CHAPTER XIV. THE EXCESSION OF EDWARD IV. While the second battle of St. Albans was being fought, Edward of March, Duke of York, was coming from Gloucestershire with all the forces he could collect. He was too late to assist Warwick in the disastrous battle, but he joined the vanquished Earl and Oxfordshire, probably at Chipping Norton, where the road over the Cotswolds from Gloucestershire begins to descend into the valley of the Thames. Edward had with him many gentlemen from the March and over eight thousand men, but he had little money, the bulk of his men followed him at their own charges. Warwick, on the other hand, although he could not have brought either men or money, could assure Edward of the popularity of the Yorkist cause in London and of the plentifulness of supplies there. The Queen's forces were still about St. Albans making themselves unpopular by reason of the depredations which the northern men made upon the townsmen. Edward resolved to advance while London was still open to him. On February 26, nine days after the Battle of St. Albans he entered the city. The Queen's forces retired northwards, although they might have stood in his way and risked all upon a battle. If Edward had been vanquished outside London and the Yorkist cause had suffered a third defeat in succession, it is likely he would never have been king. As it was, he came to London unopposed. Then all the city were fain and thanked God and said let us walk in a new vineyard and let us make us a gay garden in the month of March with this fair white rose and herb, the Earl of March. Edward stayed for the next week in Baynard's Castle which belonged to his family. Meanwhile conversations were being held between the magnates of the Yorkist Party and the chief citizens of London. The logic of events was steadily leading everyone to the final step when the Yorkist prince should not merely be declared heir to the throne but actually king. The victory of the Queen at St. Albans, the promptly ensuing executions of the captured leaders, the spoiling of St. Albans by the conquering army, had shown all who stood by Edward that there was no possibility of making terms with the Queen. The Yorkists were now not merely enemies of the crown in fact but in law too, for King Henry was willingly with the Queen and all who opposed her in him were traitors. So there was no way left by which to legalize the Yorkist position but to repudiate the whole encastry and system and declare a new state, to set up a new king and to look to him as the fountain of all right and justice. On the Sunday after Edward's arrival a great assembly of citizens and soldiers between three and four thousand and all was held in the open space beyond Clarkinwell. As they all stood marshaled in due order the Chancellor of England, George Neville, Bishop of Exeter proclaimed the title and right of Edward to the crowns of England in France. William of Worcester was present at this meeting and after hearing the proclamation went back to the city with the people. On Wednesday, March 3rd, 1461 the magnates held a council at Baynards Castle. There were present the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Burchier, the Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Beecham, the Bishop of Exeter, Dr. Neville, John, Duke of Norfolk, Richard, Earl of Warwick, Lord Fitzwalter, Lord Ferris, Sir William Herbert and a number of lesser known men. They resolved to support Edward Duke of York as king from that time. Next day, March 4th, Edward rode to Westminster and took possession of the crown and scepter of Edward the Confessor. His formal coronation did not take place for three months, June 28th, 1461. His title was not declared in Parliament for another four months, November 4th, but his reign is dated in all legal instruments from Thursday, March 4th, 1461, when he rode to Westminster and entered into the exercise of the royal estate, dignity, preeminence and powers of the same crown. There was still a powerful Ancastrian army in the field. Edward, who is described at this time as being tall of stature, a vigorous age and well-fitted to endure the conflict of battle, wasted no time in delay. On March 13th he set out for Yorkshire on a campaign which chroniclers definitely described as one of South against North. For a moment it seemed as if England was divided into two kingdoms, south of the Trent being under the new king, while the old king still had the North. The forces on either side were undoubtedly large, the most moderate estimate among the chroniclers being twenty thousand men. Yet even this comparatively low estimate is probably exaggerated. Nevertheless, the scale on which affairs were transacted was sufficiently large to make the results of the campaign not merely important, but decisive. The Ancastrian army had retired after the campaign of St. Dolbins into the North. Edward followed by way of East Anglia, gathering as he went along forces from the eastern counties. By the twenty-eighth his advance guard under Lord Fitzwalter had gotten to touch with the enemy at Ferry Bridge on the river Eire. Edward with the main body was at Pontifract. The Ancastrian army had no doubt been somewhat disorganized by its very successes in the campaign of St. Dolbins. The plundering in which the northern men indulged across the Trent when they advanced south and when they retired must have been bad for discipline. Nevertheless the queen's forces were sufficiently formidable, including as they did practically all the great Lancastrian lords with their retainers, as well as skillful captains of lesser degree like Sir Andrew Trollop. The river Eire was broad and deep enough to make the passage of any great force impossible if reasonable precautions were taken by the defenders. The negotiations began on March twenty-eighth, the eve of Palm Sunday. The Earl of Warwick and Lord Fitzwalter with the Yorkist advanced guard attempted to force their way over the Ferry Bridge, which was held by a Lancastrian force under Lord Clifford. The attack was unsuccessful and Lord Fitzwalter lost his life and Warwick received an arrow wound in the leg. The bridge was well held, but fresh forces came up from the Yorkist main body at Pontefract, and at last after six hours hard fighting the bridge was taken. It is said that the main attacks had been helped by a small party which under Lord Falkenburg crossed the air at Castleford three miles up the river and executed a turning movement against the defenders of the bridge. Among the slain was Lord Clifford, who had taken off his gorget in order to fight more freely and thus left his neck exposed to the fatal arrow which ended his life. That night the whole Yorkist army passed over the bridge and waited for the morning amid frost and snow. On the next day, March twenty-ninth, which was Palm Sunday, was fought the great battle now generally known as Touten, a township in the parish of Saxton three miles from Tadcaster. Other names given to the battle were Fairy Bridge and Sherbourne. The Lancastrian host occupied a fair plain between Touten and Saxton. On the west side of the battlefield was the Saxton-Touten Road. On the east side was the great Fairy Bridge-Tadcaster Road. In front, between the Lancastrian and Yorkist armies, was a small valley having the picturesque old English name of Dintingdale. Thus the Lancastrians had a good position in front the valley, their left on the Tadcaster Road, their right on the Touten Road or lane. Thus advance or retreat would be facilitated. The only weak point in case of retreat was that the stream cock running in a northeasterly direction to join the wharf cut across the two roads and passed between Tadcaster and the Lancastrian army. The battle is said to have begun at nine o'clock in the morning. On the Yorkist side the army was in the customary three divisions. Lord Falkenburg led the Voward with a strong body of archers. Edward himself with the Earl of Warwick was with the main body. Sir John Wenlock and Sir John Denham were with the rearward. Before the attack began a proclamation was made through the army that no prisoners should be taken. The practice of giving no quarter was by this time firmly established. A similar understanding prevailed on the Lancastrian side. Here the Voward, occupying the center of Henry's line of battle was under the Earl of Northumberland and Sir Andrew Trollop. Henry with the Duke of Somerset was probably in the right wing. The traditional account of the battle is that Lord Falkenburg began the advance with the Voward while the sleet was falling and being blown by the wind toward the Lancastrian front. He ordered the archers when they came near or just within range of the enemy to let go one flight of arrows and then stand still. The Lancastrian center feeling this volley and misjudging the distance owing to the sleet thought the Yorkists were close enough. So they immediately began shooting off their arrows rapidly toward Falkenburg's men. But the arrows owing to the contrary wind fell short out of range and Lord Falkenburg ordered his men to gather them up. Then when the Lancastrian center seemed to have exhausted their sheaves he ordered the advance to be renewed and his archers to discharge within range not only their own arrows but also those they had gathered from the Lancastrian volleys. When their arrows in turn were exhausted they beset their opponents with various sorts of axes, hatchets, daggers and mallets or maces. The whole Yorkist army came into the battle and Edward distinguished himself by his firmness and decision. It required ten hours of hard fighting to turn the obstinate and desperately resisting Lancastrians into flight but in the end they broke and attempted to escape toward Tadcaster Bridge. But all could not gain that point or cross it at once. Many must have been killed in the pursuit, drowned in the cock which though narrow was deep or in the greater river wharf. Rumors said the slaughter was so great that at one point the cock became affordable by reason of the corpses piled up in it so that some fugitives escaped over this grisly causeway. All the water which came down from Tauton was colored red with blood. The magnates of course suffered severely. The Earl of Northumberland, Lord's Neville, Wells and Molly, the Stout Knight, Sir Andrew Trollop, died fighting. Forty-two more knights, in spite of the proclamation of no quarter, were taken prisoners but they were all killed soon afterwards. The young Earl of Devonshire was also made prisoner and likewise suffered death. On the Yorkist side the losses must have been heavy too but none of the leaders were killed. This was perhaps the most decisive battle of the war because it was a signal defeat and scattering of the Lancastrian forces in the north where their strength was greatest. It completely reversed the tide of success which had begun not far off for the Lancastrians at Wakefield and spent itself further south at St. Albans. Henry, the Queen, the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter were fortunate to escape with their lives. There were still a few northern castles to receive them but their final destruction or expulsion from England was almost inevitable. Immediately after the battle Edward went to York and entering without opposition into that great capital of the north received the oath of fidelity from the citizens. He took down his father's head which, since the fatal day of Wakefield, had been stuck up on the wall of the city. There were plenty of noble Lancastrian heads to take its place. Edward remained at York for three weeks celebrating Easter which fell this year on April 19th with great splendor. From York he went further north through the county of Durham and to Northumberland. At the beginning of May he was at Newcastle where he beheaded the Earl of Wiltshire. Most of the northern castles seemed to have capitulated, nevertheless the north was by no means all secured to Edward when he turned south again and continued his progress by around about route taking in Lancashire and Cheshire and then through Coventry to London. By June 14th he was in London residing at Lambeth preparing for his formal coronation which took place on June 28th, 1461. The Earl of Warwick and Lord Falkenburg had to stay with forces in the north to deal with what was left of the Lancastrian party there. It took three more years to secure Northumberland completely for the Yorkist cause. On June 28th Edward set out as the custom was from the Tower of London to be crowned at Westminster. The coronation was performed with all the due in ancient ceremony and the occasion was marked by the creation of a number of new peers who had served the House of York. Prince Brother George was made Duke of Clarence, Richard was made Duke of Gloucester. Two new titles went to the Birchere family. Lord Birchere became Earl of Essex, Sir Humphrey Birchere became Lord Cromwell. The faithful Lord Falkenburg was given the Earldom of Kent being thus made equal to his nephew, the Earl of Warwick, whose rank was not raised. The titles given to these and to others were the reward of good service. Edward had now shown that he was King indeed. Since March 4th he had used his right end title to the realm of England. On June 28th he had been regularly crowned. He had met his subjects on the field of battle at Tauton. He was now to meet the nation as represented though imperfectly in Parliament. The new King had intended that a session should take place in July, but the Scots had taken advantage of the Civil War to besiege Carlisle, and so it was thought best to postpone the session till quieter times. The siege was soon raised by forces under Lord Montague, brother of Warwick, but still there was no word of the writs for the Parliament. Shortly before the coronation it became known that Parliament would be summoned to meet after Micomas. Meanwhile it was expected that the King would have to go to the north parts again to resist the Scots and to enforce the peace. However, the danger in the north turned out to be less than was expected, so Edward did not go there, but left matters to his efficient deputy, the Earl of Warwick. The King himself turned to other parts of his new one realm and occupied most of the interval between the coronation and the meeting of Parliament in making a royal progress of an extended nature. He first went through the southeastern counties, and then into the Welsh march, and then turned home again through the Midlands. This journey appears in the domestic correspondence of the time because John Paston's eldest son was in the King's retinue. News came to the father that the young man was gaining great commendation among the King's gentlemen and stood well in conceit, but that he was greatly straightened for lack of money as the allowance which his father gave him was insufficient to enable him, as he put it, to spend reasonably among the splendid gentlemen of the court. Edward's progress, the second of his reign, the first was in the north parts after Tauton, occupied the greater part of the months of August and September. After going through Kent and Sussex he proceeded into the west to Bristol. From there he went through the Welsh march by Gloucester and Hereford to Ludlow. About September 27th or 28th he turned back through the Midlands and reached London probably on October 7th or 8th. The progress had been eminently successful. Wherever necessary along the route, the King as the source of all justice held a judicial session and pronounced judgment upon those who were accused of breaking the King's peace and resisting the royal authority. No doubt the King's presence was greatly needed in the country, for even nearer London the peace was often broken. Beware how ye ride or go, wrote Margaret Past into her husband John on July 9th, for naughty or ill-disposed fellowships I am put in fear daily for my own abiding here. This refers to life in Norfolk. On the Welsh march, in the months after Tauton, there were many castles held by Henry VI. A Lancastrian party was still kept together by his half-brother Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke. But the King's progress resulted in the surrender of all the castles except one, both of South and of North Wales, Jasper Tudor had to hide in the mountains. The royal progress was an ancient and honourable part of the King's business. It served many purposes, for it enabled the King to get at the grievances of his subjects and to deal out justice as he went along. It was an opportunity for him to show himself to his people and to maintain the popularity of the Crown. Lastly, it was a measure of economy, for it meant that the King and his retinue lived largely at free quarters, collecting royal dues and receiving hospitality from noblemen in towns. Although in the time of Henry II and John, the royal progress had often proved merely burdensome to the suitors who had to seek for justice by following the court from place to place, and to the people whose carts and horses were seized for the King's use. Yet properly and moderately conducted, the royal progress was a very useful practice for the King and a right and effective way of enforcing the peace. For this purpose, while their authority was still being questioned, the progress was used with success both by Edward IV and Richard III. When Parliament met on November 4, 1461, it was completely Yorkist in sympathy. The leading men of the clerical estate such as Thomas Berger, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the disinterested William Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, were loyal to Edward and would ensure the support of most of the other bishops. The temporal peers in Parliament were Yorkists, too. Nolan Castrians were summoned. Of the House of Commons it may be said that the burgers as a rule were favourable to the Yorkist party as being the stronger on land and sea, and therefore good for trade and for quiet living, and the knights elected in the court of the Shire were chosen as it seems under the scrutiny of the King's sheriff and the neighbouring magnates who acknowledged Edward IV. The sheriff's interference was not always liked, but it was difficult not to accept it. The Parliament met on November 4 and was opened by the Chancellor Dr. Neville, Bishop of Exeter, with a sermon on the text, Amend Your Ways and Your Doings, Jeremiah 7.3. The number of temporal peers summoned was forty-four which was about the average attendance in the upper house during the fifteenth century. On November 12 the Speaker, Sir James Strange Ways, a Knight for Yorkshire, presented a petition of the Commons that the claim of Edward's family to the Crown should be embodied in an act of Parliament. The act was passed, but this does not mean that the Yorkists held by a parliamentary title. Edward's reign began before the Parliament. The act of Parliament distinctly recognises it as having begun on the fourth day of the month of March last past. The period of Lancastrian rule was regarded as an interlude of usurpation. In the act Henry VI, V and IV are alluded to merely as the late-called King Henry VI, son of Henry, son of the said Henry, late Earl of Derby, son to John of Gaunt. Nevertheless, with certain exceptions, all judicial acts, charters, patents of the late reigns were declared to hold good and to be valid in law. Without some such declaration no one in the land would have been safe and anarchy would have ensued. In fact, the government of the realm and the relations of society went on much as before. The chief officers of the Crown were already Yorkist before Edward came to the throne, and so no change of ministry was necessary. But a comprehensive bill of attainder was passed against the Friends of Henry VI. The list of persons attainted began with the names of Henry himself, Margaret and Prince Edward. It included fourteen great Lancastrian lords, some of whom were still living like the dukes of Somerset and Exeter, while others were already dead. But living or dead they were all attainted in blood. Their estates were thus forfeited to the Crown. Besides the nobles there was included a large number of people of lower rank down to Yeoman. In all, there were a hundred and fifty-three. The number seems large but it might easily have been larger. Moreover most of the attainted people were for the moment out of reach, in hiding or in exile, and their submission in the future might gain their pardon. Parliament was prorogued on December 21st, with a speech delivered by Edward in person in which he promised to devote himself to the service of the nation. He was at this time only nineteen years and eight months old. It must be admitted that he had shown great capacity for so young a man. With the successful termination of his first parliament Edward IV might have breathed freely. All within a few months he had scattered the Lancastrian forces in a fearful route. He had been crowned king and had been recognized by an enthusiastic parliament. The most skillful warriors were on his side, with their large bands of soldiers, his ships patrolled the sea. He had himself journeyed throughout the country as king and established his power wherever he went. The extinction of the Lancastrian party seemed only a question of time. That it was not extinguished was due almost entirely to Queen Margaret. As long as strength remained in her she was indomitable. The most fearful defeats could not break her spirit. With each new disaster she set herself doggedly to build up her party afresh. Her husband could do little but remain quietly in Scotland, waiting till Margaret having brought her plans to success, should call upon him to appear. But she herself took no rest. Amid want and privation, almost unattended, she went from place to place, gathering together the threads of a counter-revolution which few hoped to see. Often in the greatest personal danger from violent men, in the country exposed to robbers, on the sea exposed to King Edward's sailors or the pirate crews that still infested the seas round England, once even having to take to an open boat to face stormy weather off the Northumbrian coast, even in these fearful trials she never flinched. In England, in Scotland, then in France and in Flanders she ceaselessly wrought with unwilling people to lend their tardy help. Three years unremitting work saw her party together once more in force and holding the strongholds of Northumberland more firmly established as it seemed, at least in the north of England. But once again in rapid succession defeat followed defeat, once more those Lancastrians who could save themselves were scattered to the winds, and once more Margaret, amid the ruin of all she had worked for, was left to piece together the fragments and to pit her own weak strength and influence against the vast resources and the all-pervasive statesmanship of the Yorkist king. It is not always easy to follow the movements of the Lancastrians after the disaster at Tauton. They had two friendly countries to look to, France and Scotland. But for some time the king and queen were able to stay in England. On April 18th it was reported that Henry VI and his wife were in some castle in Yorkshire, Corumbeer, such a name at Hath are much like. It may only have been some fortified farm. He seems to have nearly been captured there, as it was beset by Yorkist gentlemen, but some followers of the Percy family made a diversion by attacking the besiegers in the midst of which Henry stole away at a little post turn on the back side. Henry with the queen then fled northward to the town of Berwick, the great border fortress which had been so often coveted and besieged by the Scots, but which was still in Lancastrian hands. He had once admitted the enemy into the town, so that at the beginning of May the past and correspondence contains the intelligence that Berwick is full of Scots. The royal family, Prince Edward was with his father and mother all the time, then passed on into Scotland, apparently to Edinburgh, full of trouble and heaviness no wonder. They had lost a kingdom. Even a roof above their heads was only gained by the barter of their country's strongholds. The condition of Scotland at this time was not such as to afford many opportunities to the Lancastrians. James II, a king of eminent talent and a strong supporter of Henry VI, had been killed in the previous year, August 3, 1460, by the explosion of one of his own cannons at the Siege of Roxborough. Scotland was thus left to the conflicts of parties by which she was always troubled during a regency. The young King James III was just nine years old. The Queen Mother, Mary of Guilders, naturally had much influence in the government, but she had to share the control with Kennedy, the distinguished bishop of St Andrews. Both it is true had at the death of James II labor to carry on his policy of supporting the Lancastrians and those civil troubles in England which offered such good opportunities to the Scots. But early in 1461 Philip of Burgundy, a good friend to the Yorkists, at the request of Edward IV, sent an embassy to Scotland specially to win over the Queen Mother's support for the Yorkist government. Philip was Mary's uncle and the overlord of her family in Guilders. The effect of his embassy was such that the Scots were no longer united in support of the House of Lancaster. Nevertheless, although by the time the Lancastrian family fled to Scotland after Tauton, Mary of Guilders definitely favored the Yorkist cause, yet she did not refuse them admittance. The Party of Kennedy was strong enough to ensure them a good reception. Henry, Margaret and their son were given quarters first in Linlithgow Palace and afterwards in the Dominican convent of Edinburgh. But they seemed never to have stayed long in the same place. In August the Queen and her son were in Edinburgh, but Henry had gone back to the neighborhood of his lost realm and was said to be at Kirkcubrie with four men and a child. He must have gone to be near the Scots army. Or in May or June of that year, shortly before the coronation of Edward IV, the Scots even sent an army to besiege Carlisle, which was held by the Yorkists, but were beaten off by Warwick's brother Montague, who was one of the wardens of the marches. Thus Margaret was only partially successful in gaining help from Scotland. The diplomacy of Edward IV spoiled her plans and detached Mary of Guilders from her side. But Margaret's plans extended further than Scotland. They aimed at bringing in France also, and so encompassing England with a ring of enemies. Charles VII was her uncle by marriage. It was in his reign that the English had been driven out of France, and now he had a chance of completely turning the tables by invading England in the interests of the Lancastrians. Accordingly it was not without some prospect of success that Margaret sent three of her faithful followers, the Duke of Somerset, Lord Hungerford, and Robert Whittingham, on a mission to him. Evading the ships which Edward had sent out to guard the sea, they landed at Dieppe sometime in July. But just at that time, unfortunately, Charles VII died, July 22, 1461, and the new King, Louis XI, was much too politic to back a losing cause. The Lancastrian commissioners were placed under surveillance, and all their documents and writings seized by King Louis. They were, however, able to send off letters to Margaret, giving an account of their detention. Of the three letters sent by different boats, one at least was captured by Edward's sailors, and it is from this that the story of the arrest may be gathered. Louis, who as Dauphin had quarreled with his father, was living at the time of Charles VII's death at Edin, in the territory of Philip of Burgundy. After being crowned at Reims and holding accord at Paris, Louis went to Tours to spend the hot and dry summer in the pleasant hunting country by the Loire. To tour accordingly the arrested Lancastrian envoys were summoned. There they were given a good reception and sent back to Scotland, but without any real offer of help. It was said that Louis was induced to treat them kindly by Charles, Count of Charolais, Charles the Bold, son of Philip of Burgundy. Charles, unlike his father, favored the Lancastrian family, and was a personal friend of Somerset, whom he had met when the latter was stationed at Guyne. But the diplomacy of Edward reached everywhere. While Somerset and Hungerford were attempting to negotiate for Margaret, Edward's envoys were waiting at Calais, ready to seize the propitious moment for influencing the French king. This embassy consisted of Lord Wenlock, Sir John Cly, and the Dean of St. Zebrans. Although they were delayed for some weeks in Calais owing to the disturbed state of the pale, they were able, through the mediation of the Duke of Burgundy, to ensure for a time at any rate peace between France and England. Thus the year 1461 passed. Henry, Margaret, and her son were still in Scotland. Edward IV was content to leave the guarding of the northern border to the Wardens, Warwick, and Montague. The pastin letters show that the country in general had not yet settled down into quietness. In February 1462, Edward made an example of John Devere, Earl of Oxford, Albert, the Earl's son, Sir Thomas Tudnum, a turbulent man who for many years had made discord in Norfolk, and two other knights. These on suspicion of preparing aid for Queen Margaret were tried in the court of the High Constable John Tiptoff, Earl of Worcester, and executed on a scaffold erected for the purpose on Tower Hill. The Duke of Somerset, since his return to Scotland from the unsuccessful mission to Louis XI, had made a fresh diplomatic journey to Flanders. He returned without much success in March. It was clear that if anything really was to be done, Queen Margaret must do it herself. In April she set out with four ships, provided no doubt by Bishop Kennedy from Kirkcubrie, and sailing down St George's Channel arrived safely in Brittany on April 16th. She was well received by Francis II, the last reigning Duke of Brittany, who gave her 12,000 crowns. From Brittany she passed on through Anjou, where she visited her father Rene Duke of Anjou, titular king of Sicily. But the aged Rene had no great resources so the Queen in August passed on again, and visited Louis XI, probably in his favorite castle of Tours. Hitherto Louis had been neutral, showing himself friendly both to Lancastrians and Yorkists, but doing nothing for either. Now he saw his chance, and on the security of Calais which Margaret pledged to him, though it was not in her hands, he agreed to furnish her with men and money. An expedition was to be immediately organized to invade the north of England. It was hoped that the party which favored the Lancastrians and Scotland would cooperate with the French expedition, but Warwick had already been spreading his diplomatic meshes. In April, as soon as Margaret left Scotland, he had met Mary of Gilders at Dumfries, and confirmed her in her neutrality. It was supposed that he had broached the subject of a possible marriage between herself and King Edward. Nevertheless Margaret prepared for her invasion of England. The expedition which Louis XI fitted out for her was of no great size, but it might be sufficient to see some base of operations in the north of England, where a general rising might be expected. The queen, with three ships and eight hundred Frenchmen under Pierre de Breizez, Senor de Varenne, leader of the expedition of 1457 against Sandwich, left Boulogne, probably late in September or early in October. At the same time Louis XI meditated an assault upon Calais, but the design was not carried out. Although Edward IV had a certain number of ships under the earl of Kent on the seas round England, they were not able to guard the whole coast, for Queen Margaret's small squadron was able to reach Northumberland. They landed near Banbra on October 24. The successful passage of the North Sea by Margaret was probably due to the fact that the English fleet had been drawn to the west to meet a force of sixty French, Breton, and Spanish ships, which were said to be taking merchandise to Flanders. These were met and scattered by the earl of Warwick's fleet. de Breizez was a veteran of great resource, fidelity, and courage. He was personally disliked by Louis XI, who had put him at the head of Margaret's force in the hope that he would never return. He soon showed what an energetic man could do. The north of England was still very disaffected to Edward IV, and though nominally submissive, was ready to cast off allegiance on the least provocation. In those days, when there was no regular army or corps of professional officers at the disposal of the Crown, governors and captains of castles and of garrisons had to be chosen from the local gentlemen. Thus the strong northern castles, Banbra, Anak, Dunstonborough, were in charge of northern gentry, whose loyalty to the new king was not proof against an appeal to their old allegiance. Although the country as a whole did not rise, the great castles opened their gates. They appear to have been badly victualed for a siege, but nothing short of treachery or lack of spirit on the part of some of the defenders could have made them yield so quickly. Margaret Putlord Hungerford in charge of Anak, the Duke of Somerset and Sir Rafe Percy, both of whom had come to her standard, were appointed to hold Banbra. Dunstonborough was committed to the Lancastrian Sir Richard Tunstall, whose brother Sir William Tunstall was a Yorkist, and had been in charge of Banbra. By this time, end of October, Henry VI had managed to join her from Scotland. But the Lancastrian force was still small, and there was no general rising. It was known that Edward himself would soon be in the north with an army. Accordingly, the queen and her squadron once more took to the sea to go for help to Scotland. By this time she must have had more ships than those with which she came from France. The weather was bad. Such a great storm arose that four of her ships, including her own, were wrecked off Holy Island. Henry, however, must have been in another ship because there's no mention of his having been in personal danger. Margaret had to abandon her ship and all her belongings in it, and take to a small open boat in which she was fortunate to reach Barak and safety. Many of the soldiers on the wrecks managed to get ashore on Holy Island and took refuge in the church, but were attacked by two Yorkist gentlemen, the Bastard of Ogle and John Manners, and most of them killed or captured. Pierre de Breize, however, was conveyed by a fisherman to Barak, where he found the intrepid Margaret already arrived, having successfully braved the sea in her frail carvel. At this moment affairs were in a critical state for the Yorkists. Three of the greatest of the northern castles were held by their opponents. These castles were open to the sea, which gave them a ready means of communication with Scotland. It would be difficult for Edward to command the seas off Northumberland because of the continual threats from French and Spanish fleets on the south. A great effort was undoubtedly needed. Edward made the effort. He prepared a large train of artillery for castle sieges, great guns and other great ordnance, and had it transported from London probably by sea to Newcastle. He called to his standard all the magnates of the kingdom who favored his cause, Tudukes, Norfolk and Suffolk, Seven Earls, Warwick, Arundel, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Kent, Westmoreland, Essex. Thirty-one barons and fifty-nine knights followed him to the north or met him there. These would bring their men from the country districts. Nor wore men of the towns wanting for Edward had sent his summons to them too and they had responded to his call. King Edward left London for the north on November 3, 1462, but seems to have gotten no further than Durham being detained there by an attack of measles. Nevertheless the castles were vigorously besieged from December 11 by Edward's captains. The Siege of Bambura castle inside which were the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Pembroke, Lord Ruse, and Sir Rafe Percy, with three hundred men, was undertaken by Lord's Montague and Ogle. Annec was besieged by the Earl of Kent and Lord Scales, Dunstanborough by the Earl of Worcester, and Sir Rafe Gray. The Yorkist artillery brought to the scenes of action from New Castle did great damage to the walls. The Earl of Warwick, as King Edward was indisposed, had a general command of all the operations. He kept his quarters at the castle of Warcworth, ten miles from Annec, and rode every day to the lines in front of each of the castles and superintended the sieges. Stores of provisions were accumulated at the port of New Castle where the young Duke of Norfolk was stationed to forward the victuals and anything else that was required to Warcworth, from which place Warwick distributed supplies to the respective camps. All this time King Edward lay sick at Durham. But the arrangements for the war were carefully thought out and successfully executed. A good reserve of men was also kept at New Castle, and no one could get leave to go home even for Christmas. When Paston's younger son John was with the forces at New Castle, rather ruefully contemplating a residence there over Christmas, by which time he foresaw that all his money would long be exhausted. The sieges were over in just under a month. Banbra and Dunstanborough surrendered on Christmas Eve, Annec under different circumstances, on January 6. King Edward showed himself merciful and forgiving. When Banbra and Dunstanborough surrendered, the Duke of Somerset and Sir Rafe Percy were not merely allowed to go free, but on swearing allegiance to King Edward were restored to possession of their estates. Percy was even given the guardianship of the two castles, a mark of confidence on the part of Edward which he promptly abused. The Duke of Somerset was also treated handsomely. He was allowed to wear the king's livery and to serve in an honourable place in King Edward's host. The other lords who showed themselves less pliant, the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Rue's, were allowed to go to Scotland under a safe conduct. So ended the year 1462. Annec under Lord Hungerford and Sir Richard Tunstall still held out, relying on a relieving army of Scots which Margaret and Pierre de Brésil were conducting from Barrick. This could not have been a very great army as the Scots' government was by no means united in favour of the Lancastrians. It was, however, superior to the force with which the Earl of Warwick had to meet them. Margaret and the Scots arrived near Annec on January 5, 1463. The garrison of the castle at once sallied out and joined them. Warwick had too small a force to prevent this, and so he cautiously took up a defensible position between the castle and a marsh nearby. There seems even to have been some thought of retreating altogether, but Somerset who was serving with Warwick now, counseled him to stand fast and defend his camp. By this advice he did a good turn to King Edward's cause, for the Scots seeing that the Yorkists presented a firm front actually retired from the field without attacking. Warorset's services were appreciated. King Edward rewarded him with twenty marks weekly for his expenses and also furnished the daily pay for the Duke's men. Annec Castle surrendered next day on condition of all the garrison being unharmed in life and limb. The fiasco of this Scottish invasion must have caused intense disappointment to Margaret and de Brésil, but the truth is that although the Scots and the French were old allies, it was seldom that things went well when the French were actually with a Scottish host. The two nations cooperated best from a distance. The year just finished had been a successful one for King Edward. With the exception of Harlech, there was now not a single castle which held out against him. But the year fourteen sixty-three was not many months old before the work had to be done over again. In May, Sir Rafe Percy, the Lancastrian, whom Edward had forgiven and put over Banbra, let the Scots into the castle. Annec also was betrayed about the same time by Sir Rafe Gray, a Yorkist who had been sorely disappointed because King Edward had only made him constable of the castle, the superior position of captain being given to Sir John Ashley. Thus Annec and Banbra again received a mixed garrison of English, French, and Scots. A combined army of the same composition with King Henry and Queen Margaret among them besieged the great castle of Norham on the right bank of the Tweed, eight miles southwest of Barrick. But on Warwick and Montague approaching with an army of relief, the Scots broke up their leaguer and abandoned the siege, making their retreat in such haste that they left many of their belongings behind them. It is said that only one man, a Piper, dared to face the Yorkists, for he stood upon a hill with his Tabor and his Pipe, tabering and piping as merely as any man might, standing by himself till my Lord came unto him, he would not lessen his ground. The courageous Piper was probably some Englishman of Queen Margaret's following. The Earl of Warwick, pleased with the spirit of the man, took him into his own service, and found in him thereafter a faithful follower. The relief of Norham took place in the last half of July. Queen Margaret and King Henry, with those Lancastrians who still followed them, had made their way by different routes to Banbra. Margaret had two narrow escapes. In the flight she had been captured along with her son by the enemy and only rescued by a chivalrous Yorkist squire who took pity on her, and after that, before she regained her husband's quarters, her life had been threatened by a brigand, whose heart, however, was unexpectedly melted by her appeals, and by her placing the young prince in his hands for protection. Without assistance from the outside, the cause of the Lancastrians must soon fall. Their resources were almost at an end. That Queen Margaret, with her tireless devotion to the service of her husband and her son, would never give in so long as one chance remained to be tried. The sea, although not unguarded, still offered her a means of seeking assistance. The great fleet which King Edward had ordered to be fitted out about the time of the Siege of Norham had never been brought into being. As Warwick was showing himself successful on the land, Edward saved himself the expense of further efforts by the sea. Thus Queen Margaret was able to leave Banbra by sea and pass over to Flanders. The date of her departure was probably at the end of July 1463. King Henry, who was never to see his wife again, was left behind in Banbra, from which he retired into Scotland. CHAPTER XVI. Queen Margaret Abroad. The retreat of the Scots-Romanic must have convinced Margaret that there was little to be gained from her allies across the border. The submission of the Duke of Somerset and Sir Rafe Percy to King Edward proved how little the efforts, even of the chief Lancastrian gentry, could be relied on. Even from abroad she could expect small help, for King Edward had spread his diplomatic meshes in Flanders and even in France. Who was to state her case against the persuasive arguments of the Yorkist ambassadors? Margaret resolved to do this herself. She landed at Schlaus, a Flemish port six miles to the northeast of Bruges. The faithful men so far as known who accompanied her were Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, Six Knights, John Fortescue, the famous judge and writer on legal and constitutional subjects, Edmund Munford, E. Hamden, Henry Ruse, Thomas Mormond, Robert Whittingham. Two doctors of divinity, John Morton, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert Mackerel. But her chief friend and counselor was Pierre de Brésil. There were others whose names were not given, including seven devoted women who were her personal attendants. In all her following numbered two hundred persons. The prospect might have deterred the strongest spirit. The Duke of Burgundy to whom she was looking for help was one of whom in her days of prosperity she had somehow made a mortal enemy. She came to him a fugitive, without royal habit or estate. Her wardrobe consisted of the clothes she was wearing. She wore a short robe and had no change of garments. Her seven women were in the same condition. Had it not been for his private purse which de Brésil put at her disposal, she would have wanted even bread. But even de Brésil could do little more for he had already spent nearly all his money in the Queen's service. During the stay of the Lancastrians in Burgundy, the chronicler Chastelon took pains to acquire knowledge from them at first hand. According to what he learned from de Brésil himself, the old warrior had spent fifty thousand crowns in following Queen Margaret. From Schlau's Queen Margaret was honorably escorted by the orders of the Count of Charolais, son of Duke Philip. Charles, whose independent, reckless character, had earned him the name of bold. Openly supported the Lancastrian cause at this time, while his father was a steady supporter of the Orchists. At Bruges, where Charles held his court, the Queen lodged at the Carmelites. Though Charles's father, the Duke of Burgundy, was anxious to avoid meeting Margaret, he had found it impossible to do so, the Queen having plainly declared her intention of coming to him wherever he was. Duke Philip had just gone on a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame of Boulogne, accompanied by his sister, the Duchess of Bourbon. Ambassadors of King Edward of England and King Louis of France were also in the neighborhood, and a general treaty of peace and neutrality seemed likely to be arranged between the Yorkist government, France, and Burgundy. But Duke Philip, the chivalrous head of the Order of the Golden Fleece, could not refuse to meet Queen Margaret when she reminded him of his duty to all dames in distress. He accordingly appointed the town of Sampal for the place of meeting. Charles lent her five hundred crowns to enable her to pursue her journey from Bruges. She left her son Edward, Prince of Wales, there for safety, and with three of her women, Pierre de Brazé, and a few men, left the city. Her party was not like a royal cavalcade, for she herself was dressed in the habit of a village woman, and her carriage was just a country cart covered with canvas and drawn by four mares. Yet Betun, where she lodged for the night, she nearly fell into the hands of the men of King Edward, who to the number of two hundred horsemen, had made a raid from Calais to kidnap her. But the attempt failed, and Margaret was able to go on to Sampal, where she waited for the Duke on August 31st, 1463. Philip arrived next day and stayed for one night, September 1st and 2nd. The third Margaret returned to Bruges. She had received a pleasant entertainment from the Duke but no real help. Her presence indeed was most inconvenient to him. But as Margaret had insisted on seeing him, the Duke had done her honor, showing kindness and chivalry, however he had no intention of changing his policy on her account. After leaving Sampal when he had proceeded about a league toward Saint-Omer, where the conference with the French and English was to take place, Philip sent back one of his knights to Queen Margaret with a parting gift, a fine diamond fit for a queen, and two thousand crowns, no doubt equally acceptable. Presence of money were also given to Desparaisers and Margaret's three dames. Philip had departed, but his sister, the Duchess of Bourbon, remained, and the two ladies enjoyed some long and intimate conversations together. Under the influence of sympathetic female companionship, the unbending spirit of Margaret enjoyed the rare luxury of tears. She related all her fearful trials and adventures during the last years in England, and the chronicler Chastelon was able from the Duchess's account afterwards to give a detailed narrative for posterity. Margaret told Howe in Northumberland, King Henry, the young Prince Edward and herself, once during the recent campaigns for as much as five days had only one herring to share for their food each day, bread they had none. They were so poor that once at mass the Queen found herself without even a penny to put into the offertory. She asked a Scottish archer who was nearby to lend her something, and he somewhat stiffly and regretfully drew a groat from his person lent it to her. The Queen related how also at the latest disaster, the flight of the Scots in front of Norum, she had been captured by some plundering Yorkist soldiers and despoiled of all her valuables.  Her tears and impassioned appeals had no effect as it seemed, but suddenly a quarrel broke out amongst her brutal captors over the division of the booty, and while attention was thus turned from her, she spoke pitifully to a Yorkist squire whom she saw near, and she begged him to save her. He was moved and said, Madam, mount behind me in Monsignor the Prince in front, and I will save you or die, seeing that death is more likely to come to me than not. So amid the general distraction they rode off and gained the refuge of a forest unobserved which Margaret entered still on horseback behind the squire, full of strange fears and fancies, not caring for her own life but fearing for the young heir of the crown, who if he lived she hoped would one day come into his rights. The forest was a noted haunt of brigands. Margaret's fears were justified. Soon there appeared a man of hideous and horrible aspect with obvious intention to kill and to rob. But once more the Queen's appeal turned the heart of a savage man. Declaring her rank and condition she besought him to save not her, but the young Prince her son the heir of England. The brigand was touched and prayed her for mercy as if she was carrying her scepter in London. So putting her son into the brigand's hands, the Queen rode off behind the squire once more and after long travels reached her husband's camp, the brigand faithfully performed his task and brought in the young Prince safely. Next day, September 3rd, at five in the morning, Margaret took leave of the Duchess and departed from St. Paul under a strong escort for Bruges where she had left her son and most of her following. Here she was received with all the honors pertaining to royalty by the Count of Charolet, who refused to treat her as anything but a reigning Queen or her son as anything but the heir to a powerful throne. Accordingly, although in its public policy the government adhered to the Yorkist cause, the fugitive Queen felt that the famous chivalry of Philip and Charles the Burgundy was not an empty boast. After this, with Prince Edward and most of her gentlemen, she proceeded to the Duchy of Barre in Lorraine, where her father King Rene had a residence and a small court. The faithful, indomitable de Brésil returned to France and was received with high favor by Louis XI, who had not expected him to survive the troubles and dangers of England. But de Brésil did not put much store by Louis's promises. He was only anxious to go to his wife at the Chateau of Monie. The King gave his permission to go there and ordered him not to leave it. The negotiations between the French Burgundians and Yorkists were gradually brought to a close. Throughout the greater part of September, 1463, the envoys of the three sovereigns held meetings at Saint-Domère, close to the frontier of the Pale of Calais. Dr. George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, Chancellor of England, was the Chief Representative of Edward IV. The Duke of Burgundy kept his quarters at Edel, to which place on September 28th, Louis XI also came. On September 30th, the English envoys adjourned to Edel, and by October 10th an agreement had been reached. On October 26th, the truce between France and England was published. The Scots shortly after followed the example of their French ally, and in December a truce was entered into with Edward at York to endure till the end of the following October. The truces with France and Scotland were subsequently extended. King Edward was thus freed for some years at least from foreign intervention, and Queen Margaret had nearly seven years to spend at San Viguelon-Bajois, before she could strike her final blow for the Lancastrian cause. End of Section 21. Section 22 of the Wars of the Roses by Robert Balmain Moet. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 17 The Capture of Henry VI. The Lancastrian Party was crushed. King Henry was an exile in Scotland once more. Queen Margaret, the most capable and dauntless of all, was living with her son in Meager State in Barre. France and Scotland were peaceful. Only Annec in Bambura still held out. Their reduction was merely a matter of time. Nothing had happened to change the fortunes of either party during the remaining months of 1463, when King Henry had returned to Scotland and Queen Margaret was in Flanders. Edward spent the time in the North Parts looking after his own interests there. Perhaps he was already coming to the conclusion that the influence of Warwick was too great. It may have been this thought that induced him to show so much favour to the Duke of Somerset, who though lately his enemy had become the King's man again at the end of the year 1462. According to the London chronicler Gregory, Edward was always heaping favours on the Duke, and the King made full much of him in so much that he lodged with the King in his own bed many nights and some time rode a hunting behind the King, the King having about him not passing six horse at the most, and yet three were of the Duke's men of Somerset. Then in the autumn of 1463 King Edward went into the North, he took with him the Duke of Somerset and two hundred of the Duke's men to act as a royal bodyguard. When they had gone as far as Northampton, the sight of Edward's former enemy roused the townsmen to anger and they rose up and would have slain Somerset. So Edward to save the Duke's life and probably to satisfy the grumblings of his followers sent him away into safekeeping at the Castle of Holt and Denbyshire. Somerset's men, who had been Edward's bodyguard, were sent up to New Castle to increase the garrison there. King Edward continued his journey into Yorkshire, where he spent the rest of the year 1463 and concluded the truce with Scotland. The castles of Annick and Bambura still were in the hands of his enemies, Sir Rafe Percy and Sir Rafe Gray. By Christmas the trouble suddenly became acute. The Duke of Somerset left Holt secretly and came swiftly out of Wales with a number of followers, always to be counted on in North Wales, through Yorkshire and Durham, intending to appear outside New Castle and to be admitted into it by his former men who were now in the garrison. But at Durham he was recognized and all but captured while asleep. He escaped, half dressed and barefooted. His men in New Castle, when they heard that his treason was discovered, stole out of the city to join him, but a number of them were caught and beheaded. This new turn which affairs took appears to have been due to some pre-conservative movement. It was as if the Lancastrians in the face of King Edward's diplomatic successes in Scotland and Burgundy were making a desperate effort at home. For the first four months of 1464, Somerset and his party were able to maintain themselves in the North, secure for the time being in the possession of Annick and Bambra. Edward did not attempt to take the field until the spring was over, but by his diplomatic work he was steadily isolating the Lancastrians. In March, Henry's advisors thought it best that he should leave Scotland and join the forces which were upholding his cause at Bambra. The Scots were ready to convert their truce with King Edward into a definite peace. About Easter, the Yorkist commissioners went up to York to treat with the Scots. Chief among the commissioners were the three Neville brothers, the Bishop of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, and the Lord Montague. While the rest were waiting at York, Montague, as one of the wardens of the March, took a small force up to the frontier in order to escort the Scottish commissioners to the place of meeting. The country was in a turmoil because not merely were Annick and Bambra in the hands of King Henry and the Duke of Somerset, but also the castles of Norum and Skipton in Craven had been captured by the Lancastrians. This could hardly have happened without treachery from within. The Duke of Somerset was emboldened even to take the field. With a force of eighty spears and bows, he lay in wait for Montague in a wood not far from Newcastle. But Montague got news of the ambush and took another way, and so came to Newcastle safely. From Newcastle, Montague continued his march toward Norum. About halfway, at Hedgeley Moor, eight miles to the northwest of Annick, he again found his way beset by the Duke of Somerset with a strong force which included Lord Hungerford, Lord Ruse, and Sir Rafe Percy. This was on April 25, 1464. The number of Lancastrians is said by the chronicler Gregory to have been five thousand. It is more likely to have been a few hundreds, as they made no stand against Montague's comparatively small force. Among those who stood, however, was Sir Rafe Percy, who fought until he was slain, saying as he died, I have saved the burden my bosom, meaning that he had kept his promise and oath made to King Henry, forgetting, be like, that he and King Henry's most necessity abandoned him and submitted him to King Edward. The death of Percy was felt as a great blow by the remaining Lancastrians. Every man took his way with full sorry hearts. Montague passed on unchallenged to Norum, and then returned with the Scottish commissioners to York, where a peace for fifteen years was concluded between King Edward and Scotland. The time seemed now ripe to press the long-continued war to a conclusion. On May 14, Montague again set out with his hardworking column from Newcastle. Intelligence was brought to him that the Lancastrian force with King Henry, for whom the Castle of Banborough was no longer considered safe, was encamped on a meadow called Linnles by the Devil's Water, about three miles from Hexham. On the fifteenth the two forces met in a battle which has taken its name from Hexham. It appears that a number of men deserted from the Duke of Somerset's force before Montague made his attack, and that the Duke's strength was thus reduced to five hundred men. The Yorkist force, on the other hand, is computed at four thousand men. This figure may be too large, but it is clear that the Yorkists had the advantage of numbers. The fight cannot have lasted long. Montague dashed into the meadow and surrounded and took prisoner the chief men of the enemy. But King Henry, who was in the Castle of Biwell nearby, made off before the castle opened its gates to the Yorkists. He must have left in great haste, for he left behind his helmet and his cap of state. After the operations of fourteen sixty-two in the north, great indulgence had been shown to the vanquished lords. This indulgence had been answered by new plots and revolts. It was now felt that the time had come to quiet these restless spirits forever. Montague carried out this policy with unswerving thoroughness. On May fifteenth, fourteen sixty-four, the day of the battle, Somerset was decapitated at Hexham, with four of his following. On the seventeenth, Lord Hungerford, Lord Ruse, who had escaped from the battle but had been captured next day in a wood near Hexham, with four others, were executed at New Castle. On the eighteenth, Sir Philip Wentworth and six others were executed at Middlem, a castle of the Earl of Warwick in the north riding. On the twenty-sixth, Sir Thomas Hussie and thirteen others were executed at York, where on the twenty-eighth, four more were beheaded. About the same time, Sir William Tailboys was beheaded at New Castle. Tailboys was a noted Lancastrian who had from King Henry the title of Earl of Chime in Lincolnshire. He had not been present at the battle of Hexham, but was taken in a coal pit near New Castle. There was found with him three thousand marks which he was bringing for the payment of King Henry's forces. This money was divided as a gratuity among Montague's men and greatly consoled them for the long period of marching and fighting which they had undergone. The prisoners seemed to have been tried for rebellion before Montague as a warden of the March, or in other cases before the constable of England, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester. King Edward is also mentioned as having been present in York and apparently at the actual trials. Of the prisoners one only is mentioned as being pardoned. The fortunate man was a certain John Naylor, formerly an official in the chancery of King Henry. Naylor was condemned like the rest, but then pardoned through the influence of the Chancellor George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, who intervened at the request of Henry Upton, one of the six clerks of the chancery and a former colleague of Naylor. The war in the North was now all but over, largely owing to the energy of Montague. In consideration of his services and especially for his capture of the Duke of Somerset, he was created, Earl of Northumberland by King Edward at York on May 27th, and he was endowed with all the lands of the former Earl, Henry Percy, within the county of Northumberland. The fortunes of the Neville brothers were now almost at their highest point. In September of the same year, 1464, Dr. William Booth, Archbishop of York, died, and in his place the Chancellor George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, was substituted, both by the influence of the King and by canonical election. The war dwindled away in the various castles held by the Lancastrians, skipped in in Craven, surrendered immediately after the Battle of Hexham. After the great series of executions, King Edward ordered Warwick and Northumberland to reduce Annick, Bambura, and Dunstanborough. In little over a month, all was finished. First they took Annick, which yielded on conditions, and so the lives of the garrison were spared. Then they were admitted into Dunstanborough on the same terms. Finally the two brothers turned their energies against Bambura, which was held by Sir Wraith Gray, the ex-Yorkist who had turned against King Edward. For this siege Warwick brought up his great artillery, and battered down a portion of the walls. Sir Wraith Gray was wounded, and his men surrendered the castle on the same terms as the other castles, namely that the garrison should be at the mercy of the king, except Gray, who, as a shameful traitor, was to be at the will of the king. The difference in these terms is explained by the fact that Gray was taken to Doncaster, where King Edward was at the time and there executed. Thus all the great castles were in Yorkist hands, for Norum seems also in the same period to have quietly surrendered, but the long siege of Harlech endured till 1468. King Henry lurked about the north of England for one more year. Scotland was no longer open to him, but it is strange that his friends did not find some means of conveying him across the seat of Flanders. It is true that King Edward's diplomacy made an appeal on the part of the Lancastrians to Philip of Burgundy or Louis XI to Risky. But Philip's heir, the Count of Charolet, still openly favored the Lancastrian cause and would no doubt have forwarded Henry in safety to Queen Margaret in the Barroix. But the attempt to cross the sea does not seem to have been made. Poor Henry found a precarious dwelling with one supporter after another in Westmoreland and Lancashire, but on June 29, 1465, in the district of Furness, he was taken on the information of a monk of the monastery of Abingdon in Berkshire. When he was captured, his followers were reduced to a monk, a bachelor of laws and a valet. He was taken to London under escort, being met by the Earl of Warwick in Islington. By Warwick's orders, King Henry's legs were fastened with leather thongs to the girths of his horse, and so, on July 24, he was brought to the Tower of London. When Henry VI was captured and put in the Tower, King Edward had been crowned for some four years. During that period he had been King of England, south of the Trent, and of certain outposts in the North. Now he was acknowledged sovereign from the Channel to the Tweed, and this happy consummation was largely due to the exertions and ability of the three Neville brothers, Richard Earl of Warwick, John Earl of Northumberland, George Archbishop of York. King Edward was a young man of twenty-four years, and through him these statesmen had ruled England. There is considerable probability that had he been content to continue this arrangement the Wars of the Roses might have ended here, and England might have been governed in peace and quietness to the end of his life. Edward, however, either from policy or from carelessness, soon involved himself in a struggle with the Nevels. Long unbending men as these were, Edward proved the stronger, but it took six years for the contest to be fought out before the Nevels were finally reduced, and Edward raised himself to autocratic greatness. The first prominent indication that the King was taking a line of his own was the Woodville marriage. The circumstances of this were peculiar. It was a secret marriage, nor was it of the kind that might be expected to strengthen Edward's position. His advisers all hoped that he would marry some princess of an established dynasty who would bring with her the approval of some powerful sovereign and perhaps some material support. People wondered, too, that the King remained so long unmarried, and they feared that he might be getting into evil ways. The truth is that before the North was finally won, Edward was already married. At the end of April, 1464, he and the court were proceeding to the seat of war in the North in a leisurely fashion from London. The court lay at Stoney Stratford, and from there, on May 1st, Edward went secretly and alone or with only one or two attendants to Grafton, about five miles away, where lived Antony Woodville, Lord Rivers, and his wife Chiqueta, widow of the great John Duke of Bedford, the hero of Henry VI's minority. Their daughter was Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Gray, who had died fighting for the Lancastrian cause at the Second Battle of St. Albans. The ceremony of marriage between Edward and Elizabeth was performed at Grafton before witnesses. The King, thereupon, immediately returned to the court at Stoney Stratford. During the next week, in the intervals of hunting in which would forest, he saw his wife several times without the knowledge of the courtiers. But the affairs of politics called him elsewhere, and it was not till the Northern War was completely over that he had leisure to arrange for the public recognition of his wife. The marriage was not publicly announced till September 29th of the same year, 1464. The occasion was a great council of the peers, summoned to readying to transact certain business of government, such as proclaiming a new and debased coinage. The King's announcement must have been a blow to the Earl of Warwick, who hoped for a great French marriage for the King. But he made the best of the matter now that it was done. In the Church of the Great Abbey of Reading, Elizabeth, led forward by the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick, was openly honored as Queen by all the peers assembled. Finally in December the great council again met at West Minster, where with the ascent of the peers, the Queen Elizabeth was assigned lands and lordships to the value of 4,000 marks. Elizabeth is represented as a comely and virtuous woman, and it cannot be denied that she made a good wife to the King. She was five years older than him. Her late husband was an attainted Lancastrian. Her father had been a prominent opponent of the King's father, Richard of York. The marriage was not popular in the country, and it was a great shock to the old nobility when they saw the former steward of the Duke of Bedford raised from the position of a Parvenu peer to be father-in-law of the King. Indeed, for Lord Rivers himself, the marriage of his daughter brought little fortune. It gained him the hatred of powerful nobles and eventually cost him his head. But King Edward went along his own way regardless of the noble's muttering. He made a great marriage for John Woodville, brother of Elizabeth. John, who was only 20 years old, was in January 1465 married to Catherine, the wealthy Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, aged 80 years. A diabolical marriage adds William of Worcester. The lady had been already three times married and was the grandmother of the existing Duke of Norfolk. On Ascension Day, Thursday, May 23rd, Edward created a large number of knights in honour of his Queen. He took care to include several citizens of London in the number. Next day the alderman and citizens met her at Shooters Hill and brought her through Southerc to the Tower of London. On Saturday she rode in a horse litter with the new knights preceding her through Cheapside and the main streets of London to Westminster. On Sunday she was crowned Queen by Thomas Burchier, Archbishop of Canterbury. For the next four years the kingdom remained without any serious disturbance. The country was not yet relieved from the evils of livery and maintenance which had disturbed the peace under the Lancastrians. The past and letters still testified to a condition of insecurity and defiance of the law in Norfolk. But even in this, the weakest period of Edward IV, these evils, although still existing, were less prominent than in the decade which preceded his accession. At least they made much less figure in the annals of the time. It is true that the forms of law were neglected. No parliament was held from the beginning of 1465 to June 1467, but the very strictness and arbitrary cruelty of the royal officials show a determination to keep the peace, although the cost might be too heavy for the country. Attempts were made to secure the Yorkist position abroad. As far back as 1462, March 22nd, Pope Pius II had congratulated Edward on his accession to the throne. In May 1465 the Earl of Warwick had led an embassy to the heir of Burgundy, Charles of Charolais, to win him over from the party of Queen Margaret. But Charles, who personally disliked Warwick, refused to be won over. The Earl was more successful with Louis XI of France, who renewed the existing truce for two more years. Next year in February 1466, the Queen gave birth to a daughter to whom the name Elizabeth was given. The Earl of Warwick stood godfather to her. But he was no longer the one man in the kingdom that Edward must rely on. The King was establishing a new system of families around the crown. He arranged splendid marriages for three sisters of the Queen. Henry, Duke of Buckingham, married one, to the secret displeasure of the Earl of Warwick. The next sister was married to the son and heir of the Earl of Essex, the third to the son and heir of the Earl of Kent. A fourth sister, Margaret, apparently the eldest after the Queen, had, in October 1464, been betrothed to the heir of the Earl of Arendelle. In March 1466, the father of the Queen, Lord Rivers, was made treasurer of the realm in place of Walter Blunt, Lord Mountjoy, again to the secret displeasure of the Earl of Warwick. At Easter, which the King spent at Windsor, he raised his father-in-law to the position of Earl, to the honour of the Queen, and the displeasure of the commons of the realm. Next year, Rivers was made High Constable of England. The establishing of all the Woodvilles was further advanced by the marriage in September of the Queen's remaining sister, Mary, to the son and heir of Lord Herbert. The bridegroom was honoured by the King with the barony of Dunster. This also displeased Warwick. In truth, the King's action was rather insulting, as the Earl himself had a claim to the barony of Dunster. Finally in October the Woodville alliances were completed by the marriage at Greenwich of Sir Thomas Gray, son of the Queen's first marriage and step-son of King Edward, to the lady Anne, heiress of the Duke of Exeter. This was the worst blow of all, for Warwick had intended that she should marry his own nephew, the son of John Neville, Earl of Northumberland. There were now eight separate peerages in the Queen's family, namely those of her father, five sisters, her son and her brother Antony, who was Lord Scales through his marriage with the heiress of that unfortunate nobleman. The month of June brought another blow to the Neville family. Parliament met on June 3rd, 1467. The Chancellor, George Neville, Archbishop of York was unwell and temporarily unable to perform his duties. King Edward took the opportunity to go with Lord Herbert, the King's most intimate friend, to the lodging of the Archbishop outside the bars of Westminster and to relieve him of his office. For thirteen days the great seal was held in commission, and after that it was given to Dr. Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath. The breach between King Edward and the Neville's was widening. The King more and more was taking a line of his own. Warwick believed that security for England lay an alliance with her old enemy the powerful and consolidated Kingdom of France. For this alliance Louis XI showed himself not merely willing but eager. But King Edward and the Woodvilles aimed at renewing the old alliance of England with Flanders, that is to say, with the Duke of Burgundy. Charles of Charrolet was gradually giving up his Lancastery in sympathies. On May 10th, 1467, his half-brother Antony, the great bastard of Burgundy, came to London on a special embassy to the English court. The object of his visit was stated to be that he desired to meet the valiant Antony Woodrill, Lord Scales, in tournament. But affairs of state were considered along with the affairs of chivalry. The bastard stayed till the latter part of June, and after Parliament assembled in June, he met his adversary, Lord Scales, on two successive days in the lists at Smithfield. In the end, King Edward, as judge, decided that the honors were equal. The tournament continued for two more days when suddenly news arrived at London that Philip, Duke of Burgundy was dead.  Before he went, he seems to have made the necessary arrangements for the English alliance. While the bastard of Burgundy was in England, Warwick was over in France negotiating at Rouen for an English alliance with Louis XI, who came in person to confer with him. The French king showed him every honor, gave him apartments in a convent next to the royal residence, and had a private passage opened in the wall, which separated them so that the negotiations might be carried on secretly and easily. The two statesmen seemed to have reached a complete agreement when they parted from each other on June 18th. Warwick came to England, as it seems, just too late to meet the bastard of Burgundy. With him, he brought a splendid body of French ambassadors, including the Archbishop of Nachman and the bastard of Bourbon, the Admiral of France. It was a striking occasion, and King Edward took the opportunity to humiliate Warwick and buy his treatment of the French ambassadors to show Louis XI how little the new King of England cared for the politic King of France. The French ambassadors were honorably housed in London in Fleet Street in the lodging of the Bishop of Salisbury. To King Edward, in the only audience which they had with him, they offered a formal alliance with Louis against the party of Burgundy, and as a bribe, Louis offered to submit Edward's title to Normandy and Aquitaine to the arbitration of the Pope to be finally decided within four years. Until a decision could be given, Edward was to receive 4,000 marks a year from France. But King Edward would have none of it. He left for Windsor, July 6th, and the French ambassadors were left to kick their heels in London for a month, expecting a definite answer from Edward and listening to the explanations of the Earl of Warwick who was now as powerless to bring the King to close quarters as they were. When they returned to France without a definite answer from Edward, it can only have been with bitter feelings against the Yorkist monarch, feelings which the Earl of Warwick must also have shared. The Burgundian alliance was all but completed. It had been arranged that Margaret of York, King Edward's sister, should marry Charles of Burgundy, who having succeeded to his father's duchy was ready for alliance with England, for he was already in that hostility with Louis XI, which was to endure almost continuously throughout his brief and tempestuous reign. As a man of Lancastrian sympathies and dissent, he felt a natural repugnance to making a Yorkist marriage, but the alliance had so many political advantages that his scruples soon gave way. On October 1st, 1467, a great council of peers was held at Kingston upon Thames, and Margaret, in the presence of the lords, gave her consent to the marriage. Warwick was not present. He was at his castle of Middlem in Yorkshire. About the same time, a messenger of Queen Margaret was captured in Wales, carrying dispatches to the heroic garrison of Harlech, which was still holding out. When brought to London to be examined, he accused Warwick of intrigues with the party of Margaret. Warwick successfully cleared himself, but King Edward thought it advisable to raise a bodyguard for himself of 200 horse archers. Their pay was fixed at eight pence a day. It was clear that there was real tension between the young king and the Earl. After Christmas, which the king and queen spent at Coventry, the Archbishop of York, George Neville, brought his brother Warwick to the king, and a formal reconciliation took place. In October, Pope Paul II had sent letters intimating that he had made the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Berger, a cardinal. The king, to whom the letters according to law and custom were delivered in the first instance, jokingly handed them on to the Archbishop of York with a charge to explain what was in them. Abroad, danger seemed to be threatening the Yorkist dynasty from Louis XI. In May, 1468, Edward announced to Parliament his intention of next year leading in person an expedition against France. Queen Margaret was beginning to take hope again. Early in June about the same time Parliament was dissolved, another secret Lancastrian messenger was arrested at Queenborough this time, bearing important letters. The unhappy man, whose name was Cornelius, a cobbler, was taken to the Tower of London where his feet were burned until he confessed his knowledge of the Lancastrian plots. A number of men were implicated, mostly people of no great prominence, but among them was a servant of Lord Wenlock. Wenlock had fought well for the Yorkist cause, but was really a man of the Earl of Warwick. In July, a commission sat to consider the confession, the commissioners were the chief justices of England and some others, including the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick. As a result, most of the people indicted were acquitted or pardoned, but Lord Wenlock's servant was found guilty of treason and before he could disclose anything more about his master, was promptly hanged. The Troubled Years of King Edward, Part II King Edward found it difficult to trust anyone but the family of his queen. Yet, a semblance of cordiality was still kept up with Warwick. When, in the middle of June, Edward's sister, Margaret, left London to be married to Charles of Burgundy at Bruges, she rode on the same horse behind the Earl. She embarked near the Isle of Thanet. A fleet of 15 ships conveyed her to Schlauz. By easy stages, Margaret and her attendant ladies proceeded up the canal to Damne near Bruges and on Sunday, July 3rd, she was married in the latter city to Charles the Bold by the Bishop of Salisbury and a papal legate. The marriage was a great triumph for the Burgundian policy of Edward IV and the Woodvilles. It was important politically and also economically as Flanders was one of the oldest commercial markets of England. But Henry VI's wife, Queen Margaret, could still look to Louis XI for support, more than ever, in fact, now that Edward IV was committed to Charles of Burgundy. The enmity of Charles and Louis, which has been so well described by Sir Walter Scott in the novel of Quinton Derward, was deep and lasting and shook Europe to the very foundations. To Louis, nothing could be more convenient than the continuance of civil war in England. Therefore the Lancastrian cause was still kept alive by French doles. At the end of June, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, as he was still called, although attainted, was brought to North Wales along with 50 men and a little money by three French ships. He landed near Harlech. This castle, which was now closely invested by Lord Herbert, had endured a severe though intermittent state of siege for seven years. Jasper Tudor could not relieve it, but he created a vigorous diversion in North Wales. Raising a part of the country in his support, he plundered and burned the royal town of Denby. But Lord Herbert, with a strong force, estimated at 10,000 men, met him in the field, scattered his men, and compelled him to fly. Harlech did not hold out much longer. Its last hope was gone. On August 24th, the eve of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, David Abnon, the captain, surrendered at the king's mercy. The whole garrison at this time was found to be just 50 men. They were taken up to London, but only two suffered death. Their names were Elwick and Troublot. It is not known why they were singled out for execution. They were both of noble rank. Lord Herbert, in consideration of his services at Harlech, was given the earldom of Pembroke, which the attainted Jasper Tudor could no longer hold in the eye of the law. Among those captured in the castle was Jasper's 12-year-old nephew, Henry, subsequently King Henry VII. In spite of this success at Harlech, Edward, although unconscious of the fact, was in a very perilous position. Warwick, it seems, had resolved to assert himself in deadly earnest and to show that he could be a king-maker once more. There is no proof that in his opposition to King Edward he was holding treasonable communications with Queen Margaret. The earl and she were two old enemies to come easily together. There were undoubtedly Lancastrian plots being hatched in France and in England. Of these, Edward seems to have been well aware. Through his agents he was able to unmask them. Toward the end of the year, 1468, two Lancastrians were arrested and executed. The fleet of King Edward had been mobilized in the autumn and had swept the channel October through November. By the end of November, the fleet had returned to the Isle of Wight, reporting that there was just now no danger from Queen Margaret. Thus Edward may have felt secure. The Lancastrian cause was reduced to the lowest point. Its feeble plotters simply numbered the gallows at Tyburn, but it was not from Lancastrians that the danger came. The year 1468 had ended without any disaster. But in the spring of 1469, the Earl of Warwick went to Calais to take over in person the governorship which hitherto he had administered through a deputy. From this time, events moved very quickly. Warwick had the complete confidence of Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, a man who was not honorable enough to serve his brother in a secondary position. Edward having his yet no son, Clarence might hope to succeed to the throne in preference to one of the king's daughters. At Calais, Warwick was perfecting his plans. Outwardly he carried on the policy of King Edward, a journey to meet the Duke of Burgundy and kept up friendly relations with that power. The Burgundian chronicler, Varron, was invited to Calais with a promise to receive the information on politics that he was so desirous to obtain. For nine days, Warwick entertained him with magnificent hospitality, but Vouch saved no information, promising, however, to be more expansive if Varron returned in two months' time. The shrewd Burgundian had no difficulty in seeing that some deep scheme was being secretly brought to perfection. For one thing, the long talked-of marriage between Clarence and Warwick's elder daughter Isabella was shortly to be completed. Clarence, with George Neville, Archbishop of York, had come to Calais about the beginning of July. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Archbishop on the 11th a week after the departure of Varron. Next day, July 12th, Warwick and Clarence made a proclamation in Calais, full of complaints against the government of Edward and announcing their intention of proceeding at once to England to set the matter right. Meanwhile, a serious rising had broken out in the north of England. At the end of May, 1469, many men took arms in Yorkshire under Robin of Reedsdale. Whoever Robin of Reedsdale was, he is a type of those popular country captains like Jack Straw or Jack Cade, who from time to time in medieval England voiced the grievances of the rural districts against the central government. The insurgents originally complained of the exaction of a thrave of corn by the monastery of St. Leonard's. But their grievances went further and included ill government or lack of government of the same kind as had been complained of in the reign of Henry VI. The chief points in the complaints respecting King Edward were his reliance on favorites, the Woodvilles, bad administration of law and justice, and excessive taxation. Robin of Reedsdale had 60,000 men in his following. This is perhaps the usual medieval exaggeration, but they were not all peasants. A number of gentlemen, some of Lancastrian sympathies, others of the party of the Earl of Warwick were known to be among the insurgents. Another simultaneous insurrectionary movement in Yorkshire was under a captain called Robin of Holderness. He cannot have been in the interest of the Neville's at all, for the demand of him and his men was that the family of Percy should be restored to the Earldom of Northumberland. The present Earl, John Neville, brother of Warwick, naturally felt no sympathy for this last movement. Although his force was small, he met the insurgents outside the gates of York, put them to flight, captured their leader, Robin of Holderness, and had him beheaded. But he did nothing to disperse the rising of Robin of Reedsdale. King Edward felt bound to come north in person, yet he only gradually recognized the seriousness of the situation. In June, he was engaged in a royal progress in East Anglia. Then the inaction of the Earl of Northumberland gave him ground for suspicion, and the presence of Warwick and Clarence and Calais together made him uneasy. On July 9th, he addressed letters to them and also to the Archbishop of York, ordering them to return to England to attend upon him in such peaceable wise as they have been accustomed to ride. Two days after these letters were written, Clarence and Isabella Neville were married in Calais. Edward, at the time, can have known nothing of this. Warwick had already made up his mind to return to England. There can be no doubt that he was all along in communication with the leaders of Robin of Reedsdale's insurrection. After the marriage of Clarence, he lost no time in crossing over to Sandwich. From there he passed on to London, gathering as he went along great numbers of the men of Kent. The citizens of the capital made no difficulty about receiving him. Edward was at Nottingham with only a moderate force, waiting for the Welsh levies which Lord Herbert was bringing from the West. On the advice of Lord Mountjoy, he sent Earl Rivers and John Woodville into safekeeping at Chepstow, as owing to their unpopularity, he believed their absence would strengthen his position. The Northern men were now marching southwards. Warwick, with his following, was coming up from London. King Edward looked like being caught between two forces. But before this happened, the Northern men had already intercepted Lord Herbert's small army. Herbert, lately made Earl of Pembroke, had been joined on the way by the Earl of Devonshire, who had also considerable forces. But the two leaders could not work together. They separated, and Herbert alone gave battle to the Northern men. The scene of action was at Edgecote, a hamlet in North Hamptonshire four miles from Banbury. Near the village are three small hills forming a triangle within which the fight took place. The date was either July 24th or 26th, 1469. The Welshman of Lord Herbert's force were in great spirits, believing the ancient prophecy would come true, to the effect that having expelled the English, the remains of the Britons are once more to obtain the sovereignty of England as being the proper citizens thereof. However, they were disappointed in their hope, as the Northern men inflicted a terrible defeat upon them, slaying, it is said, as many as 4,000. Neither King Edward, on the one part, nor Warwick on the other, was present at the Battle of Edgecote. Warwick and Clarence joined the insurgents soon after the fight, and saw to the execution of the prisoners. Lord Herbert and his two brothers suffered death. This must have taken place without any legal trial. King Edward was left practically without supporters, for his only permanent following consisted of his bodyguard of two hundred archers. He came to meet his brother and the Earl of Warwick. The encounter took place at a village between the towns of Warwick and Coventry. Edward, on their first presenting themselves, felt, as was natural, extreme indignation, and showed them a lower incontinence. But when they protested that they were in firm allegiance to him, and that they had no other intention than to free him from unworthy counsellors, he became more calm. The fact of the matter was, he was in their power, and had no alternative but to accept their protestations. But his mind can scarcely have been at ease, especially when he saw the two Woodvilles, father and son, executed for being his friends. They had been taken from Chepstow Castle, whether they had gone for refuge, and by Warwick's orders they were executed at Kennelworth. King Edward, after his meeting with Clarence and the Earl of Warwick, had been transferred first to Warwick Castle, afterwards for safekeeping to Middlem in Yorkshire. Warwick had thus again won the direction of affairs. He held the king, the northern insurgents seemed to have gone quietly back to their homes with a royal pardon. But these domestic troubles inside the Yorkist party had another effect. They gave an opportunity to the Lancastrian gentry to make a rising. In fact, among the northern insurgents who originally followed Robin of Reedsdale had been some prominent Lancastrians. Warwick had not scrupled to use these to bring King Edward under his power. Now having captured the king, he found that he could not by himself allay the Lancastrian tummels. Once such tumult or rising was especially formidable, Sir Humphrey Neville, a Lancastrian, though probably a distant relation of Warwick, raised the men of the extreme north of England close to the Scottish border. Warwick, who was not yet prepared to throw in his lot entirely with that of King Henry, was unable to cope with this rising. His name alone was not sufficient to make men follow. A proclamation which he issued in the name of King Edward was pointedly ignored. At last the Earl had no resource left but to release Edward from Middleham Castle and let him go freely as King to York. When this was done, people were found to follow Warwick in the name of King Edward and as a result the rebels were speedily routed. Edward, conscious of his power, returned to London. He arrived about October 13th with a good following of nobles and others. Warwick remained in the north. George Neville, Archbishop of York, accompanied the King but did not enter London with him. Clarence stayed away also. Edward himself spoke publicly of Clarence, Warwick and the Archbishop as his best friends but the men of his household had another and perhaps a truer opinion about them. The year 1469 ended in peace after a great council had been held in London at which Warwick and Clarence attended. Certain changes were made among the King's officers. The family of Neville received a further honor in the betrothal of Edward's eldest daughter aged four years to George, the son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland. If no son was born to King Edward it was possible that this young man might one day become King as consort to the Queen Renyant. Warwick's elder daughter was already married to Edward's brother Clarence. Now Edward's eldest daughter was married to Warwick's nephew. Whatever rule of succession should be observed it appeared as if one branch or another of the family of Neville would one day gain the crown. But Warwick could not wait for that day. Early in 1470 new troubles arose in Lincolnshire. They began with the inhabitants resisting the demands of purveyance by an officer of the King's household who was also a Lincolnshire landowner. At the head of the insurgents there soon appeared Sir Robert Wells, son of Lord Wells. This Lord Wells had been one of the insurgent leaders in Robin of Reedsdale's host and belonged to an old land castrian family. But Warwick himself was believed to be at the bottom of the rebellion. Edward did not at first suspect this. One day he went to have supper with Archbishop Neville to meet Warwick and Clarence. Just before supper Lord Fitzwalter whispered into the King's ear that 100 armed men were lying nearby to seize and carry him off. Edward immediately left the house and got on horseback and never stopped till he was safe and Windsor. But the King had no proof and for a time peace was kept between him and his great subject. End of section 24.