THE DOWNFALL OF YORK.
1469-1470
Insurrections.--The king goes to meet the rebels.--Rebellion
suppressed.--A grand reconciliation.--The king frightened.--The
quarrel renewed.--New reconciliations.--New rebellions.--Warwick comes
to open war with the king.--Warwick and his party not allowed to land
at Calais.--The party in great straits.--They land at Harfleur.--Strange
compact between Warwick and Queen Margaret.--Attempt to entice Clarence
away from Warwick.--Edward does not fear.--The Duke of Burgundy.--Queen
Margaret crosses the Channel.--Landing of the expedition.--Reception of
it.--Edward's friends and followers forsake him.--Edward flies from the
country.--Difficulties and dangers.--His mother makes her escape to
sanctuary.--Birth of Edward's son and heir.--King Henry is fully
restored to the throne.
Edward's apprehension and anxiety in respect to the danger that
Warwick might be concocting schemes to restore the Lancastrian line to
the throne were greatly increased by the sudden breaking out of
insurrections in the northern part of the island, while Warwick and
Clarence were absent in Calais, on the occasion of Clarence's marriage
to Isabella. The insurgents did not demand the restoration of the
Lancastrian line, but only the removal of the queen's family and
relations from the council. The king raised an armed force, and
marched to the northward to meet the rebels. But his army was
disaffected, and he could do nothing. They fled before the advancing
army of insurgents, and Edward went with them to Nottingham Castle,
where he shut himself up, and wrote urgently to Warwick and Clarence
to come to his aid.
Warwick made no haste to obey this command. After some delay, however,
he left Calais in command of one of his lieutenants and repaired to
Nottingham, where he soon released the king from his dangerous
situation. He quelled the rebellion too, but not until the insurgents
had seized the father and one of the brothers of the queen, and cut
off their heads.
In the mean time, the Lancastrians themselves, thinking that this was
a favorable time for them, began to put themselves in motion. Warwick
was the only person who was capable of meeting them and putting them
down. This he did, taking the king with him in his train, in a
condition more like that of a prisoner than a sovereign. At length,
however, the rebellions were suppressed, and all parties returned to
London.
There now took place what purported to be a grand reconciliation.
Treaties were drawn up and signed between Warwick and Clarence on one
side, and the king on the other, by which both parties bound
themselves to forgive and forget all that had passed, and thenceforth
to be good friends; but, notwithstanding all the solemn signings and
sealings with which these covenants were secured, the actual condition
of the parties in respect to each other remained entirely unchanged,
and neither of the three felt a whit more confidence in the others
after the execution of these treaties than before.
At last the secret distrust which they felt toward each other broke
out openly. Warwick's brother, the Archbishop of York, made an
entertainment at one of his manors for a party of guests, in which
were included the king, the Duke of Clarence, and the Earl of Warwick.
It was about three months after the treaties were signed that this
entertainment was made, and the feast was intended to celebrate and
cement the good understanding which it was now agreed was henceforth
to prevail. The king arrived at the manor, and, while he was in his
room making his toilet for the supper, which was all ready to be
served, an attendant came to him and whispered in his ear,
"Your majesty is in danger. There is a band of armed men in ambush
near the house."
The king was greatly alarmed at hearing this. He immediately stole out
of the house, mounted his horse, and, with two or three followers,
rode away as fast as he could ride. He continued his journey all
night, and in the morning arrived at Windsor Castle.
Then followed new negotiations between Warwick and the king, with
mutual reproaches, criminations, and recriminations without number.
Edward insisted that treachery was intended at the house to which he
had been invited, and that he had barely escaped, by his sudden
flight, from falling into the snare. But Warwick and his friends
denied this entirely, and attributed the flight of the king to a
wholly unreasonable alarm, caused by his jealous and suspicious
temper. At last Edward suffered himself to be reassured, and then came
new treaties and a new reconciliation.
This peace was made in the fall of 1469, and in the spring of 1470 a
new insurrection broke out. The king believed that Warwick himself,
and Clarence, were really at the bottom of these disturbances, but
still he was forced to send them with bodies of troops to subdue the
rebels; he, however, immediately raised a large army for himself, and
proceeded to the seat of war. He reached the spot before Warwick and
Clarence arrived there. He gave battle to the insurgents, and defeated
them. He took a great many prisoners, and beheaded them. He found, or
pretended to find, proof that Warwick and Clarence, instead of
intending to fight the insurgents, had made their arrangements for
joining them on the following day, and that he had been just in time
to defeat their treachery. Whether he really found evidence of these
intentions on the part of Warwick and Clarence or not, or whether he
was flushed by the excitement of victory, and resolved to seize the
occasion to cut loose at once and forever from the entanglement in
which he had been bound, is somewhat uncertain. At all events, he now
declared open war against Warwick and Clarence, and set off
immediately on his march to meet them, at the head of a force much
superior to theirs.
Warwick and Clarence marched and countermarched, and made many
manoeuvres to escape a battle, and during all this time their
strength was rapidly diminishing. As long as they were nominally on
the king's side, however really hostile to him, they had plenty of
followers; but, now that they were in open war against him, their
forces began to melt away. In this emergency, Warwick suddenly changed
all his plans. He disbanded his army, and then taking all his family
with him, including Clarence and Isabella, and accompanied by an
inconsiderable number of faithful friends, he marched at the head of a
small force which he retained as an escort to the sea-port of
Dartmouth, and then embarked for Calais.
The vessels employed to transport the party formed quite a little
fleet, so numerous were the servants and attendants that accompanied
the fugitives. They embarked without delay on reaching the coast, as
they were in haste to make the passage and arrive at Calais, for
Isabella, Clarence's wife, was about to become a mother, and at Calais
they thought that they should all be, as it were, at home.
It will be remembered that the Earl of Warwick was the governor of
Calais, and that when he left it he had appointed a lieutenant to take
command of it during his absence. Before his ship arrived off the port
this lieutenant had received dispatches from Edward, which had been
hurried to him by a special messenger, informing him that Warwick was
in rebellion against his sovereign, and forbidding the lieutenant to
allow him or his party to enter the town.
Accordingly, when Warwick's fleet arrived off the port, they found the
guns of the batteries pointed at them, and sentinels on the piers
warning them not to attempt to land.
Warwick was thunderstruck. To be thus refused admission to his own
fortress by his own lieutenant was something amazing, as well as
outrageous. The earl was at first completely bewildered; but, on
demanding an explanation, the lieutenant sent him word that the
refusal to land was owing to the people of the town. They, he said,
having learned that he and the king had come to open war, insisted
that the fortress should be reserved for their sovereign. Warwick
then explained the situation that his daughter was in; but the
lieutenant was firm. The determination of the people was so strong, he
said, that he could not control it. Finally, the child was born on
board the ship, as it lay at anchor off the port, and all the aid or
comfort which the party could get from the shore consisted of two
flagons of wine, which the lieutenant, with great hesitation and
reluctance, allowed to be sent on board. The child was a son. His
birth was an event of great importance, for he was, of course, as
Clarence's son, a prince in the direct line of succession to the
English crown.
At length, finding that he could not land at Calais, Warwick sailed
away with his fleet along the coast of France till he reached the
French port of Harfleur. Here his ships were admitted, and the whole
party were allowed to land.
Then followed various intrigues, manoeuvres, and arrangements, which
we have not time here fully to unravel; but the end of all was, that
in a few weeks after the Earl of Warwick's landing in France, he
repaired to a castle where Margaret of Anjou and her son, the Prince
of Wales, were residing, and there, in the course of a short time, he
made arrangements to espouse her cause, and assist in restoring her
husband to the English throne, on condition that her son, the Prince
of Wales, should marry his second daughter Anne. It is said that Queen
Margaret for a long time refused to consent to this arrangement. She
was extremely unwilling that her son, the heir to the English crown,
should take for a wife the daughter of the hated enemy to whom the
downfall of her family, and all the terrible calamities which had
befallen them, had been mainly owing. She was, however, at length
induced to yield. Her ambition gained the victory over her hate, and
she consented to the alliance on a solemn oath being taken by Warwick
that thenceforth he would be on her side, and do all in his power to
restore her family to the throne.
This arrangement was accordingly carried into effect, and thus the
earl had one of his daughters married to the next heir to the English
crown in the line of York, and the other to the next heir in the line
of Lancaster. He had now only to choose to which dynasty he would
secure the throne. Of course, the oath which he had taken, like other
political oaths taken in those days, was only to be kept so long as he
should deem it for his interest to keep it.
He could not at once openly declare in favor of King Henry, for fear
of alienating Clarence from him. But Clarence was soon drawn away.
King Edward, when he heard of the marriage of Warwick's daughter with
the Prince of Wales, immediately formed a plan for sending a messenger
to negotiate with Clarence. He could not do this openly, for he knew
very well that Warwick would not allow any avowed messenger from
Edward to land; so he sent a lady. The lady was a particular friend of
Isabella, Clarence's wife. She traveled privately by the way of
Calais. On the way she said nothing about the object of her journey,
but gave out simply that she was going to join her mistress, the
Princess Isabella. On her arrival she managed the affair with great
discretion. She easily obtained private interviews with Clarence, and
represented to him that Warwick, now that his daughter was married to
the heir on the Lancastrian side, would undoubtedly lay all his plans
forthwith for putting that family on the throne, and that thus
Clarence would lose all.
"And therefore," said she, "how much better it will be for you to
leave him and return to your brother Edward, who is ready to forgive
and forget all the past, and receive you again as his friend."
Clarence was convinced by these representations, and soon afterward,
watching his opportunity, he made his way to England, and there
espoused his brother's cause, and was received again into his service.
In the mean time, tidings were continually coming to King Edward from
his friends on the Continent, warning him of Warwick's plans, and
bidding him to be upon his guard. But Edward had no fear. He said he
wished that Warwick would come.
"All I ask of my friends on the other side of the Channel," said he,
"is that, when he does come, they will not let him get away again
before I catch him--as he did before."
Edward's great friend across the Channel was his brother-in-law, the
Duke of Burgundy, the same who, when Count Charles, had married the
Princess Margaret of York, as related in a former chapter. The Duke of
Burgundy prepared and equipped a fleet, and had it all in readiness to
intercept the earl in case he should attempt to sail for England.
In the mean time, Queen Margaret and the earl went on with their
preparations. The King of France furnished them with men, arms, and
money. When every thing was ready, the earl sent word to the north of
England, to some of his friends and partisans there, to make a sort
of false insurrection, in order to entice away Edward and his army
from the capital. This plan succeeded. Edward heard of the rising,
and, collecting all the troops which were at hand, he marched to the
northward to put it down. Just at this time a sudden storm arose and
dispersed the Duke of Burgundy's fleet. The earl then immediately put
to sea, taking with him Margaret of Anjou and her son, the Prince of
Wales, with his wife, the Earl of Warwick's daughter. The Prince of
Wales was now about eighteen years old. The father, King Henry,
Margaret's husband, was not joined with the party. He was all this
time, as you will recollect, a prisoner in the Tower, where Warwick
himself had shut him up when he deposed him in order to place Edward
upon the throne.
All Europe looked on with astonishment at these proceedings, and
watched the result with intense interest. Here was a man who, having,
by a desperate and bloody war, deposed a king, and shut him up in
prison, and compelled his queen and the prince his son, the heir, to
fly from the country to save their lives, had now sought the exiles in
their banishment, had married his own daughter to the prince, and was
setting forth on an expedition for the purpose of liberating the
father again, and restoring him to the throne.
The earl's fleet crossed the Channel safely, and landed on the coast
of Devonshire, in the southwestern part of the island. The landing of
the expedition was the signal for great numbers of the nobles and high
families throughout the realm to prepare for changing sides; for it
was the fact, throughout the whole course of these wars between the
houses of York and Lancaster, that a large proportion of the nobility
and gentry, and great numbers of other adventurers, who lived in
various ways on the public, stood always ready at once to change sides
whenever there was a prospect that another side was coming into power.
Then there were, in such a case as this, great numbers who were
secretly in favor of the Lancaster line, but who were prevented from
manifesting their preference while the house of York was in full
possession of power. All these persons were aroused and excited by the
landing of Warwick. King Edward found that his calls upon his friends
to rally to his standard were not promptly obeyed. His friends were
beginning to feel some doubt whether it would be best to continue his
friends. A certain preacher in London had the courage to pray in
public for the "king in the Tower," and the manner in which this
allusion was received by the populace, and the excitement which it
produced, showed how ready the city of London was to espouse Henry's
cause.
These, and other such indications, alarmed Edward very much. He turned
to the southward again when he learned that Warwick had landed.
Richard, who had, during all this period, adhered faithfully to
Edward's cause, was with him, in command of a division of the army. As
Warwick himself was rapidly advancing toward the north at this time,
the two armies soon began to approach each other. As the time of trial
drew nigh, Edward found that his friends and supporters were rapidly
abandoning him. At length, one day, while he was at dinner, a
messenger came in and told him that one of the leading officers of the
army, with the whole division under his command, were waving their
caps and cheering for "King Harry." He saw at once that all was lost,
and he immediately prepared to fly.
He was not far from the eastern coast at this time, and there was a
small vessel there under his orders, which had been employed in
bringing provisions from the Thames to supply his army. There were
also two Dutch vessels there. The king took possession of these
vessels, with Richard, and the few other followers that went with him,
and put at once to sea. Nobody knew where they were going.
Very soon after they had put to sea they were attacked by pirates.
They escaped only by running their vessel on shore on the coast of
Finland. Here the king found himself in a state of almost absolute
destitution, so that he had to pawn his clothing to satisfy the most
urgent demands. At length, after meeting with various strange
adventures, he found his way to the Hague, where he was, for the time,
in comparative safety.
As soon as Warwick ascertained that Edward had fled, he turned toward
London, with nothing now to impede his progress. He entered London in
triumph. Clarence joined him, and entered London in his train; for
Clarence, though he had gone to England with the intention of making
common cause with his brother, had not been able yet to decide
positively whether it would, on the whole, be for his interest to do
so, and had, accordingly, kept himself in some degree uncommitted, and
now he turned at once again to Warwick's side.
The queen--Elizabeth Woodville--with her mother Jacquetta, were
residing at the Tower at this time, where they had King Henry in
their keeping; for the Tower was an extended group of buildings, in
which palace and prison were combined in one. As soon as the queen
learned that Edward was defeated, and that Warwick and Clarence were
coming in triumph to London, she took her mother and three of her
daughters--Elizabeth, Mary, and Cecily--who were with her at that
time, and also a lady attendant, and hurried down the Tower stairs to
a barge which was always in waiting there. She embarked on board the
barge, and ordered the men to row her up to Westminster.
Westminster is at the upper end of London, as the Tower is at the
lower. On arriving at Westminster, the whole party fled for refuge to
a sanctuary there. This sanctuary was a portion of the sacred
precincts of a church, from which a refugee could not be taken,
according to the ideas of those times, without committing the dreadful
crime of sacrilege. A part of the building remained standing for three
hundred years after this time, as represented in the opposite
engraving. It was a gloomy old edifice, and it must have been a
cheerless residence for princesses and a queen.
[Illustration: THE SANCTUARY.]
In this sanctuary, the queen, away from her husband, and deprived of
almost every comfort, gave birth to her first son. Some persons
living near took compassion upon her forlorn and desolate condition,
and rendered her such aid as was absolutely necessary, out of charity.
The abbot of the monastery connected with the church sent in various
conveniences, and a good woman named Mother Cobb, who lived near by,
came in and acted as nurse for the mother and the child.
The child was baptized in the sanctuary a few days after he was born.
He was named Edward, after his father. Of course, the birth of this
son of King Edward cut off Clarence and his son from the succession on
the York side. This little Edward was now the heir, and, about
thirteen years after this, as we shall see in the sequel, he became
King of England.
As soon as the Earl of Warwick reached London, he proceeded at once to
the Tower to release old King Henry from his confinement. He found the
poor king in a wretched plight. His apartment was gloomy and
comfortless, his clothing was ragged, and his person squalid and
dirty. The earl brought him forth from his prison, and, after causing
his personal wants to be properly attended to, clothed him once more
in royal robes, and conveyed him in state through London to the palace
in Westminster, and established him there nominally as King of
England, though Warwick was to all intents and purposes the real king.
A Parliament was called, and all necessary laws were passed to
sanction and confirm the dynasty. Queen Margaret, who, however, had
not yet arrived from the Continent, was restored to her former rank,
and the young Prince of Wales, now about eighteen years old, was the
object of universal interest throughout the kingdom, as now the
unquestioned and only heir to the crown.