Chapter XVIII: Introduction (17)

At the next Parliament, which was held at Leicester, many of the nobles appeared in arms. At the same time the news of the defeat of Kyriel at Formigny arrived; and at once the men of Kent, who were probably in close alliance with the seamen who had executed Suffolk, rose. Their leader was Jack Cade. He led the insurgents under strict discipline towards London, assuming the name of Mortimer, and we cannot but believe with the knowledge of the Duke of York. Two papers were sent in to the Government; one called the Complaints, the other the Demands, of the Commons of Kent. In these were summed up the causes of the unpopularity of Suffolk; and the restoration of Richard of York to favour was demanded. Unable to hold their advanced position, the insurgents fell back to Sevenoaks, but there they were successful against a hasty attack by Sir Humphrey Stafford.[94] The King retired from London, and so far yielded as to order the apprehension of Lord Say, one of the obnoxious councillors. Cade then advanced, took possession of Southwark, and appeared in London, under the title of the Captain of Kent, and in the arms of Stafford. The burghers of London, full of sympathy for the demands of the Kentish men, and pleased with the strict discipline preserved, sided at first with the insurgents. At a formal trial presided over by the Lord Mayor, Say, who had fallen into the hands of the people, was condemned and immediately executed. Meanwhile, almost at the same time, Ascough, the obnoxious Bishop of Salisbury, was put to death by his own followers at Eddington. Thus all the obnoxious ministers had been got rid of. London was now in the hands of the populace. The temptation was too strong for them, and some plundering took place. On this the Londoners took fright, and, when the insurgents retired for the night to Southwark, broke down and defended the bridge. Cade, unable to regain London, fell back, and after his followers, deceived by a promise of general pardon, had chiefly dispersed, was pursued and put to death near Lewes by Iden the sheriff.

[Sidenote: Continued discontent.]

[Sidenote: York’s appearance in arms. 1452.]

The disaffection was by no means quieted. Complaints were bitter, that by repeated prorogations of Parliament supplies were obtained without any redress of grievances, and that the bishops and clergy sided with the oppressors. While public feeling was in this irritable condition, York, suddenly leaving his government of Ireland without leave, appeared on the Welsh border with 4000 of his vassals. In this threatening manner, and accompanied by the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Devonshire and Salisbury, the whole clan of the Nevilles, and the Lords Cromwell[95] and Cobham, he appeared at Westminster. Meanwhile, Somerset, the acknowledged head of the rival party, returned from France, and received the office of Constable. The parties were assuming form, and a crisis was evidently at hand. York made a formal demand for the dismissal of Somerset and the punishment of the Duchess of Suffolk. As yet, however, the Government was strong enough to refuse these demands, and during the whole of the year 1451, without any public acts, the quarrel was becoming more embittered. In Devonshire Lord Bonville was at open war with the Earl of Devonshire. In the North, Percy, Lord Egremont, was fighting with the Earl of Salisbury. And in the winter, the Welsh vassals of York were gathered round the castle of Ludlow. Hitherto York and his partisans had persistently declared themselves the faithful servants of the Crown, interested only in the removal of the King’s bad ministers. None the less, in the beginning of the year 1452, Somerset and the King marched into the West, where York had been collecting his vassals, while York, moving in the opposite direction, passed the royal troops, and appeared in Kent, where he felt sure of support.

[Sidenote: He is duped into submission.]

This summoned the King back towards London; he took up his position at Blackheath, and there received the demands of York, to which he consented, promising to imprison Somerset, and to form a new council. Trusting to this promise, York disbanded his army, and went to have an interview with the King. He there discovered, to his dismay, that he had been deceived. His rival was in the tent, and evidently still in favour. Hot words were exchanged, but ultimately York was compelled to renew his oath of loyalty, and the Somerset party for the instant triumphed. The next Parliament was strongly in their favour; the speaker, Thomas Thorpe, a strong partisan of the Lancastrians. The King’s half-brothers, the sons of Owen Tudor, (Edmund, Earl of Richmond, and Jasper, Earl of Pembroke,) were brought prominently forward as members of the royal house, and Cardinal Kemp, now Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor, declared that the Government would enforce peace by arms if necessary.

[Sidenote: Imbecility of the King. Prince of Wales born. 1454.]

[Sidenote: York’s first Protectorate.]

This triumph was of short duration. News arrived of the failure of the new expedition for the rescue of Guienne, and of the death of Talbot, Lord Shrewsbury, its leader, at Castillon. And worse than that, the King, who had all his life suffered both from bodily and intellectual weakness, fell into a condition of hopeless imbecility. Under these circumstances, the birth of a Prince called Edward, which might have added to the strength of the Lancastrian party, was but a source of weakness. York, as heir presumptive to the throne of a sickly monarch, might have been contented to wait; the birth of a new heir apparent urged him to do what he had to do quickly. The opportunity, too, now offered itself; during the imbecility of the King, some regent was wanted; there was no excuse for passing over York. An instant change of government was the consequence. Somerset was apprehended. Even the Parliament chosen under the Lancastrian influence could not refuse, after it had obtained proof of Henry’s folly, to appoint Richard. The amount of authority given him seems to have been exactly that which Gloucester had enjoyed. He was President of the Council, and chief executive officer. His office was terminable at the royal will. Though thus limited, his power was sufficient to enable him to change the constitution of the Council, to carry through a breach of Parliamentary privilege by imprisoning for a debt Thorpe the speaker, and on the death of Cardinal Kemp, to appoint his brother-in-law Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury, to the chancellorship.

[Sidenote: Recovery of the King. 1454.]

[Sidenote: York again appears In arms.]

[Sidenote: First battle of St. Albans. May 22, 1455.]

But the supremacy of York disappeared as suddenly as it had arisen. At the end of 1454, on Christmas Day, the King recovered his senses. Everything was immediately reversed. Somerset was taken from the Tower and declared innocent. York’s officers were displaced. True to the policy of his house, Henry restored the chancellorship to the Church by the appointment of Thomas Bouchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. But York had now determined upon an appeal to arms. Urged by fear of Somerset, and by dislike to the secondary position which the Prince’s birth had given him, and in company with the Nevilles, Lord Salisbury, and his son the Earl of Warwick, he advanced towards London, to forestall the action of the Parliament summoned to meet at Leicester, which he expected to be hostile to him. At the same time the royal troops were marching northward. The two forces consequently met. From Royston, York wrote a letter still declaring his loyalty, and stating his conditions. It was unanswered, and on the 21st of May the armies met at St. Albans. The King had with him the Dukes of Somerset and Buckingham, the Earls of Northumberland, Pembroke, Devonshire, Stafford, Dorset, Wiltshire, Clifford, and Sudely. The battle was fought in the town, and the victory, chiefly owing to Warwick, fell to the Duke of York. Somerset, Northumberland, and Clifford fell. Most of the other leaders were wounded, and the King himself was suffering from an arrow wound when York and the Nevilles came to him, knelt before him, begged his favour, and carried him with them in apparent harmony to London.

[Sidenote: Character of the two parties.]

On examining the chief names which occur as those of the leaders on either side in this the first battle of the Wars of the Roses, it will be seen that it was the Nevilles and Norfolk chiefly on whom York relied; his own relations, the Percies, and other gentlemen of the North, which constituted the strength of Henry’s party. There seem to have been three principles of division at work--family, geographical position, political views; and with regard to family, it would seem that the quarrel was one of very long standing, dating back as far as the reign of Richard II. It has been already pointed out that there was constantly some branch or other of the Plantagenet party in opposition to the reigning branch, which took for its cry reform of government and the good cause of England. In Richard II.’s reign Gloucester had represented this party. If we take the names of the Lords Appellant in the year 1387, we find them to be Gloucester and Derby, Plantagenets; Warwick, a Beauchamp; Nottingham, a Mowbray; and Arundel. Now, of these, the second, Derby, became afterwards King as Henry IV., and the opposition which he had at one time helped to direct was turned against himself and his family. The families of Mowbray and of Arundel had coalesced in the Duke of Norfolk. The heiress of the Beauchamps had married the Earl of Salisbury’s son Richard Neville, who with his wife had inherited the title of Warwick. The addition therefore to the party was that of the important family of the Nevilles, which had been consistently faithful to Henry IV. But this family had now become allied by marriage with the Duke of York himself (who had married Cecily Neville), with the Duke of Norfolk, and as we have seen with the family of Beauchamp. In addition to this, the fact that the rival house of the Percies had since the restoration of the son of Hotspur been firm supporters of the Lancastrian dynasty, would have been enough to put the Nevilles on the opposite side. The two families had ever been rivals for the chief influence in the North of England; and even now Lord Egremont, a Percy, was at open war with the Earl of Salisbury in the neighbourhood of York. Of the leaders appearing on the side of Henry, Northumberland was a Percy, and therefore enemy of the Nevilles; Somerset was a Beaufort, and of the Lancastrian house; Pembroke and Richmond were the King’s half-brothers; Clifford was one of the great lords of the North, and an opponent of the Nevilles; Wiltshire was James Butler of Ormond, of that family whose misgovernment York had been sent to cure. Of Buckingham and the Staffords, whose mother was a Plantagenet, it may be supposed that in the family quarrel they preferred the reigning house.

This seems to lead to the conclusion that in the main the war was a fight of faction, a tissue of hereditary family rivalries resting upon merely personal grounds. But beyond these there were geographical and political reasons which had their influence on the bulk of the nation. The demand for reform of government, the support given to the national prejudice in favour of continued war, and the opposition to the strong Church views of the Government, had rendered the party of York distinctly the popular one. The North of England was always more subject than the South to baronial influence. It was in the South therefore, in Kent, and in the trading cities, that the strength of the Yorkist party chiefly lay. To this of course must be added the very large estates held by York himself, as the heir of the Mortimers in the West; and the vast property of the various branches of the Nevilles. On the other hand, the Lancastrian party was that of the lower nobility, and of the Church, and found its strength in the baronial North. Politically, to speak broadly, it was the party of the Conservative gentry and the High Church, pitted against the party of reform of Church and State headed by a few great nobles; geographically, it was the North withstanding the attacks of the South.

[Sidenote: York’s second brief Protectorate. 1456.]

[Sidenote: With the Nevilles he retires from Court.]

[Sidenote: Hollow reconciliation of parties. 1458.]

One effect of the battle of St. Albans was, that the King again sank into lethargy. Again, for a brief space, was the power of York irresistible; he was appointed by the Lords to his old position of Protector. He was still careful not to speak of his claim to the crown, and accepted the Protectorate only as the gift of both Houses of Parliament. Again, however, the King suddenly recovered. In February, York was removed from his protectorate, and the Queen and Somerset were again ruling. The following year, a great meeting of the Council was held at Coventry, where York and his friends were again compelled to renew their fealty. But the loss of life at St. Albans had rendered the party feud much more violent, and York was induced to believe that the Queen had aims against his life. He and his friends at once separated; York to his western castle of Wigmore, Salisbury to Middleham in Yorkshire, Warwick to Calais, of which town he was the governor. Whatever influence the King had seems to have been directed to produce reconciliation. For this purpose he induced, in January, the rival chiefs to meet in London. The peace of the town was intrusted to the citizens, and a solemn reconciliation brought about, based upon money payments to be made by the Yorkists to the sufferers at St. Albans. Meanwhile, Warwick, a lawless and independent person, was living as a sort of authorized pirate at Calais. He attacked a fleet of ships, as he believed Spanish; they afterwards proved to be Hanseatic vessels. He was consequently summoned to Court to explain his conduct. There a quarrel arose between his servants and those of the King, and at once the ephemeral reconciliation was destroyed.

[Sidenote: Renewed hostilities. Battle of Blore Heath. Sept. 23, 1459.]

[Sidenote: Flight of the Yorkists from Ludlow.]

[Sidenote: Lancastrian Parliament at Coventry.]

[Sidenote: Fresh attack of the Yorkists. Battle of Northampton. July 10, 1460.]

Both parties prepared again for war. The Court having been told that Salisbury was going to Kenilworth to concert measures with Duke Richard, Lord Audley was sent with an armed force to intercept him. The consequence was the battle of Blore Heath on the confines of Shropshire, in which Salisbury was completely victorious. A general meeting of the three great Yorkist nobles took place at Ludlow, where Warwick brought his veterans from Calais, under Sir Andrew Trollope. Again the old proclamation against evil governors was issued; but for some unexplained reason Trollope suddenly deserted, and, deprived of their most trustworthy troops, the leaders thought it wise to fly. York took refuge in Ireland, with his son Edmund of Rutland, while his eldest son, Edward of March, with Warwick, found security in Calais. Their flight caused something like a revolution, so complete was the triumph of the Lancastrians. The Parliament was assembled at Coventry, probably with much illegal violence, and bills of attainder were passed against the Yorkist leaders. But Warwick was determined upon further action. Having command of the sea, he contrived an interview with Richard in Ireland, and accompanied by his father and the young Earl of March, he landed in Kent, where he was rapidly joined by the people, and appeared at the head of 30,000 men in London. Having captured the capital, with the exception of the Tower, which Lord Scales held, they advanced northwards. The two armies met in the neighbourhood of Northampton. The Lancastrians were strongly intrenched, but the intrenchment once broken through, a terrible slaughter ensued. Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Beaumont, and Egremont were slain. The wretched King was found deserted in his tent. Again the scene after St. Albans was repeated, and York, returning from Ireland, was once more master of affairs.

[Sidenote: Yorkist Parliament in London.]

[Sidenote: York at last advances claims to the throne.]

[Sidenote: The Lords agree on a compromise.]

On the 7th of October a Parliament was held in London. All the acts of the Parliament of Coventry were annulled, on the ground that its members had been illegally elected, and in some instances that they had not been elected at all. And then first did York, who appears to have thought that all less decided measures had been tried in vain, bring forward a distinct claim to the throne. This claim he sent in writing to the House of Lords, with whom alone it was said the decision could lie, pointing out, what was undeniable, that his hereditary claim was better than that of Henry VI. The majority of the Lords were at heart Lancastrian. They had, moreover, again and again sworn fealty to the reigning house; and to their common sense as proprietors it seemed ridiculous that an undisturbed possession of more than fifty years, defended by numerous Acts of Parliament, should be set aside by mere hereditary claim. With the Yorkists triumphant, they were naturally disinclined to give any answer, but it was in vain they applied to the judges or to the crown lawyers. The judges declared the question beyond their cognizance, and the crown lawyers argued that it was therefore much more beyond theirs. Thrown back upon themselves, the Lords devised a compromise by which they could save their consciences with regard to the oath of fealty, and yet give effect to the hereditary claim, which was urged by such awkwardly strong supporters. They agreed that the King should hold the crown for life, that it should then pass to Richard and his heirs, that Richard should meanwhile be created Prince of Wales and heir presumptive, and be the practical ruler of the Kingdom. That in spite of his victorious position he should have been able only to secure this compromise, seems to prove the close equality of the parties, and perhaps, taken in connection with his previous action, the moderation of Richard.

[Sidenote: York is defeated and killed at Wakefield. Dec. 30, 1460.]

[Sidenote: The young Duke of York wins the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross. Feb. 2, 1461.]

[Sidenote: The Queen, advancing to London, wins the second battle of St. Albans. Feb. 17.]

[Sidenote: Sudden rising of the home counties.]

[Sidenote: Triumphant entry of Edward.]

The Queen had no intention of submitting to this verdict. Trusting to the power of the North, which was constantly true to her, and collecting round her all the great chiefs of her party, she moved to York. Richard at once determined to hasten against her. Salisbury accompanied him; Edward, his eldest son, was ordered to collect troops; Warwick was charged with the care of the King. With extreme rashness, York met vastly superior forces in the neighbourhood of Wakefield. Unexpectedly attacked, his little army was completely destroyed. He was himself taken prisoner, dragged with every sign of indignity before the Queen, mockingly crowned with a wreath of grass, and then beheaded. His second son, Rutland, but seventeen years of age, was killed in cold blood as he fled, and Salisbury, who was also captured, was beheaded at the demand of the people. March was collecting troops in the West when he heard of his father’s death, and hastening northwards, he suddenly turned upon a small pursuing force under Pembroke and Wiltshire, and completely defeated them at Mortimer’s Cross. The Queen’s army meanwhile pushed southward. The wild northerners seemed to fancy they were marching through a foreign country. The fiercest destruction and plundering marked the course of their march. To meet them, Norfolk and Warwick had come from London to St. Albans, and there a second battle was fought, this time with the complete defeat of the Yorkists. The King again fell into the hands of the Queen. This battle, as all the others during these wars, was marked by extraordinary destruction among the chiefs, and followed by vindictive executions. Had the Queen pushed direct to London the Yorkist party might have been destroyed. But she could not hold her wild troops in hand. Their devastations excited the anger of the people. All round London the populace rose, determined to avoid the government which promised to be so cruel. The young Earl of March, whom Warwick had joined with the remnant of his troops, took advantage of this feeling, and advanced triumphantly to the capital. At a meeting in Clerkenwell, the Chancellor, the Bishop of Exeter, explained the claims of the House of York. The question “Shall Edward be your King?” was received with general cries of approbation. The news was brought to the young prince in Baynard’s Castle, and the next day he ascended the throne in Westminster Hall, explained with his own lips his hereditary claims, and then proceeded to the Abbey where his coronation was performed.

EDWARD IV.

1461-1483.

Born 1441 = Elizabeth Woodville.
|
+------------+--------+---------+--------------------------+
| | | | |
Edward V. Richard, George. Elizabeth = Henry VII. Six other
Duke of daughters.
York.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES

_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
James III., 1460. | Louis XI., 1461. | Frederick III., | Henry IV., 1454.
| | 1440. | Ferdinand V.,
| | | 1474.

POPES.--Pius II., 1458. Paul II., 1464. Sixtus IV., 1471.

_Archbishops._ | _Chancellors._
|
Thomas Bouchier, 1454. | George Neville, 1461.
| Robert Stillington, 1467.
| Laurence Booth, 1473.
| Rotherham, 1475.

[Sidenote: Edward secures the crown. 1461.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Towton. Mar. 29.]

[Sidenote: Yorkist Parliament.]

Though in after years much addicted to sensual pleasure, Edward IV. never lost his practical energy; he was not a man to leave unimproved his present triumphant position. He at once despatched the Duke of Norfolk to the East of England to collect an army, and with the Earl of Warwick himself hastened northward, with an army composed chiefly of Welshmen from his own possessions, and of men of Kent, the great supporters of his house. In Yorkshire he met his enemy. The passage of the river Aire was disputed at Ferry Bridge; the Yorkists, under Lord Falconbridge (a Neville), falling upon the rear of Clifford and his Lancastrians, stopped his passage, and killed that leader. On the 28th of March the armies were in presence, some eight miles from York. The battle was to be a decisive one. No quarter was to be expected on either side. The numbers engaged--of the Lancastrians, 60,000, of the Yorkists 48,000--were much larger than in most of the battles of these wars. For once the nation felt some interest in the quarrel. The change of the wind blew the snow continually in the eyes of the Lancastrians, and when the battle had raged through a great part of the night and till noon of the following day, the Yorkists had secured a complete victory. Again, the greatest names of the nobility are mentioned among the slain. Northumberland fell in the battle, Devonshire and Wiltshire were beheaded after it, and many reports speak of from 28,000 to 33,000 men left dead upon the field.[96] Henry and his Queen, with Somerset and Exeter, fled into Scotland, and purchased such assistance as that country could give in the midst of its own intestine commotions by a promise of Berwick and Carlisle. Edward now felt safe on his throne, and returned to London, where the joy was great. There, in November, he met his first Parliament, by whom the three last monarchs were declared usurpers, and the acts of their reigns annihilated, with the exception of such judicial decisions as would if repealed have thrown the country into confusion. All the great leaders of the Lancastrian party were attainted, and their property confiscated. The session closed with a personal address of thanks from the King to the Commons, an unusual occurrence, and marking the political position of the House of York.

[Sidenote: With French help Margaret keeps up the war. 1462.]

[Sidenote: Hedgeley Moor. Hexham. April 1464.]

Meanwhile, Margaret had been seeking assistance from her own country, France; but Louis, busy in his own affairs and content with the enforced neutrality of England, only gave her a small sum of money, and allowed Peter de Brezé, Seneschal of Normandy, to enlist troops for her. With these forces she succeeded in capturing the three northern fortresses of Bamborough, Dunstanburgh and Alnwick. But before the end of the year, the two first of these were recovered, and Edward was so strong, that even Somerset and Percy deserted to his side. Again, the next year, the Queen with De Brezé attempted in vain to relieve Alnwick. Her fleet was wrecked, and with difficulty she made her way back to Scotland. But, though beaten, her cause was still alive. In various parts of the country, disturbances showed themselves. The clergy missed the favour they had received from the Lancastrians; and, in the beginning of the following year, the Percies and Somerset had gone back to their own party, and renewed attempts were made upon the North of England. But Warwick’s brother Montague, at Hedgeley Moor, and again at Hexham, destroyed their forces, and both Percy and Somerset met their death. This was the second Duke of Somerset who had died in these wars. He was succeeded by his brother Edmund. A greater prize was the King, who, after hiding for some time, was captured, in 1465, in Yorkshire, and brought with all signs of indignity to London. He was there, however, properly taken care of in the Tower.

[Sidenote: Edward’s popular government.]

[Sidenote: Apparent security of his throne.]

Supported by his Commons, who granted him the wool tax and tonnage and poundage for life, King Edward seemed firmly seated on the throne. He was essentially a popular king. He sat and judged on his own King’s Bench, talked familiarly with the people, and allowed the Commons to pass popular measures of finance, without regard to their want of wisdom. A revocation of grants from the Crown was made, but with exceptions which rendered it nugatory; the importation of foreign corn or foreign merchandise was forbidden. The arrangement of the staple, by which wool and cloth could be sold only at Calais, and for bullion or ready money, was re-established; and still further to uphold the current theory of the day, and to keep gold and silver in the country, strict sumptuary laws were passed. Abroad, too, all seemed peaceful. The Pope had acknowledged the new King. France was too busy to interfere. With the rest of Europe treaties of amity were set on foot; and even with Scotland a long truce was made.

[Sidenote: Destroyed by his marriage, 1466,]

[Sidenote: and rise of the Woodvilles.]

But the King had a weakness of character which destroyed his fine position. He was a slave to his passions; and now, regardless of all prudence, though various royal matches were suggested, especially one with Bona of Savoy, the sister of the French Queen, he was carried away by his admiration for Elizabeth Woodville, the daughter of Jacquetta, the Duchess Dowager of Bedford, and Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers, and the widow of Sir John Grey, a strong Lancastrian partisan. On the 29th of September, in spite of the opposition which he could not but have expected, the King was publicly married in the chapel at Reading. Had not the King recognised the weakness of the nobility, caused by the slaughters of the late wars, he would scarcely have ventured on a marriage so much beneath him. As it was, the few great nobles who remained were deeply hurt, and Edward found himself obliged to make the best of his plebeian marriage. An unusually ostentatious and solemn coronation was held, and an air of aristocracy given to the ceremony by the presence of his wife’s relative, John of Luxembourg. His other measures for the same purpose were not so well judged. The marriage might have been pardoned had it not brought with it the elevation of the whole of the Queen’s family, whom the King thought it necessary to raise in social rank. Her father was made an Earl, and given in succession the offices of Constable and Treasurer, and this at the expense of the nobles who were then holding those places. Her brother Anthony, a man of great accomplishments, was given the daughter, inheritance, and titles of Lord Scales. Another brother, John, at the age of twenty, was married, it is to be presumed, chiefly for interested reasons, to the old Duchess of Norfolk, who was nearly eighty. Her five sisters found husbands among the noblest of the Yorkist party.[97]

[Sidenote: Power of the Nevilles.]

[Sidenote: Their French policy. Burgundian policy of Edward. 1467.]

The displeasure of the Nevilles did not, however, at first show itself, and Warwick stood godfather to the young Princess Elizabeth. Their position indeed was still one of enormous influence; George, the youngest brother, was Chancellor and Archbishop of York; to his third brother, John of Montague, had been given the property and title of the Percies, and he was now Earl of Northumberland; and Warwick, Warden of the Western Marches of Scotland, and in the receipt of public income said to amount to 80,000 crowns, was the most popular man in the country. He lived with an ostentatious splendour, which threw all his rivals into the background.[98] Nevertheless the marriage, and the formation of the new nobility consequent on it, began to divide England into new parties; on the one side, such as were left of the old nobility; on the other, the new. It was plain that the Nevilles, pledged though they were to the Yorkist side, would sooner or later side with their order against the King and his new friends. A still more important cause of quarrel existed in the difference between their foreign policy and that of the King. The House of Burgundy and Louis XI. of France were constant rivals; and while Warwick and the Nevilles inclined towards a French alliance, thus deserting the old policy of the Yorkists, Edward, seeing the advantages he would reap in a mercantile point of view, lent a willing ear to the advances of Charles, known afterwards as Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who was now demanding his sister Margaret as his wife. As a contingent advantage he knew that he would find in the Burgundian Prince a ready acknowledgment of his title to the crown of France, which he still had some thought of making good. On the return of Warwick from a friendly embassy to France, he found an alliance with Burgundy already concluded. The Count de la Roche, the natural brother of Charles, had appeared in England on the pretext of fighting a chivalrous duel with Anthony, Lord Scales; and had apparently arranged the marriage between Charles and Margaret which was consummated early in the following year. It would seem that this had been done contrary to the will of the Nevilles; for just before the arrival of De la Roche, at the opening of Parliament, Warwick was absent, and the King had suddenly deprived the Archbishop of York of his chancellorship, which he had given to the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

[Sidenote: Defection of the Nevilles.]

[Sidenote: Popular risings inspired by them. 1469.]

With these causes of quarrel, Warwick and the Nevilles fell back into their old position of opposition to the Crown; and more completely to reproduce the often-repeated state of English politics, succeeded in securing a Plantagenet Prince as their nominal leader. The Duke of Clarence, Edward’s brother, was induced, in spite of the King’s prohibition, to go to Calais, and there marry Isabella, Warwick’s daughter. This ominous union soon produced fruits. The lower orders--those orders that are below the burgher class--cared but little for the name of the ruler; it was much the same to them whether Lancastrian or Yorkist was on the throne, their interests were confined to evils which pressed upon themselves. They were therefore ready instruments in the hands of the opposition. And upon a quarrel upon some Church dues, the men of the northern counties rose under a popular leader, Robert Hilyard, commonly called Robin of Redesdale. The insurgents soon found nobler leaders. Lords Latimer and Fitz-Hugh, relations of Warwick, and Sir John Coniers appeared at their head, and with 60,000 men marched southward, declaring that Warwick alone could save the country, complaining that the money wrung from the people was squandered upon the Queen’s relatives, and demanding the dismissal of the new counsellors, such as Herbert, Stafford, and Audley. At the same time, Warwick and his brothers promised the men of Kent that they would appear at their head to make demands similar to those of the northern insurgents. Herbert, who had just beaten Jasper Tudor with the last remnant of the Lancastrians in Wales, and received his title of Earl of Pembroke, and Humphrey Stafford, who had been made Earl of Devonshire, advanced against the rebels; but quarrelling between themselves, they were defeated, and Pembroke beheaded, while shortly after, Rivers and Sir John Woodville, the Queen’s father and brother, were captured and met the same fate. It was sufficiently plain that Warwick had instigated this rebellion. The destruction of his chief enemies made his power for the time paramount. He even kept Edward for a short period prisoner in his castle of Middleham. But his disapprobation of the Government had not yet gone so far as to make him wish for a return of the Lancastrians. And when that party again raised its standard in the North, he felt himself unable to cope with it without the King’s assistance, and therefore released him. A complete pardon was granted to the Nevilles, and apparent harmony again reigned.

[Sidenote: Clarence’s weakness drives the Nevilles to the Lancastrians.]

[Sidenote: Wells’ rebellion. 1470.]

[Sidenote: Flight of Warwick.]

But it must have been obvious to all parties that it was but a temporary truce.[99] Had Clarence been a man of more ability, Warwick would probably have put him on the throne. Failing him, it began to be plain to the Earl that it was only by connection with the Lancastrian party that he could hope finally to triumph over his enemies the new nobility. A new insurrection broke out in Lincoln, against the oppressions of the royal tax-gatherers. The insurgents, finding themselves no better off under the new dynasty than they had been before, declared for King Henry. At their head was young Sir Robert Wells. The King, not yet aware of Warwick’s designs, under promise of pardon drew Lord Wells (Sir Robert’s father) and Sir Thomas Dymock from the sanctuary, and kept them as hostages, and intrusted Warwick and Clarence with the duty of collecting troops to repress the insurgents. They collected troops, indeed, but did not suppress the insurgents; and the King discovered that they were acting in union with Sir Robert Wells. He at once put Dymock and Wells to death, routed the insurgents near Empingham in Rutland, at a battle known by the name of “Lose Coat Field,” and turned his arms against Clarence and Warwick, who had been seeking assistance in vain from his brother-in-law Stanley in Lancashire. They did not await his coming, but rapidly fled through Devonshire to France. Sir Robert Wells, anxious to revenge his father, had driven matters on too hastily for the success of the conspiracy. Warwick had always been anxious for a French alliance, and was therefore well received by Louis, who felt that there was now but little chance of peace with England except by restoration of the Lancastrians. He therefore contrived to bring the Earl and Margaret together; and the old enemies, finding that they had in common their hatred to the new nobility and their views of foreign politics, agreed to forget their old differences, and made a treaty by which Ann Neville was to marry the Prince of Wales, upon whom the throne was settled. Failing him it was to pass to Clarence. This treaty, which put Clarence’s claims in the background, did not please him; and, utterly without principle, he at once opened negotiations with his brother, although he did not as yet openly join him.

[Sidenote: Warwick returns and re-crowns Henry.]

In spite of all the warnings which he received from Burgundy, Edward remained in a condition of false security, even allowing Montague to retain his offices in England. He was absent from London in the North, when the Queen, Warwick and Clarence landed in Devonshire, issued a proclamation calling on the nation to arm, and soon found themselves surrounded by a sufficient army. So far did Edward carry his want of suspicion, that Montague, who at once declared for the Red Rose, as nearly as possible captured him at dinner in the neighbourhood of Doncaster; he had just time to escape, and fled (not without danger from a Hanseatic fleet) to Flanders. Warwick and his friends proceeded to London, drew the old King from the Tower, and re-crowned him with all ceremony. A Parliament assembled on the 26th of November. All the Acts of Edward’s reign were annulled, and a general change took place in property and offices. It marks the effect of the fusion of parties, that this revolution, unlike most of the events of this war, was almost bloodless. Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, who had rendered himself hateful by his severity as Constable, was almost the only victim.

[Sidenote: Edward gets help from Burgundy. 1471.]

[Sidenote: Clarence joins him.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Barnet. April 14.]

Though on many grounds (personal hatred to Warwick, sympathy with Edward’s enmity to France, and mercantile and family reasons) the Duke of Burgundy would have been naturally attached to the House of York, this friendship was of new growth, and could not make him forget his long connection with the House of Lancaster. It was therefore with much difficulty that Edward got from him a small pecuniary assistance. With such as it was, however, he collected about 2000 men, and took, what at first sight appears, the foolhardy step of landing at Ravenspur in Yorkshire. But he knew that he had friends in his enemy’s camp. At first, declaring, in imitation of Henry IV., that he only came to claim his rights as Duke of York, he passed unmolested through Yorkshire, where Montague was. Even Warwick, who lay in the midland counties, watched his progress unmoved. He had received letters from Clarence, begging him not to stir till he joined him with reinforcements. But when Clarence took the field, it was not Warwick, but Edward to whom he went. Strong enough now again to assume the name of King of England, Edward marched to London, where the Archbishop of York had tried in vain to raise enthusiasm for the Lancastrian King. Too late, Warwick found that he had been deceived, and he also marched towards London. Edward met him with inferior forces in the neighbourhood of Barnet, and there a battle was fought, in which Warwick was entirely defeated, and himself and his brother Montague killed. Probably the great bulk of the people cared but little who was their ruler. York’s army was very small--less than 10,000 men. A series of accidents gave him the victory. The indifference of the nation, weary of the squabble, explains the rapid success of these revolutions.

[Sidenote: Margaret lands.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Tewkesbury. May 4.]

Meanwhile, the day before the battle, Queen Margaret had landed at Weymouth. For the moment, the true Lancastrians were almost glad when they heard that they were rid of their new Yorkist ally. The Queen’s generals intended to march through Wales, there make a junction with Jasper Tudor, who was collecting forces, and thence move to their strongholds in the North. Edward divined their plan, and pushed rapidly across England, to secure if possible Gloucester and the valley of the Severn. The armies encountered at Tewkesbury, where the Queen had taken a strong position among the abbey buildings and the neighbouring enclosures. Again the superior skill of Edward secured the victory to his much inferior forces. The few remaining Lancastrian nobles, the Prince of Wales, Devonshire, Lord John Beaufort, and others, fell upon the field. The Duke of Somerset, the fourth and last of the Beauforts, was executed after it. Margaret and some others were taken prisoners.

[Sidenote: Edward’s triumphant return. Murder of Henry VI.]

There was one other danger, and then the Lancastrian party seemed destroyed for ever. The Bastard of Falconbridge suddenly appeared with a considerable fleet before London. The gallant defence of the citizens, and the arrival of assistance from the King, thwarted this last effort, and Edward returned in triumph, having proved the stability of the house of York. His arrival was immediately followed by the secret murder of King Henry, one of those dark deeds which has been attributed without much ground to Edward’s brother, Richard of Gloucester. A bloody court of justice held in Canterbury, for the punishment of the Kentish men, closed this revolution of eleven weeks. On the subsequent death of Holland, Earl of Exeter, whose body was found upon the sea in the Straits of Dover, there were but two important members of the Lancastrian party left. These were Oxford, and Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, who made good their escape to Brittany, whence Jasper’s nephew subsequently returned to England in that expedition which terminated in Bosworth field. The clergy and the lesser nobles, seeing further contest useless, made their peace with the reigning house, and received pardons, and after Parliament had re-established the Yorkist dynasty, the wars of the Roses seemed to be at an end, and England at peace.

[Sidenote: Clarence’s quarrel with Richard. 1476.]

[Sidenote: With Edward. 1477.]

[Sidenote: His trial.]

[Sidenote: His death. 1478.]

But the house of York was now to feel that ineradicable evil which beset the Plantagenets. The princes of the family could not agree. Clarence had already occupied the position of chief of the opposition. He had already joined in the struggle between the old and new nobility as the partisan of the former party. Richard, a man of far greater ability, and of a reflective turn of mind, was in his heart inclined in the same direction. For the present, however, he saw his advantage in remaining the true and very efficient assistant of his brother Edward, by whom he had been intrusted with the government of the North. Clarence, incapable of being a great party leader, showed his disposition in lesser matters, and quarrelled with both his brothers. He had himself married Warwick’s eldest daughter, Isabella, and was anxious to appropriate all the great Warwick possessions. When Richard, therefore, determined upon marrying Anne, the younger sister, he hid the young lady, who is said to have been discovered by her lover in the dress of a servant-maid, and when he was unable to prevent the marriage, refused to divide the inheritance. A fierce quarrel was the consequence, and it required the intervention of Parliament to secure an equitable division of the property. Thus embroiled with one brother, the Duke of Clarence speedily fell out with the other. On the death of his wife in 1476, he turned his thoughts to a second marriage with Mary of Burgundy, who became, on the death of Charles the Bold at Nancy in 1477, the heiress of his vast dominions. Edward prevented the marriage. In the first place, he would have much disliked to see his brother, on whom he had not the smallest reliance, powerful in Burgundy, and again, the Queen, and the Queen’s party of the new nobility, were anxious that Mary should be married to the Earl of Rivers. The breach between the brothers was complete, and Edward, who never knew pity, only watched for an opportunity to rid himself of Clarence. The occasion chosen was trivial enough, but very characteristic of that age. A gentleman of Clarence’s household, called Burdett, had uttered some angry words against the King. He was shortly after tried for necromancy, and as in the course of the inquiry it appeared that, among other acts of magic, he had cast the King’s horoscope, he was condemned to death. With this verdict Clarence violently interfered. Edward was now able to charge him with interfering with the course of justice. He was impeached and tried before the House of Lords. The King in person was his accuser, and after a hot personal quarrel, in which the King charged him with all sorts of ungrateful acts of treason, he was condemned to death in 1478. A petition of the Commons, always at the command of Edward, removed the King’s last scruple, and Clarence disappeared privately at the Tower, drowned it is said in a butt of Malmsey wine.

[Sidenote: Edward joins Burgundy against France. 1475.]

[Sidenote: Failure of his expedition.]

[Sidenote: Treaty of Pecquigni. Sept. 13.]

These quarrels had occupied several years, but meanwhile matters of more national interest had also engaged Edward’s attention. Charles the Bold was full of vast plans for increasing his possessions, and with the Duke of Brittany alone of the peers of France, resisted the centralizing policy of Louis XI. He found no great difficulty in enlisting Edward in a coalition against that King. As early as 1472, the war had been spoken of as probable. It did not actually take place till 1475, after a treaty had been made by which Lorraine, Bar, and other districts lying between Burgundy and Flanders were to be given to the Duke, while Edward was content to stipulate for the acknowledgment of his title as King of France, and a formal coronation at Rheims. The war, begun on such feeble conditions, had a disgraceful conclusion. Money, of which Edward was very fond, was scraped together, chiefly by the personal application of the King for loans known as benevolences, and a considerable army landed in France. But Edward did not meet with the reception he had expected. Charles, whose mind was incapable of carrying out the vast schemes that it planned, was engaged in war in other parts of his dominions, and brought no help to his ally. The gates of Péronne were shut against him. St. Quentin, which Charles had told him would be given up to him by the Constable of St. Pol, opened fire upon his troops. Provisions were scantily supplied, and Louis, who well knew the character of his invader, saw his opportunity. At a private interview with the herald who brought the declaration of war, he bribed him, and won from him the hint that he might apply successfully either to Stanley or to Howard, counsellors high in Edward’s favour. He took the hint, found those Lords ready recipients of his bribes, threw Amiens open, and supplied the English army lavishly with food; and shortly persuaded Edward to arrange terms at a personal interview at Pecquigni. He was thoroughly afraid of the English soldiers, but rated them very low as diplomatists, and, as his manner was when he had great objects in view, was lavish with his money. A yearly pension, the expenses of the war, 50,000 crowns as a ransom for Margaret, and handsome bribes judiciously given to the chief members of the King’s Council, secured the withdrawal of the English army. At the same time it was arranged that the Dauphin should marry the Princess Elizabeth. It mattered little to him, having now the English King in his pay, that the English to cover their disgrace spoke of the money payments as tribute, and that Edward continued to bear the title of the King of France. Nothing can give a better view of the despicable character of that new nobility on which Edward rested, than the readiness with which they accepted the French King’s bribes.

[Sidenote: Ambitious projects of marriage for his daughters.]

The chief objects of Edward’s life were, to collect money to be spent in magnificent debauchery, and to secure the position of his house by great marriages for his daughters. He had thus arranged for the marriage of Elizabeth, his eldest, with the Dauphin of France; Mary was to have been married to the King of Denmark; Cicely to the eldest son of James III. of Scotland; Katherine to the son of the King of Castile; and Anne was destined for the son of Maximilian of Austria, who by his marriage with Mary of Burgundy had become the possessor of that duchy. None of these marriages took effect. The events connected with some of them fill up the remainder of the reign.

[Sidenote: Affairs in Scotland.]

[Sidenote: Edward supports Albany. 1482.]

[Sidenote: England obtains Berwick.]

James III. of Scotland was a man much like Edward, a product of the renaissance at that time making its way in England. Addicted to art in all its forms, he had surrounded himself with artists, and ennobled members of the lower orders, and had estranged all the old nobility. At the head of the discontented party was the King’s brother, the Duke of Albany. Although James had already received some of the dowry of the English Princess, in consequence probably of some French intrigues, he seemed inclined to withdraw from the engagement. Therefore, when Albany, a fugitive from Scotland, sought his protection, Edward determined to support him and his party, and, finally, made a treaty with him at Fotheringay, in which he spoke of him as King Alexander. He obtained from him a promise of homage, and of the cession of Berwick and some other districts. Albany also engaged to marry the Princess Cicely, who was to be transferred to him, although previously engaged to the son of the Scotch King. An invasion of Scotland under Richard of Gloucester, and a conspiracy which broke out at the Bridge of Lauder, where James’s favourite, Cochrane, was hanged, seemed for a moment to raise Albany to the summit of his ambition. But the Scotch had no intention of changing the succession to the throne, or suffering their kingdom to be in any way dependent on England. They restored Albany his property, but also returned the dowry of Cicely, and intimated that the match was entirely broken off. The advantage that the English gained from the whole affair was the much disputed town of Berwick.

The arrangements for the marriage between Elizabeth and the Dauphin were equally unsuccessful. Although that Princess had assumed the name of the Dauphiness, Louis was in no hurry to complete the marriage, and had indeed directed his views elsewhere. In 1477, Mary of Burgundy had married Maximilian the Archduke of Austria; and now Edward engaged to join him against France upon condition of receiving from him the same pension as Louis had paid him since Pecquigni. But, as usual, Louis’ diplomacy got the better of Edward’s. Mary of Burgundy died in 1482, and the French King contrived to make a treaty with Maximilian, by which the Dauphin, deserting Elizabeth, engaged himself to Margaret, the heiress of Burgundy. Edward was vowing vengeance at this trick, and speaking of a new invasion of France, when he died on the 9th of April, worn out probably by his self-indulgence.

[Sidenote: Edward’s death. His character. 1483.]