# Cassell's Illustrated History of England/Volume 1/Chapter 74

CHAPTER LXXIV.
Reign of Edward IV.—Edward's Coronation—The Battle of Towton—Henry escapes to Scotland—The Queen seeks aid in France—Battle of Hexbam—Henry made Prisoner—Confined in the Tower—Edward marries Lady Elizabeth Gray—Advancement of her Relations-Attacks on the Family of the Nevilles—Warwick negotiates with France—Marriage of Margaret, the King's Sister, to the Duke of Burgundy—Marriage of the Duke of Clarence with a Daughter of Warwick—Battle of Banbury—Rupture between the King and his Brother, the Duke of Clarence—Rebellion of Clarence and Warwick—Clarence and Warwick flee to France—Warwick proposes to restore Henry VI.—Marries Edward Prince of Wales to his Daughter, Lady Ann Neville—Edward IV.'s reckless Dissipation—Warwick and Clarence invade England-Edward expelled.
Edward IV., at this period of his great success, and his acknowledgment by the people of London and the council as king, was in his twentieth year only. He was not only handsome of person and of popular manners, but bold, impetuous, and withheld by no such conscientious or peaceful scruples as his father. He was fond of pleasure, addicted to gallantry, and at the same time as ready to shed blood as he was to make love and revel in courtly pageants. Those feelings of the heart which might be inferred from his devoted attentions to the ladies, had no existence where his interests or his passions were concerned. He was utterly unscrupulous as to slaying any number of his enemies in battle, or destroying them on the block. Those slow and reluctant approaches to sanguinary measures which had marked the earlier ​proceedings of his father and his coadjutors, had long since vanished in the heated progress of the strife, and Edward might he regarded as the representative of the leaders now on both sides, with the exception of the gentle and forgiving Henry. All were prepared to hew their way to their object through human lives, as a forester would make his way, by his axe, through a wood. Men's lives had ceased to be regarded with any human feeling. They were destroyed as enemies, whenever they appeared as such, not only without remorse, but with savage exultation. Everything portended a reign of terror. On the royalist side, Henry would, no doubt, have been most happy and thankful to have been allowed to enjoy the quiet of some conventual retreat with his beads and his books; for in this respect the testimony of all history confirms the view of Shakespeare, when he makes him say—
"I'll leave my son my virtuous deeds behind; And would my father had left me no more! For all the rest is held at such a rate As brings a thousand-fold more cares to keep Than in possession any jot of pleasure."
But on that side Queen Margaret was as energetic, as ambitious, and as resolute as her husband was the contrary. The circumstances into which she had been thrown had roused in her the spirit of a tigress fighting for its young. They had converted her blood into gall, and all those poetical sentiments which her Provencal education had given her, and the wit and vivacity of mind, which might have rendered her a charming and even noble woman in happier scenes, had been crushed by the cruelty of her destiny. In contemplating her astonishing exertions, her fortitude amidst unexampled troubles and humiliations, her perpetual resistance to the most overwhelming disasters, the indomitable courage with which she rose from the most sweeping overthrows, refusing to yield or despair when the very last chance seemed annihilated, and the martial abilities which she displayed, it would be unjust to refuse her a high amount of admiration for such qualities in a woman; qualities which, had it not been for the darker side of her character, would have made her one of the proudest examples of female greatness. But Margaret allowed her enthusiasm in endeavouring to maintain the throne for her husband and her son, a noble ambition, to carry her into the most unfeminine cruelty, and into deeds of national mischief; to say nothing of conjugal failings attributed to her, which marred all her virtues, and still alienate from her the sympathy of posterity.
Still, so long as she could raise a man, there must be war to the death; and in Edward she had now to encounter an antagonist who would give blow for blow, shed blood for blood, without a moment's hesitation or a passing pang. He was just the man calculated to dash onwards through carnage and civil confusion to his object, not merely with indifference, but even with gaiety and pleasure. Woe to those who hoped anything from his compassion, or even ventured to jest, where the most distant circumstance could induce the supposition that the jest was aimed at him. Of this he gave a proof before quitting London to follow up the defeat of his enemies. One Walter Walker, a grocer, who lived at the sign of the crown, had said merrily, when speaking of the passing events, that he would make his son heir to the crown. This was witty enough to reach the court, and Edward had him forthwith arrested and put to death.
Margaret, on the warm reception of Edward by the Londoners, had retired northward with her marauding soldiers, who had so fatally damaged her cause by their outrages. Only three days after his reception in London, Edward dispatched Warwick, the great bulwark of his cause, in pursuit of her, and on the 12th of March, only five days afterwards, he followed himself. On reaching the Earl of Warwick, their combined troops amounted to 40,000. The queen was exerting all her activity and eloquence amongst her northern friends, and lay at York with 60,000 men. Everything denoted the eve of a bloody conflict.
This civil war was now known all over the world as the War of the Roses, a name said to be derived from a circumstance which took place in a dispute in the Temple Gardens betwixt Warwick and Somerset, at an early period of the rival factions. Somerset, in order to collect the suffrages of those on the side of Lancaster, is said to have plucked a red rose from a bush, and called upon every man who held with him to do the like. Warwick, for York, plucked a white rose, and thus the partisans were distinguishable by these differing badges. But in truth these badges were the badges of the two houses as far back as Edward III. Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, son of that king, wore the red rose, and the Black Prince the white. They were now adopted universally by the followers of the two houses, and rosettes of red or white ribbon, or even of paper, were worn by all the soldiers of these wars, red for Lancaster, white for York. They were soon to be equally dyed in a crimson torrent such as had yet rarely flowed in all the wars of England.
The vanguard of the two armies met at Ferrybridge, the passage of the river Ayre. The Duke of Somerset was commander-in-chief of the royal army. The king, queen, and prince remained at York. Lord Clifford led the vanguard, and was opposed by Lord Fitzwalter on the part of the Yorkists. The battle at the bridge was furious; Fitzwalter was killed. Lord Falconbridge was instantly sent forward to replace him, and instead of opposing Clifford in front in his strong position, allowing the troops there to hold him in play, he himself crossed the Ayre some miles above Ferrybridge, and falling unexpectedly on the rear of Clifford, routed his force, and revenged the death of Fitzwalter by that of Clifford himself. The Yorkists poured over the bridge, took possession of the town, and advanced towards Towton. Meantime, Warwick, excited by the temporary repulse at the bridge under Fitzwalter, had theatrically called for his horse, stabbed him in sight of the whole army, and kissing the hilt of his bloody sword, swore that he would fight on foot, and share every fatigue and disadvantage with the common soldiers. He then told them that every man who was not resolved to take a signal vengeance, and to act his part like a man in the battle about to be fought, was at full liberty to retire, but vowing the severest punishment to any one who in the battle itself should show the slightest symptom of yielding.
With minds inflamed to the utmost pitch of animosity, ​the two armies met on the morning of Palm Sunday, March 29th, in the fields betwixt the villages of Saxton and Towton, about ten miles south of York. Edward issued orders that no quarter should be given, no prisoners should be taken; it was to be a war of extermination—a command in so young a man sufficiently demonstrative of the pitiless severity of his character. The action began at nine o'clock in the morning, under circumstances most unfortunate for the Lancastrians. A snowstorm was blowing full in their faces; and Lord Falconbridge seized at once on this circumstance by an adroit stratagem. He ordered the archers to advance, discharge their arrows, and again retire out of the reach of those of the enemy. The Lancastrians, believing themselves within bow-shot of the enemy, whose arrows did great execution amongst them, returned the compliment without being able to see where their arrows reached for the snow-flakes. The Yorkist archers were now out of their reach, and they fell useless. Again the Yorkists advanced and poured in a fresh flight with such effect that the Lancastrians, probably doubting of the success of their own arrows, rushed forward and came hand-to-hand with their opponents. It was now one terrible clash of swords, battleaxes, and spears, amid the thick-falling and blinding storm; and thus the two infuriated armies continued fighting desperately for nearly five hours. Towards evening the Lancastrians, disheartened by the fall of their principal commanders, broke and fled. They were pursued as far as Tadcastor with the fiercest impetuosity, and a fearful slaughter. It was one of the bloodiest battles ever fought in Britain. According to a contemporary historian, those who were employed to number and bury the dead, declared them to be 38,000.
Amongst persons of rank and fortune who fell were the Earls of Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Shrewsbury; the Lords Clifford, Beaumont, Neville, Willoughby, Wells, Roos, Scales, Gray, Dacres, and Molineux, besides an extraordinary number of knights and gentlemen. Within three months four pitched battles had now been fought, and no less than 60,000 people had perished in this question, which of two families should wear the crown.
The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, when the battle was lost, rode full speed to York, attended by a considerable number of lords and gentlemen, and, announcing the overthrow, made all haste with the king, queen, and prince to secure themselves in Scotland. Edward, by no means satiated with the blood of 38,000 men, made haste to immolate others who fell into his hands. Amongst these were the Earl of Devonshire and Sir W. Hill, who were executed at York; the Earl of Ormond at Newcastle, and Sir Thomas Fulford at Hexham. The heads of York and Salisbury, which were withering on the walls of York, where Margaret was said to have bid the executioner place them wide apart to receive the heads of Edward and Warwick, which she declared she meant to set there, were now taken down, and those of Devonshire and Hill set up in their places.
After celebrating the feast of Easter at York, Edward marched to Newcastle, and there leaving Warwick to keep the north in order, returned to London on the 26th of June.
On reaching Scotland, Margaret placed Henry in a secure retreat at Kirkcudbright, and then hastened to Edinburgh, to try what could be done there towards renewing the contest, which no dispersion of her friends and forces could ever teach her to relinquish. There she found a boy sovereign, a divided court, and a country which had suffered by factions almost as deadly as her own. James I., who had seemed to return to his kingdom after his long captivity under such auspicious circumstances, full of intelligence and plans for the improvement of his country, married to the woman of his affections, and courted by both England and France, was soon murdered by the rude and lawless nobles whom he endeavoured to reduce to some degree of order and subordination. His son, James II., when arrived at years of maturity, endeavoured to recover from distracted England some of the places it had rest from Scotland formerly, but in besieging Roxburgh, in 1460, he was killed by the bursting of a cannon. His son was at this time a child of only eight years old, and the kingdom was governed by a council of regency; but the care of the king's person was committed to the queen mother, Mary of Guolders, who was ambitious of engrossing not only that duty, but the actual powers of the government. In this she was opposed by the powerful family of Douglas.
Margaret had no willing listeners amongst parties who wore occupied with their own schemes and feuds. She had the difficult task of appealing to their various interests; and she found no one thing capable of fixing their attention till she hit on the idea of proposing the surrender of Berwick as the price of Scotland's assistance. That key of the northern frontiers of England, the object for whose possession so much blood had been spilled from age to age, was an object, the recovery of which at once gave her the command of the ears of the whole court. In addition to this, she proposed a marriage betwixt her son Edward, Prince of Wales, and the oldest sister of the young King of Scotland. These treaties were carried into effect, and Berwick was put into the hands of the Scots on the 23th of April, 1461. For the fatal surrender of this important place, England never forgave the fugitive queen. In order to neutralise the effect of these treaties, Edward immediately entered into negotiations with the powerful and turbulent Earl of Ross, the lord of the isles, and commissioned Warwick to treat with Scotland for a truce. By these means he prevented Scotland taking up the cause of the exiled family as a nation, though he could not prevent many persons, of all ranks, embracing it. While Henry and Margaret remained in Scotland, in spite of the pecuniary aid afforded them by the court, they were so hard put to it that they were compelled to pawn such jewels and plate as they had with them.
Edward, on his return to London, was crowned on the 29th of June. He then summoned a Parliament to meet at Westminster on the 6th of July, but an invasion appearing not improbable, he prorogued it till the 4th of November. The sword and the scaffold had already so thinned the nobility, that only one duke, four earls, one viscount, and twenty-nine barons were summoned to this Parliament. The great battle of Towton, which had laid so many of them low, had rendered the rest very submissive. There was no longer any hesitating betwixt the two families, or seeking of those compromises which, in ​the end, only produced more discord. Whatever Edward dictated was accepted as law and constitution. Of course, Henry IV. was declared to have been an arrant usurper; and his posterity were held incapable, not only of wearing the crown, but of enjoying any estate or dignity in any portion of the British dominions for ever. Henry VI., Margaret, Edward, called Prince of Wales, the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, the Earls of Northumberland, Devonshire, and Pembroke, and a vast number of lords, knights, and gentlemen, were attainted. Edward IV. was declared to be the only rightful king; and all those of the York party who had been declared traitors by the Lancaster party, and expelled from honours and estates, were restored. Edward did not omit to reward his friends out of the forfeited domains of their enemies, and he conferred additional honours on some of them. His eldest brother George was created Duke of Clarence, his youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester; the Lord Falconbridge, who had rendered such service at Ferrybridge, was made Earl of Kent; Lord Bouchier, Earl of Essex; and Sir John Neville, brother of Warwick, was made Lord Montacute.
Having thus established his own dignity, and conferred these favours on his friends, Edward returned his best thanks to this obliging Parliament, and dismissed it on the 21st of December.
The opening year of 1462 he inaugurated with fresh streams of blood. He brought John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and his son, Aubrey de Vere, to the block, for being found guilty of corresponding with Margaret. Sir William Tyrrel, Sir Thomas Tudenham, and John Montgomery were also executed for the same offence. All these distinguished personages were dispatched on Tower Hill in February, under sentence pronounced in no civil court, but merely of a court-martial—a proof to what an extent the public was awed by the daring military character of the new king.
Meantime, nothing daunted, Margaret was exerting her ingenuity to rouse a party in Scotland. She pleaded to deaf ears. Her traitorous surrender of Berwick brought her no real assistance; and she now sent over Somerset to endeavour to obtain succour from France. All these efforts were equally vain. Charles VII. died in 1460, and his successor, Louis XI.—one of the most selfish and cold-blooded men that ever sat on a throne—was immovable. Somerset, her ambassador, returned completely unsuccessful. He and his attendants had, indeed, been arrested by Louis when they attempted to escape in the guise of merchants, for fear of the despicable king giving them up to Edward to propitiate his favour. It was only through the earnest intercession of the Count of Charolais, the son of the Duke of Burgundy, that they were liberated. Louis XI. was cousin-german to both Margaret and Henry VI.; but such relationships weigh nothing with selfish men, in comparison to their own immediate interests. While this unwelcome news was arriving, Margaret was rendered the more uneasy and unsafe by the appearance of Warwick at the court of Scotland, proposing a marriage betwixt the Scottish queen and the victorious Edward of England. Under these circumstances, neither Margaret nor Henry were safe. She resolved, therefore, to make one more effort with Louis of France and a personal one. By means of a French merchant, who owed her some kindness for past benefit, she managed to get over to France, where she threw herself at the feet of Louis, who was at Chinon, in Normandy. She was only able to reach his court by the assistance of the Duke of Brittany, who gave her 12,000 crowns.
But she might as well have thrown herself at the feet of any stone statue in the church of Chinon. Louis had not a feeling in him but of self. To all her pleadings of the claims of kindred blood, of the glory of restoring a fallen friend to a throne like that of England, of benefits which might be reciprocated when that was done, he was deaf as the adder. It was only when Margaret had recourse to the same temptation as she had thrown to so little purpose in the way of the Scotch, and talked of surrendering Calais, that the despicable monarch opened his ears. Then, indeed, he was all attention, and unbent into a smile and a word of condolence. He then sent off post haste to his most cunning minister, who was absent, commanding him to hasten to him, for there was a good game to be played, and good winnings to be had. Then he paid great public court to the woman who had followed him from place to place, praying to him on her knees, but without receiving an answer, and invited her to unite with him as sponsors to the infant son of the Duke of Orleans, afterwards Louis XII. of France.
Margaret agreed to surrender the rights of the crown in Calais, and that Henry should do the same. And what was to be the price of this sacrifice?—this sacrifice of this proud stronghold of England, this sacrifice of her own honour, and this last remaining fragment of her good fame in Britain? The paltry sum of 20,000 livres! That was all that she could squeeze from the miserable French king for this intensely desired object. True, he had it still to win, for it was not in the possession of Margaret or her husband; but this acknowledged purchase from the Lancastrian king would give him great weight in any attempts to compel the surrender, and if Henry did again regain his throne, it must be made over to him at once. The facility with which Margaret thus gave away the most important possessions of England, showed that she had no real patriotic feeling towards her adopted country. It was not the country for which she struggled, but for her own mere family interests; those saved, she cared not at what cost to the people of England. This the nation saw, and, after this time, her name became odious to all but the partisans of her own faction in this country.
First Meeting of Edward IV. and Lady Elizabeth Gray. (See page 616)
​some considerable forces of Scotch, and French, when Warwick approached with 20,000 men, and news was received that Edward was advancing with an equal number. Edward halted at Newcastle, but Warwick advancing, divided his forces into three bodies, and simultaneously invested the three strongholds. Somerset surrendered Bamborough on condition that himself and Sir Ralph Percy, and some others, should be allowed to take the oath of fealty to Edward, and be restored to all their honours and estates; and that the rest of the two garrisons, with the Earl of Pembroke, the Lord de Roos, and some others, whose lands had been conferred on Edward's friends, and could not, therefore, be now restored, should be conveyed in safety to Scotland. This defection of her chief supporters was a dreadful blow to the queen; and, to add to her misfortunes, 500 of her French followers, who had established themselves in Holy Island, were attacked and cut to pieces by Sir Robert Ogle. Alnwick Castle still held out in the hands of the brave De Brezé and Lord Hungerford; but the Earl of Angus coming up with a party of relief, the besieged took the opportunity to make a sally and escape from the castle to their friends. Bamborough and Dunstanburgh were restored by the king to Lord Percy; but Alnwick he gave to Sir John Ashley, to the great offence of Sir Ralph Gray, who had formerly won it for Edward, and now expected to have had it.
It might have been supposed that all hope of ever restoring the Lancastrian cause was now at an end. But in the soul of Margaret hope never seemed to die. With an admirable and indomitable resolution, she again turned all her efforts to reconstruct a fresh army. She traversed Scotland, drew together her scattered friends, joined them to her French auxiliaries, whom she again mustered on the Continent; and by the spring of 1464 was in a condition once more to march into England. For some time her affairs wore a promising aspect. She re-took the castles of Alnwick, Bamborough, and Dunstanburgh. Somerset, Sir Ralph Percy, and the rest who had made their peace with Edward, hearing of her successes, again flew to hor standard. Sir Ralph Gray, who resented the preference given to Sir John Ashley by Edward in the disposal of Alnwick, came over to her, and was made commander of Bamborough.
Edward, on the news of these reverses, dispatched the Lord Montacute into the north to raise his forces there, and make head against the never-resting queen. He met with Sir Ralph Percy on Hedgley Moor, near Wooller, on the 25th of April, defeated his forces, and killed Sir Ralph. Having received fresh reinforcements from the south, he advanced towards Margaret's main army, and encamped on a plain, called the Levels, near Hexham. There, on the 10th of May, the two armies came to a general action, and, after a long and bloody conflict, the Lancastrians were again completely routed. Poor King Henry fled for his life, and this time managed not to be left in the hands of his enemies. "He was the host horseman of that day," says Hall; "for he fled so fast that no one could overtake him; yet he was so closely pursued, that three of his horsemen, or body guard, with their horses trapped in blue velvet, were taken, one of them wearing the unfortunate monarch's cap of state, called a bicocket, embroidered with two crowns of gold. and ornamented with pearls." The Duke of Somerset, the Lords Roos and Hungerford, were taken in the pursuit. Somerset was immediately beheaded in Hexham, and Roos and Hungerford suffered the same fate on the Sandhills at Newcastle. Many of their followers were successively executed in that town, and at York. Sir Ralph Gray reached his castle of Bamborough, but Warwick came up and besieged him. Bamborough was deemed an impregnable fortress; and Sir Ralph congratulated himself in that opinion; for he knew that he had no mercy to expect from Edward, if he fell into his hands. His confidence proved vain. Warwick brought up the king's two largest cannon, called Newcastle and London, a brass piece called Dysson, and with these made such breaches that the garrison was compelled to surrender. Gray was dragged forth from beneath a piece of the fallen wall more than half dead; but he was preserved with great care by the victors, that he might be presented to Edward, as an especial gratification to his love of revenge. Accordingly, Gray was brought before him at Doncaster, where Edward had been lying, to recover from the effects of his dissolute life; and then, Gray's spurs being hacked off by his own cook with his cleaver, his coat-of-arms torn off his back and reversed, he was drawn to the town's end, and there beheaded.
Meantime Margaret and her son, with a few attendants, were flying wildly through the neighbouring forests from the tender mercies of this sanguinary young king. She was endeavouring to reach the Scottish borders, when they were met by a party of marauders, with which the border country abounded.
The whole of Margaret's adventures in this memorable flight have so much the air of romance, that some historians have doubted their truth; but as these recitals are made by Chastellain in his "Chronique des Ducs de Burgoyne," who declares that he heard them related by Margaret herself to the Duchess de Bourbon at St. Pol, and as they are confirmed by Monstrellet and Prevost, there is no reason to doubt them. According to these accounts, the robbers seized the queen and her son, their attendants fleeing at the first sight of them. The queen, it appears, was carrying with her a number of the crown jewels, and some large vessels of gold and silver, as a resource during their abode in Scotland. The thieves, fired by the sight of the rich dresses of the queen and her son, which were probably of cloth of gold or silver, ornamented with precious stones—articles which only princely persons were allowed by the sumptuary laws of the times to wear—and of the gold and silver articles, dragged them from their horses, and threatened them, with drawn swords, with death and all manner of indignities. The queen on her knees implored mercy, and avowed who she was; but the villains who had hold of her, seeing their associates busy dividing the rich booty, turned to them, and she seized the opportunity, while they were quarrelling over it, to fly with her son. The fugitives rushed onward, not knowing whither they were going, till night overtook them. Nearly fainting with terror, fatigue, and hunger, as the moon broke through the clouds they beheld a huge man, armed, and with threatening gestures hastening towards them. Imagining that it was one of the band who had robbed them who had now overtaken her^ she expected nothing but death: ​but, mustering her characteristic resolution, she bade the man see that if he hoped for booty it was useless, for she and her child were even stripped of their upper garments for their value.
The man appeared to be one of the numerous outlaws who harboured that locality, many of them haying seen better days. He was touched by her appeal, and Margaret, perceiving it, said, "Here, my friend, save the son of your king! I charge thee to preserve from violence that innocent royal blood. Take him, and conceal him from those who seek his life. Give him a refuge in thine obscure hiding-place, and he will one day give thee free access to his royal chamber, and make thee one of his barons."
The man, struck by the majestic presence of the queen, the pleading innocence of the prince, and the words of Margaret, knelt, and vowed that he would much rather die a thousand deaths than injure or betray them. He carried the young prince in his arms to his cave, on the south bank of a little stream which runs at the foot of Blockhill, and, from this circumstance, still called "Queen Margaret's cave." There the man's wife made them right welcome, and, after two days' concealment, the outlaw succeeded in meeting with De Breze, and his followers soon afterwards discovered the Duke of Exeter and Edward Beaufort, from the execution of his brother now Duke of Somerset; and with their followers Margaret escaped to Scotland.
But Scotland would now afford her no asylum. Edward had diligently fenced against all the endeavours of the indefatigable Margaret. He had concluded treaties of alliance with Scotland, the King of France, the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany, with Denmark, Poland, Castile, and Aragon. The Pope had sent to congratulate him on his succession, and all the world appeared agreed to consider the dynasty of Lancaster at an end for ever, and that of York immovably established. Margaret had speedy proof of the perilous position of her fortunes. She found it necessary to keep the closest concealment in her old retreat of Kirkcudbright; but even here, a traitor of the name of Cork, an Englishman, who know her well, discovered her, and formed a scheme to make a profit by delivering her to King Edward. He succeeded in seizing her staunch friend De Breze and his squire Barvllle, and hurried them on board a vessel prepared for the purpose. He next secured Margaret and the prince, and conveyed them on board and set sail. But in the night De Breze had slipped his hands out of his fetters, released his squire, and waited for morning. With its first rays he saw, with astonishment, the queen and prince. He and his squire rose against the captors, five in number; but, attacking them with the oars, they knocked them overboard, and made their way again to land. There they lay concealed till Barville had been to Edinburgh, to learn the position of affairs. Nothing could be worse. The treaty of maniage betwixt the Prince of Wales and Margaret, sister of James III., had been broken off through the influence of the Duke of Burgundy, the steady enemy of her house since his quarrel with the Duke of Bedford. Burgundy was uncle to the queen-mother of Scotland. He was the most powerful prince now in Europe, and, therefore, his wish was law to his niece the Scottish queen.
Carriage of the Fifteenth Century.
Yet it was Margaret's fortune to be driven to the dominions of this great enemy by her strange fate. She found that it was necessary that she should quit Scotland with all speed; and setting sail in a small vessel with her son, her faithful attendant, De Brezé, who had spent his whole fortune in her service, with Sir John Fortescue, and a number of other ruined adherents of Lancaster, to seek a refuge amongst her friends in the north of England, she was overtaken by tempests, and driven on the coast of Flanders, and into the small port of Ecluse. Though thus thrown into the power of a formidable enemy—against whom she had just uttered such direful throats—in the lowest condition of destitution and desertion; yet, still undaunted, she did not hesitate to demand an audience and a reconciliation with Burgundy. She had neither money, jewels, nor credit, to propitiate the pitiless people amongst whom she had come, who upbraided her with her misfortunes as her own work, and expressed their amazement that she should, of all places in the world, seek the dominions of him whose life she had so violently menaced. The duke, to whom she sent a messenger, received him very coldly, and sent word to Margaret, by an envoy of his own, that he was so much engaged in important affairs that he could not wait upon her. The duke was at St. Pol; she was now at Bruges, and she set forward thence to roach him in a common carrier's cart with a canvas tilt—like a country wife going to market—and attended by only three maids. The devoted Pierre de Breze and a few other gentlemen followed the cart to prevent it being attacked; and thus she went on from town to town, the people at every place running in crowds to see the former great Queen of England reduced to this lamentable condition. On the way she met the Count of Charolais, the son of the Duke of Burgundy, who took compassion on her, and presented her with 500 crowns, which he happened to have about him. On the road to Bethune she narrowly escaped a less welcome meeting—that of 200 English horsemen who lay in wait for her.
At length she reached St. Pol, succeeded in softening the heart of the great duke, and was received with much affection by her near relative, the Duchess of Bourbon, to whom she related her many vicissitudes and adventures, as they are recounted by Chastellain. The duke sent her back in great honour to Bruges, attended by a troop of horse to prevent the English from attacking her, who had ​declared they would not capture, but kill her, and thus rid themselves of their only formidable enemy. Parties of English soldiers wore out from Calais for this purpose, no doubt deeply incensed against her by her endeavour to make over that stronghold to France. From Bruges she went to. Bar, Amboise, and other castles and courts of the French princes, till she finally settled at the castle of Kuerere, in the diocese of Verdun, near the town of St. Michel, in Lorraine, being allowed by her father 2,000 livres a year, the utmost he could afford. There, and at Angers, the exiled queen principally spent the next seven years, Sir John Fortescue remaining as the prince's tutor, and where he wrote for his use the celebrated work, "De Laudibus Legum Angliæ." At Kuerere Margaret received the melancholy news of the capture and imprisonment of her husband. For about twelve months the fortunate monarch had contrived to elude the eager quest of his enemies. He went from place to place amongst the friends of the house of Lancaster in Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Yorkshire. At the various halls and castles where he sojourned, tradition has to this day retained the memory of his presence. There are "King Henry's chamber," and "King Henry's parlour," still pointed out, the bath that he used, and the boot, spoon, and glove that he left with his host, Sir Ralph Pudsay, at Bolton Hall, Yorkshire. He was at length betrayed by Cantlow, a monk of Abingdon, and he was taken by the servants of Sir John Harrington, as he sat at dinner at Waddington Hall. He was treated with the utmost indignity on his way to London. He was mounted on a miserable hack, his legs being tied to his stirrups, and an insulting placard fixed on his back. At Islington Warwick met the fallen king, and disgraced himself by commanding the thronging spectators to show no respect to him. To enforce his command by his own example, he led the unhappy man three times round the pillory, as if he had been a common felon, crying, "Treason! treason! Behold the traitor!"
Edward, now freed from his enemies, considered himself established beyond a fear of the throne. He created Lord Montacute Earl of Northumberland for his services at Hexham, and Lord Herbert Earl of Pembroke. He issued a long list of attainders to exhaust tie resources of his opponents and increase those of his adherents. He then passed an Act for the resumption of the crown lands to supply a royal income; but this was clogged by so many exceptions that it proved fruitless. He then gave himself up to mirth and jollity, and in the pursuit of his pleasures made himself so affable and agreeable, especially with the Londoners, that, in spite of his free gallantries, he was very popular. So strongly did he now seem to be grounded in the affections of his subjects, that he ventured to make known a private marriage, which he had contracted some time before, though he knew that it would give great offence in several quarters.
It is a curious circumstance that in the early part of the reign of Henry VI., two ladies of royal lineage, and one of them of royal rank, had condescended to marry private gentlemen, to the great scandal of their high-born connections. One of these was Catherine of Valois, the widow of Henry V., and mother of Henry VI., who married Owen Tudor. The other was Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the widow of the great Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, who married Sir Richard Wydville. Both Tudor and Wydville were men of remarkable beauty; and both were imprisoned and persecuted for the offence of marrying, without permission of the crown, princesses who chose to fall in love with them. Wydville regained his liberty by the payment of a fine of 1,000 crowns. Tudor's persecutions were more severe and prolonged. Yet, from these two scandalous mésalliances, as they were regarded by the court and high nobility, sprang a line of the most remarkable princes that ever sat upon the English throne. The blood of both these ladies mingled in the burly body of Henry VIII. and his descendants. We have seen how Tudor became the grandfather of Henry VII.; we have now to observe how Wydville became the grandfather of Henry's wife, Elizabeth of York.
Jacquetta had several children by Sir Richard Wydville, one of whom, Elizabeth, was a woman of much beauty and great accomplishments. She had been married to Sir John Gray of Groby, a Lancastrian, who fell at the second battle of St. Albans. His estate was consequently confiscated, his widow, with seven children, returned to her father, and was living at his seat at Grafton, in Northamptonshire. Edward being out on a hunting party in the neighbourhood, took the opportunity to call on the Duchess of Bedford. There he saw and was greatly struck with the beauty of the Lady Grey. She, on her part, seized the occasion to endeavour to secure some restitution of their property for her children. The whole of her subsequent life showed that she was not a woman to neglect such opportunities. She threw herself at the feet of the gay monarch, and with many tears besought him to restore to her innocent children their father's patrimony.
Lady Gray made more impression than she probably intended. Edward was perfectly fascinated by her beauty and spirit. He raised her from her suppliant posture, and promised her his favour. He soon communicated to her the terms on which he would grant the restitution of her property, but he found in Elizabeth Wydville, or Gray, a very different person to those he had been accustomed to meet. She firmly refused every concession inconsistent with her honour, and the king, piqued by the resistance he encountered, became more and more enamoured.
On the 1st of May, 1464, he married her at Grafton, in the presence only of the priest, the clerk, the Duchess of Bedford, and two female attendants. Within a few days after the marriage he set out to meet the Lancastrians in the north; but the battles of Hedgley Moor and Hexham were fought before his arrival; and on his return he became anxious to open the matter to his council, and to obtain its sanction. Accordingly, at Michaelmas, he summoned a general council of the peers at the abbey of Reading, where he announced this important event. Amongst the peers present were Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, and the great king-maker, Warwick. To neither of these individuals was the transaction agreeable. To Clarence it appeared too inferior a choice for the King of England, though Elizabeth Gray, by her mother's side, was of princely blood. But to Warwick there was offence in it, personal and deep. He had been commissioned by Edward to solicit for him the hand of ​Bona of Savoy, the sister of the Queen of France. The proposal had been accepted; the King of France had given his consent; the treaty of marriage was actually drawn; and there lacked nothing but the ratification of the terms agreed upon, and the bringing over of the princess to England. At this moment came the order to pause in the proceedings, and the mystery was soon cleared up by the confident rumour of this sudden matrimonial caprice of the king. Warwick returned in high dudgeon; to Edward he did not endeavour to conceal it; but the time for revenge of his injured honour was not yet come; and therefore, after the royal announcement in the council, Clarence and Warwick took Elizabeth by the hand, and introduced her to the rest of the peers. A second council was held at Westminster, in December, and the income of the new queen was settled at 4,000 marks a year.
It was not to be expected that this sudden elevation of a simple knight's daughter to the throne would pass without much murmuring and discontent, which was probably the more fully expressed as it was shared by the all-powerful Warwick and the king's brothers. There were busy rumours that the politic old duchess, Jacquetta, and her daughter, had practised magical arts upon the king, and administered philters; and that, recovering from their effect, he had grievously repented, and endeavoured to free himself. But Edward's whole conduct towards the queen showed the falsity of this jealous gossip; and to make it obvious that she was of no mean parentage, he invited to the coronation her mother's brother, James of Luxembourg, with a retinue of a hundred knights and gentlemen. On the feast of Ascension he created, in honour of the queen, thirty-eight knights of the Bath, selecting four of them from the city of London. In return for this compliment, the lord mayor, aldermen, and the different companies met the queen at Shooter's-hill, and conducted her in state to the Tower. On Saturday, to please the people, she was conducted in a horse-litter through the principal streets, preceded by the new knights. The next day, Sunday, she was crowned with much splendour, and the following week was devoted to tournaments and public festivities.
But if the king had made apparent her noble birth and his continued affection for her, it became speedily as apparent that the marriage of a subject was to be followed by all its inconveniences. Elizabeth, though raised to the throne, might still be said to be on her knees, imploring the favour of the king. There was nothing which she thought too much for her numerous relations, and the king displayed a marvellous facility in complying with her requests. Her father was created Earl Rivers, and soon after the Lord Mountjoy, a partisan of the Nevilles, was removed to make way for him as treasurer of England; and again, on the resignation of the Earl of Worcester, the office of Lord High Constable was conferred on him. That was very well for a beginning, but it was nothing to what followed; every branch of the queen's family must be aggrandised without delay. She had five sisters, and every one of these was married to one of the highest noblemen in the realm: one to the Duke of Buckingham; one to the heir of their Earl of Essex; a third to the Earl of Arundel; a fourth to Lord Gray de Ruthyn, who was made Earl of Kent; and the fifth to Lord William Herbert, created Earl of Huntingdon. Her brother Anthony was married to the heiress of the late Lord Scales, and endowed with her estate and title. Her younger brother John, in his twentieth year, was married to the wealthy old dowager Duchess of Norfolk, in her eightieth year; such was the shameless greed of this family. The queen's son, Thomas Gray, was married to the king's niece, the daughter and heiress of the Duke of Exeter.
The great family of the Nevilles looked on all this with ominous gloom. Hitherto it had enjoyed all the favour and emolument which were now turned so lavishly upon the Wydvillos. Of the three sons of the Earl of Salisbury, one was now Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York, the other was created Lord Montacute, and then Earl of Northumberland, with the ample estates of the Percies. But far above them all soared Warwick. He had put down Henry VI., and set up Edward. He had hitherto been the king's chief minister and general; he held the wardenship of the west marches towards Scotland, waa Lord Chamberlain, and Governor of Calais, the most important and lucrative appointment in the king's gift, worth 15,000 crowns per annum. The value of royal grants alone, which he held independent of his patrimonial estates, was 80,000 crowns a year. The magnificence and liberality of his style of living was in full accord with his wealth and rank. No less than 30,000 people are said to have lived daily at his board, at his different manors and castles. When we add to the power of Warwick that of the house of Montacute and of Westmoreland, all Nevilles; and when we add that Warwick was as much worshipped by all military men for his bravery as for his frankness and princely profusion, we perceive the peril which the thoughtless Edward ran in wounding the pride and irritating the jealousy of the most potent of English nobles.
Fresh causes of disunion arose betwixt the king and Warwick. A marriage had for some time been in agitation between Margaret, the king's sister, and Count Charolais, the son and heir of the Duke of Burgundy. The count was sprung from the house of Lancaster, and even when his father showed the most settled coolness towards Henry VI. and Margaret, had displayed a warm sympathy for them. It was a good stroke of policy, therefore, to win him over by this marriage to the reigning dynasty. But Warwick, who in his former intercourse with Burgundy in France, had conceived a deep dislike to him, opposed this match, and represented one with a son of Louis XI. of France -as far more advantageous. To Warwick's arguments were opposed the evident policy of maintaining our commercial intercourse with the Netherlands, and of posses.sing so efficient an ally on the borders of France against the deep and selfish schemes of Louis. But in the end Warwick prevailed. He was sent over to France to negotiate the affair with Louis. Warwick went attended with a princely train, and with all the magnificence which distinguished him at home, more like that of a great sovereign than of a subject. Louis, who never lost an opportunity of sowing jealousies amongst his enemies, even while he appeared to be honouring them, met Warwick at Rouen, attended by the queen and princesses. The inhabitants, obeying royal orders, went out and escorted Warwick into the city with banners and processions of priests, who conducted ​the earl to the cathedral, and then to the lodgings prepared for him at the Jacobins. There also Louis and the court took up their quarters, and for twelve days, during which the conference lasted, Louis used to visit the earl in private, passing through a side door into his apartments. With all this secret and familiar intercourse, there were no pains taken to conceal its existence; and the consequence was such as the astute and mischievous Louis intended. Reports were forwarded to Edward from those whom he had placed in Warwick's train, which roused his ever uncalculating anger. He hastened to the house of Warwick's brother—the Archbishop of York and Chancellor of the kingdom—demanded the instant surrender of the seals; and, enforcing the act of resumption of crown lands lately passed, deprived the archbishop of two manors formerly belonging to the crown.
Preaching at St. Paul's Cross. (Fifteenth Century.)
Warwick returned, as may be supposed, in no very good humour, but still with every prospect of success in his mission. The court of France was agreeable to the match. And on the heels of the earl came the Archbishop of Narbonne and the Bastard of Bourbon to complete the arrangements. They came prepared to offer an annual pension to Edward from Louis, and to pledge the king to submit to the Pope Edward's demand for the restoration of Normandy and Aquitaine, which should be decided within four years. But the importance of these propositions, and the evident policy of at least appearing to listen to the terms of a monarch like that of France, had no weight with Edward, who was far more distinguished for petulance and rashness than for policy. He treated the French ambassadors with the most insulting coldness; and unceremoniously quitted the capital, leaving his ministers to treat with the ambassadors, and, in fact, to get rid of them. His resentment against Warwick made him not only thus forget the courtesy due to the envoys of a great foreign prince on the occasion—conduct sure to create its own punishment—but he gave all the more favour to the suit of the Count of Charolais from the same cause.
The count had sent over his relative, the Bastard of Burgundy, ostensibly to hold a tournament with Lord Scales, the queen's brother, but really to press forward the match with the English princess. The Duke of Burgundy dying at this juncture, all difficulties vanished. The princess was affianced to the new Duke of Burgundy.
This completed the resentment of Warwick. The open insult offered to the court of France, and the rejection of the alliance which he had effected, sunk deep into his proud mind. He retired to his castle of Middleham, in Yorkshire; and occasion was taken of his absence from court to accuse him, on the evidence of one of Queen Margaret's emissaries taken in Wales, of being a secret partisan of the Lancastrian faction. The charge failed; but Edward, resolved to mortify and humiliate the man to whom he owed his throne, affected still to believe him a secret ally of the Lancastrians, and that his own safety was threatened by him. He therefore summoned a bodyguard of 200 archers, without whose attendance he never stirred abroad. He expelled the Nevilles from court, and took every means to express his dislike and suspicion of that house. On the other hand, the Nevilles repaid the hatred of the upstart family of Wydville with interest; and from this moment, whatever might be the outward seeming, the feud betwixt these rival families was settled, deadly, and never terminated till it had completed the ruin of all parties.
Warwick visiting King Henry VI. in the Tower. (See page 624.)
At present the Archbishop of York, though suffering under the immediate severity of the king, was too wise to give way to his resentment. He justly feared the influence of the Wydvilles with the king, and that it might prove most injurious to his own family. He therefore stood forth as a peacemaker. Ho volunteered a visit to Earl Rivers, the queen's father; met him at Nottingham, and agreed on terms of reconciliation between the families. The king, queen, and court were keeping the Christmas of 1467 at Coventry. The archbishop hastened to his brother at Middleham, and prevailed upon him to accompany him to Coventry, where he was graciously received ​by Edward; all subjects of offence betwixt him and the relatives of the queen—especially her brothers-in-law, the Lords Herbert, Stafford, and Audley—were arranged; and the king expressed himself so much pleased with the conduct of the archbishop, that he restored to him his two manors. This pacific state of things lasted for little more than a year. On the 18th of June, 1468, the king's sister set out on her journey to meet her husband in Flanders. The king accompanied her to the coast; and, as a proof that Warwick at this moment held his old position of honour at court, the princess rode behind him through the streets of London. A conspiracy having been discovered, or supposed, of several gentlemen with Queen Margaret, Warwick and his brother, the Earl of Northumberland, were joined with the king's brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, in a commission to try them; and the two Nevilles certainly executed their part of the trust with a zeal which looked like anything but disaffection. Very arbitrary measures were used towards the prisoners, several of whom were condemned and executed.
This calm was soon broken. The Duke of Clarence had from the first shown as deep a dislike to the ascendancy of the Wydvilles as the Nevilles themselves. This drew him into closer intimacy with Warwick. He frequently withdrew for long periods from court, and was generally to be found at one of the residences of Warwick. It soon came out that there was a cause still more influential than his dislike of the queen's relations; it was his admiration of the Earl's eldest daughter, Isabella, who was co-heiress of his vast estates. Warwick was delighted with the prospect of this alliance, for as yet the king, having no male heir, and his only daughter being but four years old, Clarence stood as the next male heir to his brother. Edward, on the contrary, beheld this proposed connection with the utmost alarm. The Nevilles were already too powerful; and should Warwick succeed, through Clarence, in placing his descendants so near the throne, it might produce the most dangerous consequences to his own line. He therefore did all in his power to frustrate the marriage, but in vain. Clarence and Warwick retired to Calais, of which Warwick remained the governor; and there the marriage was celebrated, in the Church of St. Nicholas, on the 11th of July, 1469.
With the exception of this annoying event, at this moment Edward appeared so firmly seated on his throne, and so well secured by foreign treaties with almost all the European powers, and especially with the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany, the latter of whom had recently become his ally, that he actually contemplated the enterprise of recovering by his arms the territories which his weak predecessor had lost in France. His hatred of the cold-blooded Louis XI., who in political cunning was infinitely Edward's superior, probably urged him to this idea. To draw off the attention of the different factions at home, and find some common medium of uniting them in action abroad, might be another. The most remarkable circumstance of all was, that Parliament, after its experience of the drain, which these French wars had been to the blood and resources of the nation, received the king's proposal with cordial approbation.
But those dreams of martial glory were very quickly swept from the brain of the king by domestic troubles. At first those troubles appeared to originate in private and local causes, but there was such food for combustion existing throughout the kingdom, that the farther they went, the wider they opened, and at every step onwards assumed more and more the aspect of a Warwick and Clarence conspiracy. Nothing could be farther removed from such an appearance than the opening occurrence.
The hospital of St. Leonard's near York had possessed, from the reign of King Athelstan, a right of levying a thrave of corn from every ploughland in the county. There had long been complaints on the part of the public that this grant was grossly abused, and instead of benefiting the poor, as it was intended, was converted to the emolument of the managers. During the last reign many had refused in consequence to yield the stipulated thrave, and Parliament had passed an act to compel the delivery. Now again the refusal to pay the demand was become general. The vassals had their goods distrained, and were themselves thrown into prison. This raised the peasantry, who were all of the old Lancastrian party, and regarded the present dynasty as usurpers and oppressors. They flew to arms under the leadership of one Robert Hilyard, called by the insurgents Robin of Redesdale, and vowed that they would march south and reform the Government. Lord Montacute, Earl of Northumberland, brother of Warwick, marched out against them, forming as they now did a body of 15,000, and menacing the city of York. He defeated them, seized their leader Hilyard, and executed him on the field of battle.
So far there appeared certainly no hand of the Nevilles in this movement. Northumberland did his best to crush it, and Warwick and Clarence were away at Calais, thinking, apparently, not of rebellion, but of matrimonial festivities. But the very next move revealed a startling fact.
The insurgents, though dispersed, were by no means subdued. They had lost their peasant head, but they reappeared in still greater forces, with two heads, and those no other than the Lords Fitzhugh and Latimer, the nephew and the cousin-german of Warwick. Northumberland contented himself with protecting the city of York. He made no attempt to pursue this still more menacing body, who, dropping their cry of the hospital and the thrave of corn, declared that their object was to meet the Earl of Warwick, by his aid and advice to remove from the councils of the king the swarm of Wydvilles, whom they charged with being the authors of the oppressive taxes, and of all the calamities of the nation.The young noblemen who headed the insurrection were assisted by the military abilities of an old and experienced officer, Sir John Coniers. At the name of Warwick, his tenants came streaming from every quarter, and, in a few days, the insurgent army numbered 60,000 men.
Edward, on the news of this formidable movement, called together what troops he could, and fixed his head-quarters at the castle of Fotheringay. Towards this place the insurgent army marched, growing as they proceeded in numbers and boldness. The whole outcry resolved itself into a capital charge against the Wydvilles, and the movement being headed by the Nevilles, there could not be much mystery about the matter. Yet Edward, after advancing as far as Newark, and becoming intimidated by the spirit of disaffection which everywhere ​prevailed, wrote imploringly to Warwick and Clarence to hasten from Calais to his assistance. The result was such as might have been expected. Warwick and Clarence, instead of complying with the king's urgent entreaty, summoned their friends to meet them at Canterbury on the following Sunday, to proceed with them to the king to lay before him the petitions of the Commons.
In this alarming extremity, Edward looked with impatience for the arrival of the Earls of Devonshire and Pembroke, who had been mustering forces for his assistance. Devon was at the head of a strong body of archers, and Pembroke of 10,000 Welshmen. They met at Banbury, where the demon of discord divided them in their quest of quarters, and made them forget the critical situation of their sovereign. Pembroke, leaving Devon in possession, advanced to Edgecote. There he came in contact with the insurgents, who, fulling upon him, deprived as he was of the assistance of Devon's archers, easily routed him. In this engagement 2,000 of his soldiers are said to have perished, and Pembroke and his brother were taken and put to death, with ten other gentlemen, on the field.
This fatal defeat completely annihilated the hopes of Edward. At the news of it, all his troops stole away from their colours, and his favourites lied for concealment. But the queen's father, Earl Rivers, was discovered in the Forest of Dean, with his son, Sir John Wydville; and the Earl of Devon, late Earl Stafford, the queen's brother-in-law, abandoned by his soldiers, was taken at Bridgewater. The whole of them were executed, Rivers and his son Wydville being conveyed to their own neighbourhood, and beheaded at Northampton.
Warwick, Clarence, and Northumberland, who had, no doubt, conducted all these movements from a distance, now appeared as principals on the scene. They marched forward from Canterbury at the head of a powerful force, and overtook Edward at Olney, plunged in despair at the sudden ruin which had surrounded him. They approached him with an air of sympathy and loyal obeisance; and Edward, imposed upon by this, with his usual unguarded anger, upbraided them with being the real authors of his troubles. He very soon perceived his folly, for he found himself, not their commander, but their captive. Warwick dismissed the insurgent army to their homes, who retired laden with booty, and sensible that they had executed all that was expected of them. Under protection of their Kentish troops, they then conducted Edward to Warwick Castle, and thence, for greater security, to Middleham.
Thus England had at the same time two kings, and both of them captive; Henry in the Tower of London, Edward at Middleham, in Yorkshire. Men now expected nothing less than that Warwick would proclaim Clarence as king, but probably the measures of Warwick and Clarence were deranged by a fresh insurrection which broke out. This time it was the Lancastrians, who seized the opportunity to raise again the banner of Henry. They appeared in the marches of Scotland, under Sir Humphrey Neville, one of the fugitives from the battle of Hexham. Warwick advanced against him, in the king's name, but ho found that the soldiers refused to fight until they were assured of the king's safety. Warwick was therefore compelled to produce Edward to the army at York. After that, they followed him against the Lancastrians, whom they defeated, and taking their leader, brought him to the king who ordered his instant execution.
Edward was now permitted to return to London, accompanied by several leaders of the party. There a council of peers was summoned, and then it appeared that though Warwick's faction had probably not accomplished all they had intended, they bound the king to terms which, whilst they neutralised the hopes of Clarence in some degree, still were calculated to add to the greatness of the house of Neville. The king announced that he had proposed to give his daughter, yet only four years old, to George, the son of the Earl of Northumberland, and presumptive heir of all the Nevilles. The council gave its unanimous approbation of the measure, and the young nobleman, to raise his name to a level with his affianced bride, was created Duke of Bedford.
Outwardly everything was so harmonious, that not only was a general pardon granted for all who had been in any way concerned in the late disturbances, but the king and his reconciled friends were again proposing to invade France in concert with the Duke of Burgundy. The French court was so convinced of the reality of this invasion that it commanded a general muster of troops for the 1st of May, 1470.
But the designs of the Nevilles lay nearer home in reality. The Archbishop of York invited the king to meet Clarence and Warwick at his seat—the Moor—in Hertfordshire. As Edward was washing his hands, preparatory to supper, John Ratcliff, afterwards Lord Fitzwalter, whispered in his ear that 100 armed men were on the watch to seize him and convoy him to prison. Edward having been once before trepanned by his loving friends, gave instant credence to the information, stole out, mounted a horse, and rode off to Windsor. This open confession of his opinion of the Nevilles produced a fresh scene of discord, which, with some difficulty, was appeased by the king's mother, the Duchess of York, and the parties were reconciled with just the same sincerity as before.
The Nevilles were now in too critical a position to pause. They or the king must fall. At any hour some stratagem might surprise them and give the advantage to their injured and deadly enemies, the Wydvilles. Insurrection, therefore, was not long in showing itself again. This time it broke out in Lincolnshire, and, as in the case of the hospital of St. Leonards, appeared to have nothing whatever to do with Warwick or his party. Its ostensible cause was the old grievance of purveyance, and Sir Robert Burgh, one of the purveyors, was attacked, his house burnt down, and himself chased out of the county. Had the cause been really local, there the mischief would have ended; but now again stepped forward a partisan of Warwick, Sir Robert Welles, who encouraged the rioters to keep together, and proceed to redress not the evils of one county, but of the nation. He put himself at their head, and they soon amounted to 30,000. The king commissioned a number of nobles to raise troops with all speed, and so well did Warwick and Clarence feign loyalty that they were amongst this number.
Edward summoned Lord Welles, the father of the insurgent chief, and Sir Thomas Dymoke, the champion, both Lincolnshire men, to the council, in order to obtain ​information of the extent of the insurrection, and to engage them to exert their influence to check it. Both these gentlemen, as if conscious of guilt, fled to sanctuary, but, on a promise of pardon, repaired to court. Edward insisted that Lord Welles should command his son to lay down his arms, and disperse his followers, with which order Lord Welles complied; but Sir Robert Welles received at the same time letters from Warwick and Clarence, encouraging him to hold out, assuring him that they were on the march to support him. When Edward reached Stamford, bearing Lord Welles and Dymoke with him, he found Sir Robert still in arms, and in his anger he wreaked his vengeance on his father, Lord Welles, and on Dymoke, beheading them in direct violation of his promise. He then sent a second order to Sir Robert to lay down his arms, but he replied that he scorned to surrender to a man destitute of honour, who had murdered his father. Edward then fell upon the insurgents at Uppingham, in Rutlandshire, and made a terrible slaughter of them. The leaders, Welles, and Sir Thomas Delalaunde, were taken and immediately executed. The inferior prisoners, as dupes to the designs of others, were dismissed.
The confessions of Sir Robert and of Dymoke made manifest the treason of Warwick and Clarence. They admitted that the insurrection was their work; that a confidential agent of Clarence regulated all the movements of troops; that the avowed object was to place Clarence on the throne. They had been directed to march into Leicestershire to meet the two heads of the rebellion; but being met by the royal army, and brought prematurely to an engagement, the plans of Warwick and Clarence were defeated. They now advanced towards York, calling on all the people to arm and follow them. But the inhabitants were Lancastrians, and refused to rise in support of any branch of the house of York. The king came within twenty miles of them as they reached Esterfield, and summoned them to appear before him and explain their conduct; but they again altered their course for Lancashire, in the hope that Lord Stanley, who had married a sister of Warwick, would join him. In that, however, they were disappointed, and, finding no support in the north, they hastened southward. Edward pursued them briskly. He restored to Lord Percy his titles and estates, of which he had been deprived at the battle of Towton, taking them from Warwick's brother, who was again reduced to the empty dignity of Lord Montacute. He declared Clarence no longer Lieutenant of Ireland, conferring that office on the Earl of Worcester.
The disappointed chiefs made a hasty retreat to the south, being proclaimed traitors by the king. At Southampton they attempted to escape to sea in a large vessel of Warwick's called the Trinity, but were attacked and defeated by Lord Scales. They were more successful at Dartmouth; and Edward, finding on reaching Exeter that they had escaped him, vented in his savage way his rage on the prisoners taken by Lord Scales in the recent engagement. They were delivered to Tiptoff, the Earl of Worcester, the new Lieutenant of Ireland, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; and for three weeks such gross indignities were practised on their remains, that Tiptoff was thenceforth named "the butcher," and he did not escape his share of the obloquy.
Warwick and Clarence made for Calais. But there Warwick's lieutenant, Vauclerc, a Gascon knight, to whom he had entrusted the care of the city, refused to admit them. When they attempted to enter, the batteries were opened upon them; and when they remonstrated on this strange conduct, Vauclerc sent secretly to inform Warwick that the garrison, aware of what had taken place in England, were ill affected, and would certainly seize him if he entered; that his only chance of preserving the place for him was to appear at present hostile; and he prayed him to retire till a more favourable opportunity. To Edward, however, Vauclerc sent word that he would hold the town for him as his sovereign against all attempts—for which Edward rewarded him with the government of the place, and the Duke of Burgundy added a pension of a thousand crowns. Warwick and Clarence, enraged at this unexpected repulse, sailed along the coast towards Normandy, seizing every Flemish merchantman that fell in their way in revenge to Burgundy, and entered Harfleur, where they were received with all honour by the admiral of France.
Low as were now the fortunes of Warwick and Clarence, decided as had been the failure of their attempts against Edward IV., Louis of France thought he had, in the possession of these great leaders, a means of consolidating a formidable party against Edward, who had treated his alliance with such contempt, and who entered into the closest relations with his most formidable opponent, the Duke of Burgundy. He therefore received them at Amboise, where he was holding his court, with the most marked honours, and ordered them and their ladies to have the best accommodations that could be procured in the neighbourhood. He proposed to these two chiefs to coalesce with the Lancastrian party, by which means they would be sure to gain the instant support of all that faction. He sent for Queen Margaret, who was then at Angers, and assured her that Providence had at length prepared the certain means of the restoration of King Henry and his family.
Warwick engaged, by the assistance of Louis and of the Lancastrians, to replace Henry again upon the throne. By this means Warwick was to depose, and if possible to destroy, Edward of York. But Warwick never forgot the suggestions of his ambition. He must, if possible, sit on the throne of England in the persons of his descendants. For this he had married one daughter to Clarence. When the success of Edward had enfeebled his chance, he had succeeded in affiancing his nephew to the daughter of Edward, so that if not a Warwick at least a Neville might reign. He now sacrificed both these hopes to that of placing another daughter on the throne, as the queen of Margaret's son, the Prince of Wales. This alliance was the price of Warwick's assistance, and, however bitter might be the necessity, Margaret submitted to it, and the young Prince of Wales was forthwith married to Ann, the daughter of Warwick. Warwick then acknowledged Henry VI. as the rightful sovereign of England, and at the same time entered into solemn engagements to exert all his power to reinstate and maintain him on the throne. Margaret on her part swore on the holy Gospels never to reproach Warwick with the past, but to esteem him as a loyal and faithful subject. The French king, on the completion of this reconciliation, ​engaged to furnish the means necessary for the expedition.
Edward, on hearing of the extraordinary meeting and negotiations of Warwick and Margaret, of the active agency of the French king, and the proposed marriage of Edward Prince of Wales and Ann of Warwick, sent off a lady of pre-eminent art and address, who belonged to the train of the Duchess of Clarence, but who had been by some means left behind. The clover dame no sooner reached the court of Clarence than she expressed to him and the duchess her amazement at their permitting such a coalition as the present; that in every point of view it was destructive to their own hopes, and even security; that the continued adhesion of Warwick and Margaret was impossible. Their mutual antipathies were too deeply rooted ever to be eradicated.
Clarence was only one-and-twenty years of age. He was of a slender capacity, easily guided or misguided, and he agreed, on the first favourable opportunity, to abandon Warwick and go over to the king.
On the other hand, Warwick was as actively and secretly engaged in preparing the defection of partisans of the king in England. His brother, the Marquis of Montacute, though he had not deemed it prudent to join Warwick and Clarence in their unfortunate attempt to raise the country against Edward, had been suspected by him, and stripped of the earldom of Northumberland. He was still an ostensible adherent of the king, but he was watched. War-wick apprised him of the new and wonderful turn of affairs, and engaged him to keep up a zealous show of loyalty, that his defection at an important moment might tell with the more disastrous effect on the Yorkist cause.
Edward, satisfied with having detached Clarence from Warwick's interests, continued as careless as ever. The Duke of Burgundy, more sagacious than his brother-in-law, the King of England, did all that he could to arouse him to a sense of his danger, and to obstruct the progress of the expedition. He sent ambassadors to Paris to complain of the reception given to the enemies of his brother and ally. He menaced Louis with instant war if he did not desist from aiding and protecting the English traitors. He sent spies to watch the proceedings of Vauclerc, in Calais, and dispatched a squadron to make reprisals on the French merchantmen for the seizures made by Warwick, and to blockade the mouth of the Seine. Edward laughed at the fears and precautions of Burgundy. He bade him take no pains to guard the Channel, for that he should enjoy nothing better than to see Warwick venture to set foot in England.
He was not long without that pleasure. A tempest dispersed the Burgundian fleet, and the fleet of Warwick and Clarence, seizing the opportunity, put to sea, crossed the Channel, and landed on the 13th of September, 1470, without opposition, at Portsmouth and Dartmouth. "Wdiwick had prepared his own way very skilfully. Edward was deluded by a ruse on the part of Lord Fitzwalter, the brother-in-law of Warwick, who appeared in arms in Northumberland, as if meditating an insurrection; by which means the unwary king was induced to march towards the north, leaving the southern counties exposed to the invaders. This was the object of War-wick, and, as soon as it was effected, Fitzwalter retreated into Scotland. Meantime, the real danger was growing rapidly in the south. The men of Kent rose in arms; London was thrown into a ferment by a Dr. Goddard preaching at St. Paul's Cross in favour of Henry VI.; and from every quarter people hastened to the standard of Warwick with such eagerness that he speedily found himself at the Lead of 60,000 men.
As London and the southern counties appeared safe, Warwick proclaimed Henry, and set out to encounter Edward without delay. He advanced towards Nottingham. Edward, who had taken up his head-quarters at Doncaster, had issued his orders for all who could bear arms to join his banner. They came in slowly; and Edward, who had ridiculed the idea of the return of Warwick, saying Burgundy would take care that he did not cross the sea, was now rudely aroused from his fancied security. He was compelled with unequal forces to advance against Warwick. A groat battle appeared imminent in the neighbourhood of Nottingham; but the rapid defection of Edward's adherents rendered that unnecessary. The speedy movements of Warwick, and the general demonstrated in favour of Henry, had not permitted Clarence to carry into effect his intended transit from Warwick to Edward, when a startling act of desertion occupied to the other side, which completed Edward's ruin. Before Edward could roach Nottingham, and while lying near the river Welland, in Lincolnshire, the Marquis of Montacute, Warwick's brother, from whom Edward had taken the earldom of Northumberland, now revenged himself by suddenly marching from York at the head of 6,000 men, and in the night, and in full concert with his officers, advanced upon Edward's quarters, his men wearing the red rose instead of the white, and with loud cries of "God bless King Henry!"
Edward commanded his troops to be put in array to meet the traitor; but Lord Hastings told him that he had not a regiment that he could rely upon; that nothing was to be thought of but his personal safety, and that on the instant. Accordingly, he took horse with the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl Rivers, seven or eight other noblemen, and a small troop of the most reliable followers, with whom he rode away. A guard was posted on a neighbouring bridge to prevent the crossing of Warwick, for he also was within a day's march of him; and with all haste Edward and his little band rode on full speed till he reached Lynn, in Norfolk. It is probable that the royal party had made for this small port on the Wash, knowing that some vessels which had brought provisions for the troops still lay there. They found, indeed, a small English ship, and two Dutch vessels, on board of which they hurried, and put to sea. Edward, on starting from his quarters, had recommended his army to declare at once for Warwick, as the best means of saving themselves, and of again rejoining his standard when opportunity should offer; for no changes were too wonderful to be hoped for in those strange times.
The fugitives made sail for the coast of Holland, but no sooner had the king escaped from his enemies on laud than he fell amongst fresh ones at sea. These were the Easterlings, or mariners of the Hanse-Towns, who wore now at war -with both France and England. The Easterlings were at this time as terrible at sea as the pirates of Algiers were afterwards. They had committed great ​ravages on the English coast while the nation was thus engaged in suicidal intestine warfare, and no sooner did they perceive this little fleet than they immediately gave chase. There were eight vessels to Edward's three, and to escape the unequal contest, he ran his vessels aground on the coast of Friesland, near Alkmaar. It was a very fortunate circumstance, amid all these unfortunate ones, that Grautuse, the Governor of Holland, was at this time at Alkmaar, and he gave the most prompt and kind assistance to the distressed party. The king and his followers were enabled to land, and were hospitably received into the town before the turn of the tide gave the Easterlings opportunity to lay their vessels alongside and board the king's ships.
The hospitable governor sent an express from the Hague to the Duke of Burgundy, announcing the arrival of his royal brother-in-law.
To ascertain how Vauclerc, the Governor of Calais, was disposed, in case Warwick resolved to attack the duke in his own territories, he sent an envoy to him to sound him. The envoy found all the garrison wearing the red rose. This discovery added to the alarm and chagrin of Burgundy, and while he conceded to Edward a place of refuge, he publicly declared himself the ally, not of this power or that, but of England, avowed himself averse to Edward's designs, and that he might expect no aid from him in endeavouring to recover his crown.
On the other hand, Louis of France was thrown into estacies of delight. He sent for Queen Margaret and her son, the Prince of Wales, who had been living for years totally neglected, and almost forgotten in their poverty, and received her in Paris with the most splendid and expensive pageants and rejoicings. He at the same time dispatched a splendid embassy to Henry at London, and immediately concluded with him a treaty of peace and commerce for fifteen years.
Warwick and Clarence made their triumphal entry into London on the 6th of October, 1470. Warwick proceeded to the Tower, and brought forth King Henry, who had lain there as a captive for five years. The royal procession which attended the poor king to Westminster, to reinstate him in his palace, presented a strange contrast to that by which he had been led to the Tower. Then, Warwick rode beside him, leading him round the pillory, and crying, "Treason! treason! Behold the traitor'" Now, he proclaimed Henry lawful king, and conducted him with great pomp through the streets of London to the bishop's palace, where he resided till the 13th, when he walked in solemn procession, with the crown upon his head, attended by his prelates, nobles, and great officers, to St. Paul's, where solemn thanksgivings were offered up for his restoration.
All this time Clarence was looking on, an immediate spectator of proceedings which pushed him farther from the throne he coveted. To keep him quiet, Warwick heaped every favour but the actual possession of the kingdom upon him. He joined him with himself in the regency which was to continue till the majority of the Prince of Wales; he made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and conferred upon him all the estates of the house of York. Warwick retained himself the offices of Chamberlain of England, Governor of Calais, High Admiral of the seas; his brother, the archbishop, was continued Chancellor; and his other brother, Montacute, returned to the Wardenship of the Marches.
Warwick summoned a Parliament, which, surrounded by his troops and his partisans, of course passed whatever acts he pleased. The crown was settled on Edward, the Prince of Wales, and his issue; but that failing, it was to devolve upon Clarence.
Queen Margaret might have been expected, from her characteristic energy and rapidity of action, to have been in London nearly as soon as Warwick; but this was not the case. In the first place, she was in want of the necessary funds. Louis, who was chary of his money, probably thought he had done sufficient in enabling the victorious armament of Warwick to reach England; and poor King René, Margaret's father, was in no condition to assist her. In the meantime all the exiled Lancastrians flocked to her; and all were destitute. In February, 1471, she set sail to cross the Channel, but was driven back by tempests. Three times did she make the daring attempt to cross, though warned against it by the seamen of Harfleur; and every time she was driven back with such fury and damage, that many declared it was the will of Heaven she should not pass over; nor was she able to do so till the following month. Till that time Warwick held England in the name of Henry, and appeared established, if not exactly on the throne, in the seat of supreme and settled power.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.