Clifford, and his brothers and sisters. Thus two distinct parties were recognised : the Yorkist party, which had conquered at St Albans, and the Lancastrian party, whose chiefs had suffered death at that battle. The Yorkist lords were to wipe away the bitterness of those deaths by giving in perpetuity to the monastery of St Albans £4$ annually, to be spent in masses for the souls of the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and Lord Clifford, who were buried there. Further, the Duke of York was to pay over to the Dowager Duchess of Somerset and her son, the present duke, the sum of S,ooo marks (;£'3,333. 6s. 8d.), from the wages which the crown still owed him for his services in Ireland. The wording of the award seems to imply that Richard was to find the money, and the crown would consider its own debt to him discharged. In the same way the Earl of Warwick was to give Lord Clifford 1,000 marks from the wages which the ' " Paston Letters," No. 366. 1458] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 91 crown owed the earl. The Earl of Salisbury, as his share of the compensation, was to pay back to the Earl of Northumberland, if he had already received them, the 8,000 marks which the latter had been adjudged to pay him in a lawsuit lately held in the sessions of Oyer and Terminer in the county of York. The parties concerned in this award were to enter into bonds in Chancery for " great sums," as a guarantee that they would obey.'- Next day the great lords went with the king in a procession to St Paul's, to celebrate the reconciliation. The pious king rode at the head, clad in the robes of majesty, happy in being the peace-maker of his people ; the others, former enemies, followed, arranged amicably in pairs, according to their rights of precedence, ranging from the queen, who came second, on the arm of the Duke of York. And all people were rejoiced to see the " lovely countenance " that was between them. " When charite is chosen with states to stonde Stedfas and skille without distaunce, Than wrathe may be exilede out of this londe, And God our guide to have the governaunce. Wisdom and wellthe, with alle plesaunce. May rightful regne, and prosperite ; For love hath underlaide wrathful venjaunce, Rejoise, Anglonde, oure lordes acordede to be." " This, the second great reconciliation at St Paul's (the first was after the Duke of York's unsuccessful show of force at Dartford in 1452), marks the highest point in the two years' peace — or comparative peace — which followed the first battle of St Albans. The king, having success- fully finished this good work, was able to take his rest for a time. It must not be assumed that there was an entire absence of local disorder during this period of two years. But it was less acute than formerly. Nevertheless there are a few striking instances. Although King Henry by his » Wheth., i. p. 296 ff. 2 " Pol Poems," ii. p. 254. 92 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l457 presence did much to bring quiet to the districts which he visited, yet even the puriieus of the court were not free from violence. The liverymen of the magnates could not help coming into collision with the civic authorities ; for the noble profession of arms becomes debased when it serves only private ends, or is not guided by an honest and powerful government. Ten years' weak rule in England was alluring the soldiery to assume something of the character which we see in the condottieri of the Italian republics, or the mercenaries of the Thirty Years' War. And yet the condition of England never became really bad ; for the growing middle class in town and country was an obstacle to disorder, while the leaders among the nobility showed a praiseworthy desire to avoid the plunder of the peaceful people. The difficulty was that there were too many masters : sovereignty was divided between the king, the magnates, and the chartered municipalities. When the king with the court was at Coventry in October 1456, an affi-ay arose between the men of the Duke of Somerset and the watchmen of the city. It is difficult to see how the affray could have arisen at all, except through the duke's men wantonly infringing the quiet of the streets. Some of the men of the town (two or three, say the " Paston Letters ") were killed ; the alarm bell, the tocsin of the citizens, was rung, " the town arose," and we can imagine the citizens pouring out of their houses, each hastily tieing the strings of his quilted tunic, burning now for a hard blow at the courtiers, at whose supercilious manners the good townsmen had been chafing. Matters would have gone hard with the men of Somerset had not the Duke of Buckingham, whose influence was regularly exercised on the side of peace and moderation, come up and managed to allay the strife.^ In the West of England it was seldom that absolute quiet prevailed. Although the Duke of York was strong 1 " Paston Letters," No. 348. 1457] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 93 on the Welsh march around Ludlow, yet further south, in the Severn Valley, the cause of King Henry had a good following. Jasper Tudor, son of Queen Catherine's second marriage, and therefore half-brother to Henry VI., was Earl of Pembroke ; his family had strong local influence, as Henry VH. found thirty years later when he landed at Milford Haven. But at this time there was a small war going on between the Earl of Richmond (Edmund Tudor, brother of the Earl of Pembroke) and a Welsh chieftain whose name was reported as Griffith Suoh.^ This tumult was more than a mere local trouble ; it seems to have involved the causes of Lancaster and York, for nearly a year later (May 1st, 1457) fighting was still going on, the head of the rebellion being now Sir William Herbert, a determined Yorkist, who subsequently gained for himself the earldom of Pembroke after Jasper Tudor had been attainted. But the presence of the king and queen at Hereford seems to have had a salutary effect, and to have brought about a pacification with the rebellious Herbert. Yet it was not merely in the outlying parts of the country that the din of arms was still heard. " The commons of Kent, as they were wont, are not well disposed, for there is in doing among them, whatever it be." ^ Some- thing was evidently threatened in Kent, where the king's party was unpopular ; but for the time it came to nothing. In London, however, a real fight arose. The cause was not political, but economic. The Lombards or Italian merchants, from the great commercial republics of Venice and Florence, did much business in the city, as may be judged from the present name of Lombard Street, with its long tradition of banking and of stable business enterprise. But in the fifteenth century the chief business of the Italian merchants in London lay probably in wool, of which com- modity they acted as brokers on a large scale for the needs of the countries round the Mediterranean. Their cities, especially Venice, still held "the gorgeous East in fee,' 1 "Paston Letters," No. 334 (June 1456). ^ /^^-^ 94 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1457 for although the Turk had now captured Constantinople (1453), the alternative route from the East, round the Cape of Good Hope, had not yet been discovered. The wines of the Mediterranean countries, still more the silks and spices of Asia, were carried by the Italian cities ; Western Europe stood permanently in their debt. Accordingly, the com- mercial resources of the Italian merchants were enormous, their influence correspondingly great. But in the Middle Ages foreigners were never popular in England ; first the prosperous Jews, then the opulent Italian merchants, were regarded with bitter jealousy by the merchants at home. For although their interests were ultimately the same, although the commanding position of the city, its riches, and its long history of honourable economic life would have been impossible without these foreigners, their enterprise, their capital, their connections, yet this truth was not always within the narrower purview of individual interests. And between individuals just causes of friction are always arising, and affect what would otherwise be the common interests of two interdependent classes. So in the years of peace, between the first battle of St Albans and the renewal of the war at Bloreheath, there was serious friction, — "a great hurling," ^ an English chronicler calls it, between the mercers of London, who dealt in cloth, and the resident Lombards, who dealt in cloth and wool. The forces which should have kept order, the mayor and aldermen, were on the side of the mercers ; so the Lombards were badly treated, some of them being seized and put in prison, while others for their safety left London and settled in Southampton and Winchester, where, in their opulent way, they leased old mansions, causing the landlords to spend much in repairs.^ But Henry summoned the chief mercer, William Cantelowe, to appear before him and the Council at Coventry. Cantelowe was forthwith arrested at the king's command, 1 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles,' p. 70. 2 Gregory, p. 199. 1457] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 95 and imprisoned by Lord Dudley in Dudley Castle. So it would seem that in the judgment of the Council, which was not likely to favour them, justice was on the side of the Lombards, Therefore those who had prepared to migrate from London to Winchester found it unnecessary to do so, and the leases which they had taken of the old mansions were cancelled. Accordingly the landlords who had made great repairs in their mansions for the new- comers were left to face a loss.^ When the court moved up to London, a collision, which would have renewed the Wars of the Roses at once, was with difficulty averted. A Great Council was summoned for November 1457. The Duke of York and the Earl of Salisbury came and abode in London. The Lancastrian chiefs were also to the fore, — the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland with his son. Lord Egremont, taking up lodgings between Temple Bar and Westminster. Their retainers filled all the houses around St Giles' Church. They were, it was believed, deliberately massing themselves for an attack on the Duke of York and his party. The Earl of Warwick hastened over from Calais to help the duke and his father. But the Londoners had no desire that a sanguinary battle should be fought in the heart of their city. So the mayor, Geoffrey Bolleyn, collected a strong force from the citizens, and showed so firm a determination to prevent any breach of the peace that no rising took place.^ It is significant that when civil war did break out again in September 1459, it was in the turbulent and remote Welsh march, where an orderly municipal life like that of the Londoners was almost unknown. The period between the first outbreak of civil war at St Albans in 14SS, and the second great outbreak at Blore- heath in 1459, was indeed one of comparative peace and order — one of the best periods of Henry VI. 's reign. And ' Gregory, p. 199, " That causyd grete loste unto the londe lordys." 2 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 71. 96 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1457 yet, as has been indicated, the control exercised by the government was weak, and breaches of the king's peace were by no means unknown. Nor were the frontiers of the kingdom kept inviolate, in spite of the activity shown by the Earl of Warwick as Captain of Calais. The king of England was no longer lord of the Narrow Seas. A not unnatural reaction from the English invasions of France in the Hundred Years' War is seen in French raids on the coast of Kent. An obnoxious feature of the period is the attitude of Queen Margaret, who was secretly in com- munication with the French invaders. A great raid was made upon Sandwich on August 28th, 1457. The leaders were Pierre de Bresse, or de Br^ze, Seigneur de Warenne and Seneschal of Normandy, and Robert de Floquet, Bailly of Evreux. They are said to have come at the invitation of Queen Margaret.^ These two, with some other Norman lords, left Harfleur on the 25 th with 4,000 men and a good supply of artillery. They cruised along the coast of Sussex and Kent, but found no favourable place for landing till they came to a spot six miles from Sandwich. On Sunday, August 28th, at six o'clock in the morning, the seneschal landed with 800 men, and, marshalling them in three companies, he set out on foot, the ships, as much as possible, keeping in touch with him from the sea. The only difficulty which the French at first found in their march was the badness of the road. The English government, by its apathy or feebleness, seemed to have done everything else that was necessary to make their journey easy. But shortly after- wards they found some real opposition, when their way was barred by a ditch filled with water, and a " bulwark " made from the earth thrown up out of the ditch. After a sharp fight the bulwark was taken ; the defenders made off to Sandwich, and the French continued their march, without troubling to take the precaution, which they had 1 See Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 175, quoting M. de Coucy. 1457] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 97 hitherto observed, of keeping a guard in advance and in the rear. Arriving at Sandwich, they were harassed by the firing of guns from a great " carrack " and three ships of war which the townsmen had manned in the harbour. But on the Seneschal of Normandy sending word to them that he would burn their ships unless they stopped firing, they did so, and remained quietly on the ships and ceased to annoy the Frenchmen. The seneschal then issued strict orders among his men that the property of churches should be respected, that no woman should be molested, that nothing should be set on fire, and that no one should be killed in cold blood. These orders are said to have been honourably carried out. The French then entered the town, and their ships made their way into the harbour. This part of their work was easy, but once inside the town they had several hours of hard fighting, the townspeople strenuously contesting every street, and being driven from one only to offer an equally valiant resistance in another. The narrow, winding streets, with the high, close-packed houses of a mediaeval town, offered splendid opportunities for this sort of defence, compared with the great squares and broad, straight streets of modern towns, which are constructed in this way partly to make any sort of irregular warfare on the part of the citizens impossible. By five o'clock the French were becoming exhausted ; many of their men were wounded, although none, it appears, slain. The men of Sandwich had many wounded too, and a few slain. Reinforcements were continually dropping in from the country around, and no doubt many more would have come had people seriously believed that the French had landed in England. When informed of the invasion people said they would believe it when they saw it. Accordingly they came, and were convinced when they found themselves skirmishing against the enemy. About five o'clock the French leaders, considering that the fight- ing had not slackened at all, and that their men were not in the best condition owing to the discomfort caused in 7 98 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1457 the cfossing by bad seas, gave the order to retire. So they retreated to their ships without serious loss, except for nine men, who, with three others, were holding a wicket upon a bridge against the English, when the planks gave way, and the nine men were plunged into the water and drowned. Some others had got intoxicated with the good wine they found, but they were got away to the ships without mishap. So on Sunday evening the French sailed back to the point at which they had originally landed, and near which their reserves were lying at sea. There they remained all Monday, much annoyed by a cannon which the English kept continually firing off at them from the shore. But no one molested them from the sea. On Tuesday they sailed back to Harfleur, taking with them the three great ships of war which they had captured in Sandwich harbour. When they reached Harfleur the prisoners (whose possible ransoms were a marketable commodity) were put up to auction, and all the booty taken was divided among the leaders and men, each one receiving his proper share.^ The expedition had been well managed, and had come at a time when the coast of England, except for the courage of the local inhabitants, was quite undefended. Such raids, though not unknown previously in English history, only came when the govern- ment was very weak, as in the earlier years of Richard II. and Henry IV. Next year, 1458, the Earl of Warwick, who was already Captain of Calais, was appointed Admiral, in place of the Duke of Exeter, who was compensated for his loss with ;^i,ooo out of the hanaper in Chancery.^ The change was entirely for the better ; the vigour of the new admiral soon made itself felt. Calais all this time was continually threatened with a siege from the French, or more often from the Duke of Burgundy, who regarded Calais as being 1 Waurin, pp. 385-8 ; " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," pp. 70-1, 153- ^ " Paston Letters," No. 366. 1457] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 99 his by rights. The victualling of the town was badly administered, but Warwick had done much to remedy this defect, by appealing for supplies to the patriotism of the men of Canterbury and Sandwich. A successful sally was made into the Boulonois with 800 men, and some valuable cargoes of Gascon wine were captured in ships.^ In the same year, on May 28th, 1458, the earl set out from Calais harbour with a squadron of 12 ships — 5 large "ships of forecastle," 3 carvels, and 4 pinnaces — to meet 28 sail of Spaniards, who were reported to be not far off. The Spanish fleet included 16 great "ships of forecastle" against Warwick's 5. At four o'clock on the morning of the 29th he met the enemy, and at once engaged them in one of the hardest, although not one of the longest, of England's sea fights. John Jerningham, one of Warwick's officers, at the very beginning boarded a Spanish ship of 300 tons, and took it with 23 men. But in turn he himself was captured and remained a prisoner for six hours. In the end, after a battle the like of which had not been seen " for 40 winters," the Spaniards were defeated with a loss of six ships captured, 240 men killed and 500 wounded. The English lost 80 men and 200 wounded.'^ This battle did much to regain for England control of the Narrow Seas, and especially it gave the Earl of Warwick that commanding position at Calais and on the sea which had so momentous a result for the Yorkist cause in the next few years. A short while after this battle against the Spaniards he set upon a fleet of merchantmen from Lubeck, which refused to lower its colours to the English flag. He captured 17 large and several smaller vessels, laden with salt.^ War with Scotland was only avoided owing to the instability of English policy. A significant feature about the government at this time is that it seems to have had 1 Waurin, p. 390. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 369. 3 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 71. loo THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l457 no definite representative for foreign affairs. The brief second Protectorate of the Duke of York came to an end on February 2Sth, 1456. And yet, just five months after this, he is found sending a despatch, almost an ultimatum, in the name of the royal government to the Scottish king, who had renounced the truce made in 14S3. Evidently the duke, although holding no special office, was still an official mouthpiece of the government. The message which he sent was very sharp and vigorous, and made it clear that the peace of the English frontier was not lightly to be broken. This despatch was followed next month, in August, by another from the duke to James II. In this Richard pointed out that the Scots king, having disregarded the last message, and having invaded the North of England, would now have to face a regular war at the hands of the Duke of York, acting for Henry VI. This was the proper way to act — never to threaten without following up the threats, if disregarded, with deeds. But just at this critical point the policy of the government suddenly changed ; and another despatch was hastily sent to the Scottish king cancelling the last, and declaring that the announcement of war had been sent without the king's authority.^ Whether this was true or not, it is equally discreditable to the organisation of the government, and eloquent of the way in which foreign affairs were mismanaged at this time. ' See Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 170. CHAPTER VIII THE BATTLE OF BLOREHEATH AND THE ATTAINDER OF THE YORKISTS For two years following the great reconciliation at St Paul's (March 25th, 1458), England had a very varied „ history. First there came eighteen months of outward peace, when affairs drifted on without any catastrophe ; then came an open battle in the land, with some thousands engaged on either side (September 23rd, 1459, at Bloreheath, in the county of Stafford) ; and, finally, the kingdom was for a time actually dismembered, England remaining under Henry VI., Ireland offering a safe refuge to the outlawed Duke of York, and Calais being held as a small but warlike sea state by the Earl of Warwick. At the end of this time (July 2nd, 1460) the Yorkists, from their strong base at Calais, came back to England to pursue a long, though not uninterrupted, career of victory. During these two years the figure of the Earl of Warwick stands out in bold relief; his vigour, ability, mental and physical vitality, shed a light of romance and adventure over the political quarrels of the time. As admiral of the seas, though repudiated by the king, his fame was sufficient to attract the best sailors of England to his flag ; as Captain of Calais he kept the city free from French and Burgundian alike, a safe refuge for all his fugitive friends. Royal ships, royal officers, came against him in vain ; they were met before they left the soil of England, and were carried off in triumph to Calais. When he himself replied by recrossing the Narrow Seas to England, he found the way open to London, almost with a triumphal progress. 102 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1459 The year 1458 would have ended quietly for the country but for an unfortunate fray in London, which might have cost the Earl of Warwick his life.^ He had been attending a Council at Westminster, apparently to give an account of his naval exploits, especially of his attack on some Lubeck merchantmen. As he was leaving the palace, and going towards his barge, a fight began between one of his followers and a servant of the court. The fight became general between Warwick's men and members of the royal house- hold ; and it was with the utmost difficulty that the earl fought his way to his barge and escaped by water with his men. It has been suspected that this fray was deliberately planned by the Lancastrian leaders in order to get rid of the great earl.^ Warwick did not feel himself safe till he had got back to his stronghold at Calais. But the Yorkists who were left behind in England did not feel themselves safe. Warwick, before going back to Calais, had found time to visit his father and the Duke of York. Together they had begun to concert measures for their safety, and for checking the party which was in the ascendancy at court ; but they agreed that no violence was to be offered to the person of the king.=* The queen and her friends meanwhile prepared for war. Thus it is impossible to say which side was responsible for the out- break of hostilities in September, for each had been making preparations all through the year. The journeys of the court in the western counties in the previous two years had not been without effect. The queen was now found to have quite a large party in her favour in the county of Chester, and also, it seems, in Hereford and Gloucester. Many of the gentlemen of Chester had accepted the livery, or rather the badge, of the young Prince Edward, a silver swan, and thus had bound themselves to his cause. It was even rumoured that the queen had proposed that King Henry should abdicate the ' The event is variously dated 1458 (Nov.) and 1459 (Feb.). 2 Waurin, p. 272. 3 j^j^^ ^ 275. 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 103 throne in favour of his son ; but this would have been the most fooHsh of moves, for no one objected to the king, but only to his wife and her friends.^ The king was not inactive. In April he was sending out Privy Seals to all the gentlemen whom he judged faithful, to be present at Leicester on May loth.^ But nothing seems to have come of this assembly. It was in the next two months that the queen was so active giving badges in the county of Chester. The Duke of York seems to have been living at Ludlow, where he had a strong castle, much property, and many friends and tenants. The Earl of Salisbury was in the north, at Middleham, in Yorkshire. The Earl of Warwick was at Calais, from which, in September, he is said to have made another successful descent upon a fleet of Spanish and Genoese merchantmen.'* The three great Yorkist chiefs kept, as far as possible, in communication with each other. As each side was collecting armed forces, and each distrusted the other, it is immaterial to discuss who moved first. Early in September the Earl of Salisbury moved southwards from Middleham, with 3,000 men,* to join the Duke of York at Ludlow. The king and queen had also strong forces in hand. The king was at Worcester with a body of men. Lord Audley was further north, raising the militia and gentlemen of Chester and Shrewsbury, with a commission from the king to arrest the Earl of Salisbury. He met the earl on September 23rd on Bloreheath, in Staffordshire, and a sharp battle ensued. The Yorkists were out-numbered by three to one ; but the wooded nature of the country was favourable to defence. They 1 See Thompson, "Wars of York and Lancaster," p. 58 (quoting Davies, " Eng. Chron."). 2 " Paston Letters," No. 377. => Wheth., i. p. 330. Gairdner (" Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 178, note) thinks this is a confusion with the sea fight of May 1458. * Wheth., i. p. 338. The numbers are variously estimated, but Gregory, p. 204, and " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 72, agree that the Lancastrians numbered three times as many as the Yorkists, I04 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1459 took up a position with a wood on one flank ; on the other they formed a barricade with their carts and baggage ; behind, to guard against a rear attack, they had dug a trench, and in front they planted stakes " after the manner of England."^ The battle was vigorously contested from one o'clock till five ; then, after Lord Audley had lost his life, the Lancastrian forces gave way, and the earl's men were left in possession of the field. But their position was by no means secure ; their victory had only given them a respite. A fresh royal army was not far off, the queen with one portion being only five miles distant, at Eccleshall, and the king with the rest only ten miles away. The Earl of Salisbury dared not stay on Bloreheath that night, lest he should be overwhelmed by the combined royal forces in the morning. On the other hand, if he left the field at once and continued his way to Ludlow, he would be followed by the resolute queen, and caught at an even greater disadvantage than if he stayed on the field. As it happened, however, his retreat [was cleverly concealed from the royal leaders, who imagined him to be spending the night after the battle on the field. In the evening he made off as quietly as he could with his forces, leaving his artillery behind him ; and an Austin friar who stayed too, kept firing off the guns all that night, so that the Lancastrians thought the earl's men were still encamped there. On the morning of the 24th the royal forces advanced to Bloreheath, and found it empty, save for the friar; and when they demanded of him what he did there, he said he had stayed in the field all night because he was afraid to leave it.^ Evidently the friar, who had been holding off 15,000 men all night, had a sense of humour as well as great courage. So the Earl of Salisbury with his men reached Ludlow safely. The eagles were gathering together, for the Earl of Warwick soon came up too. Leaving his father's 1 Waurin, p. 320. 2 Gregory, p. 204. 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 105 brother, Lord Fauconberg, in command of Calais, he had embarked for England, having on board with him 200 "lances," or men-at-arms, and 400 archers.^ He landed in Kent, where many men joined his standard, and so he passed on to London, where he was always a popular figure. He could have held London for the Duke of York, for all the king's men were with the king and queen in Staffordshire ; but he pressed on through the Midlands, passing near Coventry at Coleshill. The Duke of Somerset was in Coventry with a body of men, but the two, luckily, did not meet.^ Warwick was able to pursue his way unchallenged to Ludlow, where he found his father and the Duke of York. King Henry was still in the field with large forces. But although his position was strong, he did not wish civil war to go further ; so he sent an ofifer of pardon and peace to the Yorkist lords at Ludlow. To this they replied that they had already experienced the futility of such pardons, owing to the bad counsellors who surrounded him ; and they specially called attention to the fact that they themselves had been consistently left out of the Council, and that the Earl of Warwick, not long before this, when called by Privy Seal to the Council at Westminster, had been set upon, and had nearly lost his life. They reiter- ated their respect for the king's person.^ On receiving this answer, Henry, displeased at the reception of his offer, set his forces in motion at once. When he drew near to Ludlow he received another letter from the Yorkist lords, testifying to their respect for his person, and their freedom from any desire to injure him. In proof of this, they said they had retired from one place to another, from shire to shire, in order to avoid a conflict ; now they found themselves in the extreme west, and there was no other place they could retreat to with honour. So they humbly waited the king's arrival, hoping it would be peaceful. ^ Waurin, pp. 273-4. ^ Gregory, p. 205. ^ Wheth., i. p. 340. io6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l459 It is very difficult at this point to apportion praise or blame to either side. The Yorkists felt they could not safely disband, so long as the king gave his confidence to the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Wiltshire, the Duke of Exeter, and others whom they believed to be their personal enemies. Nor could Henry, if he was to justify himself as a king at all, meekly send away his forces and receive the Duke of York and the earls on their own terms. A simul- taneous disbandment of troops on each side would perhaps have been a satisfactory preliminary to a peace conference and settlement, but by this time all confidence was gone from each party. When things have got into such a con- dition of uncertainty and distrust, there seems no way left but to fight it out to the end. As it turned out, the king controlled the situation. He had two great advantages. In the first place, he was king ; all his subjects owed allegiance to him ; and if they fought against him, they fought with an uneasy mind. In the second place, he had real power. The Lancastrian state was weak, because its head was weak. But for once Henry had shown real vigour. For some months now he had been campaigning with great courage and firmness. So he had called out the latent strength which is ready in any country for the king who acts firmly. The Duke of York had made a fortified camp at Ludford, behind the river Teme, near Ludlow. He had dug a ditch, supplied with water from the river, and he had strengthened it with a line of carts and of stakes. Behind this his artillery was drawn up, ready to play upon the royal forces. ^ The two armies faced each other on either side of the river on October 12th, with about half a mile between them. But no fighting took place that day. The king had it proclaimed that a pardon would be granted to anyone who should come over to the royal presence and implore his mercy. The news circulated in the camp of the Yorkists. During the night a large defection took ' Gregory, p. 205. 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 107 place, under Andrew Trollope, one of Warwick's men who had lately come from Calais with the earl.^ With Trollope there left most of the men-at-arms who had come from Calais ; the earl probably had taken the least trustworthy with him when he left the town, leaving those who were devoted to him to safeguard Calais behind him. The duke saw that he had no chance ; it is said that the king had 30,000 fully-armed men, " besides naked [unarmoured] men that were compelled for to come with the King." ^ It is unlikely that the Duke of York, especially after Trollope's desertion, had more than four or five thousand. Before the night was over ^ the Yorkists broke up their camp, and withdrew under cover of darkness. There seems to have been practically no fighting, except for a certain amount of cannonading from the duke's camp. Finding in the morning that the Yorkists had escaped, the king's army passed on and sacked the town of Ludlow. They also spoiled other small towns of that district which were on the estate of the Duke of York. After this the royal army made its way back to Worcester, and there the king, having taken the advice of his Council, gave notice that Parliament should meet at Coventry on November 20th to consider what means should be taken with regard to the late troubles.* Meanwhile the Yorkist leaders were making their way out of the country as best they could. The Duke of York, with a small party, including his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland and of Ulster, was fleeing through Wales, breaking the bridges behind him as he went, so as to make his retreat safe.^ He obtained a passage to Ireland, and arrived there, probably at Dublin, where the nobles and officials, who had known him in his former days as lord- ' Waurin, p. 273. ^ Gregory, p. 205. 3 " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 168. * Wheth., i. p. 345. Writs had been issued before the rout at Ludford (Oman, " Pol. Hist.," p. 384, note). ^ Gregory, p. 205. io8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l4S9 lieutenant, received him with "reverence, good-will, and affection," as one for whose promised return they had long been waiting with eagerness and expectation.^ Warwick and Salisbury, with York's eldest son, Edward, Earl of March, and another Yorkist, Sir John Wenlock, who had been Speaker of the Commons in 14SS, made their way southwards into Devonshire, hoping to obtain a passage to Calais. In Devon, by the help of a local gentleman, Sir John Denham, they purchased a small vessel, and engaging the services of a few sailors, embarked for some port, apparently on the south coast. But the sailors knew nothing more than the coasting routes. On hearing this the noblemen stood aghast, but Warwick bade them be comforted, saying that with the help of God and St George he would lead them to a port of safety. And so, taking the tiller himself, he gave orders that the sail should be raised. The wind was favourable, and thus he steered the vessel to Guernsey. There they waited till the wind again was favourable. After eight days fortune favoured them, and they were able to sail to Calais, where Lord Fauconberg with the garrison received them joyfully.'^ The campaign, if such it might be called, of Bloreheath and Ludford had an appropriate epilogue in the Parliament which met at Coventry on November 20th, and attainted the Yorkist lords. To the upper house the whole peerage was summoned, except the Duke of York, the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, and Lord Clinton. Most of the peers who generally belonged to the Duke of York's party, such as the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Bonvile, Lord Stourton, had not taken part in the recent insurrection, and so were not afraid to attend the Parliament. The knights of the shire were in many cases simply nominated by the great Lan- castrian lords, and returned by the sheriffs without election. Parliament, therefore, offered no obstacles to the policy of the king's party. A Bill of Attainder was brought in, 1 Wheth., i. p. 367, " Acsi descendisset alter Messias." ^ Waurin, pp. 277-8 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 109 recounting the unconstitutional acts ot the Duke of York, from the time of Jack Cade's insurrection. The chief men attainted were York, Salisbury, Warwick, Thomas and John, brothers of Warwick, captured, as it seems, at Ludford, two sons of Lord Bourchier, Lord Clinton, and Lord Grey of Powys, a number of Yorkist knights, and Alice, Countess of Salisbury. The king reserved to himself the right of pardon,! and as a matter of fact no one suffered execution. The only great peer attainted, who was actually in the king's power, was Lord Grey of Powys. He, having voluntarily come over and submitted himself to the king's grace, was pardoned in respect of his life, but his property was forfeited. The Duchess of York, who had submitted herself to the king's grace, was given into the charge of the Duke of Buckingham, whose wife was her own sister. This rising, therefore, was not marked by any slaughter in cold blood, such as followed the later battles. The chief offenders were out of reach ; many of the minor offenders had come before the king in their shirts, with halters about their necks, and these were pardoned in life and limb^; the rest who figured in the Bill of Attainder were likewise pardoned. Before Parliament dissolved, as it did within one month of meeting, an oath of allegiance to the king was taken by the assembled lords, spiritual and temporal, along with an additional oath that they would defend the young Prince Edward's right to the throne. In less than one year this last oath was formally to be broken. ' Wheth., i. p. 356. ^ Gregory, p. 207. CHAPTER IX THE YORKISTS IN EXILE For just over eight months the Yorkist lords ate the bread of exile. And although at times they longed to see once more the smoke rising from their own hearths,^ yet their condition was by no means unfortunate. For although in exile, yet in a sense they were at home ; they saw many English faces around them, they lived under the English flag. It was only a narrow sea that separated them from their own land. On a clear day they might almost see the coast of England ; they had many friends there, from whom came constant words of encouragement. A flying visit to England itself was not impossible for the exiles ; from such a visit, which they made in force and fully armed, they did not return empty-handed. Nor were they in any poverty ; for though exiles, they successfully governed the countries in which they settled, and the rewards of government were theirs. Strategically, their position was excellent. They com- manded the vulnerable points of England from two sides. The Duke of York held the English pale round Dublin ; the Earl of Warwick held Calais, and a great part of the English pale there. With his naval power he practically commanded the sea. The foreign trade-routes in and out of England were thus at the Yorkists' disposal ; by their frown they could throttle English commerce ; by their favour they could guard it, and leave it free to flourish. As the exiled house of Godwine, in the days of Edward the Confessor, from Flanders and from Ireland, was master 1 Wheth., i. p. 371. 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES iii of the situation, so too the return of the Yorkists was merely a question of time. The Duke of York, when he went to Ireland, was returning to his own again. It was not merely that ten years earlier he had been a successful and popular lord- lieutenant, one for whose return his people had always hoped ; his connection with Ireland was older than this : the roots of his family were planted generations before. His mother, Anne Mortimer, the heiress of the house of March, was the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth de Burgh, who had brought the earldom of Ulster and great estates there by her marriage with Lionel of Clarence. Richard of York, therefore, besides being a great English lord, was a great Irish lord too, by birth, by property, by personal service. His second son, Edmund, an attractive young man, " one of the best disposed lords in this land," was Earl of Ulster (as well as of Rutland), and it was perhaps for this reason that York took Edmund to Ireland with him after the rout at Ludford, while his eldest son, Edward, went to Calais. Richard must have reached Dublin about the middle of October 1459, or a little later. He was received at once as the legitimate lord and governor by the Englishry in the pale. He at once set himself to the business of administration. The people of the pale were glad of his presence, for during these years the government in England was too distracted to attend to Irish affairs. One of the chief friends of the queen was James Butler, Earl of Ormonde and of Wiltshire, who had been made Treasurer on October 30th, 1458. His presence on the Lancastrian side was enough to ensure for the Duke of York the support of the great Anglo-Norman family of Fitzgerald, always enemies of the Butlers.^ His eight months' stay in Ireland seems to have been prosperous. The government in England knew little about his doings, except that he was " at Dublin, » Cp. Oman, " Pol. Hist.," p. 386. 112 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1459 strengthened by his earls and homagers."^ The only effort the king made to dislodge him was to direct letters under the Privy Seal to the native chieftains, urging them to invade the pale and to carry on war against the English there.^ This policy of stirring up the perpetual enemies of English power in Ireland, and of bringing into the pale the horrors of an Irish invasion, was not likely to win any approval for the Lancastrian cause among the more stable elements of English society there. However, the weak, reckless, and cruel policy of the king was ineffective, for the Duke of York showed himself quite capable of defending the pale. He called a Parliament, which we are told passed " many new statutes." He carried on the mint, and struck a new kind of groat, which had a crown upon the one side and a cross upon the other.^ When Warwick, some time in March or April 1460, came from Calais by ship to visit Richard in Ireland, he found the duke able to give him a good reception. The two to- gether had leisure to arrange a plan for their return to England, which took place successfully at the end of June in the same year. While the Duke of York was successful in Ireland, the Earl of Warwick was a no less prosperous exile in Calais. The pale, as it was called, the last great continental possession of England, was a district of about twenty square miles, strongly protected, not merely by its great fortresses, Calais, Guisnes, Hammes, but by an elaborate series of pools, canals, and waterways which would impede the advance of any invading army, and render the invaders subject to destruction by sudden flooding of the country. The town of Calais itself was eminently defensible ; on the land side were its strong walls and towers, its pools and waterways. From the sea the approaches were equally difficult, partly owing to natural obstacles, partly ' " Paston Letters," No. 399. ^ See Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i., Intro., p. 189. ' Gregory, p. 205. 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 113 owing to the strong harbour fortifications like the tower of Rysbank, situated on a small island over against the town. But strong towers and walls are not sufficient to preserve any place ; there must be men and ships, and the means of obtaining them, that is, wealth. In this respect Calais was not deficient. In more ancient days a quiet little town depending for support on the herring fishery, it was now the great commercial market of England in foreign parts. The powerful company of the Staple had a monopoly of the export trade of England in wool, and the wealthy merchants of Flanders came to Calais for their dealings. Upon wool passing through Calais the government levied a duty, and although the duty was frequently evaded, the government could generally count upon raising a sum of about .^20,000 each year. This was not always sufficient to pay the heavy expenses incidental to the upkeep of the garrison and fortresses of the pale, yet it was a considerable sum for the fifteenth century. And so the Earl of Warwick, by his control of Calais and of the Channel, could tap some of the stream of wealth which flowed through these parts, and which could easily contribute something in return for his powerful protection. Warwick was still Governor of Calais in fact, but he was no longer so in law. Before the rout of Ludford the Duke of Somerset was appointed Captain of Calais ; about the same time the Duke of Exeter was given the admiralty of the seas. But when Warwick and his friends, escaping from England, sailed with their small ship into Calais haven, towards the end of October, they found no difficulties in their way. Warwick still held the town as captain, still could sweep the Narrow Seas as admiral. The Duke of Somerset followed, as soon as he could, to vindicate his position. But he found Warwick had been before him. Before he left England Somerset sent a herald in advance to announce his coming, and to 114 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l459 prepare his entrance. The herald was just too late. He arrived upon the very evening of the day upon which Warwick had sailed into Calais and been so warmly received.^ The herald returned to England and informed Somer- set. The duke was much disturbed at the news, and swore that he would soon bring Calais back into subjection. So he set off with a small squadron of ships, designing, on the advice of Andrew Trollope, the old turncoat officer of Warwick, to make his first attempt upon Guisnes. He landed at Wissant^ with the men of his own ship, but, owing to the strong wind that had been blowing during the passage, the rest of his ships got separated from him, and found themselves off the port of Calais. The news which the herald had brought on the eve of their departure that Warwick was in possession of Calais, was doubtless in the sailors' minds ; and doubtless some of them were not unwilling that the wind should blow hard and drive them into Calais haven. Somerset and his followers, however, made their way on foot to Guisnes, and took up their lodging in the town, beneath the walls of the strong castle. Then Andrew Trollope, who was well known to the garrison, having himself held the position of grand porter of Calais, approached the castle, and told the garrison how the king had appointed the rich Duke of Somerset to be Captain of Calais and Guisnes, and had banished the Earl of Warwick as a traitor. When the Constable of Guisnes heard this, and saw with Trollope many of the former soldiers of Calais (who had changed sides with the grand porter before the rout of Ludford), he decided to admit the duke. So Somerset fortified himself in the castle of Guisnes, and, although with insufficient forces, made many valiant attacks upon the position of his successful rival, Warwick. The duke, indeed, had need of all his courage, as one ' Waurin, p. 279. 2 /^^V. 1459] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 115 disaster after another met him. The first news that came to his ears after he had established himself in Guisnes was that the rest of his ships, which had separated themselves from him on the way over from England, had arrived at Calais, taking all his baggage and warlike stores with them, and carrying also the Lord Audley, one of the duke's men, whose father had been killed at Bloreheath. The ships cast anchor in Calais harbour, and soon the Earl of Warwick came out to them, asking what they brought. Then one of the captains, the master of the ship " The Trinity," spoke up and said they had brought harness and horses knowing that the earl would be much pleased with them. On receiving this reply, Warwick had the cargo discharged, and the men brought into the town and a further question put to them. They were asked what was their desire : they said, to serve the king. On receiving this answer the earl divided the men into two lots, the first containing those who had previously been in his service and had sworn to be faithful to him, the other lot consisting of men who had entered into no obliga- tions towards him. These last were dismissed, with the words that they should loyally serve the king (meaning, probably, that they might enter the earl's service). The others were taken to prison for the night, and next morning taken out and beheaded before the earls and all the people for having broken their oath.i When Somerset heard how his men had been thus treated he was full of wrath, and swore he would be avenged. He led out his troops, and had many sharp skirmishes with the men of Warwick in the marshy land between Calais and Guisnes. So matters stood through the remaining part of the year 1459. At the end of the year Warwick was still unconquered, and even had a strong party in Kent, and one of his ships was actually ' Waurin, pp. 280-1. ii6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 lying in the harbour of Sandwich. At the beginning of , January 1460/ Richard Wydville, Lord Rivers, and his son, Anthony, were sent down by the king with a body of men to Sandwich to clear that town of Warwick's partisans and to capture the earl's ship. Lord Rivers easily entered Sandwich, and held the town and harbour. Warwick was informed of all this by a gentleman (a follower of the Earl of March, but now nominally in Lord Rivers' service) who had been sent over in a small " carvel " to make a reconnaissance on Calais. The earl learned from this useful servant that Lord Rivers might be surprised and the ship recovered, for the men of Sandwich would never take arms against the earl's men. So an expedition was fitted out, with 300 men under the adventurous John Uenham, the same who had helped Warwick to escape from England. They sailed over to Sandwich, and waiting for a favourable tide, towards evening entered the harbour, disguised as merchantmen carrying wood. Denham and his men landed, and at the same time some small disturbance took place in the town. As Sir Anthony Wydville was hurriedly making his way frOm his lodging, carrying his breastplate on his arm, to the friar's house where his father was staying, he was suddenly accosted by twelve men, who asked him Qui vive ?, and with that they gave him a blow which almost killed him. Then they recognised Sir Anthony, and asked him where his father was ; so they made their way to the friar's, and captured Lord Rivers too. The citizens of Sandwich received them joyfully, for love of the Earl of Warwick. Thus the expedition recovered the earl's ship, and then with their prisoners sailed back to Calais.^ Lord Rivers and his son were put in confinement in the castle of Calais, where they found a fellow-prisoner already there — the Lord Audley. Warwick had shown himself stern and relentless in dealing with the soldiers who had 1 W. Wore, p. 771. 2 Waurin, pp. 282-4. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 117 broken their oath to him. He and the Earls of March and Salisbury, who were with him, had a personal grievance against the Wydvilles, father and son, who had helped to attaint them as traitors. However, the cruel practice of killing noble prisoners after battle was not yet begun. The Wydvilles only had to submit to some ungentlemanly taunts, which were all the worse, as being spoken to captives who could hardly reply. First of all, Lord Rivers was rated by the Earl of Salisbury, who called him a knave's son for being so rude as to say the earls were traitors. Then the Earl of Warwick rated him, and said his father was only a squire, brought up with King Harry V., and raised by his marriage and made a lord. Then Edward, the Earl of March, had his turn, and he rated Lord Rivers likewise. After that the three earls turned to the son. Sir Anthony, and rated him in the same manner.^ It is not said that the Wydvilles made any answer. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that only a few years later Edward, Earl of March, as King Edward IV., was glad to become the son-in-law of this same Lord Rivers, whose birth he so despised ; and on his death-bed it was to the faithful Anthony Rivers that he confided his two sons ; and Anthony lost his life for trying to protect them from Edward's own brother, Richard. Warwick's position in Calais improved every day. His ships in the Channel brought in much spoil to him and to the men of Calais.^ It is true the Duke of Somerset, maintaining an active and irritating warfare from Guisnes, prevented supplies of food coming in from the rest of the pale ; but by an arrangement with the friendly Duke Philip of Burgundy, Warwick was able to ensure a sufficiency of supplies for hard cash.^ Adventurous spirits came out of England and joined the earl's forces. In London the king's government had to take exceptional ' " Paston Letters," No. 400. ^ Wheth., i. p. 369. ' Waurin, p. 282. ii8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 measures ; and in February they hanged Richard Neville, a lawyer of the Temple, and eight London merchants, who were attempting to get away to Calais, carrying bow- strings and pointed arrows with them. Their heads were set up on London Bridge, and their quarters upon the gates of the city.^ Such extreme measures only helped to make smoother the return of the earl. The Duke of Somerset was still making war from Guisnes ; but on April 23rd he received a severe defeat at Newnham Bridge, on one of the main waterways of the pale.^ It was about this time, in the month before Easter,^ that Warwick, seeing how events were all moving in favour of the Yorkists, made his visit to the Duke of York in Ireland to concert a plan for a descent upon England. The earl left the other lords, March, Salisbury, and Fauconberg, to safeguard Calais. The Duke of York was glad to see him, having had no certain news of his friends' movements since the flight from Ludford. These two leaders then agreed that an attempt should be made to push their fortunes in England. Warwick from Calais was to land in Kent, where he knew he had many good friends. The Duke of York would land in the north of Wales, and make his way through his own estates on the march into the Midlands. A few days before Easter* Warwick left Ireland for Calais, taking with him his mother, the Countess of Salisbury, who, while in exile with the Duke of York in Ireland, had been attainted of treason in the Parliament of Coventry, 1459. The earl's voyage was known to the Lancastrian government, and the Duke of Exeter, the new admiral, had been specially commissioned to intercept him. The duke, in a large ship of war, called " La Grace Dieu," with two large " caracks," and several other well- 1 " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 73. ^ W. Wore, p. 772. ' Waurin, p. 287. * W. Wore, p. 772. Easter fell on April 14th. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES it<) armed ships, fourteen in all, lay off the coast of Cornwall. But Warwick, like a prudent admiral, had a small " carvel " called " La Toucque " sailing well in front of his squadron to act as a scout, and to give notice of any sign of an enemy. Thus it was that just about the time of Easter, as they were all sailing along, making a good voyage, the men on the carvel-scout saw well ahead a great ship. The scout then informed Warwick's chief captain, whose ship was furthest advanced ; the captain signalled the news to the earl ; and all the ships were ordered to draw close together, until they should know whether the strange ship was a friend or foe. At the same time the carvel-scout came upon a fishing boat, and learned from the fishermen that the strange ship belonged to the Duke of Exeter. These were then taken to the earl's ship and brought before Warwick, to whom they gave a particular account of the duke's fleet. The earl called his captains to consider what should be done. With one accord they advised him to fight. So the ships were got ready for action, and the captains began to manoeuvre in order to come down with the wind behind them upon the duke's fleet. But the enemy did not wait for this. When the Duke of Exeter saw Warwick's fleet beginning to bear down upon him, he gave orders to retire. His fleet sailed back to Dartmouth. Warwick triumphantly continued his voyage to Calais.'^ The reason for the duke's sudden retreat was, most probably, that he could not trust his sailors, however strong in numbers, to fight their former admiral. The name of Warwick worked like magic among the seamen. Meanwhile the Duke of Somerset was still maintaining an almost daily warfare from Guisnes.^ The home govern- ment resolved to make one more attempt to support him. A force of 500 men was collected, and put under the command of Osbert Mountford, an officer of much experi- ence, who had served in the French wars, and knew the ^ Waurin, pp. 287-9. ^ Gregory, p. 206. 120 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 pale thoroughly. Mountford with his men were sent down to Sandwich in June, to be conveyed across the Straits. The fate of Lord Rivers' expedition was forgotten ; or else it was thought that, having succeeded once, Warwick would not think it possible to bring off another surprise. How- ever, the unexpected happened. Sir John Denham, the hero of the previous dash upon Sandwich, crossed the Straits with a chosen band, including Sir John Wenlock, and entering Sandwich, dispersed the royal forces, and took Mountford prisoner. The affair was not quite so easily managed as the previous one, for Mountford and his men offered a stout resistance.^ Sir John Denham was badly wounded by a cannon shot in the leg. The prisoners were brought back to Calais, and on June 25th Mountford and two others were beheaded at Rysbank Tower (on the opposite side of the haven from Calais j, probably because ■ they had formerly served under Warwick in the garrison, and so were now guilty of breaking their military oath. The time was now ripe for the return of the exiles to England. The Lancastrian government was losing ground every day. The expeditions which they had fitted out had been stopped before they left the country, and arrested on English soil. The great dependencies, Ireland and Calais, were in the hands of the exiles. The only resource left to the home government was to stir up England's enemies. They appealed in Ireland to the native chiefs against York, against the power of England in the pale. In the other great pale, that of Calais, the Duke of Somerset, still grimly holding out in Guisnes, could think of no other way to keep it out of Warwick's hands than to offer it to the heir of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles, Count of Charolais, known at a later day to history as Charles the Bold. But the count's father, the prudent Philip the Good, forbade the attempt.^ Inside England matters were going no better for the 1 W. Wore, p. 772 ; Wheth., i. p. 370. ^ Waurin, pp. 291-2. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 121 Lancastrian government. It was not merely in Sandwich that their authority was flouted. The king and queen knew^ that Warwick would not be content to stay in Calais ; and yet they seem to have taken no special precautions to defend the south-east coast. Indeed, the king had to face more difficulties than he could deal with. Expecting a double attack, from Ireland and from Calais, he stayed mainly in the Midlands, and concentrated his forces there. Commissions, however, were directed to other shires too, bidding every man to hold himself in readiness to come when the king should send for him. But Judde, the Master of the King's Ordnance, as he was conveying artillery beyond St Albans, was slain on June 22nd.^ The very heart of England was not secure. On June 26th, the day following Mountford's execution at Rysbank, Warwick, and the Earl of March, and Salisbury, left Calais with 2,000 men.^ With them went the Lord Audley, who had been captured six months before, and had since learned to follow the Yorkist cause. They found a ready entry into Sandwich, which apparently was already occupied by some of the force which, under Sir John Denham, had captured Osbert Mountford. The Lancastrian government, without money or reputation, had not main- tained the Duke of Exeter's fleet. So the invasion of England offered no other difficulty than that of crossing from Calais to Sandwich. 1 " Paston Letters," No. 403. ^ " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 73. Gregory, p. 207 ; W. Wore, p. 772. CHAPTER X THE BATTLE OF NORTHAMPTON When Warwick and the other two earls came back to England, they came with every chance of success. They knew that, in the south-east of England at least, public opinion would be on their side. They had already, before leaving Calais, sent to the archbishop a document stating explicitly the faults of the Lancastrian government. These statements were to a great extent true. The earls mentioned that the Church was oppressed ; that the crown revenues were raised in an unequal manner ; that the best men were not chosen as the king's advisers ; and that England was not safeguarded from her foreign enemies.^ These charges against the Lancastrian government would find an echo in the hearts of many people. The document, of course, omitted all the points that might be said in favour of the Lancastrian govern- ment — the good intentions of the king, the promotion of learning, the endeavour to crush the ambitions of over- mighty subjects. Yet, after making all allowances, the fact remains that the kingdom was being ruined for lack of firmness and good counsel at the head. Certain it is that the three earls came back to England with the Church on their side. A legate from Pope Pius II., Francesco Coppini, Bishop of Terni, had visited England in 1459, to arrange with Henry VI. that England might send representatives to Mantua for a General Council of the Church, which was to consider measures for opposing the advance of the Turks upon Europe. But although eminent representatives, lay and clerical, were ' Holinshed, ill. pp. 652-3. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 123 chosen, they were prevented from going by the troubled condition of England.^ So the legate was returning to Italy by way of Calais, where he spoke with the Earl of Warwick. Coppini had seen the distracted condition of England, and had failed to get help from the Lancastrian government. He now thought that the Earl of Warwick might achieve for him what Henry VI. had failed to do. The present earl's father-in-law, likewise Earl of Warwick and Captain of Calais, had gone forty-five years before to the great Council at Constance. Perhaps the legate hoped that the present earl might go to Mantua, with equally fortunate results. Anyhow, the legate came back to England with Warwick, who thus might be said to make his venture under the banner of the Universal Church. The Church in England, too, showed itself almost equally favourable. The three earls pursued their way through Kent, from Sandwich to Canterbury, from Canter- bury to Rochester, increasing as they went, till, when they reached Blackheath, their numbers were 20,000 men. At Southwark they were met by William Grey, Bishop of Ely, and George Neville, Warwick's brother. Bishop of Exeter. The bishops had a large following of Londoners. As the combined multitude pressed over the bridge from Southwark to the north side, 300 men who stumbled and fell were crushed to death, unable to rise owing to the weight of their armour and the density of the multitude. Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, with the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Salisbury, was in London too, welcoming the newcomers, when he had received their oath in St Paul's that they intended nothing against their allegiance to Henry VI. The whole of London was at their disposal, except the Tower, which was held for the king by Lord Scales, along with Lord Lovell, Lord Hungerford, and Thomas Thorpe.^ Warwick could not stay to besiege the Tower, for the 1 Wheth., i. pp. 331-6 ; W. Wore, p. 772. ^ Wheth., i. p. 373 ; "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 153. 124 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 king was drawing towards London through the Midlands with a strong army. On Thursday and Friday, July 3rd and 4th, conferences were held between the confederate earls and the civic authorities. Finally it was arranged that the Earl of Salisbury, Lord Cobham (who had joined the earls in Kent), and Sir John Wenlock should remain behind and blockade the Tower, along with forces supplied by the mayor and aldermen. Lord Cobham and one body of citizens under the sheriifs planted artillery against the Tower on the north side ; Sir John Wenlock, with another body of citizens under a mercer called John Harow, planted theirs on the side of St Katherine's, by the river. The garrison of the Tower had artillery too, and a good deal of harm was done on both sides. The besiegers patrolled the river, to prevent the garrison having any communications outside. But one day a Yorkist knight was captured on the river by some men of the garrison. And being taken into the Tower, he was broken limb by limb.'- Meanwhile the Earl of Warwick, with a large force, had marched out to encounter the king. The army travelled along the great north road, gaining some valuable reinforcements as it went. At St Albans 400 archers from Lancashire joined the main body. The season was rainy, but Warwick, who made a point of moving rapidly, pushed on with the mounted men so as to come near the royal army as soon as possible, and to prevent men from coming to join the king. On the 8th he was within six miles of Northampton, where the royal army was encamped. In two days his foot soldiers had joined him. Warwick was accompanied by the spiritual peers who had adopted his side in London. These made an attempt at pacification, to avoid the effusion of blood, by sending the Bishop of Salisbury to treat with the king. But it is difficult to see what terms he could offer which would have induced both sides to disband their warlike ' "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," pp. 74, 153. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 125 forces and to be at peace. The king could scarcely, with any dignity, discuss terms with rebels who stood with arms in their hands. The Bishop of Salisbury returned, apparently without having seen the king.^ So on July loth, which was a Thursday, Warwick advanced to the attack. Although it is impossible to estimate the numbers correctly, it seems clear that the Yorkist forces were numerically superior. The king's army was strongly encamped in a meadow outside Northampton, called the Newfield. This meadow, on the south side of the Nen, was partially surrounded by the river. Thus the king's army was strongly placed, with the river on three sides and an entrenchment in front.^ Before beginning the battle, Warwick issued an order that in the fight the common soldiers of the enemy should be spared, and that only the lords, knights, and squires, as being responsible for the war, should be slain.^ Then the attack began. The Yorkist army was in three divisions. The first " battle " was led by Edward, Earl of March ; the second, or main body, by Warwick himself; the third, or rearguard, by Lord Fauconberg. The division of the Earl of March came up to the entrenchment, which consisted of a ditch and a long mound, rendered almost unscalable by the stakes and brushwood which had been fixed on it. But at this critical moment, while the men of Edward of March were hesitating to rush at the fosse. Lord Grey of Ruthin, one of the king's men, appeared from within with his company above the mound, stretching out their hands and offering to draw the Yorkists up into the camp.* In a moment the Yorkists were over the mound, and rushed on, sweeping away the few men who stood now to defend it. The treachery of Lord Grey had really made resistance ' Waurin, p. 298. ^ Wheth., i. p. 373. " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 74. Cp. Oman, " Pol. Hist.," p. 392. ^ " English Chronicle," ed. Davies, p. 97. * Wheth., i. p. 373. 126 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 on the part of the king's men impossible. It is by no means unlikely that Warwick knew what was likely to happen before he entered the battle. In spite of the large numbers engaged on either side, and of the completeness of the victory, there were only 300 killed.^ Of these some were killed as they fought, others were drowned either in the ditch or the river as they fled. The Duke of Buckingham, who, under the king, had been commander of the royal army, was killed standing beside his tent. He was a disinterested man, who had gained the respect of all parties, and so was eminently fitted to serve the king. But his ability was not great enough to guide his master through a difficult time. The Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Beaumont, and Lord Egremont also were slain. The rout offered an opportunity to anyone who had a private enmity to satisfy. Sir William Lucy, who lived beside Northampton, heard the gunshots and came on to the field to help his king when the rout was beginning ; but John Stafford, a Yorkist esquire, who loved Sir William Lucy's wife, saw him come on to the field and went and killed him. Shortly afterwards Stafford married the knight's widow.^ When the battle was over the three lords, Warwick, March, and Fauconberg, approached the royal tent, where they found the king "sitting alone and solitary."^ He seems to have taken no active part in the battle, nor to have made any attempt to escape in the rout. The three lords bowed to the ground ; then with many reverent and comforting words they sought to console him. At length, when the king seemed to be comforted and to breathe more easily, they led him with every show of reverence and honour to the town of Northampton. On the next day, July nth, the king and the lords attended mass and partook of the sacrament. Then they all rode to London, where the king was given a stately reception by the citizens ' W. Wore, p. 773. 2 Ibid. ; Gregory, p. 207. ^ Wheth., i. p. 374. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 127 and clergy as he rode in, attended by the Earl of March on one side and the Earl of Warwick, bearing the king's sword, on the other. He took up his lodging in the house of the Bishop of London. It may be remembered that this was the house in which he lodged when he came to London in May 1455, after his capture at the battle of St Albans. But afterwards he went down (under sur- veillance, no doubt, lest he should escape to the queen) to Eltham and to Greenwich to divert himself with some hunting, until the meeting of Parliament' The chief opponents of the Yorkists had not been present at the battle of Northampton. The queen and the young Prince Edward were at Eccleshall in Stafford- shire. On receiving news of the defeat of the king, she gathered her baggage and fled with her son towards Chester. A certain John Cleger, a retainer of Lord Stanley, waylaid her and attempted to capture her. But she escaped, although her own servants did not scruple to turn against her and rob her of all her goods and jewels.^ She went with her son into Wales, where Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, won Denbigh Castle and gave her a refuge. There she remained through the autumn, and gathered a party of Lancastrian gentlemen, among whom was the Duke of Exeter.^ At the end of the year she went to Scotland, where the royal family, which was connected with the Beaufort branch of the Lancastrians, received her kindly. Margaret did not scruple to promise to deliver up the important town and fortress of Berwick in return for their alliance. Other great lords were not present at Northampton ; the king had not collected all his forces when Warwick offered battle — the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Wiltshire, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Clifford, who were among the greatest of Lancastrian magnates, were all absent. 1 " Paston Letters," No. 419. ^ W. Wore, p. 773. Cp. Gregory, p. 208. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 419. 128 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 On July 1 8th the Tower was surrendered by Lord Scales, on condition that he himself and Lord Hungerford should go free, while the rest should stand their trial. Seven of the garrison, who were in the service of the Duke of Exeter, were convicted by a jury of citizens, and be- headed at Tyburn. Their offence seems to have been that, having served Warwick when he was admiral, they had accepted the Duke of Exeter when Warwick was super- seded. Thomas Thorpe, the former Lancastrian Speaker, who had helped to defend the Tower, was still kept a prisoner ; he made one attempt to escape, and succeeded in getting out, but was brought back, his head was shaven, and he was lodged again in the Tower. On the Sunday (20th) following the surrender of the Tower, Lord Scales was sent by the new custodians, Sir John Wenlock and John Harow the mercer, in a barge up the river to Westminster, where he could take sanctuary. But he was stopped by some shipmen in the service of Warwick and March. He was taken to the bank, just below the wall of the house of the Bishop of Winchester, and there slain. William of Wor- cester saw his body lying stripped of all clothing in the cemetery near the porch of the Church of St Mary of Overy, in Southwark.^ The body lay for some hours, " naked as a worm," ^ on the ground. At length it was honourably buried at the orders of the Earls of March and Warwick. On hearing of the murder of Lord Scales, Warwick had at once ridden to the Tower, and there made a proclamation, repeated through all the city, that no one should slay, steal, or murder on pain of death.^ But the proclamation came too late. Lord Scales had surrendered himself into the safe-keeping of the earls ; Warwick must have known how violent and cruel his shipmen were, and he should have taken precautions to preserve his prisoner's life. The murder of Lord Scales is of the same sort as the ' W. Wore, pp. 773-4. 2 Gregory, p. 211. ' "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 75. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 129 murder of the Lancastrian Duke of Suffolk by the shipmen of Kent in 1450. The Yorkists had won all that they claimed. The Duke of York was still in Ireland, but Warwick was well able to settle everything that was necessary. He had re- established himself and his party in England. The only other thing immediately necessary was to change the ministry which had hitherto guided the king. Accordingly two good Yorkists were appointed to the chief positions ; George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, a brother of Warwick, was made Chancellor, and Lord Bourchier became Treasurer.'^ It might have been expected that the Yorkists, having set up a ministry from their own party, would proceed to clear the country of such of their great enemies as were left, or else bring them to terms. Then, supporting the king with their strong arm, they might have secured to the country peace and order. But York had not yet returned from Ireland, and Parliament would not meet till October 7th. The final settlement of the nation's affairs had not yet been reached. ' W. Wore, p. 773. CHAPTER XI THE BID FOR THE CROWN The Duke of York had not descended upon England at the same time as Warwick. The reasons for this delay are ^^ by no means obvious. He waited till Warwick '*■ had gained control of the greater part of England ; then he returned, landing at Red Cliff, in Lancashire, about September 2nd.i Meanwhile affairs had not been going altogether badly for the Yorkists. Queen Margaret, it is true, had found a supporter in James H. of Scotland, who had seized the opportunity to make a bid for the castle of Roxburgh which, although on the Scottish side of the border, was in English hands. But on August 3rd, while he was besieging the castle, one of his cannon burst, and killed the king who was standing near.^ The Scots lords, nevertheless, carried on the siege and captured the castle within two days. But the death of their king made a prolonged campaign impossible ; so after a dash across the border they withdrew into Scotland. As the North of England was mainly Lancastrian in sentiment, Warwick, perhaps, was content to leave the defence of it to the local Lancastrian lords. He showed more anxiety for the fate of Calais. Somer- set was still established at Guisnes, a constant menace to the Yorkist power. But Warwick commanded the sea, and Somerset could not maintain himself much longer. On August 5 th Henry had legally reinstated Warwick in his position as Captain of Calais. Shortly after the earl crossed the sea and met Somerset at Newnham Bridge. The two lords kissed each other, and Somerset, 1 Gregory, p. 208 ; W. Wore, p. 774. 2 -^^ Wore, p. 774. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 131 unconquered, agreed to evacuate Guisnes. He retired to Dieppe, where he remained for the next two months, waiting for an opportunity to join Queen Margaret in Wales.^ Warwick returned into England with his mother, the Countess of SaHsbury. ParHament had been appointed to meet on October 7th. The election of members to the Lower House in this Parliament had no doubt been carefully supervised. The Commons certainly showed little opposition to the claims of the Yorkists when Parliament assembled. It is only too likely that interference in parliamentary elections by the party in power had been made easy by the law passed in 1430, which limited the franchise in counties to freeholders who had land to the amount of 40s. a year. This law must greatly have reduced the number of voters. A later law had enacted that members from the county must be of the dignity of knight. Moreover, many people felt that in Warwick and the Duke of York lay the only chance which the land had of quiet and orderly government. "If aught come to my Lord Warwick but good," wrote Friar Brackley to John Paston, " this land were utterly undone, as God forbid." ^ John Paston himself was sent up to this Parliament ; and was encouraged to support York by his friend : " Ye have many good prayers, what of the convent, city, and country," wrote Friar Brackley. The members for burghs, too, would probably be Yorkist. London always was so. The other towns would be equally anxious to support that party which was strong enough to enforce its will, and to give the country peace. So the only difficulty in the way of the Duke of York would come from the Lords, who would not consider so much the question of peace and quietness, but would follow the tradition of their family, and support the prince to whom they were pledged. But although all the baronage was summoned, the great Lancastrian lords, those who were still alive, did ' W. Wore, p. 774 ; " Paston Letters," No. 419. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 415. 132 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 not appear, for in their eyes a state of war was in existence between the king and the Yorkists. No Parlia- ment could be free as long as Henry was a prisoner. The battle of Northampton had robbed him of some of his chief supporters, notably the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury. The Duke of Somerset was at Dieppe, meditating how to renew the struggle along with Queen Margaret. Of the other great lords, the Duke of Exeter was with the queen in V\'ales, the Earl of Wiltshire was in sanctuary with the friars at Ottery, the Earl of Northumberland, the Lords Clifford and Neville, were still unconquered and defiant in the north.^ It was the Yorkist lords who came in full strength to Parliament on October 7th. Nor was there any doubt about the spiritual peers. Already, when Warwick made his descent upon Kent in July, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Salis- bury, Exeter, and Ely, had adopted the Yorkist cause. With these, and the papal legate on his side, the Duke of York was not likely to experience much difficulty from the episcopate. Thus it happened that the Duke of York, by parliamentary procedure, was given a legal status at the head of England, and a legal victory over all his enemies ; and yet he had only won half the country, and but a few months more saw him defeated in the field and dead. York, after landing at Red Cliff, went to his castle at Ludlow. From there, with 500 armed men, in a livery of blue and white, he proceeded towards London. At Hereford he was met by his wife, who, released from all constraint since the battle of Northampton, had come from London on receiving a message from him. His eldest son, Edward, Earl of March, also joined him. The duke held "diverse strange commissions" from the king to hold courts of justice as he passed along in Ludlow, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Leicester, Coventry. At Abingdon, near Oxford, he displayed banners with the royal arms of England upon them. Thus, with noise of trumpets ■ "Paston Letters," No. 419 ; W. Wore, p. 774. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 133 and bugles, he came to Westminster on October loth, three days after the opening of Parliament. Without delay the duke entered the chamber where the Lords deliberated, and walking up to the throne, which, as the king was not present, stood empty, he put his hand for a moment on the cushion of it, as if he was going to take possession. Then he turned and gazed upon the assembled peers. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, saluted him, and asked whether he wished to see the king. To which the duke replied : " I do not remember to have known anyone within the kingdom whom it would not become rather to come to me and to see my person, than for me to approach and to visit his." The archbishop retired to report this to the king, who had gone to live in the queen's apartments.^ The duke retired to the king's own apartments in which he had " chosen to lodge." ^ The duke's demonstration in the House of Lords had not been a great success. Among an assembly of peers who were nearly all supporters of his, he met with no acclamation, no encouragement.^ The Abbot Whethamstede says the duke made his dramatic claim by his own inspira- tion,^ as if he had not even consulted Warwick. The next step came six days later. On October i6th the duke again entered the House of Lords, and placed in the hands of the Chancellor a written claim to the throne of England. This claim was the well-known Yorkist pedigree. It showed that in strict hereditary succession, traced through a female line, Richard of York stood nearer to the patriarch Edward HI. than did Henry VI. For Richard was descended directly through Philippa, only daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. Henry VI. was descended in direct male line from John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III. The crown of England was not entailed upon heirs male, but could undoubtedly pass ^ Wheth., i. pp. 376-7. ^ "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 170. « W. Wore, p. 774. * Wheth., i. p. 378. 134 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 through a female. It is true that by an Act of 1406 it had been entailed upon heirs male ; but that Act, although it was now cited, had been repealed by an Act of Henry IV. himself, in Parliament,^ and it was definitely recognised that the crown could pass through females.^ There was indeed no need to go into legal subtleties. The plain facts were, that in 1399, when Richard II. was deposed, there were two great branches of the royal house left, an elder branch, the house of March (later merged in the house of York), and a younger branch, the house of Lancaster. An Act of Parliament had given the throne to the house of Lancaster, and thereby excluded the house of March (or York). This Act was perfectly good in law (being the work of a legal Parliament under Richard II.). It had, moreover, been confirmed by a usage and prescrip- tion of sixty years. But if the Parliament of 1460, with the assent of King Henry VI., chose to supersede the Act of 1399 by a new Act giving the throne to the house of York, that new Act would be good in law, and the house of York would lawfully hold the crown. It was this fact which the duke had now to recognise. Since J 399^_ktest, the crown had become parliamentary ; and if he wished his case substantiated he must' get the consent of king and Parliament to his claim. The judges refused to give an opinion ; the law officers of the crown also refused. The Lords then discussed the whole matter, and drew up a memorial, in which they particularly noticed, firstly, the oaths they had sworn to serve Henry as their king, and secondly, the Acts of Parliament which had definitely recognised the title of the house of Lancaster. Finally, a result was arrived at on October 2Stli. The oath to Henry was not to be broken, for he was to remain king as long as he lived. And no constitutional law was to be > Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 58. 2 The claim of Henry IV. to succeed to the throne directly from Henry HI., through Blanche of Lancaster, proves that the Lancastrians themselves held this view. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 135 violated, for the Act on which the Lancastrian title was held to depend would be repealed, and another Act would establish the succession of the Duke of York on the demise of Henry VI. All this was accordingly enacted with the king's consent on October sist.'- The revolution was carried out with all due legal forms. But people believed that it was only made legal by covert threats of violence. The Duke of York, says the chronicler Gregory, "kept King Harry there [at West- minster] by force and strength, till at the last the king for fear of death granted him the crown, for a man that hath by little wit will soon be afeard of death." And yet Gregory thought that the king need have had no fear, for "there was no man that would do him bodily harm."^ There was one, at any rate, that would not submit tamely to see her son disinherited. This was Queen Margaret, who was still in Wales, where she had been joined by the Duke of Exeter. The northern lords, Northumberland, Clifford, Dacres, and Neville, were forming plans to assist her in the north. 1 See Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. pp. 191-2. ^ Gregory, p. 208. CHAPTER XII WAKEFIELD The Duke of York now seemed to have got all he could want. He was not, it is true, actually crowned king, although he had intended to be crowned on ^^ November ist.i But the legal position of himself and his friends had been made thoroughly secure : all the disabling Acts of the Coventry Parliament of the previous year had been repealed. The king's favourite ministers, whom York felt to be his enemies, had been removed ; in their place the duke's firm supporters had been raised up. The duke himself had been put at the summit of the kingdom. He was acknowledged heir to the throne, to the exclusion of the king's own son. His person was to be sacred, and any attempt made against it would be treason. He was Protector of the Realm, so as to be ruler even before he came to reign ; he was to be created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and a special income of lo.ooo marks annually was assigned to him, to support his new duties and dignities.^ Yet all this came to nothing, for he had delayed in order to get the empty titles before he had conquered the kingdom. All the north was still to be conquered. The further Richard went in legally depressing the Lancastrians and exalting himself, the more chance he gave for reaction to set in, and for the still unconquered Lancastrian lords to gather their forces and concert their plans. Here then was his great mistake. He who had previously shown himself so strong, so self-restrained, now had ruined his cause by his haste and delay — haste in grasping at titles, ' See Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. p. 192. ^ /did. ; Gregory, p. 208. .36 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 137 delay in striking at the enemies in the field. Between July and September, between the battle of Northampton and his landing in Lancashire, he was losing valuable time in Ireland. During the proceedings of the October Parliament, while he hurried the Estates into passing vain laws for his own satisfaction, he was losing valuable time in London. When he did actually march north the forces against him had grown too strong, and he only marched out to his ruin. Yet the Yorkist position after the battle of Northampton had really been a good one ; it only wanted one more defeat of the Lancastrians to make the Yorkist ascendancy possible, both in law and in fact. This was shown by the accession of the young Edward as king, immediately after his victory at Mortimer's Cross. If Richard, after the first victory at Northampton, instead of waiting for a Parliament, had hastened over from Ireland, and struck another hard blow at the Lancastrians who were still in the field, he might then safely have left the rest to Parliament. But he would not defer his legal recognition. He wanted the titles, the strong legal position first ; he would do the fighting afterwards. Thus it often is — a man who for years has waited and worked with the greatest self-control may ruin, himself at last, when his goal is all but reached, by an over-hasty leap. The Earl of Northumberland, the Lords Clifford and Dacres, came together and held a council at York, and mustered their troops. They sent out bands of men, and laid waste the estates in Yorkshire belonging to Duke Richard and to the Earl of Salisbury.^ Shortly before, at the end of October probably, the Duke of Somerset, with Andrew TroUope and some others who had accom- panied him from Guisnes, crossed over from Dieppe to Dorset, and was admitted into Corfe Castle. There he received a message from the queen, who was still in Wales, to gather his tenants together, and go north to Yorkshire to join the northern lords. A similar message was sent ' W. Wore, p. 774. 138 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 to the Earl of Devonshire.^ While the Yorkists were still delaying in London, the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Devonshire were able to march with an armed force of the men of the west through Bath, Cirencester, Evesham, and Coventry, into Yorkshire.^ On arriving in the north they found everything ready. The queen had been busy sending messages to all her friends and supporters. The whole rising was so carefully organised, and the secret so well kept, that the Yorkist leaders seem to have been taken by surprise. When rumours of it got about, people refused credence to them, but said, " Ye talk right ye would it were," and gave no heed.' Yet the Lancastrians are believed to have got together no less than 15,000 troops in the north. The queen, who had done so much to concert this rising, went to Scotland to await the event. At last the Duke of York began to move. On December 9th * he set out for the north with his second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and the Earl of Salisbury. Hehad a regular force of knights and squires, and a large body of London citizens under John Harow the mercer, who had been so prominent in the siege of the Tower of London. With Harow was associated in this expedition another mercer, called James Pickering. The total number of York's forces seems to have been about 6,000 men.* They went with the king's commission to put down the " rebels " of the north. The Earl of Warwick stayed behind in London with the king. York's eldest son, Edward, Earl of March, was on the Welsh border, at Shrewsbury, direct- ing operations against the Lancastrian gentry of North Wales, who were showing considerable activity under Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. As the forces of the Duke of York proceeded north- wards a sharp skirmish occurred at Worksop between his 1 Gregory, p. 209. 2 W. Wore, p. 775. ^ Gregory, p. 210. * " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 76. ' W. Wore, p. 775. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 139 vanguard and a force under the Duke of Somerset. York's advance guard was practically destroyed.^ This must have occurred about December i6th. On the 2 1st the Yorkists arrived at Sandal Castle, one of Richard's chief residences, two miles from Wakefield. At Sandal they kept their Christmas. The Duke of Somerset and Earl of Northumberland kept theirs at Pontefract : there was probably some tacit under- standing that the holy day should pass in peace. Five days later, December 30th, the battle of Wakefield was fought. The truth about this disaster is very difficult to obtain. The Duke of Somerset evidently had a very strong force, including great lords, such as the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Northumberland, Lords Roos, Neville, Clifford. Among the officers of lower rank was the experienced captain, Andrew Trollope, who had come with Somerset from Guisnes. The Yorkists had to send parties over the country to collect stores. Five different authorities say that there was a definite truce at this time.^ The Abbot Whethamstede even says that negotiations had been entered into, and a certain day fixed for the battle. But this is very unlikely. Party feeling ran far too high for either side to give up all chance of taking the other at a dis- advantage. The time was passed when battles were looked on as a sort of tournament, to be arranged methodically by heralds and pursuivants. This at least seems clear. The Lancastrians, with superior forces, took the Yorkists by surprise towards evening,^ as some Yorkist foraging parties were returning, ' W. Wore, p. 775. 2 Wheth., i. p. 381; "Three Fifteenth - Century Chronicles," pp. 154, 171. Waurin, pp. 325-6, ascribes the defeat to a ruse of A. Trollope, who deceived the Yorkists by leading 400 men showing the " Ragged Staff" of Warwick. " Pol. Poems," ii. p. 257, says of Richard, "that while treating of sweet peace, force rushed upon him." 2 " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 171 — declinante jam die. 140 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 and were still outside their own lines under Sandal. The actual battle cannot have lasted long. The Yorkist forces must have been taken at a terrible disadvantage ; for at the end of the fight and pursuit, the Duke of York and, it is said, no less than 2,500 of his men were dead. The Lancastrians are said to have lost only 200. There was evidently no order given on the Lancastrian side, as Warwick had commanded at Northampton, that the gentry should be killed and the commons spared. Indeed it was probably best, in the long run, that no such distinctions should be made, for nothing but hard fighting to a finish would ever definitely settle the question at issue. But there is no excuse for the extreme cruelty according to which, when the battle was won, no quarter was given. Many were killed in the actual fight, the Duke of York, Lord Thomas Neville, son of Salisbury, the Londoners Harow and Pickering. The Earl of Rutland, York's son, eighteen years old, tried to escape by mingling with the band of Lord Clifford, which was pursuing the flying Yorkists towards Wakefield. But Clifford recognised him, and, although the young man begged for mercy on his knees on the bridge ^ at Wakefield, stabbed him to the heart with a dagger, exclaiming, "By God's blood, thy father slew mine ; and so will I do thee, and all thy kin," ^ These words express one side of the Wars of the Roses which now becomes prominent — the hereditary feud. Clifford's father had been killed fighting against the Yorkists at St Albans ; so had Somerset's father. Other lords had their feelings of revenge to satisfy. And so, from Wake- field onwards, the sequel to a battle is very often the execution or murder of lords against whom some family had a feud. It is needless to argue that one side or the other began this practice. The battle of Wakefield is the first striking example of it. But Warwick had executed more humble ' W. Wore, p. 775. ^ See Gairdner, " Paston Letters," i. p. 193. 1460] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 141 prisoners in Calais and in London. Prolonged war in any country has a brutalising effect ; the finer qualities, courage, fidelity, self-sacrifice, which often flourish in a national war, or in a war in defence of the homeland, may become debased into greed, hate, and treachery in a long fought out civil trouble. But although the Wars of the Roses were not characterised by the sense of justice and humanity which ennobled the mutually respecting combatants in the Great Rebellion in England, or the great Civil War in the United States, yet they were not fought entirely without principle, for there are many instances of men who were faithful to their leaders, and followed them to the death. The old Earl of Salisbury had escaped from the battle- field of Wakefield, but during the night he was captured by one of the men of Andrew Trollope, taken to Pontefract, and on the morrow he was killed by the " Bastard of Exeter," ^ an illegitimate son of the Duke of Buckingham. The heads of the three great lords, York, Rutland, Salisbury, with the heads of six other leading men, were set up in prominent places in the city of York. The Lancastrians had scored a great success, and it is a great testimony to the energy of Queen Margaret, who had gathered together from the defeated and dispersed remnants of her party such a formidable army. At the time of the battle she was in the South of Scotland ; the honours of the day must be given to the Duke of Somerset, who, whether the imputation of treachery be true or not, had nevertheless shown energy, determination, and skill, such as he had previously proved himself to possess when he held Guisnes against Warwick. The great Duke of York was completely ruined just when his fortunes were at their height. His success in the Parliament of 1460 seems to have robbed him of his old prudence. Yet he was a wise statesman, and his triumph would not have been a bad thing for England. He had more self-restraint than his son Edward, who became ' W. Wore, p. 775. 142 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1460 king, more dignity and moderation. The courtly herald may be held to exaggerate when he calls Richard " la fleur de gentillesse." ^ But when he died, sword in hand, at the age of fifty, he left a memory behind him which, when all is said and done, is strangely free from evil imputations. ' " Pol. Poems," ii. p. 256. CHAPTER XIII MORTIMER'S CROSS AND THE SECOND BATTLE OF ST ALBANS The overwhelming disaster at Wakefield did not ruin the Yorkist cause. But it had removed some of the chief men of the party. The death of Duke Richard of York, had it occurred earlier, would have removed one great cause of the war. By this time, however, the war did not concern merely the position of Richard of York, or the kind of ministry which Henry VI. should trust. The cause of the war was now deep discontent, among a section of the governing classes, with the Lancastrian dynasty and its administration. So, although the great duke was gone, the party of opposition remained. Yet it might have been expected that the loss of their head would leave the Yorkist party so weak, that at most they could only keep the Lancastrian party in check, and make a deadlock, so that all orderly government would be further off than ever. The speedy triumph of the Yorkist party, on the morrow of two great defeats, proves that the discontent felt with their opponents was deeper than appeared, and that the Yorkist cause really had the tacit approval of a solid part of the nation, which did not take part in battles. The ability of Warwick, the firmness of young Edward, alone would not have sufficed. But joined with a somewhat latent approval on the part of the towns and more settled parts of the country, these qualities of Edward and Warwick were sufficient to establish the Yorkist cause at last. At the time when his father was killed at Wakefield, 144 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 Edward was on the Welsh march at Shrewsbury, ready- to meet any attempt from Jasper Tudor, Earl ^^ of Pembroke. When he heard of the rout at Wakefield, and that the men of the north were marching south on London, he immediately resolved himself to leave the march, and to hasten with all available forces into the Midlands, where, joining with the Earl of Warwick, the two together might meet the northern army before it could reach London. But suddenly came other news, that Jasper Tudor and James Butler, Earl of Wiltshire, had collected a strong force, including Frenchmen and Bretons and Irish,^ and were raising all the country beyond the march. Edward, who was now at Hereford, having already started on his march into the Midlands, turned back and met them at " Mortimer's Cross " on the Welsh march about half-way between Ludlow and Hereford. The battle took place on February 2nd. The Yorkist force seems to have been much superior in numbers. Before the battle the sun is said to have appeared in the east as three separate suns, and then to have joined together again. Edward, therefore, knelt down, and made his prayers, and thanked God.^ " And anon freshly and manly he took the field upon his enemies and put them at flight, and slew of them 3,000 men, and some of their captains were taken and beheaded, but Pembroke and Wiltshire stole away, privily disguised, and fled out of the country." There is very little known about the battle. The rout must have been complete if 3,000 of the enemy were slain. The house of York had great estates in that part of the march, and it is likely that its tenants would give little quarter to any fugitives. Like the Lancastrians after Wakefield, Edward showed much cruelty after the victory in his treatment of the more important prisoners. Among these was Owen Tudor, the father of Jasper, Earl of Pembroke. Owen was founder of the great Tudor house, by his marriage with ' "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 77. ^ Ibid. 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 145 Queen Catherine, the widow of Henry V., who had brought to that monarch the fatal inheritance of half France. Owen was beheaded in the market-place of Hereford, and his head set up on the market cross. To the very last he could not believe that he would be executed — not till he saw the axe and the block, " and when that he was in his doublet, he trusted in pardon and grace till the collar of his red velvet doublet was ripped off. Then he said, ' that head shall lie on the stock that was wont to lie on Queen Catherine's lap,' and put his heart and mind wholly unto God, and full meekly took his death." ^ When the head was severed from the body, a mad woman combed his hair and washed away the blood from the face, and got candles and set them around, burning, to the number of a hundred. Edward, when his forces were rested from the battle, pursued his way through the Midlands to join Warwick. Before the junction could be effected the forces of the earl had suffered a tremendous defeat on the site of a former Yorkist victory, St Albans. Queen Margaret had come from Scotland and joined the northern forces at York after the battle of Wakefield.- A council of the chiefs of the army was held, and the resolution was formed to march forthwith upon London, to get the king out of Yorkist hands. This plan is marked by all the characteristic boldness and energy of Margaret. The Lancastrian army, which is said to have now contained Scots and Welsh, as well as men of the north, crossed the Trent, and marched southwards, following much the same line as that which is now used by the Great Northern Railway. As they went they left behind them only plundered and burned towns. For the northern men claimed it as a right to plunder freely anywhere south of the Trent.3 A track of destruction was left behind them at Grantham, Stamford, Peterborough, Huntingdon, ^ Gregory, p. 211. ^ W. Wore, p. 775. ^ Wheth., i. p. 234. 146 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 Melbourne, Royston, and so on for the rest of the journey.^ At Dunstable, on February i6th, they had an en- counter with a party of Yorkists, who are said to have been led by a butcher of that town.^ The queen's army was successful, and the Yorkists lost 200 men. The butcher is said, for shame and sorrow, to have hanged himself Warwick had put himself at the head of a large force, raised chiefly from London and from Kent. With him were the king, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Arundel, Lord Bourchier, Lord Bonvile. When the queen's army reached St Albans, Warwick had already made a fortified camp and established his army in it, on a field at the north end of the town, called "Barnet Heath." ^ He had also stationed a body of archers in the centre of St Albans, around the great cross. Warwick's camp was a strong one, for he had a good force of artillery, protected by an elaborate system of network and palisade, full of projecting nails.* He had obtained from the friendly country of Flanders a body of Burgundian " musketeers," to use a modern word hardly applicable to them, for each man had to rest his gun on a stand, with a considerable chance of the clumsy weapon injuring himself rather than the enemy, as indeed happened in the battle which ensued : for the wind being in the faces of the musketeers, the flame from their guns was blown back in their faces, and eighteen were burned to death.^ The battle was fought on February 17th, in the after- noon.'' The forces which actually took part in the fight were 5,000 on each side.'' The queen's army, which was commanded by the Duke of Somerset, a skilful leader, ' "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 155. ^ Gregory, p. 212. s Wheth., i. p. 391. * Gregory, p. 213. ^ "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 155. " Nightfall put an end to the pursuit of the vanquished after the battle, which cannot have lasted long (Wheth., i. p. 392). " Gregory, p. 212. 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 147 consisted mainly of feudal retainers from the north, grouped under their separate lords, each wearing their lord's badge, " that every man might know his own fellow- ship by his livery." ^ They all wore also the livery of the queen's son, Edward, who was with them. This livery was a " bend " of crimson and black, with a design of ostrich feathers. The vanguard was led by the veteran, Andrew TroUope. The Yorkist forces were evidently taken by surprise. Their scouts or outposts were quite at fault. " Their prickers came not home to bring no tidings how nigh that the queen was, save one came and said that she was nine mile off." ^ So everything was " to seek and out of order." The advance guard of the Lancastrians entered St Albans, but was driven back in flight by the archers posted round the cross. However, the rest of the queen's army pushed on to the north end, and attacked the main camp of the Yorkists. In the confusion and surprise Warwick's men made little use of their artillery. Their leaders attempted to change the formation of the line of battle, so as to meet the assailants better, but in the critical time between the break-up of the old formation and the completion of the new the queen's forces were upon them.'' It is said that there was treachery in the Yorkist camp on the part of a certain Lovelace, " Captain of Kent." * In the middle of the battle the king was able to go over to the queen's side ; this could hardly have been possible without some help from men among Warwick's forces. Henry is said to have broken his word by so doing, but it is difificult to attach much blame to him. Warwick and Norfolk were glad to escape with their lives, leaving about half ^ of their men dead behind them. ' Gregory, p. 212. ^ lit'd., p. 213. ^ Idifl., pp. 212-13. * Waurin, 327, 329. ' Gregory, who gives the best account of the battle, says 3,500 were slain (p 212). W. Worcester, p. 776, says, with more probability, 2,000, 148 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [146I The king celebrated the victory and the reunion with his family by knighting his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, who was now just under eight years old. He also knighted the old soldier of Calais, Andrew Trollope, who had gone over to the king's side at Ludford, and who since that time had been with Somerset at Guisnes, and now again had brought luck to the Lancastrians at Wakefield and St Albans. Trollope could scarcely move, owing to a wound in his foot. Although but a rude soldier, he made a good speech to the prince, in acknowledging the honour of knighthood : " My Lord," he said, " I have not deserved it, for I slew but 15 men, for I stood still in one place, and they came unto me, but they bode still with me."^ Another sequel to the victory was much less pleasant, and showed that English manners in warfare had now degenerated. It seems to have become a matter of course that any victory of one party should be followed by the execution of notable prisoners from the other. But in this instance the executions are peculiarly distasteful, owing to the fact that they were carried out in the presence of the queen and her eight-year-old son. It is even said that the boy was taught to pronounce the fatal sentence. Accord- ing to Waurin, Queen Margaret put the question to the Prince Edward, "Fair son, with what death shall these two knights die whom you see there ? " — referring to Sir Thomas Kyriel and his son. And the prince replied, "that their heads should be cut off." " Another great Yorkist to suffer death was the Lord Bonvile. Thus the victory of Queen Margaret was completed. The Yorkist forces had been scattered, and London lay open to the victors. As has so often occurred in history, the question arose : Should a bold advance at once be made upon the capital ? It is the same question as faced Hannibal after CannE, Gustavus Adolphus after Breiten- feld, Charles I. after Edgehill and Brentford. London, with its wealth, its dignity, was the most substantial support 1 Gregory, p. 214. 2 Waurin, p. 330. 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 149 of the Yorkist cause. But now there was no army between the queen and the city : and behind her was a large force, flushed with the success of battle, irresistible in its ardour — so, at least, thought many people at the time. The city of London showed a certain readiness to meet the queen, by sending two noble mediators immediately after the battle — these were the Duchess of Bedford and the Duchess of Buckingham. It was expected hourly that the queen would be in London, and the two great Yorkist prelates, Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, and George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, remained prudently in Canterbury, waiting the issue of events. But the Lancastrians did not advance ; instead, they retired from St Albans to Dunstable : " and this was the ruin of King Henry and his queen." 1 It was generally believed at the time that the king and queen refrained from advancing upon London, wishing to save the citizens from the horrors of a sack at the hands of the victorious army. " For they deemed that the northern men would have been too cruel in robbing if they had come to London."^ The city was not in a very defensible condition ; and William of Worcester believed the citizens would not have shown fight. " If they [the king and queen] had come with their army to London, they would have had all things as they wished." ^ Certainly the Londoners, during these wars, never showed any tendency to resist a victorious army. But on this occasion there are indications that the Lancastrians would not have entered without a blow. The citizens stopped and appropriated to themselves a train of provisions — " bread and victual " — which the mayor and aldermen were sending, with a certain sum of money, to propitiate the queen. Moreover, the force which the queen had sent under Sir Baldwin Fulford to secure Westminster was beset there by the Londoners, and prevented from going any further. ' W. Wore, p. 776. 2 Gregory, p. 214. ^ W. Wore, p. 776. ISO THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 One London chronicler believed that the king did not dare to make the attempt : " and so the king and the queen purposed for to come to London, and do execution upon such persons as were against the queen ; but the commons of the city would not suffer them, nor none of hers, to enter in to London ; and so they turned northward." ^ It was known, of course, that Edward of March was on his way with an army from Wales ; and even if Henry had obtained an entry into London, his position would have been a very awkward one, with hosts of turbulent citizens within, and the victorious army from Mortimer's Cross without. So the royal forces retired upon York. As the Elizabethan chronicler, Holinshed, puts it : " The queen, having little trust in Essex, less in Kent, and least of all in London . . . departed from St Albans into the north country, where the foundation of her aid and refuge only rested." ^ ' " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 76. ^ Holinshed, iii. p. 661. CHAPTER XIV THE ACCESSION OF EDWARD IV. While the "second" battle of St Albans was being fought, Edward of March, Duke of York, was coming , from Gloucestershire with all the forces he could collect. He was too late to assist Warwick in the disastrous battle, but he joined the vanquished earl in Oxfordshire, probably at Chipping Norton,^ where the road over the Cotswolds from Gloucestershire begins to descend into the valley of the Thames. Edward had with him many gentlemen from the march, and over 8,ooo men, but he had little money ; the bulk of his men followed him at their own charges.^ Warwick, on the other hand, although he could not have brought either men or money, could assure Edward of the popularity of the Yorkist cause in London, and of the plentifulness of supplies there. The queen's forces were still about St Albans, making themselves unpopular by reason of the depredations which the northern men made upon the townsmen.^ Edward resolved to advance while London was still open to him. On February 26th, nine days after the battle of St Albans, he entered the city. The queen's forces retired northwards, although they might have stood in his way and risked all upon a battle. If Edward had been vanquished outside London, and the Yorkist cause had suffered a third defeat in succession, it is likely he would never have been king. As it was, he came to London unopposed : " then all the city were ^ W. Wore, p. 777; Gregory, p. 215, says, "Burford upon the Wold," on the more southerly road. 2 Gregory, p. 215. ' Wheth., i. 401. 1 52 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 fain and thanked God . . . and said, ' Let us walk in a new vineyard, and let us make us a gay garden in the month of March with this fair white rose and herb, the Earl of March.' " ' Edward stayed for the next week in Baynard's Castle,^ which belonged to his family. Meanwhile conversations were being held between the magnates of the Yorkist party and the chief citizens of London. The logic of events was steadily leading everyone to the final step, when the Yorkist prince should not merely be declared heir to the throne, but actually king. The victory of the queen at St Albans, the promptly ensuing executions of the captured leaders, the spoiling of St Albans by the conquering army, had shown all who stood by Edward that there was no possibility of making terms with the queen. The Yorkists were now not merely enemies of the crown in fact, but in law too, for King Henry was willingly with the queen, and all who opposed her and him were traitors. So there was no way left by which to legalise the Yorkist position but to repudiate the whole Lancastrian system, and declare a new state, to set up a new king, and to look to him as the fountain of all right and justice. On the Sunday after Edward's arrival a great assembly of citizens and soldiers, between three and four thousand in all, was held in the open space beyond Clerkenwell. As they all stood, marshalled in due order, the Chancellor of England, George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, proclaimed the title and the right of Edward to the crowns of England and France. William of Worcester was present at this meeting, and after hearing the proclamation, went back to the city with the people.^ On Wednesday, March 3rd, ' Gregory, p. 215. 2 " On the banks of the Thames, immediately below St Paul's, and was so called of Baynard, a nobleman that came in with William the Conqueror" (Cunningham, "London," p. 39). ^ W. Wore, p. 777. I46l] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 153 the magnates held a council at Baynard's Castle. There were present the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Bourchier), the Bishop of Salisbury (Dr Beauchamp), the Bishop of Exeter (Dr Neville), John, Duke of Norfolk, Richard, Earl of Warwick, Lord Fitzwalter, Lord Ferrers, Sir William Herbert, and a number of lesser known men. They resolved to support Edward, Duke of York, as king from that time. Next day, March 4th, Edward rode to West- minster and took possession of the crown and sceptre of Edward the Confessor. His formal coronation did not take place for three months (June 28th) ; his title was not declared in Parliament for another four months (November 4th) ; but his reign is dated in all legal instruments from Thursday, March 4th, when he rode to Westminster and "entered into the exercise of the royal estate, dignity, pre-eminence, and powers of the same crown." ^ There was still a powerful Lancastrian army in the field. Edward, who is described at this time as being " tall of stature," " of vigorous age, and well fitted to endure the conflict of battle," ^ wasted no time in delay. On March 13th he set out for Yorkshire, on a campaign which chroniclers definitely describe as one of South against North.^ For a moment it seemed as if England was divided into two kingdoms, south of the Trent being under the " new king," while the " old king " * still had the north. The forces on either side were undoubtedly large, the most moderate estimate among the chroniclers being 20,000 men.'' Yet even this comparatively low estimate is probably exaggerated. Nevertheless the scale on which affairs were transacted was sufficiently large to make the results of the campaign not merely important, but decisive. ' Nicolas, " Chronology," p. 305. ^ "Continuation of the History of Croyland" (Trans., London, 1893), pp. 424, 425- = Wheth., i. p. 408 ; " Cont. Croy.," p. 425 ; W. Wore, p. 777. * Gregory, p. 216. ^ Wheth., i. p. 408. 154 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 The Lancastrian army had retired, after the campaign of St Albans, into the north. Edward followed, by way of East Anglia, gathering, as he went along, forces from the eastern counties. By the 28th his advance guard under Lord Fitzwalter had got into touch with the enemy at Ferrybridge, on the river Aire. Edward, with the main body, was at Pontefract. The Lancastrian army had no doubt been somewhat disorganised by its very successes in the campaign of St Albans. The plundering in which the northern men indulged across the Trent, when they advanced south and when they retired, must have been bad for discipline. Nevertheless the queen's forces were sufficiently formidable, including as they did practically all the great Lancastrian lords with their retainers, as well as skilful captains of lesser degree, like Sir Andrew Trollope. The river Aire was broad and deep enough to make the passage of any great force impossible, if reasonable precautions were taken by the defenders. Operations began on March 28th, the eve of Palm Sunday. The Earl of Warwick and Lord Fitzwalter, with the Yorkist advance guard, attempted to force their way over the Ferrybridge, which was held by a Lancastrian force under Lord Clifford. The attack was unsuccessful, and Lord Fitzwalter lost his life and Warwick received an arrow wound in the leg. The bridge was well held. But fresh forces came up from the Yorkist main body at Pontefract, and at last after six hours' hard fighting the bridge was taken. It is said that the main attacks had been helped by a small party which, under Lord Faucon- berg, crossed the Aire at Castleford, three miles up the river, and executed a turning movement against the defenders of the bridge.^ Among the slain was Lord Clifford, who had taken off his gorget in order to fight more freely, and thus left his throat exposed to the fatal 1 Holinshed, iii. p. 664. The fight ended at 6 p.m. The assault began at midday (Waurin, p. 340). 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 155 arrow which ended his life. That night the whole Yorkist army passed over the bridge, and waited for the morning amid frost and snow.^ On the next day, March 29th, which was Palm Sunday, was fought the great battle, now generally known as Towton , a township in the parish of Saxton, three miles from Tad- caster. Other names given to the battle were Ferrybridge ^ and Sherburn.^ The Lancastrian host occupied " a fair plain field, between Towton and Saxton." * On the west side of the battlefield was the Saxton-Towton road, on the east side was the great Ferrybridge-Tadcaster road. In front, between the Lancastrian and Yorkist armies, was a small valley having the picturesque old English name of Dinting- dale. Thus the Lancastrians had a good position : in front the valley, their left on the Tadcaster road, their right on the Towton road or lane ; thus advance or retreat would be facilitated. The only weak point, in case of retreat, was that the stream Cock, running in a north- easterly direction to join the Wharfe, cut across the two roads and passed between Tadcaster and the Lancastrian army. The battle is said to have begun at nine o'clock in the morning.^ On the Yorkist side the army was in the customary three divisions ; Lord Fauconberg led the vaward, with a strong body of archers ; Edward himself, with the Earl of Warwick, was with the main body ; Sir John Wenlock and Sir John Denham were with the rear- ward. Before the attack began a proclamation was made through the army that no prisoners should be taken. The practice of giving no quarter was by this time firmly established. A similar understanding prevailed on the Lancastrian side. Here the vaward, occupying the centre of Henry's line of battle, was under the Earl of Northumber- land and Sir Andrew Trollope. Henry, with the Duke of Somerset, was probably on the right wing. ' Waurin, p. 338. ^ Wheth., i. p. 410. ^ Gregory, p. 217. * Holinshed, iii. p. 664. ^ liiW. iS6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 The traditional account of the battle is that Lord Fauconberg began the advance with the vaward, while the sleet was falling and being blown by the wind towards the Lancastrian front.^ He ordered the archers, when they came nearly or just within range of the enemy, to let go one flight of arrows and then stand still. The Lancastrian centre, feeling this volley, and misjudging the distance owing to the sleet, thought the Yorkists were close enough. So they immediately began shooting off their arrows rapidly towards Fauconberg's men. But the arrows, owing to the contrary wind, fell short, out of range, and Lord Fauconberg ordered his men to gather them up ; then, when the Lancastrian centre seemed to have exhausted their sheaves, he ordered the advance to be renewed, and his archers to discharge within range, not only their own arrows but also those they had gathered from the Lancastrian volleys. When their arrows in turn were exhausted, they beset their opponents with various sorts of axes, hatchets, daggers, and mallets or maces.^ The whole Yorkist army came into the battle, and Edward distinguished himself by his firmness and decision. It required ten hours of hard fighting to turn the obstinate and desperately resisting Lancastrians into flight, but in the end they broke, and attempted to escape towards Tadcaster Bridge. But all could not gain that point, or cross it at once. Many must have been killed in the pursuit, drowned in the Cock, which, though narrow, was deep, or in the greater river Wharfe. Rumour said the slaughter was so great that at one point the Cock became fordable by reason of the corpses piled up in it, so that some fugitives escaped over that grisly causeway. All the water which came down from Towton was coloured red with__blood..^ The magnates, of course, suffered severely. The Earl of Northumberland, Lords Neville, Welles, and Mauley, the stout knight Sir Andrew Trollope, died fighting ; forty- > Wheth., i. p. 409. 2 Ibid. 5 Holinshed, iii. p. 664. 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 157 two more knights, in spite of the proclamation of no quarter, were taken prisoners, but they were all killed soon after- wards. The young Earl of Devonshire was also made prisoner, and likewise suffered death. On the Yorkist side the losses must have been heavy too, but none of the leaders were killed. This was, perhaps, the most decisive battle of the war, because it was a signal defeat and scattering of the Lancas- trian forces in the north where their strength was greatest. It completely reversed the tide of success which had begun not far off for the Lancastrians at Wakefield, and spent itself further south at St Albans. Henry, the queen, the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, were fortunate to escape with their lives. There were still a few northern castles to receive them ; but their final destruction or expulsion from England was almost inevitable. Immediately after the battle Edward went to York, and, entering without opposition into that great capital of the north, received the oath of fidelity from the citizens. He took down his father's head, which, since the fatal day of Wake- field, had been stuck up on the wall of the city. There were plenty of noble Lancastrian heads to take its place. Edward remained at York for three weeks, celebrating Easter (which fell this year on April 19th) " with great splendour." ^ From York he went further north, through the county of Durham, into Northumberland. At the beginning of May he was in Newcastle, where he beheaded the Earl of Wiltshire.^ Most of the northern castles seem to have capitulated ; nevertheless, the north was by no means all secured to Edward when he turned south again, and continued his progress by a roundabout route, taking in Lancashire and Cheshire, and then through Coventry to ' " Cont. Croy.," p. 426. ^ Gregory, p. 217. He had been captured at Cockermouth (" Paston Letters," No. 451). His head was set up on London Bridge ultimately {^Ibid., No. 453). iS8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 London.! gy June 14th he was in London, residing at Lambeth, preparing for his formal coronation, which took place on June 28th. The Earl of Warwick and Lord Fauconberg had to stay with forces in the north, to deal with what was left of the Lancastrian party there. It took three more years to secure Northumberland completely for the Yorkist cause. On June 28th Edward set out, as the custom ^ was, from the Tower of London, to be crowned at Westminster. The coronation was performed with all the due and ancient ceremony ; and the occasion was marked by the creation of a number of new peers, who had served the house of York. Edward's brother George was made Duke of Clarence ; Richard was made Duke of Gloucester. Two new titles went to the Bourchier family : Lord Bourchier became Earl of Essex, Sir Humphrey Bourchier became Lord Cromwell. The faithful Lord Fauconberg was given the Earldom of Kent, being thus made equal to his nephew, the Earl of Warwick, whose rank was not raised. The titles given, to these and to others, were the reward of good service. Edward had now shown that he was king indeed. Since March 4th he had used "his right and title to the realm of England"^; on June 28th he had been regularly crowned. He had met his subjects on the field of battle at Towton ; he was now to meet the nation, as represented, though imperfectly, in Parliament. The king had intended that a session should take place in July, but the Scots had taken advantage of the civil war to besiege Carlisle, and so it was thought best to postpone the session till quieter times. The siege was soon raised by forces under Lord Montague (brother of Warwick), but still there was "no ' For route and dates, see Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 274 ; " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 174. ^ " The Tower, the usual place from whence that solemnity [coronation] began"— More, "Life and Reign of Edward V. and Richard III." {ed. Murray, 1870), p. 216. ' Nicolas, " Chronology," p. 305. 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 159 word ... of the writs for the Parliament."^ Shortly before the coronation it became known that Parliament would be summoned to meet after Michaelmas. Mean- while it was expected that the king would have to go to the north parts again to resist the Scots and to enforce the peace. However, the danger in the north turned out to be less than was expected, so Edward did not go there, but left matters to his efficient deputy, the Earl of Warwick. The king himself turned to other parts of his new-won realm, and occupied most of the interval between the coronation and the meeting of Parliament in making a royal progress of an extended nature. He first went through the south- eastern counties, and then into the Welsh march, and then turned home again through the Midlands. This journey appears in the domestic correspondence of the time, because John Paston's eldest son was in the king's retinue.^ News came to the father that the young man was gaining great commendation among the king's gentlemen, and " stood well in conceit " ; but that he was greatly straitened for lack of money, as the allowance which his father gave him was insufficient to enable him (as he put it) to " spend reasonably " among the splendid gentlemen of the court. Edward's progress — the second of his reign (the first was in the north parts, after Towton) — occupied the greater part of the months of August and September. After going through Kent and Sussex, he proceeded into the west, to Bristol. From there he went through the Welsh march, by Gloucester and Hereford to Ludlow. About September 27th or 28th he turned back through the Midlands, and reached London, probably on October 7th or 8th.^ The progress had been eminently suc- cessful. Wherever necessary along the route, the king, ' See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 277 ; " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," pp. 174-5 2 "Paston Letters," No. 457. ^ Ibid., No. 476. i6o THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 as the source of all justice, held a judicial session, and pronounced judgment upon those who were accused of breaking the king's peace and resisting the royal authority. No doubt the king's presence was greatly needed in the country, for even nearer London the peace was often broken. " Beware how ye ride or go," wrote Margaret Faston to her husband John, on July 9th, " for naughty or evil-disposed fellowships. I am put in fear daily, for mine own abiding here." ^ This refers to life in Norfolk. On the Welsh march, in the months after Towton, there were many castles held for Henry VI. ; a Lancastrian party was still kept together by his half-brother, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. But the king's progress resulted in the surrender of all the castles (except one), both of South and of North Wales. Jasper Tudor had to hide in the mountains.^ The royal progress was an ancient and honourable part of a king's business. It served many purposes, for it enabled the king to get at the grievances of his subjects, and to deal out justice as he went along ; it was an oppor- tunity for him to show himself to his people, and to main- tain the popularity of the crown ; lastly, it was a measure of economy, for it meant that the king and his retinue lived largely at free quarters, collecting royal dues, and receiving hospitality from noblemen and towns. Although, in the time of Henry H. and John the royal progresses had often proved merely burdensome to the suitors, who had to seek for justice by following the court from place to place, and to the people whose carts and horses were seized for the king's use, yet, properly and moderately conducted, the royal progress was a very useful practice for the king, and a right and effective way of enforcing the peace. For this purpose, while their authority was still being questioned, the progress was used, with success, both by Edward IV. and Richard III. ' " Paston Letters," No. 466. '■' Ibid., No. 483. Harlech Castle was still uncaptured. 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 161 When Parliament met on November 4th it was com- pletely Yorkist in sympathy. The leading men of the clerical estate, such as Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the disinterested William Waynflete,^ Bishop of Winchester, were loyal to Edward, and would ensure the support of most of the other bishops. The temporal peers in Parliament were Yorkist too ; no Lancastrians were summoned. Of the House of Commons, it may be said that the burghers, as a rule, were favourable to the Yorkist party, as being the stronger on land and sea, and therefore good for trade and for quiet living ; and the knights, elected in the court of the shire, were chosen, as it seems, under the scrutiny of the king's sheriff and the neighbouring magnates who acknowledged Edward IV. The sheriff's interference was not always liked, but it was difficult not to accept it.^ The Parliament met on November 4th, and was opened by the Chancellor, Dr Neville, Bishop of E.xeter, with a sermon on the text, " Amend your ways and your doings " (Jeremiah vii. 3).^ The number of temporal peers summoned was forty-four, which was about the average attendance in the Upper House during the fifteenth century.* On November 1 2th the Spea ker, Sir James St rangeways^ a knight for Yorkshire, presented a petition of the Commons that the claim of Edward's family to the crown should be embodied in an Act of Parliament. The Act was passed, but this does not mean that the Yorkists held by a parliamentary title. Edward's reign began before the Parliament ; the Act of Parliament distinctly recognises it as having begun " on the fourth day of the month of March last passed." * 1 Cp. "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 174, Edward's respect for Waynflete. 2 Cp. "Paston Letters," No. 471. ^ A detailed account of this Parliament is given in Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. pp. 200-3. * For attendances of peers under Lancastrians and Yorkists, see Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 457. 5 Nicolas, "Chronology," p. 305. II 1 63 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 The period of Lancastrian rule was regarded as an interlude of usurpation ; in the Act, Henry VI., V., and IV. are alluded to merely as the " late called King Henry the Sixth, son to Henry, son to the said Henry, late Earl of Derby, son to John of Gaunt." Nevertheless, with certain exceptions, all judicial acts, charters, patents of the late reigns were declared to hold good and to be valid in law. Without some such declaration no one in the land would have been safe, and anarchy would have ensued. In fact the government of the realm and the relations of society went on much as before. The chief officers of the crown were already Yorkist before Edward came to the throne, and so no change of ministry was necessary. But a comprehensive Bill of Attainder was passed against the friends of Henry VI. The list of persons attainted began with the names of Henry himself, Margaret, and Prince Edward ; it included fourteen great Lancastrian lords, some of whom were still living, like the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, while others were already dead. But living or dead, they were all attainted in blood ; their estates were thus forfeited to the crown. Besides the nobles there was included a large number of people of lower rank, down to yeomen. In all there were a hundred and fifty-three.^ The number seems large, but it might easily have been larger. Moreover, most of the attainted people were for the moment out of reach, in hiding or in exile, and their submission in the future might gain their pardon. Parliament was prorogued^ on December 21st, with a speech delivered by Edward in person, in which he promised to devote himself to the service of the nation. He was at this time only nineteen years and eight months old ;. it must be admitted that he had shown great capacity for so young a man. ' W. Wore, p. 779. 2 It met again in May 1462, but was immediately dissolved. CHAPTER XV THE NORTHERN WAR With the successful termination of his first Parliament, Edward IV. might have breathed freely. All within a few , months he had scattered the Lancastrian forces in a fearful rout, he had been crowned king, and had been recognised by an enthusiastic Parliament. The most skilful warriors were on his side, with their large bands of soldiers ; his ships patrolled the sea.^ He had himself journeyed throughout the country, as king, and established his power wherever he went. The extinction of the Lancastrian party seemed only a question of time. That it was not extinguished was due almost entirely to Queen Margaret. As long as strength remained in her she was indomitable ; the most fearful defeats could not break her spirit ; with each new disaster she set herself doggedly to build up her party afresh. Her husband could do little but remain quietly in Scotland, waiting till Margaret, having brought her plans to success, should call upon him to appear. But she herself took no rest. Amid want and privation, almost unattended, she went from place to place, gathering together the threads of a counter-revolution, which few hoped to see. Often in the greatest personal danger from violent men — in the country exposed to robbers, on the sea exposed to King Edward's sailors, or the pirate crews that still infested the seas round England ; once, even, having to take to an open boat, to face stormy weather off the Northumbrian coast ; even in these fearful trials she never flinched. In England, > For Edward's care of maritime defence at this time, see "Paston Letters," Nos. 459, 480, 483. 163 i64 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 in Scotland, then in France and in Flanders, she ceaselessly- wrought with unwilling people to lend their tardy help. Three years' unremitting work saw her party together once more in force, and holding the strongholds of Northumberland, most firmly established as it seemed, at least in the North of England. But again, in rapid succession, defeat followed defeat ; once more those Lancastrians who could save themselves were scattered to the winds ; and once more Margaret, amid the ruin of all she had worked for, was left to piece together the fragments, and to pit her own weak strength and influence against the vast resources and the all-pervasive statesman- ship of the Yorkist king. It is not always easy to follow the movements of the Lancastrians after the disaster at Towton. They had two friendly countries to look to, France and Scotland. But for some time the king and queen were able to stay in England. On April i8th it was reported that Henry VI. and his wife were in some castle in Yorkshire, "Coroumbr; such a name it hath, or much like.''^ It may only have been some fortified farm. He seems to have nearly been captured there, as it was beset by Yorkist gentlemen ; but some followers of the Percy family made a diversion by attacking the besiegers, in the midst of which Henry " stole away at a little postern on the back side." Henry, with the queen, then fled northward to the town of Berwick, the great border fortress which had been so often coveted and besieged by the Scots, but which was still in Lancastrian hands. He at once admitted the enemy into the town, so that at the beginning of May the Paston correspondence contains the intelligence that "Berwick is full of Scots." 2 The royal family (Prince 1 " Paston Letters," No. 451. 2 Ibid., No. 452 ; " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 78, says that Henry delivered " many other castles in the north to the Scots." 1461] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 165 Edward was with his father and mother all the time) then passed on into Scotland, apparently to Edinburgh, " full of trouble and heaviness, no wonder." ^ They had lost a kingdom. Even a roof above their head was only gained by the barter of their country's strongholds. The condition of Scotland at this time was not such as to afford many opportunities to the Lancastrians. James 1 1., a king of eminent talent and a strong supporter of Henry VI., had been killed in the previous year (August 3rd, 1460) by the explosion of one of his own cannons at the siege of Roxburgh. Scotland was thus left to the conflicts of parties, by which she was always troubled during a regency. The young James 111. was just nine years old ; the queen-mother, Mary of Gueldres, naturally had much influence in the government, but she had to share the control with Kennedy, the distinguished Bishop of St Andrews. Both, it is true, had at the death of James II. laboured to carry on his policy of supporting the Lancastrians in tho.se civil troubles in England, which offered such good opportunities to the Scots. But early in 1 46 1 Philip of Burgundy (a good friend to the Yorkists), at the request of Edward IV., sent an embassy to Scotland, specially to win over the queen-mother's support for the Yorkist government. Philip was Mary's uncle, and the overlord of her family in Gueldres. The effect of his embassy was such that the Scots were no longer united in support of the house of Lancaster.^ Nevertheless, although by the time the Lancastrian family fled to Scotland after Towton, Mary of Gueldres definitely favoured the Yorkist cause, yet she did not refuse them admittance ; the party of Kennedy was strong enough to ensure them a good reception.^ Henry, Margaret, and their son were given quarters, first in Linlithgow Palace, and afterwards in the Dominican Convent in Edinburgh.* ' Gregory, p. 217. ^ Waurin, p. 355. ^ Hume Brown, " History of Scotland," i. p. 249, note i. * Ibid.^ p. 251. i66 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1461 But they seem never to have stayed long in the same place. In August the queen and her son were in Edin- burgh, but Henry had gone back to the neighbourhood of his lost realm, and was said to be " at Kirkcud- bright with four men and a child." ^ He must have gone to be near the Scots army. For in May or June of that year, shortly before the coronation of Edward IV., the Scots even sent an army to besiege Carlisle (which was held by the Yorkists), but were beaten off by Warwick's brother, Montague, who was one of the Wardens of the Marches. Thus Margaret was only partially successful in gaining help from Scotland. The diplomacy of Edward IV. spoiled her plans and detached Mary of Gueldres from her side. But Margaret's plans extended further than Scotland ; they aimed at bringing in France also, and so encompassing England with a ring of enemies. Charles VII. was her uncle. It was in his reign that the English had been driven out of France ; and now he had a chance of completely turning the tables, by invading England in the interests of the Lancastrians. Accordingly, it was not without some prospect of success that Margaret sent three of her faithful followers, the Duke of Somerset, Lord Hungerford, and Robert Whitingham, on a mission to him. Evading the ships which Edward had sent out to guard the sea, they landed at Dieppe some time in July. But just at that time, unfortunately, Charles VII. died (July 22nd, 1461), and the new king, Lewis XL, was much too politic to back a losing cause. The Lancastrian commissioners were placed under surveillance, and all their documents and writings seized for King Lewis. They were, however, able to send off letters to Margaret, giving an account of their detention. Of the three letters sent by different boats one at least was captured by Edward's sailors, and it is from this that the story of the arrest may be gathered.^ 1 " Paston Letters," No. 480. 2 /^^'rf. 1462] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 167 Lewis, who, as Dauphin, had quarrelled with his father, was living, at the time of Charles VII.'s death, at Hesdin, in the territory of Philip of Burgundy. After being crowned at Rheims, and holding a court at Paris, Lewis went to Tours, to spend the hot and dry summer in the pleasant hunting country by the Loire. To Tours, accordingly, the arrested Lancastrian envoys were summoned. There they were given a good reception and sent back to Scotland, but without any real offer of help. It was said that Lewis was induced to treat them kindly by Charles, Count of Charolais (" Charles the Bold "), son of Philip of Burgundy. Charles, unlike his father, favoured the Lancastrian family, and was a personal friend of Somerset, whom he had met when the latter was stationed at Guisnes.^ But the diplomacy of Edward reached everywhere. While Somerset and Hungerford were attempting to negotiate for Margaret, Edward's envoys were waiting at Calais, ready to seize the propitious moment for influencing the French king. This embassy consisted of Lord Wenlock, Sir John Cley, and the Dean of St Severens. Although they were delayed for some weeks in Calais owing to the disturbed state of the pale, they were able, through the mediation of the Duke of Burgundy, to ensure for a time, at any rate, peace between France and England. Thus the year 1461 passed. Henry, Margaret, and her son were still in Scotland. Edward IV. was content to - leave the guarding of the northern border to the wardens, Warwick and Montague. The " Paston Letters " show that the country in general had not yet settled down into quietness. In February 1462 Edward made an example of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Albert, the earl's son. Sir Thomas Tuddenham (a turbulent man, who for many years had made discord in Norfolk), and two other knights. These, on suspicion of preparing aid for Queen Margaret, were tried in the court of the High 1 The above particulars are from Waurin, pp. 407-11. Cp. Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 289, note 2. 1 68 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1462 Constable, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, and executed on a scaffold erected for the purpose on Tower Hill.^ The Duke of Somerset, since his return to Scotland from the unsuccessful mission to Lewis XL, had made a fresh diplomatic journey to Flanders. He returned without much success in March. It was clear that if anything really was to be done, Queen Margaret must do it herself In April she set out with four ships (provided, no doubt, by Bishop Kennedy) from Kirkcudbright, and sailing down St George's Channel, arrived safely in Brittany on April 1 6th. She was well received by Francis II., the last reigning Duke of Brittany, who gave her 12,000 crowns.^ From Brittany she passed on through Anjou, where she visited her father, Rene, Duke of Anjou, titular king of Sicily. But the aged R^ne had no great resources, so the queen in August^ passed on again, and visited Lewis XL, probably in his favourite castle of Tours. Hitherto Lewis had been neutral, showing himself friendly both to Lancas- trians and Yorkists, but doing nothing for either. Now he saw his chance ; and on the security of Calais, which Margaret pledged to him (though it was not in her hands), he agreed to furnish her with men and money. An expedi- tion was to be immediately organised to invade the North of England. It was hoped that the party which favoured the Lancastrians in Scotland would co-operate with the French expedition. But Warwick had already been spreading his diplomatic meshes. In April, as soon as Margaret left Scotland, he had met Mary of Gueldres at Dumfries, and confirmed her in her neutrality. It was supposed that he had broached the question of a possible marriage between herself and King Edward. ^ Nevertheless, Margaret prepared for her invasion of England. The expedition which Lewis XL fitted out for her was of no great size, but it might be sufficient to seize some base of operations in the North of England, where a ' W. Wore, pp. 779-80. 2 Waurin, p. 431. " W. Wore, p. 779 ; " Paston Letters," No. 521. 1462] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 169 general rising might then be expected. The queen, with three ships and 800 Frenchmen, under Pierre de Br6z6, Seigneur of Varenne (leader of the expedition of 1457 against Sandwich), left Boulogne,^ probably late in September or early in October. At the same time Lewis XI. meditated an assault upon Calais,^ but the design was not carried out. Although Edward IV. had a certain number of ships under the Earl of Kent on the seas round England, they were not able to guard the whole coast, for Queen Margaret's small squadron was able to reach Northumber- land. They landed near Bamburgh on October 24th.^ The successful passage of the North Sea by Margaret was probably due to the fact that the English fleet had been drawn to the west, to meet a force of sixty French, Breton, and Spanish ships, which were said to be taking merchan- dise to Flanders. These were met and scattered by the Earl of Warwick's fleet.* De Br6z6 was a veteran of great resource, fidelity, and courage. He was personally disliked by Lewis XL, who had put him at the head of Margaret's force in the hope that he would never return.^ He soon showed what an energetic man could do. The North of England was still very disaffected to Edward IV., and though nominally submissive, was ready to cast off allegiance on the least provocation. In those days, when there was no regular army or corps of professional officers at the disposal of the crown, governors and captains of castles and of garrisons had to be chosen from the local gentlemen. Thus the strong northern castles, Bamburgh, Alnwick, Dunstan- burgh, were in charge of northern gentry, whose loyalty to the new king was not proof against an appeal to their old allegiance. Although the country as a whole did not rise, the great castles opened their gates. They appear to 1 " Paston Letters," No. 531. " Ibid. ^ Gregory, p. 217, "Eight Days after All Hallow Even." * "Paston Letters," No. 531. ° Waurin, p. 431. 170 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1462 have been badly victualled for a siege, but nothing short of treachery or lack of spirit on the part of some of the defenders could have made them yield so quickly. Margaret put Lord Hungerford in charge of Alnwick ; the Duke of Somerset and Sir Ralph Percy (both of whom had come to her standard) were appointed to hold Bamburgh ; Dunstanburgh was committed to the Lancastrian, Sir Richard Tunstall, whose brother. Sir William Tunstall, was a Yorkist, and had been in charge of Bamburgh. By this time (end of October) Henry VL had managed to join her from Scotland. But the Lancastrian force was still small, and there was no general rising. It was known that Edward himself would soon be in the north with an army. Accordingly, the queen and her squadron once more took to the sea, to go for help to Scotland. By this time she must have had more ships than those with which she came from France. The weather was bad. Such a great storm arose that four of her ships, including her own, were wrecked off Holy Island. Henry, however, must have been in another ship, because there is no mention of his having been in personal danger. Margaret had to abandon her ship and all her belongings in it, and take to a small open boat, in which she was fortunate to reach Berwick in safety. Many of the soldiers on the wrecks managed to get ashore on Holy Island and took refuge in the church, but were attacked by two Yorkist gentlemen (the "bastard of Ogle" and John Manners) and most of them killed or captured. Pierre de Brezd, however, was conveyed by a fisherman to Berwick, where he found the intrepid Margaret already arrived, having successfully braved the sea in her frail " carvel." ^ At this moment affairs were in a critical state for the Yorkists. Three of the greatest of the northern castles were held by their opponents : these castles were open to the sea, which gave them a ready means of communication with Scotland. It would be difficult for Edward to com- ' Gregory, pp. 218-19 ; Holinshed, iii. p. 666. 1462] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 171 mand the seas off Northumberland, because of the continual threats from French and Spanish fleets on the south. A great effort was undoubtedly needed ; Edward made the effort. He prepared a large train of artillery for castle sieges — " great guns and other great ordinance " ^ — and had it transported from London, probably by sea, to Newcastle. He called to his standard all the magnates of the kingdom who favoured his cause. Two dukes (Norfolk and Suffolk), seven earls (Warwick, Arundel, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Kent, Westmoreland, Essex), thirty-one barons, and fifty- nine knights, followed him to the north, or met him there.^ These would bring their men from the country districts. Nor were men of the towns wanting, for Edward had sent his summons to them too, and they had responded to his call.3 King Edward left London for the north on November 3rd, but seems to have got no further than Durham, being detained there by an attack of measles.* Nevertheless the castles were vigorously besieged from December 1 1 th by Edward's captains. The siege of Bamburgh Castle, inside which were the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Roos , and Sir Ralph Percy, with 300 men, was undertaken by Lords Montague and Ogle. Alnwick was besieged by the Earl of Kent and Lord Scales, Dunstanburgh by the Earl of Worcester and Sir Ralph Grey. The Yorkist artillery, brought to the scenes of action from Newcastle, did great damage to the walls. The Earl of Warwick, as King Edward was indisposed, had a general command of all the operations. He kept his quarters at the castle of Warkworth, ten miles from Alnwick, and rode every day to the lines in front of each of the castles, and superintended the sieges. Stores of provisions were accumulated at the port of Newcastle, 1 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 79 "^ Ibid., pp. 157-8. ' W. Wore, p. 780. The names of the towns are not given. * See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 293, note i. 172 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1463 where the young Duke of Norfolk was stationed to forward the victuals and anything else that was required to Warkworth, from which place Warwick distributed supplies to the respective camps. All this time King Edward lay sick at Durham. But the arrangements for the war were carefully thought out, and successfully executed. A good reserve of men was also kept at Newcastle, and no one could get leave to go home, even for Christmas. John Paston's younger son, John, was with the forces at New- castle, rather ruefully contemplating a residence there over Christmas, by which time he foresaw that all his money would long be exhausted.^ The sieges were over in just under a month. Bam- burgh and Dunstanburgh surrendered on Christmas Eve ; Alnwick, under different circumstances, on January 6th. King Edward showed himself merciful and forgiving. When Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh surrendered, the Duke of Somerset and Sir Ralph Percy were not merely allowed to go free, but, on swearing allegiance to King Edward, were restored to possession of their estates. Percy was even given the guardianship of the two castles — a mark of confidence on the part of Edward which he promptly abused. The Duke of Somerset was also treated handsomely : he was allowed to wear the king's livery, and to serve in an honourable place in King Edward's host. The other lords, who showed themselves less pliant, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Roos, were allowed to go to Scotland under a safe-conduct.^ So ended the year 1462. Alnwick, under Lord Hungerford and Sir Richard Tunstall, still held out, relying on a relieving army of , Scots which Margaret and Pierre de Brdz6 were conducting from Berwick. This cannot have been a very great army, as the Scots government was by no means united in favour of the Lancastrians. It was, however, superior to the force with which the Earl of > " Paston Letters," No. 453. - W. Wore, p. 779. 1463] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 173 Warwick had to meet them. Margaret and the Scots arrived near Alnwick on January 5th. The garrison of the castle at once salHed out and joined them. Warwick had too small a force to prevent this, and so he cautiously took up a defensible position between the castle and a marsh near by. There seems even to have been some thought of retreating altogether, but Somerset, who was serving with Warwick now, counselled him to stand fast and defend his camp. By this advice he did a good turn to King Edward's cause, for the Scots, seeing that the Yorkists presented a firm front, actually retired from the field without attacking. Somerset's services were appreciated ; King Edward rewarded him with twenty marks weekly for his expenses, and also furnished the daily pay for the duke's men. Alnwick Castle surrendered next day, on condition of all the garrison being unharmed in life or limb.^ The fiasco of this Scottish invasion must have caused intense disappointment to Margaret and de Br6z6 ; but the 'truth is, that although the Scots and the French were old allies, it was seldom that things went well when the French were actually with a Scottish host. The two nations co-operated best from a distance. The year just finished had been a successful one for King Edward. With the exception of Harlech, there was now not a single castle which held out against him. But the year 1463 was not many months old before the work had to be done over again. In May, Sir Ralph Percy, the Lancastrian, whom Edward had forgiven and put over Bamburgh, let the Scots into the castle. Alnwick also was betrayed about the same time by Sir Ralph Grey, a Yorkist who had been sorely disappointed because King Edward had only made him constable of the castle, the superior position of captain being given to Sir John Ashley.^ Thus Alnwick and Bamburgh again received a mixed garrison of English, French, and Scots. A combined army of the same composition, with ' W. Wore, pp. 780-1. 2 Gregory, p. 220. 174 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1463 King Henry and Queen Margaret among them, besieged the great castle of Norham, on the right bank of the Tweed, eight miles south-west of Berwick. But on Warwick and Montague approaching with an army of relief, the Scots broke up their leaguer and abandoned the siege, making their retreat in such haste that they left many of their belongings behind them. It is said that only one man, a piper, dared to face the Yorkists, "for he stood upon a hill with his tabor and his pipe, taboring and piping as merely as any man might, standing by himself, till my lord came unto him he would not lessen his ground." The courageous piper was probably some Englishman of Queen Margaret's following. The Earl of Warwick, pleased with the spirit of the man, took him into his own service, and found in him thereafter a faithful follower.^ The relief of Norham took place in the last half of July.^ Queen Margaret and King Henry, with those Lancastrians who still followed them, had made their way by different routes to Bamburgh. Margaret had two narrow escapes. In the flight she had been captured, along with her son, by the enemy, and only rescued by a chivalrous Yorkist squire, who took pity on her ; and after that, before she regained her husband's quarters, her life had been threatened by a brigand, whose heart, however, was unexpectedly melted by her appeals, and by her placing the young prince in his hands for protection.^ Without assist- ance from the outside the cause of the Lancastrians must soon fall ; their resources were almost at an end. Yet Queen Margaret, with her tireless devotion to the service of her husband and her son, would never give in, so long as one chance remained to be tried. The sea, although not unguarded, still offered her a means of seeking assist- ance. The great fleet which King Edward had ordered to be fitted out about the time of the siege of Norham had ' Gregory, pp. 220-1. ^ See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 295, note 3. ^ Chastellain, " CEuvres," iv. pp. 300-g ; see below. 1463] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 175 never been brought into being. As Warwick was showing himself successful on the land, Edward saved himself the expense of further efforts by the sea. Thus Queen Margaret was able to leave Bamburgh by sea,i and pass over to Flanders. The date of her departure was probably at the end of July.^ King Henry, who was never to see his wife again, was left behind in Bamburgh, from which he retired into Scotland. 1 W. Wore, p. 781. ^ Chast., iv. p. 279. Cp. valuable note i of Plummer (Fortescue's " Governance of England "), p. 63. CHAPTER XVI QUEEN MARGARET ABROAD The retreat of the Scots from Alnwick must have convinced Margaret that there was Httle to be gained from her alHes across the border. The submission of the Duke ^ ^ of Somerset and Sir Ralph Percy to King Edward proved how little the efforts even of the chief Lancastrian gentry could be relied on. Even from abroad she could expect small help, for King Edward had spread his diplomatic meshes in Flanders, and even in France. Who was to state her case against the persuasive arguments of the Yorkist ambassadors? Margaret resolved to do this herself She landed at Sluys,a Flemish port six miles to the north- east of Bruges. The faithful men, so far as known, who accompanied her were : Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter ; six knights — John Fortescue (the famous judge and writer on legal and constitutional subjects), Edmund Mundford, E. Hamden, Henry Roos, Thomas Ormonde, Robert Whityng- ham ; two doctors of divinity- — John Morton (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury) and Robert Makerel.^ But her chief friend and counsellor was Pierre de Brez^.^ There were others whose names were not given, including seven devoted women who were her personal attendants. In all her following numbered 200 persons. The prospect might have deterred the strongest spirit. The Duke of Burgundy, to whom she was looking for help, was one of whom, in her days of prosperity, she had somehow made a mortal enemy. She came to him a fugitive, " without royal habit or estate." Her wardrobe consisted of the clothes she was wearing. ' W. Wore, p. 781. 2 Chast., iv. p. 279. .76 1463] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 177 She wore a short robe and had no change of garments. Her seven women were in the same condition. Had it not been for his private purse, which de Brdze put at her disposal, she would have wanted even bread. But even de Brez6 could do little more, for he had already spent nearly all his money in the queen's service. During the stay of the Lancastrians in Burgundy, the chronicler, Chastellain, took pains to acquire knowledge from them at first hand. According to what he learned from de Br6ze himself, the old warrior had spent 50,000 crowns in following Queen Margaret. From Sluys Queen Margaret was honourably escorted by the orders of the Count of Charolais, son of Duke Philip. Charles, whose independent, reckless character had earned him the name of Bold, openly supported the Lancastrian cause at this time, while his father was a steady supporter of the Yorkists. At Bruges, where Charles held his court, the queen lodged at the Carmelites.^ Although Charles's father, the Duke of Burgundy, was anxious to avoid meeting Margaret, he had found it impossible to do so, the queen having plainly declared her intention of coming to him, wherever he was. Duke Philip had just gone on a pilgrimage to Notre Dame of Boulogne, accompanied by his sister, the Duchess of Bourbon. Ambassadors of King Edward of England and King Lewis of France were also in the neighbourhood, and a general treaty of peace and neutrality seemed likely to be arranged between the Yorkist government, France, and Burgundy. But Duke Philip, the chivalrous head of the Order of the Golden Fleece, could not refuse to meet Queen Margaret when she reminded him of his duty to all "dames in distress."^ He accordingly appointed the town of St Pol for the place of meeting. Count Charles lent her 500 crowns to enable her to pursue her journey from Bruges. She left her son, Edward, 1 W. Wore, p. 781. 2 chast., iv. p. 282. 178 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1463 Prince of Wales, there for safety, and with three of her women, Pierre de Br^ze, and a few men, left the city. Her party was not like any royal cavalcade ; for she herself was dressed in the habit of a village woman, and her carriage was just a country cart, covered with canvas, and drawn by four mares. At Bethune, where she lodged for the night, she nearly fell into the hands of the men of King Edward, who, to the number of 200 horsemen, had made a raid from Calais to kidnap her. But the attempt failed ; and Margaret was able to go on to St Pol, where she waited for the duke, on August 3ist.^ Philip arrived next day, and stayed for one night (September 1st and 2nd). On the 3rd Margaret returned to Bruges. She had received a pleasant entertainment from the duke, but no real help. Her presence, indeed, was most inconvenient to him, but as Margaret had insisted on seeing him, the duke had done her honour, showing kindness and chivalry ; however, he had no intention of changing his policy on her account. After leaving St Pol, when he had proceeded about a league towards St Omer, where the conference with the French and English was to take place, Philip sent back one of his knights to Queen Margaret with a parting gift — a fine diamond, fit for a queen, and 2,000 crowns, no doubt equally acceptable. Presents of money were also given to de Br6z6 and Margaret's three dames. Philip had departed, but his sister, the Duche.ss of Bourbon, remained, and the two ladies enjoyed some long and intimate conversations together. Under the influence of sympathetic female companionship the unbending spirit of Margaret enjoyed the rare luxury of tears. She related all her fearful trials and adventures during the last years in England, and the chronicler Chastellain was able from the duchess's account afterwards to give a detailed narrative for posterity. Margaret told how, in Northumberland, King Henry, ■ Chast., iv. p. 285. See also Plummer, " Governance," p. 64, for dates. 1463] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 179 the young Prince Edward, and herself, once, during the recent campaigns, for as much as five days, had only one herring to share for their food each day ; bread they had none. They were so poor that once at mass the queen found herself without even a penny to put into the offertory; she asked a Scottish archer who was near by to lend her something, and he, "somewhat stiffly and regretfully," drew a groat from his purse and lent it to her. The queen related also how, " at the latest disaster " (the flight of the Scots in front of Norham), she had been captured by some plundering Yorkist soldiers and despoiled of all her valuables. She was treated with great roughness, and even dragged before the captain to have her head cut off Her tears and impassioned appeals had no effect, as it seemed, but suddenly a quarrel broke out among her brutal captors over the division of the booty ; and while attention was thus turned from her, she spoke pitifully to a Yorkist squire whom she saw near, and she begged him to save her. He was moved and said : " Madame, mount behind me, and monseigneur the prince in front, and I will save you or die, seeing that death is more likely to come to me than not." So amid the general distraction they rode off, and gained the refuge of a forest unobserved, which Margaret entered, still on horseback behind the squire, full of strange fears and fancies, not caring for her own life, but fearing for the young heir of the crown, who, if he lived, she hoped would one day come into his rights. The forest was a noted haunt of brigands ; Margaret's fears were justified. Soon there appeared a man of hideous and horrible aspect, with obvious intention to kill and to rob. But once more the queen's appeal turned the heart of a savage man. Declaring her rank and condition, she besought him to save not her, but the young prince her son, the heir of England. The brigand was touched, and prayed her for mercy, "as if she was carrying her sceptre in London." So putting her son into the brigand's hands, the queen rode off behind the squire once more, and after long travels reached her husband's i8o THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1463 camp. The brigand faithfully performed his task, and brought in the young prince safely.^ Next day, September 3rd, at five in the morning, Margaret took leave of the duchess, and departed from St Pol, under a strong escort, for Bruges, where she had left her son and most of her following. Here she was received with all the honours pertaining to royalty by the Count of Charolais, who refused to treat her as anything but a reigning queen, or her son as anything but the heir to a powerful throne. Accordingly, although in its public policy the government adhered to the Yorkist cause, the fugitive queen felt that the famous chivalry of Philip and Charles of Burgundy was not an empty boast. After this, with Prince Edward, and most of her gentlemen, she pro- ceeded to the duchy of Bar, in Lorraine, where her father. King R^ne, had a residence and a small court. The faith- ful, indomitable de Breze returned to France, and was received with high favour by Lewis XL, who had not expected him to survive the troubles and dangers of England. But de Br6ze did not put much store by Lewis's promises ; he was only anxious to go to his wife at the chateau of Mauny. The king gave his permission to go there, and ordered him not to leave it.^ The negotiations between the French, Burgundians, and Yorkists were gradually brought to a close. Throughout the greater part of September the envoys of the three sovereigns held meetings at St Omer, close to the frontier of the pale of Calais. Dr George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, Chancellor of England, was the chief representative of Edward IV. The Duke of Burgundy kept his quarters at Hesdin, to which place, on September 28th, Lewis XI. also came. On September 30th the English envoys adjourned to Hesdin, and by October loth an agreement had been reached. On October 26th the truce between France and England was published.^ The Scots shortly after followed the example of their French ally, and in December a truce > Chast., iv. pp. 300-9. 2 Ibid., iv. p. 359. 3 Ibid.^ 389. 1463] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 181 was entered into with Edward at York, to endure till the end of the following October.^ The truces with France and Scotland were subsequently extended. King Edward was thus freed, for some years at least, from foreign inter- vention, and Queen Margaret had nearly seven years to spend at St Mighel-en-Barrois before she could strike her final blow for the Lancastrian cause. ' Hume Brown, " Scotland," i. p. 255. CHAPTER XVII THE CAPTURE OF HENRY VI. The Lancastrian party was crushed. King Henry was an exile in Scotland once more; Queen Margaret, the most , capable and dauntless of all, was living with her son, in meagre state, in Bar. France and Scotland were peaceful. Only Alnwick and Bamburgh still held out ; their reduction was merely a matter of time. Nothing had happened to change the fortunes of either party during the remaining months of 1463, when King Henry had returned to Scotland, and Queen Margaret was in Flanders. Edward spent the time in the north parts, looking after his own interests there. Perhaps he was already coming to the conclusion that the influence of Warwick was too great. It may have been this thought that induced him to show so much favour to the Duke of Somerset, who, though lately his enemy, had become the king's man again at the end of the year 1462. According to the London chronicler, Gregory, Edward was always heaping favours on the duke. " And the king made full much of him ; in so much that he lodged with the king in his own bed many nights, and some time rode a-hunting behind the king, the king having about him not passing 6 horse at the most, and yet three were of the duke's men of Somerset." ^ When, in the autumn of 1463, King Edward went into the north, he took with him the Duke of Somerset, and 200 of the duke's men to act as a royal bodyguard. When they had gone as far as Northampton, the sight of Edward's former enemy roused the townsmen to anger, and they rose up ' Gregory, p. 219. 1464] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 183 and would have slain Somerset. So Edward, to save the duke's life, and probably to satisfy the grumblings of his followers, sent him away into safe keeping at the castle of Holt,^ in Denbighshire. Somerset's men, who had been Edward's bodyguard, were sent up to Newcastle, to increase the garrison there. King Edward continued his journey into Yorkshire, where he spent the rest of the year 1463, and concluded the truce with Scotland. The castles of Alnwick and Bamburgh still were in the hands of his enemies. Sir Ralph Percy and Sir Ralph Grey. About Christmas the trouble suddenly became acute. The Duke of Somerset left Holt secretly and came swiftly out of Wales with a number of followers (always to be counted on in North Wales) through Yorkshire and Durham, intending to appear outside Newcastle, and to be admitted into it by his former men who were now in the garrison. But at Durham he was recognised, and all but captured while asleep. He escaped half-dressed and barefooted. His men in Newcastle, when they heard that his treason was discovered, stole out of the city to join him, but a number of them were caught and beheaded. This new turn which affairs took appears to have been due to some preconcerted movement. It was as if the , Lancastrians, in the face of King Edward's ^ ^ diplomatic successes in Scotland and Burgundy, were making a desperate effort at home. For the first four months of 1464 Somerset and his party were able to maintain themselves in the north, secure for the time being in the possession of Alnwick and Bamburgh. Edward did not attempt to take the field until the spring was over. But by his diplomatic work he was steadily isolating the Lancastrians. In March ^ Henry's advisers thought it best that he should leave Scotland, and join the forces which were upholding his cause at Bamburgh. ' This is the conjecture of Ramsay, " L. & Y.," ii. p. 301. ^ Hume Brown, i. p. 256. 1 84 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1464 The Scots were ready to convert their truce with King Edward into a definite peace.^ About Easter the Yorkist commissioners went up to York to treat with the Scots. Chief among the commissioners were the three Neville brothers, the Bishop of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, and the Lord Montague. While the rest were waiting at York, Montague, as one of the Wardens of the March, took a small force up to the frontier in order to escort the Scottish commissioners to the place of meeting. The country was in a turmoil, because not merely were Alnwick and Bamburgh in the hands of King Henry and the Duke of Somerset, but also the castles of Norham and Skipton in Craven had been captured by the Lancas- trians ^ : this could hardly have happened without treachery from within. The Duke of Somerset was emboldened even to take the field. With a force of eighty spears and bows he lay in wait for Montague in a wood, not far from Newcastle. But Montague got news of the ambush and took another way, and so came to Newcastle safely. From Newcastle Montague continued his march towards Norham. About half-way, at Hedgley Moor, eight miles to the north-west of Alnwick, he again found his way beset by the duke of Somerset, with a strong force which included Lord Hungerford, Lord Roos, and Sir Ralph Percy. This was on April 25th.^ The number of Lancastrians is said by the chronicler, Gregory, to have been 5,000 ; it is more likely to have been a few hundreds, as they made no stand against Montague's comparatively small force. Among those who stood, however, was Sir Ralph Percy, who fought until he was slain, saying as he died, " I have saved the bird in my bosom," meaning that he had kept his promise and oath made to King Henry : " forgetting (belike) that he in King Henry's most necessity abandoned him and submitted him to King Edward."* 1 Gregory, p. 223. 2 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 178. ' Gregory, p. 224. ■> Holinshed, iii. p. 666. 1464] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 185 The death of Percy was felt as a great blow by the remaining Lancastrians. " Every man . . . took his way with full sorry hearts." ^ Montague passed on unchallenged to Norham, and then returned with the Scottish commis- sioners to York, where a peace for fifteen years was concluded between King Edward and Scotland. The time seemed now ripe to press the long-continued war to a conclusion. On May 14th Montague again set out with his hard-working column from Newcastle. Intelligence was brought to him that the Lancastrian force, with King Henry (for whom the castle of Bamburgh was no longer considered safe), was encamped on a meadow called the Linnels, by the " Devil's Water," about three miles from Hexham.^ On the isth the two forces met in a battle, which has taken its name from Hexham. It appears that a number of men deserted from the Duke of Somerset's force before Montague made his attack, and that the duke's strength was thus reduced to 500 men. The Yorkist force, on the other hand, is computed at 4,000 men ; this figure may be too large, but it is clear that the Yorkists had the advantage of numbers.^ The fight cannot have lasted long. Montague dashed into the meadow, and surrounded and took prisoner the chief men of the enemy. But King Henry, who was in the castle of By well near by, made off before the castle opened its gates to the Yorkists. He must have left in great haste, for he left behind his helmet and his cap of state.* After the operations of 1462 in the north, great indul- gence had been shown to the vanquished lords. This indulgence had been answered by new plots and revolts. It was now felt that the time had come to quiet these restless spirits for ever. Montague carried out this policy with unswerving thoroughness. On May 15 th, the day of ' Gregory, p. 224. ^ Holinshed, iii. p. 666. 3 W. Wore, p. 782. ■* "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 179. i86 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1464 the battle, Somerset was decapitated at Hexham, with four of his following. On the 17th Lord Hungerford, Lord Roos (who had escaped from the battle, but had been captured next day in a wood near Hexham), with four others, were executed at Newcastle. On the i8th Sir Philip Wentworth and six others were executed at Middle- ham, a castle of the Earl of Warwick, in the North Riding. On the 26th Sir Thomas Hussy and thirteen others were executed at York, where, on the 28th, four more were be- headed. About the same time Sir William Tailboys was beheaded at Newcastle. Tailboys was a noted Lancastrian, who had from King Henry the title of Earl of Kyme in Lincolnshire. He had not been present at the battle of Hexham, but was taken in a coal pit near Newcastle. There was found with him 3,000 marks, which he was bringing for the payment of King Henry's forces. This money was divided as a gratuity among Montague's men, and greatly consoled them for the long period of marching and fighting which they had undergone.^ The prisoners seem to have been tried for rebellion before Montague, as a Warden of the March, or in other cases before the Constable of England, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. King Edward is also mentioned as having been present in York, and apparently at the actual trials.^ Of the prisoners, one only is mentioned as being pardoned. The fortunate man was a certain John Naylor, formerly an official in the Chancery of King Henry. Naylor was con- demned like the rest, but then pardoned through the influence of the Chancellor, George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, who intervened at the request of Henry Upton, one of the six clerks of the Chancery and a former colleague of Naylor. The war in the north was now all but over, largely owing to the energy of Montague. In consideration of his ' Gregory, pp. 225-6 ; " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," pp. 178-9. 2 W. Wore, p. 782. 1464] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 187 services, and especially for his capture of the Duke of Somerset, he was created Earl of Northumberland by King Edward, at York, on May 27th, and he was endowed with all the lands of the former earl, Henry Percy, within the county of Northumberland. The fortunes of the Neville brothers were now almost at their highest point. In September of the same year Dr William Booth, Archbishop of York, died ; and in his place the Chancellor, George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, was substituted "both by the influence of the king and by canonical election." ^ The war dwindled away in the various castles held by the Lancastrians. Skipton in Craven surrendered im- mediately after the battle of Hexham.^ After the great series of executions. King Edward ordered Warwick and Northumberland to reduce Alnwick, Bamburgh, and Dunstanburgh. In little over a month all was finished. First they took Alnwick, which yielded on conditions, and so the lives of the garrison were spared ; then they were admitted into Dunstanburgh on the same terms.^ Finally the two brothers turned their energies against Bamburgh, which was held by Sir Ralph Grey, the ex- Yorkist who had turned against King Edward. For this siege Warwick brought up his great artillery and battered down a portion of the walls. Sir Ralph Grey was wounded, and his men surrendered the castle, on the same terms as the other castles, namely, that the garrison should be " at the mercy of the king," except Grey, who, as a shameful traitor, was to be " at the will of the king." The difference in these terms is explained by the fact that Grey was taken to Doncaster, where King Edward was at the time, and there executed.* Thus all the great castles were in Yorkist hands, for Norham seems also, in the same period, to have quietly surrendered. But the long siege of Harlech endured till 1468.^ > W. Wore, pp. 782-3. 2 " Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 179. ^ Gregory, p. 227. ^ W Wore, pp. 782-3. ^ Ibid., p. 791. i88 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1465 King Henry lurked about the North of England for one more year. Scotland was no longer open to him ; but it - is strange that his friends did not find some means of conveying him across the sea to Flanders. It is true that King Edward's diplomacy made an appeal on the part of the Lancastrians to Philip of Burgundy or Lewis XI. too risky; but Philip's heir, the Count of Charolais, still openly favoured the Lancastrian cause/ and would, no doubt, have forwarded Henry in safety to Queen Margaret in the Barrois. But the attempt to cross the sea does not seem to have been made. Poor Henry found a precarious dwelling with one supporter after another in Westmoreland and Lancashire. But on June 29th, 1465, in the district of Furness,^ he was taken on the information of a monk of the monastery of Abingdon in Berkshire. When he was captured his followers were reduced to a monk, a bachelor of laws, and a valet. He was taken to London under escort, being met by the Earl of Warwick at Islington. By Warwick's orders King Henry's legs were fastened with leather thongs to the girths of his horse, and so on July 24th he was brought to the Tower of London. 1 W. Wore, p. 784. 2 Gregory, p. 232. CHAPTER XVIII THE TROUBLED YEARS OF KING EDWARD When Henry VI. was captured and put in the Tower, King Edward had been crowned some four years. During that period he had been king of England south of the Trent, and of certain outposts in the north. Now he was acknowledged sovereign from the Channel to the Tweed ; and this happy consummation was largely due to the exertions and ability of the three Neville brothers — Richard, Earl of Warwick, John, Earl of Northumberland, George, Archbishop of York. King Edward was a young man of twenty-four years, and through him these statesmen had ruled England. There is considerable probability that had he been content to continue this arrangement the Wars of the Roses might have ended here, and England might have been governed in peace and quietness to the end of his life. Edward, however, either from policy or from carelessness, soon involved himself in a struggle with the Nevilles. Strong, unbending men as these were, Edward proved the stronger. But it took six years for the contest to be fought out, before the Nevilles were finally reduced, and Edward raised himself to autocratic great- ness. The first prominent indication that the king was taking a line of his own was the Wydville marriage. The circum- stances of this were peculiar. It was a secret marriage, nor was it of the kind that might be expected to strengthen Edward's position. His advisers all hoped that he would marry some princess of an established dynasty, who would bring with her the approval of some powerful sovereign, and perhaps some material support. People wondered, too, 1 90 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1465 that the king remained so long unmarried, and they feared that he might be getting into evil ways. The truth is that, before the north was finally won, Edward was already married. Towards the end of April 1 1464, he and the court were proceeding to the seat of war in the north in a leisurely fashion from London. The court lay at Stony Stratford, and from there on May ist^ Edward went secretly and alone, or with only one or two attendants, to Grafton, about five miles away, where lived Anthony Wydyilte-Lord Rivers, and his wife Jacquetta, widow of the great John, Duke of Bedford, the hero of Henry VI.'s minority. Their daughter was Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey, who had died fighting for the Lancastrian cause at the second battle of St Albans. The ceremony of marriage between Edward and Elizabeth was performed at Grafton before witnesses. The king thereupon immediately returned to the court at Stony Stratford. During the next week, in the intervals of hunting in Wychwood Forest, he saw his wife several times, without the knowledge of the courtiers. But the affairs of politics called him elsewhere, and it was not till the northern war was completely over that he had leisure to arrange for the public recognition of his wife. The marriage was not publicly announced till September 29th of the same year, 1464. The occasion was a great Council of the peers, summoned to Reading to transact certain business of government, such as proclaiming a new and debased coinage. The king's announcement must have been a blow to the Earl of Warwick, who hoped for a great French marriage for the king ; but he made the best of the matter now that it was done. In the church of the great abbey of Reading Elizabeth, led forward by the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick, was " openly honoured as queen" by all the peers assembled.^ Finally, in 1 "Paston Letters," No. 564, note i. 2 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 180. 3 W. Wore, p. 783. 1465] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 191 December, the great Council again met at Westminster, where, with the assent of the peers, the Queen Elizabeth was assigned lands and lordships to the value of 4,000 marks. Elizabeth is represented as a comely and virtuous woman, and it cannot be denied that she made a good wife to the king. She was five years older than him. Her late husband was an attainted Lancastrian ; her father had been a prominent opponent of the king's father, Richard of York. The marriage was not popular in the country,^ and it was a great shock to the old nobility when they saw the former steward of the Duke of Bedford raised from the position of a parvenu peer to be father-in-law of the king. Indeed, for Lord Rivers himself the marriage of his daughter brought little fortune ; it gained him the hatred of powerful nobles, and eventually cost him his head. But King Edward went along his own way, regardless of the nobles' muttering. He made a great marriage for lAfii; Jo'^n Wydville, brother of Elizabeth. John, who was only twenty years old, was in January married to Katherine, the wealthy Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, aged eighty years — " a diabolical marriage," adds William of Worcester. The lady had been already three times married, and was the grandmother of the existing Duke of Norfolk.^ On Ascension Day, Thursday, May 23rd, Edward created a large number of knights in honour of his queen. He took care to include several citizens of London in the number. Next day the aldermen and citizens met her at Shooter's Hill, and brought her through Southwark to the Tower of London. On Saturday she rode in a horse-litter, with the new knights preceding her, through Cheapside and the main streets of London, to Westminster. On Sunday she was crowned queen by Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury.^ 1 W. Wore, p. 785, " displicentiam communis regni." 2 See Ramsay, "L. and Y.," ii. p. 321, note i. 3 W. Wore, p. 784. 192 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1466 For the next four years the kingdom remained without any serious disturbance. The country was not yet reUeved from the evils of livery and maintenance which had dis- turbed the peace under the Lancastrians. The " Paston Letters" still testified to a condition of insecurity and defiance of the law in Norfolk. But even in this, the weakest period of Edward IV., these evils, although still existing, were less prominent than in the decade which preceded his accession.^ At least they make much less figure in the annals of the time. It is true that the forms of law were neglected. No Parliament was held from the beginning of 1665 to June 1667. But the very strictness and arbitrary cruelty of the royal officials show a determination to keep the peace, although the cost might be too heavy for the country.^ Attempts were made to secure the Yorkist position abroad. As far back as 1462 (March 22nd), Pope Pius II. had congratulated Edward on his accession to the throne. In May 1465 the Earl of Warwick had led an embassy to the heir of Burgundy, Charles of Charolais, to win him over from the party of Queen Margaret. But Charles, who personally disliked Warwick, refused to be won over. The earl was more successful with Lewis XI. of France, who renewed the existing truce for two more years. Next year, in February, the queen gave birth to a daughter, to whom the name of Elizabeth was given. The , Earl of Warwick stood godfather to her. But he ^ was no longer the one man in the kingdom that Edward must rely on. The king was establishing a new system of families around the crown. He arranged splendid marriages for three sisters of the queen. Henry, Duke ' Cp. " Memoirs of Philip de Comines" (Trans., London, 1823), i. p. 253 — " Edward, who was both Duke of York and king, enjoyed the peaceable possession of the kingdom." ^ Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. pp. 287-92, gives a good account of the judicial cruelties in the Yorkist period. But the absence of any detailed reference to the abuses of livery and maintenance is to be noted. 1467] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 193 of Buckingham, married one, " to the secret displeasure of the Earl of Warwick." ^ The next sister was married to the son and heir of the Earl of Essex ; the third to the son and heir of the Earl of Kent.^ A fourth sister — Margaret — apparently the eldest after the queen, had, in October 1464, been betrothed to the heir of the Earl of Arundel.^ In March 1466 the father of the queen. Lord Rivers, was made Treasurer of the realm, in place of Walter Blunt, Lord Mountjoy — again to the secret displeasure of the Earl of Warwick.* At Easter, which the king spent at Windsor, he raised his father-in-law to the position of earl, " to the honour of the queen, and the displeasure of the commons of the realm." ^ Next year Rivers was made High Constable of England. The establishing of all the Wydvilles was further advanced by the marriage in September of the queen's remaining sister, Mary, to the son and heir of Lord Herbert. The bridegroom was honoured by the king with the barony of Dunster. This also displeased Warwick ; in truth the king's action was rather insulting, as the earl himself had a claim to the barony of Dunster." Finally, in October, the Wydville alliances were completed by the marriage at Greenwich of Sir Thomas Grey, son of the queen's first marriage and stepson of King Edward, to the Lady Anne, heiress of the Duke of Exeter. This was the worst blow of all, for Warwick had intended that she should marry his own nephew, the son of John Neville, Earl of ^ ' Northumberland.' There were now eight separate peerages in the queen's family, — namely, those of her father, five sisters, her son, and her brother, Anthony, who was Lord Scales through his marriage with the heiress of that unfortunate nobleman. 1 W. Wore, p. 785. 2 Grey of Ruthin. Warwick's uncle, Earl of Kent, died without legitimate issue in 1463. 2 W. Wore, p. 783. Cp. Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 321, note 3. « W. Wore, p. 785. " ibid. " SeeRamsay,"L. andY.,"ii. p. 32i,note6. ■ W. Wore, pp. 786-7. 13 194 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1467 The month of June brought another blow to the Neville family. Parliament met on June 3rd, 1467. The Chancellor, George Neville, Archbishop of York, was unwell, and temporarily unable to perform his duties. King Edward took the opportunity to go with Lord Herbert (the king's most intimate friend) to the lodging of the archbishop outside the bars of Westminster, and to relieve him of his office. For thirteen days the Great Seal was held in commission, and after that time it was given to Dr Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath.^ The breach between King Edward and the Nevilles was widening. The king more and more was taking a line of his own. Warwick believed that security for England lay in alliance with her old enemy, the powerful and consolidated kingdom of France. For this alliance, Lewis XL showed himself not merely willing but eager. But King Edward and the Wydvilles aimed at renewing the old alliance of England with Flanders, that is to say, with the Duke of Burgundy. Charles of Charolais was gradually giving up his Lancastrian sympathies. On May ioth,2 1467, his half-brother, Anthony, the "Great Bastard " of Burgundy, came to London on a special embassy to the English court. The object of his visit was stated to be, that he desired to meet the valiant Anthony Wydville, Lord Scales, in tournament. But affairs of state were considered along with affairs of chivalry. The Bastard stayed till the latter part of June, and after Parliament assembled in June, he met his adversary. Lord Scales, on two successive days, in the lists at Smithfield. In the end, King Edward as judge decided that the honours were equal. The tournament continued for two more days, when suddenly news arrived at London that Philip, Duke of Burgundy, was dead. The Bastard instantly hastened back to Bruges with all his following. Before he went he seems to have made the necessary arrangements for the English alliance. ' W. Wore, pp. 786-7. 2 2[,i^^ p_ 7g^_ 1467] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 195 While the Bastard of Burgundy was in England, Warwick was over in France, negotiating at Rouen for an English alliance with Lewis XL, who came in person to confer with him. The French king showed him every honour ; gave him apartments in a convent next to the royal residence, and had a private passage opened in the wall which separated them, so that the negotiations might be carried on secretly and easily.'^ The two statesmen seem to have reached a complete agreement when they parted from each other on June i8th. Warwick came to England, as it seems, just too late to meet the Bastard of Burgundy. With him he brought a splendid body of French ambassadors, including the Archbishop of Narbonne, the Bastard of Bourbon, the Admiral of France.^ It was a striking occasion, and King Edward took the opportunity to humiliate Warwick, and, by his treatment of the French ambassadors, to show Lewis XI. how little the new king of England cared for the politic king of France. The French ambassadors were honourably housed in London, in Fleet Street, in the lodging of the Bishop of Salisbury. To King Edward, in the only audience which they had with him, they offered a formal alliance with Lewis against the party of Burgundy ; and, as a bribe, Lewis offered to submit Edward's title to Normandy and Aquitaine to the arbitration of the pope, to be finally decided within four years. Until decision could be given, Edward was to receive 4,000 marks a year from France. But King Edward would have none of it. He left for Windsor (July 6th),^ and the French ambassadors were left to kick their heels in London for a month, expecting a definite answer from Edward, and listening to the explana- tions of the Earl of Warwick, who was now as powerless to bring the king to close quarters as they were. When they returned to France without a definite answer from 1 See Kirk, "Charles the Bold," i. pp. 416-19. 2 W. Wore, p. 787- 3 See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 326, note 5. 195 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1467 Edward, it can only have been with bitter feelings against the Yorkist monarch — feelings which the Earl of Warwick must also have shared. The Burgundian alliance was all but completed. It had been arranged that Margaret of York, King Edward's sister, should marry Charles of Burgundy, who, having succeeded to his father's duchy, was ready for alliance with England. For he was already in that hostility with Lewis XI. which was to endure almost continuously throughout his brief and tempestuous reign. As a man of Lancastrian sympathies and descent, he felt a natural repugnance ^ to' making a Yorkist marriage, but the alliance had so many political advantages that his scruples soon gave way. On October 1st, 1467, a great council of peers was held at Kingston-upon-Thames, and Margaret, in the presence of the lords, gave her consent to the marriage. Warwick was not present; he was athiscastleofMiddleham, in Yorkshire.^ About the same time a messenger of Queen Margaret was captured in Wales, carrying dispatches to the heroic garrison of Harlech, which was still holding out. When brought to London to be examined, he accused Warwick of intrigues with the party of Margaret. Warwick successfully cleared himself, but King Edward thought it advisable to raise a bodyguard for himself of 200 horse archers ; their pay was fixed at eightpence a day.' It was clear that there was real tension between the young king and the earl. After Christmas, which the king and queen spent at Coventry, the Archbishop of York, George Neville, brought his brother Warwick to the king, and a formal reconciliation took place. In October, Pope Paul II. had sent letters, intimating that he had made the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, a cardinal ; the king, to whom the letters, according to law and custom, were delivered in the first instance, jokingly handed them 1 Comines, i. p. 252; Kirk, "Charles the Bold," i. p. 421, note 26. 2 W. Wore, p. 788. 3 jii^_ 1468] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 197 on to the Archbishop of York, with a charge to explain what was in them. Abroad, danger seemed to be threatening the Yorkist dynasty from Lewis XL In May 1468 Edward announced , to Parliament his intention of next year leading in person an expedition against France. Queen Margaret was beginning to take hope again. Early in June, about the time Parliament was dissolved, another secret Lancastrian messenger was arrested, at Queen- borough this time, bearing important letters. The unhappy .man, whose name was Cornelius, a cobbler, was taken to the Tower of London, where his feet were burned till he confessed his knowledge of the Lancastrian plots. A number of men were implicated, mostly people of no great prominence, but among them was a servant of Lord Wenlock. Wenlock had fought well for the Yorkist cause, but was really a man of the Earl of Warwick. In July a commission sat to consider the confession : the com- missioners were the chief justices of England and some others, including the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick. As a result, most of the people indicted were acquitted or pardoned, but Lord Wenlock's servant was found guilty of treason, and before he could disclose anything more about his master was promptly hanged. King Edward found it difficult to trust anyone but the family of his queen. Yet a semblance of cordiality was still kept up with Warwick. When, in the middle of June, Edward's sister, Margaret, left London to be married to Charles of Burgundy at Bruges, she rode on the same horse behind the earl. She embarked " near the Isle of Thanet." ^ A fleet of fifteen ships conveyed her to Sluys. By easy stages Margaret and her attendant ladies pro- ceeded up the canal to Damme, near Bruges ; and on Sunday, July 3rd, she was married in the latter city to Charles the Bold, by the Bishop of Salisbury and a papal legate. The marriage was a great triumph for the 1 W. Wore, p. 790. 198 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1468 Burgundian policy of Edward IV. and the Wydvilles : it was important politically and also economically, as Flanders was one of the oldest commercial markets of England. But Henry VI.'s wife, Queen Margaret, could still look to Lewis XI. for support — more than ever, in fact, now that Edward IV. was committed to Charles of Burgundy. The enmity of Charles and Lewis, which has been so well described by Sir Walter Scott in the novel of " Quentin Durward," was deep and lasting, and shook Europe to the very foundations. To Lewis nothing could be more con- venient than the continuance of civil war in England. Therefore the Lancastrian cause was still kept alive by French doles. At the end of June Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke (as he was still called, although attainted), was brought to North Wales, " along with fifty men and a little money," by three French ships. He landed near Harlech. This castle, which was now closely invested by Lord Herbert, had endured a severe though intermittent state of siege for seven years. Jasper Tudor could not relieve it, but he created a vigorous diversion in North Wales. Raising a part of the country in his support, he plundered and burned the royal town of Denbigh. But Lord Herbert, with a strong force (estimated at 10,000 men), met him in the field, scattered his men, and compelled him to fly. Harlech did not hold out much longer : its last hope was gone. On August 24th, the eve of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, David Abenon, the captain, surrendered at the king's mercy. The whole garrison at this time was found to be just fifty men. They were taken up to London, but only two suffered death. Their names were Elwyk and Trublote.^ It is not known why they were singled out for execution : they were both of noble rank.^ Lord Herbert, in consideration for his services at Harlech, was given the earldom of Pembroke, which the attainted Jasper Tudor could no longer hold in ' W. Wore, p. 791. ^ "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 182. 1469] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 199 the eye of the law. Among those captured in the castle was Jasper's twelve-year-old nephew, Henry, subsequently King Henry VH. But in spite of this success at Harlech, Edward, although unconscious of the fact, was in a very perilous position. Warwick, it seems, had resolved to assert himself in deadly earnest, and to show that he could be a king-maker once more. There is no proof that in his opposition to King Edward he was holding treasonable communications with Queen Margaret. The earl and she were too old enemies to come easily together. There were undoubtedly Lan- castrian plots being hatched in France and in England. Of these Edward seems to have been well aware ; through his agents he was able to unmask them. Towards the end of the year two Lancastrians were arrested and executed. The fleet of King Edward had been mobilised in the autumn, and had swept the Channel (October-November). By the end of November the fleet had returned to the Isle of Wight, reporting that there was just now no danger from Queen Margaret.^ Thus Edward may have felt secure ; the Lancastrian cause was reduced to the lowest point ; its feeble plotters simply cumbered the gallows at Tyburn. But it was not from Lancastrians that the danger came. The year 1468 had ended without any disaster. But in the spring of 1469 the Earl of Warwick went to Calais, -. to take over in person the governorship, which hitherto he had administered through a deputy. From this time events moved very quickly. Warwick had the complete confidence of Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, a man who was not honourable enough to serve his brother in a secondary position. Edward having as yet no son, Clarence might hope to succeed to the throne in preference to one of the king's daughters. At Calais Warwick was perfecting his plans. Outwardly he carried on the policy of King Edward, journeyed to meet the Duke of Burgundy, and kept up friendly relations with that 1 W. Wore, p. 792. 200 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1469 power. The Burgundian chronicler, Waurin, was invited to Calais, with a promise to receive the information on politics that he was so desirous to obtain. For nine days Warwick entertained him with magnificent hospitality, but vouchsafed no information, promising, however, to be more expansive if Waurin returned in two months' time. The shrewd Burgundian had no difficulty in seeing that some deep scheme was being secretly brought to perfection. For one thing, the long talked of marriage between Clarence and Warwick's elder daughter, Isabella, was shortly to be completed. Clarence, with George Neville, Archbishop of York, had come to Calais about the beginning of July. The marriage ceremony was performed by the archbishop on the nth, a week after the departure of Waurin.^ Next day, July 12th, Warwick and Clarence made a proclamation in Calais, full of complaints against the government of Edward, and announcing their intention of proceeding at once to England to set the matter right. Meanwhile a serious rising had broken out in the North of England. At the end of May,^ many men took arms in Yorkshire under " Robin of Redesdale." Whoever Robin of Redesdale was, he is a type of those popular country captains, like Jack Straw or Jack Cade, who from time to time in medieval England voiced the grievances of the rural districts against the central government. The insurgents originally complained of the exaction of a "thrave of corn "by the monastery of St Leonard's. But their grievances went further, and included ill government, or lack of government, of the same kind as had been com- plained of in the reign of Henry VI. The chief points in the complaints respecting King Edward were, his reliance on favourites (the Wydvilles), bad administration of law and justice, and excessive taxation. Robin of Redesdale had 60,000^ men in his following (this is ' Waurin, pp. 578-9 ; Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 337. 2 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 182 (Trinity Sunday, i.e., May 28th). 3 " Cont. Croy.," p. 445. 1469] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 201 perhaps the usual mediasval exaggeration). But they were not all peasants. A number of gentlemen, some of Lancastrian sympathies, others of the party of the Earl of Warwick, were known to be among the insurgents.^ Another simultaneous insurrectionary movement in Yorkshire was under a captain called Robin of Holderness. He cannot have been in the interest of the Nevilles at all, for the demand of him and his men was that the family of Percy should be restored to the earldom of Northumberland. The present earl, John Neville, brother of Warwick, naturally felt no sympathy for this last move- ment. Although his force was small, he met the insurgents outside the gates of York, put them to flight, captured their leader, Robin of Holderness, and had him beheaded.^ But he did nothing to disperse the rising of Robin of Redesdale. King Edward felt bound to come north in person. Yet he only gradually recognised the serious- ness of the situation. In June he was engaged in a royal progress in East Anglia.^ Then the inaction of the Earl of Northumberland gave him ground for suspicion, and the presence of Warwick and Clarence in Calais together made him uneasy. On July 9th he addressed letters to them, and also to the Archbishop of York, ordering them to return to England, to attend upon him " in such peaceable wise as they have been accustomed to ride."* Two days after these letters were written, Clarence and Isabella Neville were married in Calais. Edward, at the time, can have known nothing of this. Warwick had already made up his mind to return to England. There can be no doubt that he was all along in communication with the leaders of Robin of Redesdale's insurrection. After the marriage of Clarence he lost no time in crossing over to Sandwich. From there he passed on to London, gathering as he went along great numbers ' Holinshed, iii. p. 672. 2 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 183. 3 "Paston Letters," No. 716. * Ibid., p. 719. 202 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1469 of the men of Kent. The citizens of the capital made no difficulty about receiving him.^ Edward was at Nottingham, with only a moderate force, waiting for the Welsh levies which Lord Herbert was bringing from the west. On the advice of Lord Mountjoy, he sent Earl Rivers and John Wydville into safe-keeping at Chepstow, as, owing to their unpopularity, he believed their absence would strengthen his position.^ The northern men were now marching southwards ; Warwick, with his following, was coming up from London. King Edward looked like being caught between two forces. But before this happened the northern men had already intercepted Lord Herbert's small army. Herbert (lately made Earl of Pembroke) had been joined on the way by the Earl of Devonshire, who had also considerable forces. But the two leaders could not work together; they separated, and Herbert alone gave battle to the northern men. The scene of action was by Edgcot, a hamlet in Northampton- shire, four miles from Banbury. Near the village are three small hills, forming a triangle, within which the fight took place. The date was either July 24th or 26th.^ The Welshmen of Lord Herbert's force were in great spirits, believing the ancient prophecy would come true, " to the effect that, having expelled the English, the remains of the Britons are once more to obtain the sovereignty of England, as being the proper citizens thereof" * However, they were disappointed in their hope, as the northern men inflicted a terrible defeat upon them, slaying, it is said, as many as 4,000.^ Neither King Edward on the one part, nor Warwick on the other, was present at the battle of Edgcot. Warwick and Clarence joined the insurgents soon after the ^ Waurin, p. 579. 2 Ibid., p. 580 ; "Cont. Croy.," p. 446, says they fled in alarm. ^ "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 183, says July 24th * " Cont. Croy.," p. 446. ° Ibid. 1469] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 203 fight, and saw to the execution of the prisoners. Lord Herbert and his two brothers suffered death : this must have taken place without any legal trial. King Edward was left practically without supporters, for his only per- manent following consisted of his bodyguard of 200 archers. He came to meet his brother and the Earl of Warwick. The encounter took place at a village^ between the towns of Warwick and Coventry. Edward, on their first presenting themselves, felt (as was natural) " extreme indignation," and showed them " a lowering countenance." But when they protested that they were in firm allegiance to him, and that they had no other intention than to free him from unworthy counsellors, " he became more calm." ^ The fact of the matter was, he was in their power, and had no alternative but to accept their protestations. But his mind can scarcely have been at ease, especially when he saw the two Wydvilles, father and son, executed for being his friends. They had been taken from Chepstow Castle, whither they had gone for refuge ; and by Warwick's orders they were executed at Kenilworth.'' King Edward, after his meeting with Clarence and the Earl of Warwick, had been transferred first to Warwick Castle, afterwards for safe-keeping to Middleham, in York- shire. Warwick had thus again won the direction of affairs. He held the king ; the northern insurgents seem to have gone quietly back to their homes with a royal pardon.* But these domestic troubles inside the Yorkist party had another effect. They gave an opportunity to the Lancastrian gentry to make a rising. In fact, among the northern insurgents who originally followed " Robin of Redesdale " had been some prominent Lancastrians. Warwick had not scrupled to use these to bring King Edward under his power. Now, having captured the king, he found that he '■ Identified as Honily (by Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 343), two miles from Kenilworth. 2 "Cent. Croy.," p. 447. ' Waurin, pp. 580-1. * See Lingard, " History of England" (1849), iv. p. 170. 204 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1469 could not by himself allay the Lancastrian tumults. One such tumult or rising was especially formidable : Sir Humphrey Neville, a Lancastrian (although probably a distant relation of Warwick), raised the men of the extreme North of England close to the Scottish border. Warwick, who was not yet prepared to throw in his lot entirely with that of King Henry, was unable to cope with this rising. His name alone was not sufficient to make men follow. A proclamation which he issued in the name of King Edward was pointedly ignored. At last the earl had no resource left but to release Edward from Middleham Castle, and let him go freely, as king, to York.^ When this was done people were found to follow Warwick in the name of King Edward, and as a result the rebels were speedily routed. Edward, conscious of his power, returned to London.^ He arrived about October 13th, with a good following of nobles and others. Warwick remained in the north. George Neville, Archbishop of York, accompanied the king, but did not enter London with him. Clarence stayed away also. Edward himself spoke publicly of Clarence, Warwick, and the archbishop as his best friends ; but the men of his household had another, and perhaps a truer, opinion about them.^ The year 1469 ended in peace, after a great Council had been held in London, at which Warwick and Clarence attended. Certain changes were made among the king's officers. The family of Neville received a further honour, in the betrothal of Edward's eldest daughter, aged four years, to George, the son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland. If no son was born to King Edward, it was possible that this young man might one day become king^ as consort to the queen regnant. Warwick's elder daughter was already married to Edward's brother, Clarence ; now Edward's eldest daughter was married to Warwick's ' Edward was at York on September 15th ("Paston Letters," No. 725). 2 " Cent. Croy.," p. 458. => " Paston Letters," No. 736. 1470] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 205 nephew. Whatever rule of succession should be observed, it appeared as if one branch or another of the family of Neville would one day gain the crown. But Warwick could not wait for that day. Early in 1470 new troubles arose in Lincolnshire. They began with the inhabitants resisting the demands of " purveyance " by an officer of the king's house- hold, who was also a Lincolnshire landowner. At the head of the insurgents there soon appeared Sir Robert Welles, son of Lord Welles. This Lord Welles had been one of the insurgent leaders in " Robin of Redesdale's " host, and belonged to an old L ancast rian fa mily . But Warwick himself was believed to be at the bottom of the rebellion.^ Edward did not at first suspect this. One day he went to ha\'e supper with Archbishop Neville, to meet Warwick and Clarence. Just before supper. Lord FitzWalter whispered into the king's ear that ICX) armed men were lying near by to seize and carry him off Edward immedi- ately left the house and got on horseback, and never stopped till he was safe in Windsor.- But the king had no proof, and for a time peace was kept between him and his great subject. The spring saw many sudden changes in England. Edward moved resolutely against the rebels ; and everyone knew that although he might be dilatory and careless for long periods, jet once he was started on an enterprise he was likely to finish it successfully. At the beginning of March ^ it was known that the king was going in person into Lincolnshire. It was supposed that the Earl of Warwick would accompany him. But although summoned to the king's host, Warwick and Clarence preferred to remain in Warwick Castle, * from which they might effect » Waurin, pp. 587-8. 2 Lingard, "Hist, of England," iv. 172, note i, dates the event before Easter. 3 " Paston Letters," No. 742. * Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. 348, note 4. 2o6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1470 a junction with the insurgents who were coming south. But Edward's movements were too rapid : he marched towards Lincolnshire. On March 12th he met the rebels at Empingham, in Rutlandshire. The king had a good follow- ing — " it was said that there were never seen in England so many goodly men, and so well arrayed in a field." ^ The success which seemed always to follow the king when he went into battle attended him now. The rebels made no stand ; the royal artillery tore through their ranks ; and from the precipitation with which they fled the battle became known as Loosecoat Field : for the Lincolnshire men " threw away their coats the lighter to run away." - Sir Robert Well es and three of his men were captured and b eheaded ; but the king, we are told, " showed grace and favour to the ignorant and guiltless multitude."^ Sir Robert Welles, before dying, confessed that Warwick had been at the bottom of the rebellion, intending, if successful, to make Clarence king. The battle of Empingham had prevented Warwick from joining the insurgent army. The rebellion was quashed by King Edward's swift strategy. Recognising that, for the time at least, the game was finished, Warwick and Clarence fled north, first to Chesterfield, then to Manchester, hoping to get assistance from the men of Lancashire.* But Edward, going north too, followed in their tracks. They did not wait, but flying south again they reached Exeter and then Dartmouth, where Warwick's influence with the sea-faring people procured a few small ships to take him and Clarence, with their respective households, to Calais. King Edward, as a matter of fact, did not pursue them far. He stopped at York to receive the homage of the gentlemen of the county. But he could not leave Warwick's brother as Earl of Northumberland. John Neville had not taken part either in Robin of Redes- ' " Paston Letters," No. 743. 2 Holinshed, iii. p. 674. 2 " Cont. Croy.," p. 461. Cp. Waurin, p. 593. * " Paston Letters," No. 743. 1470] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 207 dale's rebellion or in that of Sir Robert Welles ; on the other hand, he had done nothing, and had been no help to the king. So on March 25th ^ Edward took from him the earldom of Northumberland, and restored it to the Percies. As a consolation, he raised Neville a step in the peerage — as Marquis Montague — small consolation, indeed, for the loss of the ancient earldom of Northumberland, with its wealth and privileges. King Edward had thus won a great victory. He had triumphed in the field over his enemies. The great king-maker himself was a fugitive, scouring the Channel, a pirate in the Narrow Seas. Yet within six months, by another sudden turn of fortune's wheel, Edward himself was a fugitive abroad, and Warwick was once more king- making in England. Again the wheel of fortune turned ; and another six months saw Edward safely back in England, never more to "go on his travels." The rest of Warwick's doings in 1470 are of a wonderful kind. He must have appeared off Calais towards the end of April. Edward, suspecting that this was his destination, had sent special orders warning Lord Wenlock, the lieutenant of the town, not to admit him.^ These orders Wenlock, though a friend of Warwick, did not care to disobey. Moreover, the merchants of Calais were bound to Burgundy by strong ties of commerce, and Charles of Burgundy let them know that he was supporting Edward. So Warwick was refused admittance to Calais, although he attempted to force an entry by bombarding the port. While his ships lay in the roadstead his daughter, the Duchess of Clarence, who was present with her husband, was delivered of a son. It is said that Warwick's supplies were so reduced by this time that he had to beseech the lieutenant of Calais, as a special concession, to send two flagons of wine for the invalid duchess.* Then Warwick * " Paston Letters," No. 743. ^ Waurin, p. 603. ' Comines, i. p. 256, 2o8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1470 sailed away towards Normandy, capturing all the Flemish and English merchantmen that he could find on the way, and throwing their crews into the sea.^ He landed at Harfleur on May 6th, where his men sold the booty they had taken from the merchantmen. Charles of Burgundy, by way of reprisal, seized all the French ships which came to the fair of Antwerp. The next two months brought one of the greatest diplomatic revolutions that have ever occurred in history. It was as if the Middle Ages were ending amid the destruction of all accepted ideas, to give place to a doctrine of opportunism. " It is necessary for a Prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong." ^ Warwick, to maintain himself in this world, was willing to do what in all his past life he had held to be wrong. He was going to put down one of England's strongest kings, and to restore her weakest. The other parties in this great diplomatic revolution — Queen Margaret and Lewis of France — are much easier to justify. It must have been a terrible effort for Queen Margaret to consent to ally her cause with Warwick. It was he of all others who had worked most steadfastly to ruin her family ; it was he who personally had led her husband, ignobly bound by thongs, to prison in the Tower of London ; it was he who had cast doubts on the legitimacy of her son. Yet in accepting Warwick's help now, she broke no promises, she abandoned no friends. She felt that Warwick had fearfully wronged her ; but now that he was ready to do her service, it was not for her to judge his motives, but to accept his help for what it was worth. Nor had Lewis XI. any reason to reject the earl. It was the business of the king of France to protect his country. He had offered a peaceful alliance to King Edward, and his offer had been refused, not even courteously, but with scorn. The Anglo-Burgundian alliance was a ' Waurin, pp. 603-4. s Machiavelli, "Prince," chap. 15, 1470] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 209 serious danger to France/ which was just winning its way to a stable condition after a hundred years of turmoil. If Warwick could restore the Lancastrian friends of France, it was not for Lewis to object. So, under the skilful mediation of King Lewis, the great alliance was gradually arranged ; Queen Margaret and the Earl of Warwick made terms, and her last great assault was prepared against the Yorkist house. At this time Margaret was in France, urging Lewis, through her follower, the famous lawyer, Fortescue, to lend her an expeditionary force against the Yorkists. The arrival of Warwick with bitterness in his heart against King Edward was too good a chance for her advisers to miss, and they worked hard to overcome her scruples.^ Lewis XL, too, used all his influence. After twenty days of intricate negotiation and discussion at Angers, Margaret was at last induced to accept Warwick's help. She received the apologies of the earl from his knees ; and she allowed a contract of marriage to be made between her son, Prince Edward, and Anne, the younger daughter of Warwick.^ King Henry was to be restored to the throne of England, the Prince Edward and Princess Anne were to succeed him when he died ; only if their issue failed was the Duke of Clarence to succeed to the throne. This arrangement seemed to leave Clarence further from the crown than ever. But it is to be feared that his weakness was such that Warwick only looked upon him as a convenient but not very reliable tool. Once the alliance of Warwick and Margaret was con- cluded, no time was lost in preparing a strong expedition. Meanwhile, King Edward was following his usual practice, when danger was not actually present, of leaving things alone. Charles of Burgundy, who had no desire to lose ^ Lewis, on June 22nd, told du Plessis that his design was that through Warwick "the kingdom of England should again be embroiled." Quoted by Kirk, " Charles the Bold," ii. p. 33. 2 See Plummer, " Governance," p. 69. •■* Waurin, p. 608. 14 210 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [i470 the important friendship of England, sent him continual warnings that tremendous danger was threatening from the side of Warwick.^ Edward, indeed, did something, but not enough. He sent out a fleet under Anthony Rivers, Lord Scales, to patrol the Channel, but it seems not to have kept the sea long enough. Charles of Burgundy did more ; he had a fleet which regularly blockaded the Seine, and prevented Warwick's expedition from moving. But a September gale forced the Burgundian fleet to abandon its watch for a time, and so cleared the passage for Warwick. Queen Margaret and her household remained in France to await the event. The earl, with a force of which the numbers are not known, crossed the Channel on or about September 8th, and effected a landing in Devonshire, at Dartmouth. ^ The people of the county showed good will. Soon quite a large force was gathered round the earl.^ Edward, in spite of the warnings of Charles of Burgundy, was taken by surprise. He was in Yorkshire, with a force to deal with a small insurrection which, no doubt, had been arranged for the purpose of drawing him thither. When he heard of the landing of Warwick, and of the lack of any opposition to the earl, he came to the con- clusion that his only chance was flight. If he had had a good force he would doubtless have made a stand. There was no cowardice in King Edward. But the levies of the north were not with him. Warwick's brother, the Marquis Montague, was at this time staying at Pontefract. He now requited the clemency and confidence with which Edward had honoured him, by forming a conspiracy to kidnap the king as he was lying at Doncaster. Montague was a man of great power in the north. Edward, when he heard of this plot through a spy, realised that his condition was perilous. He made all speed to King's Lynn, in ' Comines, i. pp. 260-3. 2 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 183; Holinshed, iii. p. 675. ■'' " Cent. Croy.," p. 462. 1470] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 211 Norfolk, where a small ship of his own and two Flemish vessels were lying. Getting on board, on October 3rd,^ without baggage or money, he set sail for the territories of his Burgundian brother-in-law.^ The extraordinary suddenness with which Edward lost his kingdom surprised contemporary observers. The monkish chronicler of Croyland explains it by referring to the apathy of the people of England. When Warwick and his men landed in Devonshire, the people showed this attitude, " not so much joining them, as waiting upon them to show them every attention." The country by this time seemed to have lost interest in the Wars of the Roses, and to be content to accept anyone who was strong enough to take the kingdom from his opponent. The shrewd Burgundian official, Philip de Comines, explains the flight of Edward in another way : "It was very surprising to see this poor king . . . run away in this manner and be pursued by his own subjects. He had indulged himself in ease and pleasures for twelve or thirteen years together, and enjoyed a larger share of them than any other prince of the time."^ It seems true that Edward had been self-indulgent and careless. He showed great energy and boldness when a crisis was actually present, but in the periods of comparative quiet between each crisis he was neither prudent nor careful. At the present juncture, with the stout body of 800 men or more * who stood by him, he might have made a good fight, but he would almost certainly have lost his realm and Hfe. His flight was certainly not due to lack of courage ; it only showed that he realised at last the need of prudence. A kingdom as easily lost might be as easily re-won. By the time he regained it Edward had learnt his lesson ; there was no chance of the crown slipping from him again. 1 Ramsay, "L. and Y.," ii. p. 357, note i. 2 " Cont. Croy.," pp. 462-3 ; Comines, i. p. 265. ' Comines, i. p. 266. * Ibid. 212 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1470 He was fortunate to obtain a fair passage to Holland, although his ship was chased by some " Easterlings," men of the Hanseatic League, who at this time were on bad terms with the English. He dropped anchor just off the little port of Alkmaar, in Friesland. There Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de la Grutuyse, who was governor for the Duke of Burgundy in Holland, came to him, and showed every kindness. Edward was so poorly furnished with money at the time of his flight that he had only been able to pay the master of the ship that carried him with a gown lined with marten skins. By the Seigneur de la Grutuyse Edward and his followers were brought to the Hague, and news of their arrival was sent to the Uuke of Burgundy.^ Meanwhile, eleven days ^ had sufficed for Warwick to gain England for King Henry, the prisoner in the Tower. The flight of Edward was a public acknowledgment that the kingdom was at the disposal of the earl. Moreover, Warwick's following, after he had been a short time in the country, seems to have grown very large. The Lancastrian gentry would of course flock to him, as he represented Queen Margaret and meant to restore Henry VI. ; the many neutral people, too (and they seem typical of the mass of Englishmen then), would come to him, wishing to stand well with the new government. But Edward, when he fled from the country, left many good friends behind him. These he advised at the time, through his faithful chamberlain. Lord Hastings, to submit to the Earl of Warwick, and to wait for better times.^ They took the advice, and quietly waited for Edward's return. This explains the transitory character of the Lancastrian restoration. It explains, too, the essential stability of King Edward's position. The Londoners* were known to be his friends, and London was the heart of England. But for a time all went well with Warwick. The ' Comines, i. pp. 268-9. ^ Ibid., p. 267. 3 Ibid., p. 265. " Ibid., p. 277. 1470] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 213 Londoners made no resistance, and the newcomers, on October 6th,^ were able to enter the city and occupy the chief places. The earl's first act was to go to the Tower to restore King Henry to the throne. Since his imprisonment there in 1465 Henry had been well treated ; he saw his friends occasionally, and he bore his captivity with complete equanimity.^ Warwick, when he had led Henry to the Tower in 1465, had cried, "Treason, treason, and behold the traitor"; "but now he proclaimed him king, attended him to his palace in Westminster, and restored him to his royal prerogative." * On October 13th a solemn procession was held, and in St Paul's the crown was publicly placed on King Henry's head, the poor king remaining " subdued and silent, like a crowned calf." * All laws were once more enacted in the name of King Henry, and all writs and patents were dated " in the forty-eighth year of his reign." But there was no great joy at the restoration, more especially as the Kentish men who came to London with Warwick took the oppor- tunity to plunder where they could the houses of the citizens.'' 1 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 182. ^ " Cont. Croy.," p. 439. ^ Comines, i. p. 270. * Waurin, p. 612. ^ "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 183. CHAPTER XIX THE LAST OF THE LANCASTRIANS Queen Margaret and her son did not follow the successful expedition. Throughout the brief period of Lancastrian restoration (October 1470 to April 1471) they remained in France, mainly, as it seems, at the court of Lewis XI. Undoubtedly this was a mistake, as the presence of the young Prince Edward of, Wales would have done something to rouse the sentiment for the Lancastrian family which the appearance of the now apathetic King Henry failed to evoke. Queen Margaret had not seen her husband since she left him in Bamburgh Castle in August 1463. It is strange that she did not now take the oppor- tunity afforded by his restoration to come over to England and see him. Poor Henry himself sent to France for his wife and son in February 1471, but still they did not come. If Margaret was waiting for Warwick to establish the Lancastrian government on a firm basis, she was waiting in vain. Boldness and confidence were essential to the safety of the restored dynasty ; the absence of queen and prince showed how much that essential boldness and confi- dence were lacking. It may be that Margaret, as a French- woman, did not understand the English nation. The new government did what it could to get the machinery of administration into working order. Warwick had the position of Lieutenant of the kingdom. New money was struck, with the head of Henry on one side and an image of St Michael on the other. These coins were called angels.i A Parliament was summoned to meet on November 26th. The new government showed itself ' Waurin, p. 612. I47I] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 215 merciful, seeing that everybody quietly accepted the new regime. Only the Constable of England was executed, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, " that horrid butcher and savage beheader of men." ^ He had been captured hiding near Weybridge, knowing that he could expect no mercy. His death took place on October iSth.^ On November 26th Parliament met. Archbishop Neville, Warwick's brother, was again Chancellor, and preached the opening sermon from the text, " Turn, O backsliding children." In the event of the house of Lancaster becoming extinct, the reversion of the crown was settled upon Clarence. The attainders formerly passed against Henry's supporters were reversed, and thus prominent exiles like the Duke of Somerset were able to come back to England. The Parliament sat till Christmas.^ So ended the year 1470. Nothing seems to have happened to disturb the peace of the new government till March 1471. Early in that month it became known that King Edward was likely at any moment to make a descent upon the east coast.* Since his hurried exit from England on October 3rd, 1470, Edward had been vigorously preparing for his return. At first things had not gone well with him. The Duke of Burgundy, who was at Boulogne when he first heard of Edward's disaster (it was reported as the king's death), re- ceived the news with equanimity, for his personal tastes lay more towards Lancaster than York. When he heard that Edward was alive and in Flanders he was a little troubled. He sent Philip de Comines to Calais to inquire after the disposition of the garrison there. De Comines reported that on receiving the news of Edward's flight from England, within a quarter of an hour the whole town had assumed the " ragged staff," the livery of the Earl of Warwick : so 1 "Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles," p. 183. 2 " Paston Letters," No. 759. 2 Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 362, note I. " " Paston Letters," No. 769. 2i6 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l47I great was the instability of human affairs.^ Worse was to follow : for de Comines learned that Warwick, according to the terms of his alliance with Lewis XL, intended to send 4,000 men over to Calais to make war on Burgundy. From this, however, he was dissuaded by the remonstrances of the merchants of the Staple, who feared to lose the great market for their wool, which was in Flanders. Edward did not meet Duke Charles till the beginning of 1471. In the meantime he must have relied chiefly on the hospitality of the Seigneur de la Grutuyse: when fortune later smiled on him, Edward was able handsomely to repay this kindness.^ But in January 1471 two meetings were arranged between Edward and Charles. The important conference was at St Pol, on January 7th. Charles, who feared the consequences for his own duchy of the union of the Earl of Warwick and Lewis XL against him, was loathe to give open support to the Yorkist cause. But at last, while publicly pretending to give no assistance, and issuing a proclamation against any of his subjects taking part, he agreed to lend Edward 50,000 florins, and three or four great ships of his own, besides hiring a number of Hanseatic ships, well armed, to convey Edward's force to England.^ Next month, February, Edward seems to have passed at Bruges, where he was well received by the Flemish nobility, and greatly helped in his plans for invading England. On March 2nd his force embarked at Flushing. He had in all 1,200 men, mainly English, but partly Flemish auxiliaries ; chief among his followers were his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, his brother-in- law, Anthony, Earl Rivers, and his chamberlain, Lord Hastings. Contrary winds prevented the ships making the passage to England until March nth. During all ' Comines, i. p. 273. 2 He made Grutuyse Earl of Winchester. The title was, however, renounced in the reign of Henry VII. ^ Comines, i. pp. 275-6 ; Waurin, p. 614. I47I] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 217 this time Edward kept the men on board ship ready to sail. But on the nth the expedition sailed for the coast of Norfolk, arriving off Cromer on Tuesday, March i2th} Finding, through inquiries made by some of his men on shore, that the people of East Anglia favoured the Earl of Warwick, Edward sailed further north, and in spite of a severe tempest, landed on the 14th March in the shelter of Spurnhead,near the site of the little port of Ravenspur.^ Ever since Henry of Bolingbroke landed there in 1399, the sea had been gradually encroaching, and by 147 1 there was probably little of Ravenspur left. To-day it has disappeared. On the next day Edward, having collected his men (for they had not all landed at the same spot), pushed forward to York, proclaiming, like another Henry of Bolingbroke, that he only came to claim his inheritance as Duke of York. So they proceeded in a north-easterly direction by Hull and Beverley, without opposition to York, the capital of the north (March i8th). Here King Edward and his host were refused admittance. But on the king consenting to bring only fifteen men-at-arms, leaving the rest of his force outside, it was agreed to admit him. The citizens seem by no means to have all favoured his party ; Edward, however, whose courage was of the highest, did not fear to enter almost alone. He was greeted by a multitude of citizens, crying, " Long live King Henry ! " But on Edward's appealing to them as Duke of York, they responded to him by crying at last, " Long live the noble Duke of York ! " His confidence and courage were rewarded. Even the rest of his forces were now admitted, to receive much needed refreshment and rest, on condition that they should depart next morning. Next morning King Edward and his men, avoiding all chance of a riot with the citizens, left York, and took the road for Tadcaster. From there he followed the more ^ Waurin, pp. 640-1. ^ A detailed account of Edward's progress from this point (" Humberland ") to London is given in Waurin, p. 640 ff. 2i8 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1471 westerly road to Wakefield, so avoiding Pontefract, which was held by Warwick's brother, the Marquis Montague. That Edward was able to march so far unopposed was largely due to the fact that the safeguarding of the north for King Henry was entrusted to two different men — to Warwick's brother, the Marquis Montague (formerly Earl of Northumberland), and to Henry Percy, whom in 1470 Edward had restored to the earldom of Northumberland when he deprived Montague of it. Between Montague and Percy there could be no cordiality. Percy purposely did not oppose Edward's march, and so rendered him great service. Montague, alone, was too weak to oppose the king. From Wakefield, which was part of the domain of the Duke of York, Edward advanced to Doncaster and to Nottingham. At Nottingham he is said to have received his first considerable accession, 600 well-armed men under two local knights. Here, too, he received his first definite news of the plans of the enemy. His spies informed him that the Duke of Exeter and Earl of Oxford were behind him at Newark, eighteen miles north-east of Nottingham, with 4,000 men of East Anglia. But Edward had no need to turn back to deal with them. When they heard that he was likely to come, they hastily evacuated Newark. Edward, on learning that the men of East Anglia were no longer dangerous, immediately continued his advance, hoping to have a decisive conflict with the Earl of Warwick, who had left London and come into Warwickshire, there to gather all his men for dealing with the invader. Edward marched through Leicestershire, where he received an accession of 3,000 men. Warwick, avoiding a battle, retired into Coventry with about 7,000 men. Edward arrived in front of the town on March 30th. His forces are said to have been slightly inferior to those of Warwick ; nevertheless, the earl refused his offer of battle, and kept within the walls. It is possible that he was waiting for reinforcements to come from his brother, Montague, from 1471] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 219 the East Anglian men under the Duke of Exeter, and perhaps also from the Duke of Clarence. Nevertheless, his refusal to meet King Edward's army was a mistake. For the king, leaving Coventry behind, went on at once and occupied the town of Warwick. Thus he lay between the earl's forces and London. The balance of power at this moment lay with Clarence, who had 4,000 men, raised in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.^ The duke had soon sickened of his position in the restored Lancastrian court. Warwick's acknowledgment of King Henry and Prince Edward of Wales cut him off more than ever from the crown. The old Lancastrian nobles did not conceal their contempt for him. ^ While Edward was in Flanders, great efforts had been made by his sister, the Duchess of Burgundy, through various messengers, to reconcile the two brothers. Clarence soon made up his mind to support Edward again, and to use his levies in his brother's service. While Edward was at the town of Warwick, he heard that Clarence was coming to him. Some inkling of this may account for the Earl of Warwick's hesitation in Coventry. But the earl would have been well advised to attack the king separately before the approach of Clarence. For Edward, when he heard of Clarence's approach, at once set out and met his brother at Banbury ^ ; thence the united forces returned to the town of Warwick. Some futile negotiations took place with the earl in Coventry. These failed, and Edward again offered battle under the walls of that town on April 5th. But again failing to draw the earl, he resolved to go straight on to London, from which he must have had good intelligence that the citizens would receive him without difficulty. On Palm Sunday (April 7th) he attended service in the great church at Daventry, and is said to have 1 See Oman, " Political History of England," p. 442. ^ Waurin, p. 651. ^ Waurin, p. 652. Cp. Letter of Duchess Margaret in Kirk, " Charles the Bold," ii. p. 83, note 5. 2 20 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l47l received an intimation from St Anne that his campaign would be successful. ^ From Daventry Edward went on to Dunstable, and was able to send comfortable news to his queen, who, since his departure for Flanders, had been in sanctuary at Westminster. Thence he pushed forward to London, and entered the city on April nth. He was loyally received by the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, and by the Archbishop of York, Warwick's brother, who, seeing the hopelessness of attempting to hold London, had made terms with King Edward. If Edward had been refused admittance into London he would have been in an extremely perilous situation, liable to be crushed between the Earl of Warwick in his rear and the Londoners in front. An attempt had been made on April 9th, two days before his arrival at the city, to rouse the Lancastrian party there. The Archbishop of York had held a Council at St Paul's ; King Henry, who had all the time of Edward's march remained in London, mounted on a horse, and showed himself at the head of 600 supporters. But this was not sufficient display of force to win over the Londoners. Philip de Comines later made inquiries into the causes of Edward's good reception into the city, and learnt that there were three : — firstly, the presence of many Yorkists who had stayed in sanctuary throughout the restoration of King Henry, and especially the presence of a son and heir to King Edward, born in Westminster Sanctuary on November 3rd of the previous year (1470). The second cause was the great debts which King Edward owed in the city, which obliged the trades- men who hoped to be repaid to support his restoration. The third cause was that the citizens' wives, with whom he had formerly been familiar, forced their husbands and relatives to declare themselves on his side.^ So King Edward entered London, and the unfortunate King Henry was once more a prisoner. On April 12th, Good Friday, a Council was held to consider the situation. ' Waurin, pp. 655-6. 2 Comines, i. p. 278. I47I] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 221 Next day, the 13th, Edward marched out again with his men (and King Henry with him) to meet Warwick. For the earl, now reinforced by Montague and men from the north, and by the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Oxford with their East Anglian contingent, was coming steadily towards London, to risk everything upon a battle. King Edward, with his usual energy whenever a fight was in prospect, marched up the great north road ; some of Warwick's men had already entered Barnet, but Edward's advance guard drove them back to their main body, which was about one and a half miles north. The Yorkist main body then came up to the town as night was approaching. But Edward, foreseeing the danger if his army were caught next morning by Warwick among the narrow streets, refused to spend the night there, and gave orders that his men should go through the town and take up their position for the night outside, near Warwick's host. The earl was evidently surprised by this move, and owing to the darkness of the evening did not precisely understand the Yorkist position. He ordered his artillery, which always formed an important part of his armies, to fire all night into the Yorkist host. But the shots passed over the enemies' heads. In the darkness Warwick's gunners mistook the range, as the Yorkists were really nearer than was supposed. King Edward's artillery did not reply, and his men were instructed to light no fires and to make no noise. Next morning, Easter Sunday, April 14th, between five and six o'clock, Edward arrayed his army for battle, in spite of the great fog which was over all. Warwick's forces are said to have been much superior to Edward's. Each army was, apparently, drawn up in three " battles," a right, a centre, a left. The opposing lines, though extending about the same length, were not exactly opposite each other ; the Lancastrian right overlapped the Yorkist left, and the Yorkist right overlapped the Lancastrian left. This is an old and well-known weak- 222 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [l47I ness, to which all ancient and media;val armies were subject, when they advanced to a hand-to-hand combat. Each man instinctively pressed towards the right ; and so the opposing lines seldom met exactly, but one over- lapped the other at each end. This tendency is noticed and explained by Thucydides, in his account of the battle of Mantinea in 418 B.C.^ In this way the Lancastrian right enveloped and broke the Yorkist left, and fugitives carried the report of a defeat to London. But King Edward (who always fought on foot ^) led his men against the centre (where Warwick was), himself striking down everyone who opposed him. His brothers, Gloucester and Clarence, on the right, did good service too, and managed to envelope and break the opposing Lancastrians. Mean- while the victorious Lancastrian right had taken to plundering, and so lost the fruits of its success ; but the Yorkist right was sufficiently kept in hand to wheel round so as to take Warwick's centre in the rear. Four hours' hard fighting brought the conflict to an end. The losses on each side were heavy, especially on the Lancastrian side, where Warwick, Montague, and the Duke of Exeter were all three dead.^ In this battle both sides fought upon foot. On Edward's part this was his invariable custom. Warwick, on the other hand, as a rule began the battle by leading his men to the charge on foot himself; this done, he would mount one of his horses, and hold himself and his squires in reserve, either to charge boldly at the decisive moment, or to save themselves* in case of defeat. But on this occasion he was advised by his brother, the Marquis Montague, who was a man of great personal courage, to fight on foot along with the rest of his army. Thus it 1 Thucydides, book v. chap. 71. The occurrence of this pheno- menon at the battle of Barnet is pointed out by Ramsay, "L. and Y.," ii. p. 371. 2 Comines, i. p. 256. = Waurin, pp. 660-3. * Comines, i. pp. 278-9. I47I] THE WARS OF THE ROSES 223 was that Warwick, when his men gave way, was delayed in getting to his horses, and so was overtaken and slain in a wood near by. King Edward is said to have expressed regret for his death.^ In this battle the order to kill the gentry and spare the commons was not given. For King Edward was much angered at the way in which the common people had abandoned his cause, and favoured the Earl of Warwick, at the time of the flight to Burgundy in October 1470. So now he had resolved " to call out no more to spare the common soldiers." ^ The number slain is, as usual, variously stated. Sir John Paston, who fought on Warwick's side, says there were slain of both parties together more than a thousand.* Other estimates give a total of 4,000. But Sir John Paston is not likely to have under-estimated the numbers slain. Edward permitted honourable burial to his dead opponents. The bodies of Warwick and Montague were exposed for two days at St Paul's, to convince the common people that they were dead.* Then they were buried in the family resting-place of the Earls of Salisbury in Bisham Abbey, on the Thames, near Marlow. In the weeks preceding the battle of Barnet, Queen Margaret had been getting together a considerable force to come at last to England for the support of her husband and the Earl of Warwick. At the same time Edmund, Duke of Somerset, one of the most devoted of the Lancastrians, left London for the west country, to raise a force with which he might join Margaret when she landed.* He had succeeded in raising a fair-sized body in the west, about the time of the battle of Barnet. Queen Margaret assembled her men at Harfleur on March 24th. She had with her the Prince Edward, her son, the Countess of Warwick, Lord Wenlock, and a number of Lancastrian ' Letter of Duchess of Burgundy, Kirk, " Charles the Bold," ii. p. go, note 3. 2 Comines, i. p. 279. ' " Paston Letters," No. 774. * Waurin, p. 663. ^ Ibid., p. 656. 2 24 THE WARS OF THE ROSES [1471 knights. High seas, it is said/ l See Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 58. 2 Cp. Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. pp. 422-3. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 263 elections more orderly; the statute stated that the election of members of Parliament had often been carried through by the rabble.^ This is no doubt true ; still, the smaller the number of voters, the greater might be the chance of undue influence from some high and mighty source. In the same spirit an Act was passed in 1445 stating that no one below the degree of knight should be elected member for the shire. Thus the whole yeoman class was cut out of the body that might supply members of Parlia- ment. The restriction was probably no cause of grief to the yeomen ; and it may have made no actual change in the class of men returned before or after 1445. But it was not a change in the spirit of that " constitutionalism " which has been so often credited to Henry VI. Interferences in elections by the crown itself were by no means unknown. In 1404 the writ of summons from Henry IV., following a precedent set by Edward III., ordered that no lawyers should be returned as members to the Parliament of that year, which, accordingly, has since been known in history as the " Unlearned Parliament." In 1459, after the discomfiture and flight of the Yorkists at Ludford, a Parliament was summoned to Coventry, where the opponents of the king's party were formally attainted. The Commons in this case were returned by the sheriffs after the receipt of privy seal letters from the crown, naming the persons who were to be "elected."^ When such a cynical violation of all parliamentary liberty was carried out, it seems hardly sufficient to cite the origination of money grants in the Commons as "a significant proof of the position which the House of Commons had already won under the constitutional rule of Lancaster." ^ Another breach of privilege of Parliament is the imprison- ment of Thomas Young, member for Bristol, for proposing in the Parliament of 145 1 that the Duke of York should 1 Cp. Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. p. 421. 2 See Stubbs, iii. p. 184, and note 3. '■' Ibid., p. 63 (under the year 1407). 264 THE WARS OF THE ROSES , be declared heir to the crown. There was nothing treason- able or unlawful in such a proposition, as York was undoubtedly the heir-presumptive, in default of any issue to Henry and Margaret, who were still childless after five years of married life. The privilege of Parliament ought effectually to have preserved Young from suffering for making a proposition, not unlawful, though distasteful to the king. But the Constitution was violated ; Young had to go to the Tower. It is not enough to reply that the Yorkist princes acted unconstitutionally too ; the condemnation of the house of York does not imply the acquittal of the house of Lancaster.^ ' Cp. Plummer, " Governance," p. 35. CHAPTER XXII THE WORK OF EDWARD IV. The house of Lancaster fell because it failed to govern the kingdom and to keep order. The claim of the house of York was accepted, as being likely to lead to peace, order, regular administration. Such peace and order were found, on the whole, under the Tudor monarchs. Did the house of York, in its short period of power, give firm governance too? The great historian of the English Constitution answers this question in the negative. " England found no sounder governance under Edward IV. than under Henry VI. ; the court was led by favourites, justice was perverted, strength was pitted against weakness, riots, robberies, forcible entries were prevalent as before. The house of York failed, as the house of Lancaster had failed, to justify its existence by wise administration." ^ Yet although much unconstitutional conduct can be imputed to the house of York, it is not so easy to find instances of weak or incom- petent administration. If attention be concentrated on the reign of Edward IV., it will be found to be, in the last twelve years, a reign of comparative peace and prosperity, as indeed was the reign of his brother Richard, the turmoil in whose mind did not much disturb the even life of his subjects. The reign of Edward IV. must be divided into two periods. The first is from his accession as king on March 4th, 1461, to October 1470, when he had to fly to Flanders, leaving King Henry VI. to enjoy a brief period of restora- tion at the hands of the Earl of Warwick. The second 1 Stubbs, "C. H.," iii. p. 280. '.6s 266 THE WARS OF THE ROSES period is from April 1471, when Edward once more and finally regained his kingdom, to his death, at Westminster, on April 9th, 1483. It is during the first period that there is found the lack of governance which Bishop Stubbs applies to the whole reign. During the second period peaceful, if not constitutional, government was certainly found.^ It is unnecessary to repeat again the story of the years 1461 to 1470, "the troubled years of Edward IV.," when the Lancastrian party was still strong in the North and the West of England, when the northern castles still held out, and a Scottish army was frequently in occupation of portions of the English soil. The young and inexperienced King Edward, fresh from the rough life of the camp, with the too powerful Neville family as his chief support, was not in a position to put an end to all the ills which had been felt under his predecessor. So the country remained unsettled in all the remoter parts, and a number of disturbances took place, culminating in the rising of " Robin of Redesdale." The plot of the Earl of Warwick was successful. King Edward had to flee the country. Far different was the state of affairs after the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, when he was once more re- established in his kingdom. The Lancastrian line was extinct, the house of Neville was laid low, King Edward had learned much from his exile. Instead of the careless soldier depicted by de Comines, he was now the prudent monarch of the new school which was rising in Western Europe on the ruins of feudalism, to embody the independ- ence of the national states. Edward IV., like Lewis XI., belonged to that " new monarchy," whose raison d'itre and whose philosophy of life have been laid down for ever by Machiavelli in " The Prince." Edward had learned by his mistakes and his misfortunes ; he was resolved never again to go upon his travels. His strong, if ruthless, rule gave England that internal order and that external independence ' Cp. Plummer, " Governance," p. 37. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 267 which all nations demand from their sovereign governments. This, too, was the service of the early Tudor kings ; they were autocrats ruling with the approval of the country, subject to certain limitations implied by this approval. Edward IV. was a monarch of the same sort. He laid down the lines along which the Tudors followed, not consciously, indeed, but because the conditions of the age demanded that policy from any monarch who would keep his throne. Six distinct ways may be noted in which Edward IV. directed his energy for the governing of England. He strengthened the administration of the law ; he encouraged the rise of a new nobility, personally attached to the crown ; he kept the expenditure and revenue of the government at a low but adequate figure ; he summoned few Parlia- ments ; he conducted the affairs of England abroad peace- fully, with a backing of armed force, but mainly by a clever diplomacy ; he encouraged trade and commerce by all the means then known to the crown. In these ways King Edward is a good type of the "new monarchy." The Tudors trod in his paths. It was necessary for the law courts to show great firm- ness if the local disorder, which had been such an evil under the Lancastrians, was to be suppressed. Edward's methods were arbitrary, calculated to put down disturbers of the peace, but without sufficient regard to those broad and general principles of justice which are the safeguard of personal liberty when the executive government grows, strong. The great danger from King Edward's policy was that the executive exercised influence over the judiciary. This was an undoubted evil, which has always to be guarded against. But at the time, it had the effect of suppressing disorder. The times were rough, and required rough measures. The ordinary law of the land had been emptied of most of its force under Henry VI. Edward IV. used special tribunals, which would not feel the territorial influence of disturbers of the peace. Such a tribunal was the Court of the High Constable, which. 268 THE WARS OF THE ROSES under the administration of John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, became notorious for its severity. In a patent of 1462, King Edward authorised Tiptoft to hear all charges of high treason, and to decide them, "even summarily, plainly, without noise and show of judgment, on simple inspection of the fact." ^ But the " great butcher of England " was killed in 1470, and by that time the Court of the High Constable had done most of its bloody work. From 147 1 to the end of his reign, executions were infrequent. The trial of Clarence in 1478 was a public scandal, but few felt regret at his fate. The worst feature in the legal history of the time was the use of torture. Even if this was begun under Henry VI., Edward IV. would not stand excused. Yet it is in the earlier unsettled period, up to 1470, that instances of the use of torture occur. The law did not err on the side of weakness ; only in the more remote districts of England can it be shown that the practice of " livery and maintenance " still went on. But even here the Yorkist kings anticipated the Tudor reforms. Edward IV. set up the Council of Wales,^ a " prerogative Council," with special powers to deal out summary justice on the disturbed Welsh march. This court, which had much the same constitution and scope of action as the more famous "Council of the North" established in 1437, lasted throughout the Tudor period, until the Long Parliament abolished it in 1641. The royal progress (1484) of Richard III. in the north parts is another instance of the interest of the Yorkist kings in preserving order in the most turbulent districts of England. He seems to have accomplished much, " and in the north of England he was certainly strong in the affections of the people." ^ The Council of Wales was not the only way in which Edward IV. anticipated the legal system of the Tudors. The Court of Star Chamber, often ascribed to the ' Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 289, and note 3. 2 Cp. Hallam, " Constitutional History," i. p. 328, and note d. ' Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 238. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 269 Act of 3 Henry VII., sat in King Edward's reign.^ being a convenient means of enforcing order when the local courts were weak, or the king's subjects too strong. Every monarch gathers round him an aristocracy, to support his position, and to supply him with administrators and governors. Edward IV. used such of the old nobility as had been faithful to his house ; and he drew upon the class of gentry for a new nobility to be faithful to the crown which had conferred its rank. The Wydvilles, although a Lancastrian family, were tied to the crown by the marriage of the king. Edward gave them his confidence, and they proved worthy of it. They were a new family when he distinguished them, but through the great marriages which he arranged they soon numbered no less than eight peerages. Another family, the Herberts, were raised to the Earldom of Pembroke. There had been a barony in the Bourchier family under the Lancastrians, but Edward IV. raised their status and multiplied their titles. They became one of the capable official families of the Yorkist and the Tudor periods. The nobility under the Yorkists assumed more and more the character which it bore later in the sixteenth century. The great quasi-royal houses like the Beauforts and the Hollands became extinct. The crown benefited by the addition of forfeited lands. The rest of the nobility took a lower position, with a sufficient degree of equality among themselves to prevent particular houses raising factions to divide the kingdom. Light taxation and moderate expenditure were charac- teristics of the new monarchy, whether Yorkist or Tudor. The Lancastrians had failed to "live of their own." Edward IV. managed better. His expenditure was not high, his demands for financial help from Parliament were infrequent. Without any rise in the rate of contri- bution, the receipts from customs, although they fluctu- ated considerably, automatically increased as commerce ' See Prothero, "Statutes and Documents," p. 401. 2 70 THE WARS OF THE ROSES developed. The crown lands, augmented by forfeitures from nobles attainted in the Wars of the Roses, brought in larger sums than formerly. Extraordinary revenue was raised by the outrageous levying of " benevolences," w^hich, falling as they did upon a comparatively few wealthy people, seem to have been received without unpopularity in the country as a whole. The subsidy and the pension received from Lewis XI. by the terms of the Treaty of Picquigny, in 147S, further added to the royal treasure, and relieved the finances of the government. Edward's private trading ventures'^ were another source of wealth. The total revenue, including the French pension, was not high, being between the years 1472 and 1483 of an average amount of ;£'95,ooo gross? Yet King Edward made this suffice. He left at his death a considerable fortune. His borrowing (excluding benevolences) was on a moderate scale, the total amount of loans not paid off at the end of his reign being calculated at ;£'29,ooo.^ There is no modern government of any standing whose loan capital is only one-third of its revenue. In his economical administration Edward IV. was like Henry VII. and Elizabeth. This characteristic of Yorkists and Tudors was by no means unpopular with the country. King Edward summoned few Parliaments throughout his reign, and his record of legislation is mainly on the subject of commerce. In 1465 the king had been voted " tonnage and poundage " for life ; except for the abortive war with France in 1475, he had seldom again to apply to the estates for money. Throughout his long reign of twenty-one years, only six separate Parliaments were summoned, their sessions were short, and the work they were called on to do was quickly finished. Sometimes years passed without any Parliament meeting : there was ' See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 456, and note 6. ^ Ibid., p. 470. 2 Ibid., pp. 464, 466. Ramsay calculates the total sum raised by benevolences at ^12,000. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 271 none between May 1468 and October 1472 ; between 1475 and 1483 the sitting of Parliament occupied only forty-two days.^ It has been said that the reign of Edward IV. is the first in English history in which no statute was passed to increase the liberty of the subject.^ But the country acquiesced in the abeyance of Parliament, for what the people wanted was a cessation from civil turmoil, so that commerce and ordinary occupations might go on un- interrupted. Henry VII. adopted the same attitude towards Parliament. Practically all his useful legislation was done in the early years of his reign. The people were getting orderly government, and for the time they were contented. In foreign affairs Edward IV. anticipated the policy of Henry VII. "The less blood he drew, the more he took of treasure." ^ Each monarch took a great military expedi- tion to France, and each returned home with financial subventions in lieu of military honours. Henry VII.'s Treaty of Etaples, in 1492, much resembled Edward IV.'s Treaty of Picquigny in 1475. Both monarchs pursued a policy of peace abroad. They turned their back on the Hundred Years War, with all its hopeless ideals ; they thought no more of a realm across the Channel ; they recognised that England was an island kingdom, and that her genius lay in commerce and on the sea. In foreign affairs they were content to play a part, not with campaigns and battles, like the mediaeval kings, but by diplomacy and treaties. England had by nature a commanding position ; she dominated the great maritime highway that lay from Flanders to the Bay of Biscay, and led on to Spain and the Mediterranean. The alliance of England was equally valuable to Flanders, to France, and to Spain. England, courted on every side, had no need at this period to enter into expensive foreign wars. She could rise to greatness again, without embroiling herself in Europe. This was 1 Stubbs, " C. H.," iii. p. 282. 2 Hallam, " C. H.," i. p. 10. 3 Bacon, " Life and Reign of Henry VII." (1870), p. 398. 2 72 THE WARS OF THE ROSES clearly understood by Edward IV., by Henry VII., by Wolsey, by Elizabeth. They spent little of England's treasure or her men on the fields of Europe ; so that the energy of her people took other directions, at home in England, and abroad, along the paths of the sea. In their strong support of commerce, Edward IV. and Henry VII. were alike. The new monarchy was indeed a sort of bourgeois monarchy, popular with all citizens, careful of the peace, careful of national defence, taking a personal interest in all affairs of trade. The great benefit conferred by Edward IV. on English commerce was the renewal of the connection with Flanders and Burgundy. The Dukes of Burgundy had been the allies of England in the middle period of the Hundred Years War — from 1415 to 1435. But in 143s, Duke Philip had made peace with Charles VII. of France, and thereafter the English connection was broken off. The Burgundian domains in- cluded Flanders, so that the loss of the alliance had a bad effect on the export of wool from England to that flourish- ing country. Calais itself was in continual danger of being taken by the duke. But with the accession of Edward IV. the Flemish connection was gradually renewed. The marriage of Edward's sister, Margaret, with Duke Charles the Bold in 1468 made the link stronger. It had been preceded in the same year by a treaty guaranteeing freedom of commercial intercourse between England and Flanders for thirty years. This connection was a great asset for England. The accession of Henry VII. interrupted good relations for a time, as Margaret, the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy, naturally kept her Yorkist predilections. But at length the energetic and persistent diplomacy of Henry VII. was crowned with success. With the treaty of the "Great Intercourse" in 1496, the Flemish commercial connection was once more renewed, to the great joy of the English merchants. Edward IV. died on April 9th, 1483, in his forty-first year, after a ten days' illness. He had a low fever, which THE WARS OF THE ROSES 273 he is said to have contracted originally in the French expedition of 1475,^ and which was now much aggravated by dissipation. Philip de Comines describes him as being in his youth " the most beautiful man of his time." But " afterwards he grew very corpulent." ^ Clearly, however, he had a gift for ruling, and thoroughly understood his people's temper. For this reason he is to be classed as a successful monarch, under whom England prospered. ' See Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. p. 452. ^ Comines, i. p. 266. 18 CONCLUSION THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIU When Edward IV. had finally re-established himself by the battle of Tewkesbury, Jasper Tudor, who had been Earl of Pembroke before his attainder, took his nephew, Henry Tudor, the fourteen-year-old Earl of Richmond, away with him by sea from Pembrokeshire, to safe-keeping in France. Stress of wind compelled them to land not in the domains of King Lewis XI., but in those of Francis II., the last Duke of Brittany. Here Henry lived and grew up to manhood, waiting for an opportunity to make himself king of England. Henry Tudor, owing to the extinction of all the males of the house of Lancaster, was now the heir of John of Gaunt. His mother was the Lady Margaret Beaufort, only child of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, grandson of John of Gaunt and Catherine Swynford. The name of Tudor came from his father, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Rich- mond, who was the son of §ir^wen_ Tudor, aWelsh knight of an old family, and Queen Catherine, widow of Henry V. and mother of Henry VI. Edmund, Earl of Richmond, had died towards the end of 1456, about two months before the birth of his son on January 28th, 1457. Henry, who was thus born Earl of Richmond, was brought up by his uncle Jasper, the Earl of Pembroke. The Tudors followed the house of Lancaster, and rendered energetic, though ineffective, service on the Welsh march and in the interior of Wales. The founder of the ' Good short accounts of the rise of Henry Tudor are given in the " Dictionary of National Biography " {Henry VII.), by James Gairdner, and in Ramsay, " L. and Y.," ii. chap. xxxv. THE WARS OF THE ROSES 275 house, old Owen Tudor, was executed by the Yorkists at Hereford, after the battle of Mortimer's Cross in 1461. Young Henry was among the garrison which surrendered at Harlech, after seven years' siege, in 1468. He was taken up to London, and put under the guardianship of the new Earl of Pembroke, William Herbert. During the brief restoration of Henry VI. in 1470-1471, Henry, now fourteen years of age, was restored to the care of his uncle, Jasper Tudor, who, after the ruin of the Lancastrian cause, carried him in safety, as has been already noticed, to Brittany. Thither, after the death of the last prince of the direct male line of Lancaster, came the remnants of the party, the strong spirits who would not, or could not, go back and make their peace with the Yorkists. The Duke of Brittany, remembering the old alliance of his house with that of Lancaster, protected Henry, and lent him money for any enterprise. In England he had friends like John Morton, Bishop of Ely, who kept him primed with information. Although occasionally threatened with capture, owing to the diplomatic pressure of Edward IV. or Richard III., he escaped his enemies, and so was able to seize the critical moment for a return to his native land. Henry had watched the declining fortunes of the house of York after the death of Edward IV. He had heard of the murder of the boy king, Edward V., and of the young Prince Richard. He noted the rise of Richard III. to power, the muttering among the nobles, and the apathy of the people. In October 1483 he planned to join the Duke of Buckingham, who was raising a rebellion in his favour in the South of England. The rising was a failure, and Henry, who had sailed from Brittany and appeared off Poole Harbour, turned straight back again. But by 1485 the time had come. The energy and capacity of King Richard had not made England love him or forget his crimes. Henry got his force ready ; the French government, under the Regent Anne of Beaujeu, openly favoured his aims, and gave troops. With a mixed 276 THE WARS OF THE ROSES English and French force of 2,000 men, he started from Har- fleur on August ist, 1485, and sailed direct for Milford Haven, a region where the Tudor family had always great interest. He pushed northwards by Haverfordwest to Cardigan and Shrewsbury, many Welshmen joining his standard as he went along. At Market Bosworth, in Leicestershire, on August_22nd, he met the army of Richard HI. The forces were of the usual size during the Wars of the Roses ; Henry had about 5,000 men, Richard, perhaps, somewhat more. The action of Sir William Stanley, who had brought up a strong force from Cheshire and Lancashire, nominally to support King Richard, decided the day in favour of Henry. With the battle the crown was also won. The country as a whole seemed indifferent to the result, and accepted the new king without further difficulty. Henry VK. was wise enough to rule England in the way his immediate predecessors had done, so that the change of dynasty scarcely interrupted the even course of life along which England had now, for fifteen years, been making her way. INDEX ALNWICK, 170 ff., 187 Angevin empire, 13 Anne of Beaujeu, 275 Appanages, 4, 5, 10 Arc, Joan of, 17, 19, 20 French patriotism, 24 Armies, numbers in Lancastrian period, 30, 62, 236-37 Artillery, 61 Attainders (1459), 109; (1461), 162, 270 Audley, Lord, killed at Blore- heath, 104 Audley, Lord (son), joins Yorkists, 115, 116, 121 Ayscough, Bishop of Salisbury, murdered, 43 BAMBURGH, 169, 170, 187 Battles— Beaug^, 13, 16 Verneuil, 18 Patay, 19 Castillon, 21, 64, 67 St Albans (i4S5)> 75-77 Bloreheath, 103, 104 Ludford, 105-7 Northampton, 124 ff Wakefield, 138 ff. Mortimer's Cross, 143, 144 St Albans (second), 146, 147 Battles— Towton, 154-57 Hedgley Moor, 184 Edgcot, 202 Empingham, 206 Barnet, 220-23 Tewkesbury, 226-28 Bosworth, 276 Baynard's Castle, 152, 153 Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Win- chester — leads peace party, 24 letter to Bedford, 31 resigns chancellorship, 31 crusade against Bohemians, ib. cardinal, 32 crowns Henry VL at Paris, 32, 241 death of, 36 Beauforts legitimised, 52, 59 Beaumont, Lord, killed at Northampton, 126 Bedford, John, Duke of, 13 regent, 16, 26 visits England from France, 31 death, 20, 33 Berkhampstead, 89 Berwick, 12 expenses, ib. siege of, 83 278 INDEX Black Death, 242, 249 Bluebeard, rebel leader, 40 Bodleian Library, 29 Bohun, Mary de, 8 BoUeyn, Geoffrey, Mayor of London, 95 Bonvile, Lord — Lancastrian, 70 private war, 72 Booth, Dr WiUiam, 58 Bourbon, Bastard of, 195 Bourbon, Duchess of, 177 ff. Bourchier, Henry, Lord — Yorkist, treasurer, 129 Earl of Essex, 158 Bourchier, Thos., Archbishop of Canterbury — Bishop of Ely, 63 at Dartford, 63 Archbishop of Canterbury, 71, 122, 123, 153, 196 Chancellor, 73 cardinal, 196 Yorkist, 243 efforts at peace, ih. crowns Richard IIL, ib. Breze, Pierre de, Seigneur de Warenne — attack on Sandwich, 96 ff. leads French contingent for Queen Margaret, 169 spends estate for Queen Margaret, 177 returns to France, 180 Buckingham, Humphrey, first Duke of, 69 wounded at St Albans, 77 at VVrittle, 86 peacemaker, 87, 92 killed at Northampton, 126 Buckingham, second Duke of, rebellion, 275 Burgundian alliance, 272 Burgundian gunmen, 146 Burgundy, Burgundians, 4, 20 Burgundy, Charles, Duke of — favours Lancastrians, 167 receives Queen Margaret, 1 7 7 ff. allies with Yorkists, 194 marries Margaret of York, 196 fleet for Edward IV., 210 supports Edward IV. 's return, 2t6 Burgundy, Bastard of, 194 Burgundy, Philip, Duke of — friendly to Warwick, 117 embassy to Scotland, 165 receives Queen Margaret, 1 7 7 ff. /^ADE, Jack— v_^ rebellion of, 39, 40 at London, 41 capture and death, 43 Calais — expenses, 12 York, Captain of, 71 Somerset, Captain of, ib., 73 Warwick, Captain of, 81 fortifications and defence, 112, "3 finances and commerce, 113 Henry, Duke of Somerset, Captain of, 113 Cantelowe, William, chief mercer, Yorkist, 95 Carlisle, 158 Caxton, 242, 243 Channel Islands defeat French fleet, 71 Charles VII.— as Dauphin, disinherited, 16 King of Bourges, 18 establishes perpetual taille, 22 character, 24 dies, 166 Charlton, Thomas, Speaker, 70, and n. 2 Chastellain meets Lancastrians, 177 INDEX 279 Chepstow Castle, 202, 203 Cherbourg lost, 44 Chester, 87 Chichele, Archbishop, 241 Church, 24T-45 Church, Roger, 256 Clarence, Thomas, Duke of, 13, 16 Clarence, George, Duke of, 158 marriage, 200 conspires to be king, 205-6 superseded, 209 secedes to Edward IV., 219 at Barnet, 222 at Tewkesbury, 229 trial of, 268 Clergy, lower — secular, 243, 244 regular, 244, 245 Clifford, Lord, 76, 77 Clifford (son), Lord — Lancastrian, 140 killed at Ferrybridge, 1 54 Clinton, Lord, Yorkist, 77 Cobham, Lord, 62 Yorkist, 124 Coimbra, Philip, Duke of, 28 Coleshill, 105 Colleges — Balliol, 29, 243 Eton, 47, 245 King's, 47, 245 Queens', 51 All Souls', 241 Magdalen, ib. Corpus Christi, 242 Winchester, 245. New, ih. Comines, Philip de, visits Calais, 215 Constable, Court of High, 16S, i86, 268, 269 Coppini, Francesco, Papal Legate, 122 Copyhold tenure, 235, 236 Corfe Castle, 137 Council, Great, 67, 68, 69, 74, 88,89,95 Reading, 190 Westminster, 191 Kingston-on-Thames, 196 Council, Privy, 19 divisions in, 24, 29, 30 ff. personfiel, 26 salaries of members, 26, 27 fines for absence, 27 powers, 27, 28 Commons' petition, 58 two years blank, 86 constitution, 258 ff. Coventry, 86, 87, 88, 92 Cromwell, Humphrey Bourchier, Lord, Yorkist, 78, 83, 158 Cromwell, Ralph, Lord — ■ budget, 20 «. DENBIGH Castle, 127 Denhara, Sir John — helps Warwick in Devon, io8 expedition to Sandwich, 116 second expedition, 120 at Towton, 155 Devonshire, Earl of, 62 Lancastrian, 224 at Tewkesbury, 227 killed, 229 Doket, Andrew, 51 Dorset, Earl of [see Somerset, Henry Beaufort, Duke of] — Lancastrian, 77 Dudley, John, Lord, 58 Lancastrian, 95 Dunstable, 146, 149 Dunstanburgh, 169 ff., 187 ECCLESHALL, 104, 127 Eden, Alexander, Sheriff of Kent, 43 Edmund, called Earlof Rutland — in Ireland, in killed at Wakefield, 140 280 INDEX Edmund of Langley, 2, 3 Edward III., 7 family settlement, 1-4, 7, 8 Edward, the Black Prince, 2, 3, 7 Edward of Lancaster, Prince — birth, 67 created Prince of Wales, 7 1 his livery, 102, 147 at St Albans (second), 147-48 at Tewkesbury, 227 killed, 228 Edward IV.— in Calais, 108, in, 117 at Northampton, 125 at Mortimer's Cross, 144 at Towton, 154-57 progresses, 157, 159-60 accession, 152-53, 158 ill at Durham, 171-72 present at trials, 186-87 marriage of, 189-90 raises bodyguard, 196 confined at Middleham, 202 surrenders to Warwick, 203 released, 203 escapes plot, 205 flight from England, 210-12 returns to England, 2158" fights on foot, 223 clemency, 206, 223, 229 at Tewkesbury, 227 ff. borrowings, 240 patron of Caxton, 242 attitude to monks, 244 compared with Henry VII., 270-72 death, 272-73 Edward [V.], 220, 230, 244, 27s Egremont, Lord — killed at Northampton, 126 Elections, parliamentary, 81, 82, 261-63 members nominated, 108 Enclosures, 236 Etaples, Treaty of, 27 Exeter, Duke of — loses captaincy of Calais, 98 admiral, 113 avoids battle with Warwick, 118-19 at Denbigh Castle, 127 killed at Barnet, 222 loyalty, 246 FASTOLF, Sir John- will, 42 Fauconberg, Bastard of, 224, 229-31 Fauconberg, Lord — in command of Calais, 105, 108 at Northampton, 125 at Towton, 154-57 Earl of Kent, 158 admiral, 169, 193, n. 2 Ferrybridge, 154 Finance in Lancastrian period, 12, 20, 24, 26, 27, 32, 53, 55 overdue wages, 90 revenue, 253-55 deficits, ib. Finance, Yorkist, 269-70 Fitzwalter, Lord, Yorkist, 153, 154 Fleming, Richard, Bishop of Lincoln, 28 Foreign merchants, 240-41 Fortescue, Sir John, 176, 209, 256 Foxe, Richard, Bishop of Win- chester, 242 Francis II., Duke of Brittany, 168, 274-75 INDEX 281 GREAT Intercourse, 272 Great North Road, 124 Glendower, Owen, 11 Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke of, 13 Protector, 16, 26 salary, 26 leads war party, 23, 29 character, 29 relations with Jacqueline, 30, 31 with Eleanor Cobham, 32 money grant for expedition to Hainault, 32 reprimanded by Council, 32 war policy, 33 proclaimed Count of Flanders, 33 made Captain of Calais, 33 lieutenant of the king in France, 33 arrested, 36 estates confiscated, 51 vindicated, 82 death of, 86 Gloucester, Richard, Duke of (King Richard III.), 158 assists Edward IV. in exile, 216 at Bamet, 222 at Tewkesbury, 227, 231 patron of Caxton, 242. See also Richard III. Godwine, house of, no Gough, Matthew, 41, 42 Grey of Ruthin, Lord — deserts to Yorkists at North ampton, 125 Grey, Walter, Bishop of Ely, 123 Guienne — commerce with England, 2 1 conquered by French, ib. fortifications, 23 HARLECH Castle, 160 («. 2). 173. 187, 196, 198 Harow, John, mercer — Yorkist, 124, 128 at Wakefield, 138, 140 Hastings, Lord, Yorkist, 212, 216 at Tewkesbury, 227 Henry IV., 7, 8 title to throne, 9, 10 government, 11, 12 income, 12 health, 13 Henry V. — government, to, 12 popularity, 13 prestige, 15 death, 16 will, 26 Henry VI. — accession, 15 crowned in Paris, 19, 32 appoints ministers, 27, 29 marriage of, 35 mercifulness, 43, 109 character, 46-48 ministers, 48, 49, 58, 60 first insanity, 66, 71 recovery, 72, 73 at St Albans (1455), 78 second insanity, 83, 84 recovery, 85 extravagance, 85 in the field, 106 intrigues with Irish chieftains, 112 at Northampton, 126 at St Albans (second), 146, 147 at Towton, 155 escape at Coroumbr, 164 admits Scots into Berwick, 164 in Edinburgh with family, i6s at Bamburgh, 173, 174 escapes from Bywell, 185 INDEX Henry VI.— captured, i88 restored, 213 recaptured, 220, 221 revokes London charter, 240 appoints his own ministers, 259 K dies in Tower, 231 Henry VII., 199, 229, 231, 241, 253. 271-74 Herbert, Sir William, Earl of Pembroke, Yorkist, 93, 193, 198, 202, 203, 269, 275 Holt Castle, 183 Holy Island, 170 Hungerford, Lord, Lancastrian, 123, 170, 184, 186 Hunsdon, 81 • RELAND— Welcomes Duke of York, 107, III Parliament and government. TACQUELINE, Duchess of J Holland and Hainault, 30, 31 James I., 18, 28 James XL, 84 denounces truce of 1453, 100 killed before Roxburgh, 1 30 Jerningham, John, boards Spanish ship, 99 John of Gaunt, 2, 3 loyalty, 6, 7 possessions, 7 Judde, master of the king's ordnance, 121 Judges, 256-58 Justice, Courts, 54, 64 KEMP, John, Archbishop of York, 28, 68, 70 in the Council, 33 mediates in Cade's rebellion, 42 death, i/>. Kennedy, Bishop of St Andrews, 165 Kyriel, Sir Thomas, 43 LANCASTRIAN experiment, 258 fif. Lancastrian government, 48, 49, 54. 60 Lancaster, house of — title to throne, 8, 17 government, 10, 11, 27 causes of failure in France, 22- Libel of English Policy, 240, 257, 258 Lionel of Antwerp, 2 Littleton, quoted, 236, 256 Livery and Maintenance, 192, 233. 2S2> 253. 2S7> 261, 269 Lollards, 9, 10 Lollardy, 242 Lombard merchants, 93-95 London, passim — attitude to Yorkists, 149, 150 favours Edward IV., 212, 219, 220, 230, 240, 241 London Stone, 41, and n. i Louis XL — receives embassy from Queen Margaret, 166 Lancastrian counter-revolution, 208, 209 Lovell, Lord, Lancastrian, 123 Lubeck merchantmen attacked by Earl of VVarwick, 99 INDEX 283 MARGARET of Anjou, Queen — marriage of, 35 unpopularity of, 35 advice re Cade's rebellion, 40 character, 50, 51 tries to obtain support from abroad, 81, 96 offers Berwick to Scots, 127 waylaid near Chester, 127 joins army after Wakefield, 145 at St Albans (second), 146, . ?47 visits Lewis XI., 168 pledges Calais, ib. wrecked off Northumberland, 170 escapes from brigand, 174, 179, 180 visits Flanders, 175 ff. in Bar, 180, 181 allies with Warwick, 208, 209 fatal delay, 214 last expedition to England, 223 ff. captured after Tewkesbury, 229 retires to France, 230, n. 2 Margaret of York — marries Charles of Burgundy, 196, 272 opposes Henry VII., 272 Mary of Gueldres, 165 Middleham, 202, 203, et passim Moleyns, Adam de. Bishop of Chichester, murdered, 43, 258 Monasteries, 242, 244, 245 Montague,JohnNeville, Lord, 158 wins Hedgley Moor, 184 wins Hexham, 185 executions, 185, 186 created Earl of Northumber- land, 187 defeats Robin of Holderness, 201 Montague, John Neville, Lord — loses earldom, 207 attempts to kidnap Edward IV., 210 killed at Barnet, 222 Mortimer, Anne, 2 marriage, 3, 4, i4 Mortimer, Edmund, 8 death, 14 Morton, John, afterwards arch- bishop, 176, 275 Mountford, Osbert, Lancastrian officer, 118, 119 NAPOLEON I., s, 23 Narrow Seas — insecurity of, 71, 96, 257, 258 victory of Warwick over Spanish ships, 99 over Lubeck ships, ib. Navy, 27 Neville, family, 250 Neville, George, Bishop of Exeter, Archbishop of York, 123 Chancellor, 129, 153 at conference of Hesdin, 180 Archbishop of York, 187 secedes to Edward IV., 220 intriguer, 243 Neville, Lord, Lancastrian, 132 13s Neville, Richard, lawyer of the Temple, executed, 118 Newcastle, 17 r, 172 New monarchy, 266 ff. Norham, 173, 174, 184, 187 Norfolk, Duke of, 64 Bill against Somerset, 69, 70 North, Council of, 268 Northumberland, Earl of, Lan- castrian, killed at St Albans, 77. 79 Northumberland, Earl of — at Towton, 155 restored, 230 284 INDEX OLDHALL, Sir William, imprisoned, 66 Orleanists, 4 Orleans, Duke of, release of, 33 PADUA University, 242 Parliament — interference with freedom of elections, 40 Reading, 64, 68 Westminster, 82 Coventry (1459), 108, 109 Westminster, 131-34; (1461), 161, 162 Unlearned, 263 of Edward IV., 270, 271 Paston family, 237, 238 Paston, Sir John, in Parliament (1460), 131 at Barnet, 223 Peasants' Revolt (1381), 235, 242 Pecock, Reginald, Bishop of Chichester trial, 88, 242 on state of clergy, 243 Peerage — by writ, 245 by patent, ib. numbers, 245, 246, 249 loyalty, 246 territorial distribution, 247, 248 incomes, 248, 249 Yorkist and Tudor, 269 Percy family, 251 Percy, Sir Ralph, 1708"., 184, 246 Picquigny, Treaty of, 270, 271 Pius IL, Pope, 192 Plundering, 237 Pole, William de la, Duke of Suffolk— in the Council, 32, 33 adviser to Henry VI., 34 Pole, William de la, Duke of Suffolk— his career, 34 peace policy, 35, 37 at Tours, 35, 38 created Marquis, 35 impeachment of, 39 death of, 39 Police, civic, 95, 238 Poole Harbour, 275 Popes — Martin V., 28 Benedict XIII., 30 (anti-Pope) Pius II., 192 power in England, 241, 242 Population of towns, 240 of England, 249 Prelates, character, 241 absentee, 241 in Parliament, 242 efforts at peace, 243 Private war — Nevilles and Percies, 72 Earl of Devonshire and Lord Bonvile, 72, 83, 84; see also 93. 232> 25I' 257 Progresses, royal, 87, 88, 157, 159, 160, 201, 268 Purveyance, 205 READING, Parliament at, 68 Rene, Duke of Anjou, 168, 180 Resumption, Act of, 85, 255, 256 Richard II., 7, 8 Richard III., 264, 268, 275, 270 Richard, Earl of Cambridge, 2 trial and execution, 11 Robin of Holderness, 201 Robin of Redesdale, 200 ff., 205 Rose, White, of York, 152, 232 Roxburgh captured by Scots, 130 Rye, 81 INDEX 28s CALISBURY, Thomas de '-J Montacute, Earl of, 19 death of, 34 Salisbury, Richard Neville, eighth Earl of— Chancellor, 71 dismissed, 73 at Calais, 117 killed at Wakefield, 141 Sanctuary — Westminster, 72 Ottery, 132; see also, 220, 228, 229, 230, 244 Sandal Castle, 86, 87, 139, 140 Sandwich, 96 Say and Sele, Baron — beheaded by rebels, 41 Scales, Lord, 41 Lancastrian, 123 surrenders Tower, 128 murdered, 128 St Albans — monastery, 75, 79, 90 Chronicle, 75 town, 75 sacked, 79 Sevenoaks — fight at, 40 Shene, 86 Sherburn, 155 Shrewsbury, John Talbot, fourth Earl of— slain at Castillon, 21 Shrewsbury, fifth Earl of — treasurer, 87 killed at Northampton, 126 Sieges — Mons, 31 Orleans, 19 Skipton in Craven, 184, 187 Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, second Duke of — lieutenant in France, 21, 24, 37 in Privy Council, 30 Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, second Duke of — created Duke of Somerset, 37 capitulates in Caen, 38 returns to England from Nor- mandy, 45, 49, 55 made Constable, 45 intrigues against York, 51 character, 52, 53 criticised in Parliament, 57 Captain of Calais, 57, 71, 73 arrested, 69, 72 arbitration of peers, 74 killed at St Albans (1455), 77 Somerset, Henry Beaufort, third Duke of, 87, 92 Captain of Calais, 1 1 3 maintains war from Guisnes, 114 ff. offers Calais to Burgundy, 120 retires from Guisnes, 130, 131 at Wakefield, 138 ff. at St Albans (second), 147 joins Queen Margaret in north, 137, 138 in northern war, 170 ff. joins King Edward, 172 ff., 182 revolts to King Henry, 183 ff. at Hedgley Moor and Hexham, 184, 185 executed, 186 Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, called fourth Duke of — returns from exile, 215 raises forces in west, 223, 224 commands at Tewkesbury, 227, 228 killed, 229 St Paul's, second reconciliation at, 9 Stafford, Sir Humphrey — killed at Sevenoaks, 40 Stanley, Sir William, 276 286 INDEX Star Chamber, Court of, 252, 268, 269 Statutes, 9, II, 14, 26 (1430), 262, 263; (i44S)> 263 Settlement Act, 9 indenture (1406), 261, 262 Steel Yard, 241 Stony Stratford, 190 Strangeways, Jame s — Speaker, 161 Surienne, Francis de, raid by, 37 Sweden — Reduction Office, 86 Swynford, Catherine, 14 ''PAILBOYS, Sir William, Earl 1 of Kyme, 186 Thomas of Woodstock, 2, 3 one of the Lords Appellant, 7 Thorpe, Thomas — Speaker (1453), 65 prosecution and imprisonment, 68 at St Albans (1455), 77 in defence of Tower, 123 beheaded, 68 Tiptoft, John, Earl of Worcester, 168, 186 executed, 215 learning, 243 Torture, 197, 268 Tours, conference of, 35 Towns, 238, 239, 263 Treaty — Troyes, iSi 16 TroUope, Andrew — deserts Yorkists, 107 enters Guisnes with Somerset, 114 at Wakefield, 139 at St Albans (second), 147, 148 at Towton, 155 killed, 156 Tuddenham, Sir Thomas, 167, 257, 262 Tudor, Edmund, Earl of Rich- mond, 93, 274 Tudor, Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, 93, 144, 160 receives Queen Margaret, 127 army in Wales, 224, 225, 231, 274, 27s Tudor, Owen — executed at Hereford, 144, 145 Tunstall, Sir Richard, 170 ff. Tutbury, 86 V ILLEINAGE, 235, 236 WALES, Council of, 268 march of, 77, 78, 93, 95 Lancastrian influence, 102 Wardens of Marches, 166, 167 court of, 186 Ware — Yorkist memorial sent to Henry VL, 74 Wark worth, 170, 171 Wars of Roses — "original cause of," 51 Warwick, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of— tutor to Henry VI., 46 Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of— his wealth, 2 at Dartford, 62 at St Albans (1455), 76 Calais, 81 victory over Spanish ships, 99, 102 affray at Westminster, 102 sails from Devon to Calais, loS executes sailors and others, 114, 120 INDEX 287 Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of— visits Ireland, 118 fighting instructions at North- ampton, 125 at St Albans (second), 146-47 at Towton, 154-57 wins over Mary of Gueldres, 168 naval victory, 1 69 siege operations in north, 170 ff. estrangement frorh King Edward, 190, 193, 194 interviews Louis XL, 195 humiliated by King Edward, 19s expedition against Edward IV., 201 ff. conspires with Welles, 205, ■* j 1 1 ■ ,11 II 200 piracy in Channel, 207 cruelty to captive sailors, 208 allies with Queen Margaret, 209 restores Henry VI., 212, 213 refuses battle, 218, 219 killed at Barnet, 222, 223 method of fighting, ib. housekeeping, 250 income, tb, Watford, 75 Waurin, at Calais, 200 Waynflete, William, Bishop of Winchester, in Cade's re- bellion, 42 at Dartford, 63 Chancellor, 87 ; see also 161, y' n. I, 241 I Welles, Lord, Lancastrian, 205 I Welles, Sir Robert, 205, 206 v^enlock. Sir John, Baron, Yorkist Speaker, 82 escapes with Warwick from Ludford, 108 Wenlock, Sir John, Baron, Yorkist Speaker — goes with expedition to Sand- wich, 120 at Towton, 155 on embassy at Calais, 167, 199 lieutenant at Calais, 207 at Tewkesbury, 228 killed, ib. Whethamsted, John, Abbot of St Albans after battle of St Albans, 78, 79 Wiltshire, James Butler, Earl of, 144. 157 Winchester, Earl of, Louis de Bruges, 212, 216, and n. 2 Worcester, William of— in London, 128, 152 origin of Wars of Roses, 251 Worksop, 138 Writtle, 86 Wydville, Richard, Lord Rivers — captured at Sandwich, 116 taken to Calais, 116, 117 ; see also 31, 190, 191 treasurer, 193 earl, ib High Constable, ib. killed, 202, 203 Wydville, Anthony, Lord Rivers (son), captured at Sandwich, 116 as Lord Scales {jure uxoris), 171. 193. 194 admiral, 210 assists Edward IV. in exile, 216 holds London, 230 Wydville, Elizabeth, Queen, 190, 191 in sanctuary, 220, 230, 244 Wydville marriages, 191, 193 peerages, 269 288 INDEX YELVERTON, Judge, 256 York, city of, Edward IV. . at, 157 York, Richard, Duke of — well treated by Henry V., 14 lieutenant in France, 20 lieutenant in Ireland, 21, 24, 36,37 in Privy Council, 30 heir to throne, 36 returns from lieutenancy in Ireland, 45, 49, 56 cause of quarrel with Somerset, SI character, 54, 55 correspondence with Henry VI, 56, 61 York, Richard, Duke of— expedition in Kent, 62, 63 Council of, 69 Protector (first), 71 ff. progress in north, 7 1 arbitration of peers, 74 Protector (second), 84 ff. ultimatum to James II., 100 received in Ireland, 107, III claims throne, 133 killed at Wakefield, 140 Young, Thos., M.P. for Bristol- petition, 58 arrested, 60 imprisoned, 238, 263, 264 GENEALOGICAL TABLES ABBREVIATIONS ob. obit, died. s.p. sine prole, without issue. s.p.l. sine prole legitima, without lawful issue. s.p.m. sine prole mascula, without male issue. s.p.s. sine prole superstite, without issue that survived. v.p. vita patris, in the life-time of his father. I. -THE SURVIVING SONS OF EDWARD III., AND THEIR LINES. King Edward III., ob. 1377. I Edward, The " Black Prince " Lionel, Duke of Clarence (m. Joan, (m. Elizabeth de Burgh, widow of Thomas Holland, daugh. and heir, of William, 7th Earl of Kent). E. of Ulster and of Clare), I ob. s.p.m. 1368. Philippa, daugh. and heir. House of March. John, Duke of Lancaster, ob. 1399, married King Richard H., ob. s.p. 1400. Blanche of Lancaster. King Henry IV. Philippa. Elizabeth. Royal line of Lanes. Royal line of Portugal. |ivU.6 ^ 4VV>A^ ^|,, Constance of Castile. Catherine. Royal line of Castile. Edmund, Duke of York (m. Isabella of Castile), ob. 1402. Thomas, Duke of Gloucester (m. Eleanor Bohun, co-heir, of 14th Earl of Hereford), ob. 1397. 3-': Catherine Swynford. John Beau'ort. Henry. Thomas. Royal line of Tudor. Royal line of Scotland Edward, D. of York, Richard, E. of Camb., I ob. 1415, s.p. ob. 1415. I I Humphrey, I ob. 1399, Royal line of York. s.p. Joan. House of Neville. House of Beaufort. Ann. Houses of Stafford and Bourchier. King Henry VI. (m. Margaret of Anjou), ob. 1471. Edward, Prince of Wales, ob. 1471, v.p. s.p. II.— HOUSE OF LANCASTER. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (m. Blanche, daugh. and co-heir, of Henry, ist Duke of Lancaster), ob. 1399. King Henry IV. (m. Mary Bohun, daugh. and co-heir, of 14th Earl of Hereford), ob. 141 3. King Henry V. (m. Catherine of France), ob. 1422. Thomas, Duke of Clarence, ob. 1421, s.p. John, Duke of Bedford, ob. 1435, s.p. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, ob. 1446, s.p. Blanche (m. Louis, Count Palatine). Philippa (m. Eric, King of Sweden). III.— HOUSE OF YORK. Edmund of Langley, Duke of York (m. Isabella of Castile), ob. 1402. Edward, Duke of Albemarle and York, ob. 1415, s.p. Richard, Earl of Cambridge (m. Anne, daugh. of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March), ob. 1415. Executed. Richard, Duke of York (m. Cicely, daugh. of Ralph, 1st Earl ofWestmoreland), ob. 1460. King Edward IV. (m. Elizabeth Wydville, daugh. of 1st Baron Rivers), ob. 1483. Edmund, ob. 1460. George, Duke of Clarence (m. Isabella, daugh. and co-heir, of 8th Earl of Warwick and Salisbury). King Richard III., ob. 1485, s.p.s. Edward, Prince of Wales, Elizabeth (m. John de la Pole, 2nd Duke of Suii'olk, who ob. 1491). Margaret (m. Charles, Duke of Burgundy), ob. 1503, s.p. King Edward V., ob. 1483, s.p. Richard, Duke of York, ob. 1483, s.p. Elizabeth (m. King Henry VII. Edward, Earl of Warwick, Attainted 1499, s.p. Margaret, ist Countess of Salisbury {m. Sir Richard Pole), Attainted 1539, ob. 1 541. ob. 1484, v.p. s.p. John, Earl of Lincoln, ob. v.p. 1487, s^j. Edmund, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, Richard de la Executed 1513, ob. 1525, s.p.m. s.p. Pole, IV.— HOUSE OF BEAUFORT. John of Gaunt — Catherine Swynforu. John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset, ob. 1410. Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, ob. s.p. 1447- Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, ob. s.p, 1426. Joan Beaufort. House of Neville, Henry Beaufort, John Beaufort, 2nd Earl of Somerset, 1st Duke of Somerset, ob. s.p. 1418. ob. 1443. Margaret Beaufort. Royal line of England- Tudor. Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, ob. 1455. Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset, ob. s.p.l. 1463. Edmund Beaufort (called 4th Duke of Somerset), ob. s.p.l. 1471. Jane Beaufort, ob. 1445. Royal line of Scotland- Stewart. v.— HOUSE OF HOLLAND. Edward I. Edward II. Edward III. Edward, Black Prince (m. Joan Plantagenet, widow of Tiiomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent), Richard II. Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, ob. 1330. Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, ob. s.p. 1333. John Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, ob. s.p. 1352. Joan Plantagenet (m. Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent by right of his wife), ob. 1360. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, ob. 1397. John Holland, Duke of Exeter, ob. 1400. Thomas Holland, 3rd Earl of Kent, ob. s.p. 14CK1. Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent, ob. s.p. 1407. John Holland, Duke of Exeter, ob. 1446. Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, ob. 1471, s.p.m. Humphrey, ob. 1399, s.p VI.— HOUSES OF STAFFORD AND BOURCHIER. Thomas, Duke of Gloucester (Fifth son of King Edward III.), ob. 1397. Ann, married. Edmund Stafford, 14th Baron Stafford, ob. 1403. William Bourchier, Earl of Ewe in Normandy, and bro. of John, 2nd Baron Bourchier. Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, 1444, ob. 1460. Humphrey, ob. v.p. Henry, Duke of Buckingham, ob. 1483. Executed. Edward, Duke of Buckingham, ob. 1521. Attainted. Henry, 4th Baron Bourchier, Earl of Essex, 1461, ob. 1483. William, ob. v.p. Humphrey, Baron Cromwell, 1461 ob. 1471, s.p. Henry, 2nd Earl of Essex, ( ob. 1539, s.p.m. Thomas, John, Archbishop of Canterbury, Baron Berners, 1455, ob. i486. ob. 1474. John, ob. v.p. John, 2nd Baron Berners, ob. 1532 s.p.m. Henry, (restored Duke of Buckingham, 1547). ob. 1562. Edward, ob. 1603. Edward, ob. 1625. Edward, ob. v.p. Henry, ob. 1637, s.p. VII.— HOUSE OF NEVILLE. Ralph Neville, 8th Baron Neville of Raby, married [(i) Margaret Stafford (daugh. of 2nd Earl of Stafford)]. (2) Joan Beaufort (daugh. of John of Gaunt find Catherine Swynford). John Neville, ob. v.p. Richard Neville, 8th Earl of Salisbury, by marriage with Alice de Montacute (daugh. and heir, of Thomas de Montacute, 7th Earl), ob. 1460. William, 7th Baron Fauconbett by marriage with Joan (daugh. and heir, of Thomas, 6th Baron Fauconberg), created Earl of Kent, 1 461, ob. 1463, s.p.m. Ralph Neville, 2nd Earl of Westmoreland, ob. 1485, s. p. s. John Neville. Ralph Neville, 3rd Earl of Westmoreland, ob. 1523. Ralph' Neville, 4th Earl of Westmoreland, ob. 1549. Henry Neville, 5th Earl of Westmoreland, ob. 1563. Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmoreland, Attainted 1570. Richard Neville, 9th Earl of Salisbury and 1 6th Earl of Warwick, by marriage with Anne Beauchamp (daugh. and heir, of Henry Beauchamp, 15th Earl of Warwick), ob. 1471, s.p.m. Thomas Neville, ob. 1460. John Neville, Earl of Northumberland and Marquis of Montague, Attainted 1471. George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, Archbishop of York, ob. 1476. George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer (by writ), ob. 1469. Henry Neville, ob. v.p. Richard Neville, 2nd Baron Latimer, ob. 1530. John Neville, 3rd Baron Latimer, ob. 1542. John Neville, 4th Baron Latimer, ob. 1577, s.p.m. Edward Neville, 3rd Baron Eergavenny, by marriage with Eliz. Beauchamp (daugh. and heir, of Richard Bergavenny, 2nd Baron Bergavenny), ob. 1476. Line of the Marquess of Abergavenny. MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE WARS OF THE ROSES GEORGE PHlLiPd SON, LTD.