In 1460, the last year of Lancastrian rule, John was appointed a justice of the peace, but this was insufficient to prevent him taking the Yorkists' side, which, after the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460, came under the control of the dead duke of York's son, Edward, Earl of March. John seems to have regarded himself from the age of eighteen as a potential force in English politics, and in the late 1450s seems to have deliberately avoided intimating support for either faction. However, by early 1461 Suffolk had come down firmly on York's side. He fought alongside Richard, Earl of Warwick, at the second battle of St Albans in February 1461, and at the Battle of Towton in March, which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Lancastrian army. As a result of this victory, Suffolk's cousin Edward was proclaimed king as Edward IV of England, and Suffolk acted as Lord Steward at the coronation.