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.]