The engagement with the Spaniards related in this letter was looked upon
as a victory by the English. The next year there was another naval
battle in which after a running two days’ chase three out of five
Genoese and Spanish ships were captured and brought into Calais, and
Warwick became a naval hero to his countrymen.
On June 24, 1460, with Salisbury and March, Warwick landed at Sandwich,
which Fauconberg had previously captured and held for the Duke of York.
John Jernyngan, as we must now call him, was of course of the party. On
July 2 they were in London, and on the 10th their army faced the army of
the Red Rose in the meadows near Northampton.
The King’s position was well protected by the crude artillery of that
day, but there was a heavy rain storm and the pieces could not be
discharged. The Lord Grey of Ruthven turned traitor to the King and
assisted the advance of the young Earl of March who soon opened the way
for the Yorkists. Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Beaumont, Egremont and Sir
William Lucy with three hundred other Lords, knights and squires were
killed and Henry was captured and taken to London.
In 1461, John was present at the rout of the Yorkists at the second
battle of St. Albans and escaped with difficulty. In March of the same
year he also took part in the decisive battle of Towton where the hopes
of Henry the sixth and his Queen found their grave. This was a fiercely
fought field where the mallets of lead crushed many a skull. In the nick
of time the troops of the Duke of Norfolk arrived and the Lancastrians
broke and fled. John had been in the front of the fighting, towering
above the heads of the other knights and esquires with the exception of
the new King Edward IV who was a mighty man and handsome. The slaughter
was terrible. “No Quarter!” was the order, and most of those captured
were promptly beheaded.
After the pursuit was at an end John returned to Saxton where he found
the King who said:
“Thou art a valiant soldier. Kneel!”
Then he smote John gently on the back with his sword and said:
“Rise, Sir John Jernyngan! The field is won. Go now to thy people in
Norfolk.”
It may be imagined that this command of the King was promptly obeyed.
When John arrived he discovered that the news of his new honor had
preceded him. There were great rejoicings in which Blanche participated.
To her he seemed a different man—older, more sedate, of greater
knowledge, more to be admired and respected. She began to wonder what
were his thoughts? and above all what he thought of her, but he gave at
first no sign. In fact the slaughter after the battle had sobered him.
It was borne in upon him that the King was cruel and that trouble must
come. From boy he had become a man, accustomed to command and
self-reliant. Like the moth near the flame Blanche was attracted and
then repelled. She began to dream, and he figured in her dreams. She was
a beautiful girl, much courted and a trifle spoiled, but John seemed to
her stronger, handsomer and better than her other men friends. He never
wavered in kindness but said little. She became bolder and he met her
advances. Soon she found herself hopelessly in love.
In those days love was not alone the concern of the lovers. Fathers and
mothers, often overlords, and even sometimes the King, must be
consulted. When all these tedious matters had been arranged there was a
great wedding at Warwick Castle, where Anne insisted the ceremony must
be performed. The Bishop of Canterbury said mass and married the couple
in the presence of the King, the Earl of Warwick and many of the
nobility.
After their marriage several years of peace followed. Then more strife
and blood with the struggle between Edward and Warwick, the return of
Henry for a brief period, the fight at Barnet and the death of Warwick,
the accession of Richard III and his brief and bloody career ending in
the fight and his death on Bosworth Field. With the accession of Henry
VII, the wars of the roses were at an end; peace returned and our story
ends.
-----
Footnote 1:
Whethamstede, quoted by M. E. Christie in “Henry VI.”
Footnote 2:
June 3rd.
Footnote 3:
May 28th.
Footnote 4:
May 29th.
Footnote 5:
“For” in Fenn; seemingly a printer’s error, as the word is “sore” in
the modern version.
Footnote 6:
Here, according to Fenn, the words “and go the” occur in the original,
struck out.
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