THE RETURN OF KING EDWARD
The expulsion of King Edward had been marvellously sudden. Within
eleven days after his landing at Dartmouth Warwick was master of all
England. Not a blow had been struck for the exiled King. From Calais to
Berwick every man mounted the Red Rose or the Ragged Staff with real
or simulated manifestations of joy. On October 6th the Earl reached
London, which opened its gates with its accustomed readiness. It had
only delayed its surrender in fear of a riotous band of Kentishmen,
whom Sir Geoffrey Gate had gathered in the Earl's name. They had
wrought such mischief in Southwark that the Londoners refused to let
them in, and waited for the arrival of Warwick himself before they
would formally acknowledge King Henry. Meanwhile all the partisans of
York had either fled from the city or taken sanctuary. Queen Elizabeth
sought refuge in the precincts of Westminster, where she was soon after
delivered of a son, the first male child that had been born to King
Edward.
Riding through the city Warwick came to the Tower, and found King Henry
in his keeper's hands, "not worshipfully arrayed as a prince, and not
so cleanly kept as should beseem his state." The Earl led him forth
from the fortress,--whither he had himself conducted him, a prisoner
in bonds, five years before,--arrayed him in royal robes, and brought
him in state to St. Paul's, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, with all the
Common Council, walking before him, "while all the people to right and
left rejoiced with clapping of hands, and cried 'God save King Henry!'"
Then the King, after returning thanks for his deliverance in the
Cathedral, rode down Cheapside and took up his residence in the palace
of the Bishop of London.
Henry was much broken and enfeebled by his captivity. "He sat on his
throne as limp and helpless as a sack of wool," says one unfriendly
chronicler. "He was a mere shadow and pretence, and what was done in
his name was done without his will and knowledge." All that remained
unbroken in him was his piety and his imperturbable long-suffering
patience. But his weakness only made him the more fit for Warwick's
purpose. His deliverance took place on the 6th, and on October 9th
we find him beginning to sign a long series of documents which
reconstituted the government of the realm. It was made clear from the
first that Warwick and his friends were to have charge of the King
rather than the Lancastrian peers. In the first batch of appointments
Warwick became the King's Lieutenant, and resumed his old posts of
Captain of Calais and Admiral. George Neville was restored to the
Chancellorship, and Sir John Langstrother, Prior of the Hospitallers,
received again the Treasury, which Warwick had bestowed on him in
1469. The Duke of Clarence was made Lieutenant of Ireland, a post
he had enjoyed under his brother till his exile in 1470. Among the
Lancastrians, Oxford was made Constable, and Pembroke joint-Lieutenant
under Warwick. The rest received back their confiscated lands, but got
no official preferment.
Oxford's first exercise of his power as Constable was to try Tiptoft
Earl of Worcester, one of the few of King Edward's adherents whom no
one could pardon. Oxford had to avenge on him his father and brother,
whom the Earl had sentenced to be drawn and quartered in 1462, while
Warwick remembered his adherents impaled in the previous April. The
Butcher of England got no mercy, as might be expected, and was beheaded
on October 18th.
A few days before summonses had been sent out in the King's name for
a Parliament to meet on November 26th, for Warwick was eager to set
himself right with the nation at the earliest opportunity. Every care
was taken to show that the new rule was to be one of tolerance and
amnesty. The whole of the surviving peers who had sat in Edward's
last Parliament were invited to present themselves to meet King
Henry--however bitter their Yorkist partizanship had been--save
six only, and of these four had fled over-sea--Gloucester, Scales,
Hastings, and Say.
The Parliament met and was greeted by George Neville the Chancellor
with a sermon adapted to the times, on the text from Jeremiah, "Turn,
O ye back-sliding children." The proceedings of the session are lost,
but we know that they were mainly formal, confirming the King's
appointments to offices, ratifying the agreement made between Queen
Margaret and Clarence, that the latter should be declared heir to
the throne failing issue to the Prince of Wales, and reversing the
attainder of Somerset and Exeter and the other Lancastrian lords, who
were thus able to take their seats in the Upper House.
The most important political event of the restoration, however, was
the conclusion of the treaty with France, which Warwick had had so
close to his heart ever since the first abortive negotiations in
1464. An embassy, headed by the Bishop of Bayeux, titular Patriarch
of Jerusalem, appeared in London when Warwick's power was firmly
established, and a peace for twelve years and treaty of alliance was
duly concluded. Its most important feature was that it bound England
to take the French King's side in the struggle with Burgundy. When he
heard that Edward had been expelled and could no longer aid Charles
the Bold, Louis had at once attacked the towns on the Somme, and taken
Amiens and several other important places. Next spring his contest
with the Duke would begin in earnest, and he was overjoyed to know
that the English power would be used for his aid, by one who had a
strong personal dislike to the Burgundian. Warwick at once took steps
to strengthen the garrison of Calais, which was at this time entirely
surrounded by the Duke's territory, and began to make preparations for
a campaign in the next spring.
It is rather difficult to gauge with accuracy the feeling with which
England received the restoration of King Henry. The nation, however,
seems on the whole to have accepted the new government with great
equanimity if with no very marked enthusiasm. The Lancastrians were
of course contented, though they would have preferred to have won back
their position by their own arms. Of the Yorkists it was supposed that
most of the important sections held by the Earl and not by King Edward.
This was certainly the case, as later events showed, with the Commons
in most parts of the country, and notably in Yorkshire and Kent, which
had up to this time been so strongly attached to the cause of York.
There were, however, classes in which the restoration was not so well
received. It was disliked by such of the Yorkist nobility as were not
Nevilles. The Duke of Norfolk and all the Bourchier clan--Essex, the
Archbishop, Cromwell, and Berners--had not been displeased when Warwick
chastened the Queen's relatives, but had not wished to see Edward
entirely deposed. Other peers, such as Grey Earl of Kent, and the Earl
of Arundel, had committed themselves even more deeply to Edward's side,
by allying themselves by marriage with the Woodvilles. It was gall
and bitterness to all those heads of great houses to have to seek for
pardon and favour from their late enemies. What, for example, must have
been Norfolk's feelings when he was compelled, as the Paston records
describe, to sue as humbly to the Lancastrian Earl of Oxford as his own
dependents had been wont to sue to himself?
Another quarter where the restoration was taken ill was to be found
among the merchants of London. The late King had been a great spender
of money, and was at the moment of his exile deep in the books of many
wealthy purveyors of the luxuries in which he delighted. All these
debts had now become hopeless, and the unfortunate creditors were
sulky and depressed. Moreover, Edward's courteous and affable manners
and comely person had won him favour in the eyes of the Londoners in
whose midst he habitually dwelt, and still more so, unless tradition
errs, in the eyes of their wives. Few persons in the city, except
declared Lancastrians, looked upon the new government with any approach
to enthusiasm.
There was one individual, too, whose feelings as to the new government
were likely to be of no mean importance. George of Clarence, though
he had followed Warwick to London and taken a prominent part in all
the incidents of the restoration, was profoundly dissatisfied with
his position. Even when he had been made Lieutenant of Ireland--an
office which he chose to discharge by deputy--and presented with many
scores of manors, he was in no wise conciliated. He was farther from
the throne as the Prince of Wales' ultimate heir than he had been in
the days of his own brother's reign. Had the chance been given him, it
seems likely that he would have betrayed Warwick and joined King Edward
after his return to England. But events had marched too rapidly, and he
had found no opportunity to strike a blow for York. During the winter
of 1470-71, however, he put himself once more in communication with his
brother. The correspondence was carried on through their sisters--the
Duchess of Exeter on the English side of the Channel and the Duchess
of Burgundy over-sea. By this means Clarence renewed his promises of
help to Edward, and swore to join him, with every man that he could
raise, the moment that he set foot again in England. Meanwhile Warwick
had no suspicion of his son-in-law's treachery. He trusted him to the
uttermost, heaped favours upon him, and even got his name joined with
his own and Pembroke's as Lieutenants for King Henry in all the realm
of England.
For five months the Earl's reign was undisturbed. There was no one in
the country who dared dispute his will. Queen Margaret, whose presence
would have been his greatest difficulty, had not yet crossed the seas.
Her delay was strange. Perhaps she still dreaded putting herself in the
hands of her old enemy; perhaps the King of France detained her till
Warwick should have made his power in England too firm to be troubled
by her intrigues. But the Earl himself actually desired her presence.
He several times invited her to hasten her arrival, and at last sent
over Langstrother, the Treasurer of England, to urge his suit and
escort Margaret and her son across the Channel. It was not till March
that she could be induced to move; and by March the time was overdue.
Meanwhile King Edward had received but a luke-warm reception at the
Court of Burgundy. Duke Charles, saddled with his French war, would
have preferred to keep at peace with England. His sympathies were
divided between Lancaster and York. If his wife was Edward's sister,
he himself had Lancastrian blood in his veins, and had long maintained
Somerset, Exeter, and other Lancastrian exiles at his Court. But he
was driven into taking a decided line in favour of Edward by the
fact that Warwick, his personal enemy, was supreme in the counsels
of England. If the Earl allied himself to Louis of France, it became
absolutely necessary for Duke Charles to lend his support to his exiled
brother-in-law, with the object of upsetting Warwick's domination.
Edward himself had found again his ancient restless energy in the day
of adversity. He knew that in the last autumn he could have made a
good defence if it had not been for Montagu's sudden treachery, and
was determined not to consider his cause lost till it had been fairly
tried by the arbitrament of the sword. He was in full communication
with England, and had learnt that many more beside Clarence were eager
to see him land. The adventure would be perilous, for he would have to
fight not only, as of old, the Lancastrian party, but the vast masses
of the Commons whose trust had always been in the great Earl. But peril
seems to have been rather an incentive than a deterrent to Edward,
when the reckless mood was on him. He took the aid that Charles of
Burgundy promised, though it was given in secret and with a grudging
heart. After a final interview with the Duke at Aire, he moved off in
February to Flushing, where a few ships had been collected for him in
the haven among the marshes of Walcheren. About fifteen hundred English
refugees accompanied him, including his brother of Gloucester and Lords
Hastings, Say, and Scales. The Duke had hired for him three hundred
German hand-gun men, and presented him with fifty thousand florins in
gold. With such slender resources the exiled King did not scruple to
attempt the reconquest of his kingdom. On March 11th he and his men set
sail. They were convoyed across the German Ocean by a fleet of fourteen
armed Hanseatic vessels, which the Duke had sent for their protection.
Yet the moment that Charles heard they were safely departed, he
published, for Warwick's benefit, a proclamation warning any of his
subjects against aiding or abetting Edward of York in any enterprise
against the realm of England.
However secretly Edward's preparations were concerted, they had not
entirely escaped his enemy's notice. Warwick had made dispositions
for resisting a landing to the best of his ability. A fleet stationed
at Calais, under the Bastard of Fauconbridge, watched the straits and
protected the Kentish coast. The Earl himself lay at London to overawe
the discontented and guard King Henry. Oxford held command in the
Eastern Counties--the most dangerous district, for Norfolk and the
Bourchiers were rightly suspected of keeping up communication with
Edward. In the North Montagu and the Earl of Northumberland were in
charge from Hull to Berwick with divided authority.
As Warwick had expected, the invaders aimed at landing in East Anglia.
On March 12th Edward and his fleet lay off Cromer. He sent two knights
ashore to rouse the country ere he himself set foot on land. But in
a few hours the messengers returned. They bade him hoist sail again,
for Oxford was keeping strict watch over all those parts, and Edward's
friends were all in prison or bound over to good behaviour. On
receiving this disappointing intelligence, Edward determined on one of
those bold strokes which were so often his salvation. If the friendly
districts were so well watched, it was likely that the counties where
Warwick's interest was supreme would be less carefully secured. The
King bade his pilot steer north and make for the Humber mouth, though
Yorkshire was known to be devoted to the great Earl.
That night a gale from the south swept over the Wash and scattered
Edward's ships far and wide. On March 15th it abated, and the vessels
came to land at various points on the coast of Holderness. The King and
Hastings, with five hundred men, disembarked at Ravenspur--a good omen,
for this was the same spot at which Henry of Bolingbroke had commenced
his victorious march on London in 1399. The other ships landed their
men at neighbouring points on the coast, and by the next morning all
Edward's two thousand men were safely concentrated. Their reception
by the country-side was most discouraging. The people deserted their
villages and drew together in great bands, as if minded to oppose the
invaders. Indeed, they only needed leaders to induce them to take the
offensive; but no man of mark chanced to be in Holderness. Montagu lay
in the West-Riding and Northumberland in the North. A squire named
Delamere, and a priest named Westerdale, the only leaders whom the men
of Holderness could find, contented themselves with following the King
at a distance, and with sending news of his approach to York.
A less resolute adventurer than Edward Plantagenet would probably have
taken to his ships again when he found neither help nor sympathy in
Yorkshire. But Edward was resolved to play out his game; the sight of
the hostile country-side only made him determine to eke out the lion's
hide with the fox's skin. Calling to mind the stratagem which Henry
of Bolingbroke had practised in that same land seventy-two years ago,
he sent messengers everywhere to announce that he came in arms not to
dispossess King Henry, but only to claim his ancestral duchy of York.
When he passed through towns and villages he bade his men shout for
King Henry, and he himself mounted the Lancastrian badge of the ostrich
feathers. In these borrowed plumes he came before the walls of York,
still unmolested, but without having drawn a man to his banners. Hull,
the largest town that he had approached, had resolutely closed its
gates against him.
The fate of Edward's enterprise was settled before the gates of York on
the morning of March 18th. He found the walls manned by the citizens
in arms; but they parleyed instead of firing upon him, and when he
declared that he came in peace, aspiring only to his father's dignity
and possessions, he himself with sixteen persons only in his train
was admitted within the gate. Then upon the cross of the high altar
in the Minster he swore "that he never would again take upon himself
to be King of England, nor would have done before that time, but for
the exciting and stirring of the Earl of Warwick," "and thereto before
all the people he cried, 'King Harry! King Harry and Prince Edward!'"
Satisfied by these protestations, the men of York admitted the invaders
within their walls. Edward, however, only stayed for twelve hours in
York, and next morning he marched on Tadcaster.
This day was almost as critical as the last. It was five days since
the landing at Ravenspur, and the news had now had time to spread.
If Montagu and Northumberland were bent on loyal service to King
Henry, they must now be close at hand. But the star of York was in the
ascendant. Northumberland remembered at this moment rather his ancient
enmity for the Nevilles than his grandfather's loyalty to Lancaster.
He gathered troops indeed, but he made no attempt to march south or
to intercept the invaders. It is probable that he was actually in
treasonable communication with Edward, as the Lancastrian chroniclers
declare. Montagu, on the other hand, collected two or three thousand
men and threw himself into Pontefract, to guard the Great North Road.
But Edward, instead of approaching Pontefract, moved his army on to
cross-roads, which enabled him to perform a flank march round his
adversary; he slept that evening at Sendal Castle, the spot where his
father had spent the night before the disastrous battle of Wakefield.
How Montagu came to let Edward get past him is one of the problems
whose explanation will never be forthcoming. It may have been that his
scouts lost sight of the enemy and missed the line of his flank march.
It may equally well have been that Montagu overvalued the King's army,
which was really no larger than his own, and would not fight till he
should be joined by his colleague Northumberland. Some contemporary
writers assert that the Marquis, remembering his old favour with the
King, was loath that his hand should be the one to crush his former
master. Others say that it was no scruple of ancient loyalty that moved
Montagu, but that he had actually determined to desert his brother and
join Edward's party. But his later behaviour renders this most unlikely.
Montagu's fatal inaction was the salvation of Edward. At Sendal he
received the first encouragement which he had met since his landing.
He was there in the midst of the estates of the duchy of York, and a
considerable body of men joined him from among his ancestral retainers.
Encouraged by this accession, he pushed on rapidly southward, and by
marches of some twenty miles a day reached Doncaster on the 21st and
Nottingham on the 23rd. On the way recruits began to flock in, and
at Nottingham a compact body of six hundred men-at-arms, under Sir
James Harrington and Sir William Parr, swelled the Yorkist ranks. Then
Edward, for the first time since his landing, paused for a moment to
take stock of the position of his friends and his enemies.
Meanwhile the news of his march had run like wild-fire all over
England, and in every quarter men were arming for his aid or his
destruction. Warwick had hoped at first that Montagu and Northumberland
would stay the invader, but when he heard that Edward had slipped
past, he saw that he himself must take the field. Accordingly he left
London on the 22nd, and rode hastily to Warwick to call out his Midland
retainers. The guard of the city and the person of King Henry was
left to his brother the Archbishop. Simultaneously Somerset departed
to levy troops in the South-West, and Clarence set forth to raise
Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. Oxford had already taken the field, and
on the 22nd lay at Lynn with four thousand men, the force that the not
very numerous Lancastrians of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge could put
in arms. From thence he directed his march on Newark, hoping to fall on
Edward's flank somewhere near Nottingham.
At that very moment the invader had thrown off the mask he had
hitherto worn. Finding himself well received and strongly reinforced,
he laid aside his pretence of asking only for the duchy of York, and
had himself proclaimed as King. But his position was perilous still:
Warwick was gathering head in his front; Montagu was following
cautiously in his rear; Oxford was about to assail his flank. The
enemies must be kept apart at all hazards; so Edward, neglecting the
others for the moment, turned fiercely on Oxford. He marched rapidly on
Newark with some five or six thousand men. This decision and show of
force frightened the Earl, who, though joined by the Duke of Exeter and
Lord Bardolph, felt himself too weak to fight. When the vanguard of the
Yorkists appeared, he hastily left Newark and fell back on to Stamford
in much disorder.
Having thus cleared his flank, Edward turned back on Nottingham and
then made for Leicester. Here he was joined by the Yorkists of the East
Midlands in great numbers; of the retainers of Lord Hastings alone no
less than three thousand came to him in one body.
Warwick, who lay only two short marches from the invader, was straining
every nerve to get together an army. His missives ran east and west to
call in all the knights of the Midlands who had ever mounted the Ragged
Staff or the Red Rose. One of these letters was found in 1889, among
other treasures, in the lumber room of Belvoir Castle. It was addressed
to Henry Vernon, a great Derbyshire landholder. The first part, written
in a secretary's hand, runs as follows:
Right Trusty and Wellbeloved--I grete you well, and desire and
heartily pray you that, inasmuch as yonder man Edward, the King our
soverain lord's great enemy, rebel, and traitor, is now arrived in
the north parts of this land, and coming fast on south, accompanied
with Flemings, Easterlings, and Danes, not exceeding the number of
two thousand persons, nor the country as he cometh not falling to
him, ye will therefore, incontinent and forthwith after the sight
hereof, dispose you to make toward me to Coventry with as many people
defensibly arranged as ye can readily make, and that ye be with me in
all haste possible, as my veray singular heart is in you, and as I may
do thing [_sic_] to your weal or worship hereafter. And may God keep
you.--Written at Warwick on March 25th.
Then in the Earl's own hand was written the post-script, appealing to
Vernon's personal friendship: "Henry, I pray you ffayle me not now, as
ever I may do for you."
Sad to say, this urgent appeal, wellnigh the only autograph of the
great Earl that we possess, seems to have failed in its purpose. Vernon
preferred to watch the game, and as late as April 2nd had made no
preparation to take arms for either side.
On March 28th Warwick with six thousand men advanced to Coventry, a
strongly-fortified town facing Edward's line of advance. On the same
day his adversary, whose forces must now have amounted to nearly ten
thousand, marched southward from Leicester. Next morning Warwick and
the King were in sight of each other, and a battle was expected. But
the Earl was determined to wait for his reinforcements before fighting.
He calculated that Montagu must soon arrive from the north, Oxford
from the east, Clarence from the south-west. Accordingly he shut
himself up in Coventry, and refused to risk an engagement. Edward,
whose movements all through this campaign evince the most consummate
generalship, promptly marched past his enemy and seized Warwick, where
he made his headquarters. He then placed his army across the high road
from Coventry to London, cutting off the Earl's direct communication
with the capital, and waited. Like the Earl he was expecting his
reinforcements.
The first force that drew near was Clarence's levy from the south-west.
With seven thousand men in his ranks the Duke reached Burford on April
2nd. Next day he marched for Banbury. On the 4th Warwick received the
hideous news that his son-in-law had mounted the White Rose and joined
King Edward. The treason had been long meditated, and was carried out
with perfect deliberation and great success. A few miles beyond Banbury
Clarence's array found itself facing that of the Yorkists. Clarence
bade his men shout for King Edward, and fall into the ranks of the
army that confronted them. Betrayed by their leader, the men made no
resistance, and allowed themselves to be enrolled in the Yorkist army.
Clarence, for very shame we must suppose, offered to obtain terms for
his father-in-law. "He sent to Coventry," says a Yorkist chronicler,
"offering certain good and profitable conditions to the Earl, if he
would accept them. But the Earl, whether he despaired of any durable
continuance of good accord betwixt the King and himself, or else
willing to maintain the great oaths, pacts, and promises sworn to Queen
Margaret, or else because he thought he should still have the upperhand
of the King, or else led by certain persons with him, as the Earl of
Oxford, who bore great malice against the King, would not suffer any
manner of appointment, were it reasonable or unreasonable." He drove
Clarence's messengers away, "crying that he thanked God he was himself
and not that traitor Duke."
Although Oxford had joined him with four thousand men, and Montagu was
approaching, Warwick still felt himself not strong enough to accept
battle when Edward and Clarence drew out their army before the gates of
Coventry on the morning of April 5th. He then saw them fall into column
of march, and retire along the London road. Edward, having now some
eighteen thousand men at his back, thought himself strong enough to
strike at the capital, where his friends had been busily astir in his
behalf for the last fortnight. Leaving a strong rear-guard behind, with
orders to detain Warwick at all hazards, he hurried his main body along
the Watling Street, and in five days covered the seventy-five miles
which separated him from London.
Meanwhile Warwick had been joined by Montagu as well as by Oxford, and
also received news that Somerset, with seven or eight thousand men
more, was only fifty miles away. This put him in good spirits, for he
counted on London holding out for a few days, and on the men of Kent
rallying to his standard when he approached the Thames. He wrote in
haste to his brother the Archbishop, who was guarding King Henry, that
if he would maintain the city but forty-eight hours, they would crush
the invading army between them. Then he left Coventry and hurried after
the King, who for the next five days was always twenty miles in front
of him.
But all was confusion in London. The Archbishop was not a man of war,
and no soldier of repute was at his side. The Lancastrian party in
the city had never been strong, and the Yorkists were now organising
an insurrection. There were more than two thousand of them in the
sanctuaries at Westminster and elsewhere, of whom three hundred were
knights and squires. All were prepared to rise at the first signal.
When news came that Edward had reached St. Albans, the Archbishop
mounted King Henry on horseback and rode with him about London,
adjuring the citizens to be true to him and arm in the good cause.
But the sight of the frail shadow of a king, with bowed back and
lack-lustre eyes, passing before them, was not likely to stir the
people to enthusiasm. Only six or seven hundred armed men mustered in
St. Paul's Churchyard beneath the royal banner.[19]
Such a force was obviously unequal to defending a disaffected city.
Next day, when the army of Edward appeared before the walls, Urswick
the Recorder of London, and certain aldermen with him, dismissed the
guard at Aldersgate and let Edward in, no man withstanding them. The
Archbishop of York and King Henry took refuge in the Bishop of London's
palace; they were seized and sent to the Tower. George Neville obtained
his pardon so easily that many accused him of treason. It seems quite
possible that, when he found at the last moment that he could not
raise the Londoners, he sent secretly to Edward and asked for pardon,
promising to make no resistance.
The capture of London rendered King Edward's position comparatively
secure. He had now the base of operations which he had up to this
moment lacked, and had established himself in the midst of a
population favourable to the Yorkist cause. Next day he received a
great accession of strength. Bourchier Earl of Essex, his brother
Archbishop Bourchier, Lord Berners, and many other consistent partisans
of York, joined him with seven thousand men levied in the Eastern
Counties. His army was now so strong that he might face any force which
Warwick could bring up, unless the Earl should wait for the levies of
the extreme North and West to join him.
On Maundy Thursday London had fallen; on Good Friday the King lay in
London; on Saturday afternoon he moved out again with his army greatly
strengthened and refreshed, and marched north to meet the pursuing
enemy. Warwick, much retarded on his way by the rear-guard which
the King had left to detain him and by the necessity of waiting for
Somerset's force, had reached Dunstable on the Friday, only to learn
in the evening that London was lost and his brother and King Henry
captured. He pushed on, however, and swerving from the Watling Street
at St. Albans threw himself eastward, with the intention, we cannot
doubt, of cutting Edward's communication with the Eastern Midlands,
where York was strong, by placing himself across the line of the Ermine
Street. On Saturday evening his army encamped on a rising ground near
Monken Hadley Church, overlooking the little town of Barnet which lay
below him in the hollow. The whole force lay down in order of battle,
ranged behind a line of hedges; in front of them was the heathy
plateau, four hundred feet above the sea, which slopes down into the
plain of Middlesex.
An hour or two after Warwick's footsore troops had taken post for the
night, and long after the dusk had fallen, the alarm was raised that
the Yorkists were at hand. On hearing of the Earl's approach the King
had marched out of London with every man that he could raise. His
vanguard beat Warwick's scouts out of the town of Barnet, and chased
them back on to the main position. Having found the enemy, Edward
pushed on through Barnet, climbed the slope, and ranged his men in the
dark facing the hedges behind which the Earl's army lay,
much nearer than he had supposed, for he took not his ground so even
in the front as he should have done, if he might better have seen
them. And there they kept them still without any manner of noise or
language. Both sides had guns and ordinance, but the Earl, meaning
to have greatly annoyed the King, shot guns almost all the night.
But it fortuned that they always overshot the King's host, and hurt
them little or nought, for the King lay much nearer to them than they
deemed. But the King suffered no guns to be shot on his side, or else
right few, which was of great advantage to him, for thereby the Earl
should have found the ground that he lay in, and levelled guns thereat.
So, with the cannon booming all night above them, the two hosts lay
down in their armour to spend that miserable Easter even. Next day it
was obvious that a decisive battle must occur; for the King, whose
interest it was to fight at once, before Warwick could draw in his
reinforcements from Kent and from the North and West, had placed
himself so close to the Earl that there was no possibility of the
Lancastrian host withdrawing without being observed. The morrow would
settle, once for all, if the name of Richard Neville or that of Edward
Plantagenet was to be all-powerful in England.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 19: The _Arrival of King Edward_ says "only six or seven
thousand" in the printed text. This must be a scribe's blunder,
being not a small number but a large one; and Waurin, who copies the
_Arrival_ verbatim, has "600 or 700."]