the duke's head, wearing a paper crown, was set up at York. So perished the wisest statesman left in England.

March, warned of this defeat, now started eastward to join Warwick at London; and Owen Tudor (who had married Henry V.'s widow, Katherine), with his son Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, and the Earl of Wiltshire, attacked him on his way at Mortimer's Cross, February 3, 1461. But he turned upon them fiercely, and routed them, and taking Owen prisoner, slew him in revenge for his father, and laid his head on the highest step of the market cross at Haverfordwest. Meanwhile Margaret, with her victorious army, had marched towards London, till, on February 17th, she found her way barred by Warwick, who held S. Albans against her. After one repulse, for the Yorkists were strongly posted, the queen's troops drove Warwick's men through the town and cleared the road. But the Yorkists withdrew unpursued under cover of night, and with Warwick at their head turned west to meet the Earl of March. By this victory Margaret rescued her husband, who was left behind by Warwick in his retreat. Henry sent to London for supplies, and the mayor ordered that certain carts laden with victual should be sent to them to S. Albans. "But when the carts came to Cripplegate, the commons of the city that kept the gate took the victual from the carts, and would not suffer it to pass. Then were certain aldermen and commoners appointed to go to Barnet to speak with the queen's council, to entreat that the northern men should be sent home to their country. For the city of London did dread sore to be robbed and spoiled if they had come." But while they treated, news came that the Earls of March and Warwick had met at Chipping Norton, and were on their way to London. So the king and queen turned north lest they should be surrounded by their foes. The Londoners were glad to be saved from Margaret's border freebooters, and welcomed the young Earl of March as the "White Rose of Rouen," singing

"He that could London forsake,

We will no more to us take."

And on the 4th March 1461, by the advice of the Lords of his party and the choice of the Commons, Edward was proclaimed king, and took the crown and sceptre of the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, to the joy of all that hoped for better government.

CHAPTER IV.

Edward IV. of Rouen, 1461-1483.

The

Towton field,

1. But there could not be two kings in England, so without delay Edward set forth to defeat his foes and avenge his father. King Henry and the queen lay at York with 60,000 men. Edward and Warwick led 50,000 against them. vanguards fought at Ferrybridge, which was seized for Edward by Lord Fitzwalter, who was slain by Lord Clifford. But Lord Falconbridge came up, killed Clifford, and retook the bridge. Next day, 28th March, at nine in the morning, the two great hosts met on the Palm Sunday moor by Towton. There was a thick fall of 1461. snow in the faces of the Lancastrians, and their arrows fell short of the mark; when their quivers were empty, the Yorkists drew near, poured in volley upon volley, and then charged. But the northern footmen held their ground bravely in the sword-play, and only gave way about three in the afternoon, when Norfolk brought up Edward's rearguard. Edward pressed on the pursuit without quarter, and drove his defeated foes into the river Cock, where many were drowned. All through the night the Lancastrians fled and the Yorkists pressed upon their heels, cutting them down without mercy, so that by the sunset next day they had slain more than 30,000 men; among them were the Earl of Northumberland, six barons, and Sir Andrew Trollop. But Somerset and Exeter escaped, and Henry, the queen, and the prince (who had stayed at York during the battle) fled after them to Scotland, where they were welcomed, for they gave up Berwick to the King of Scots, who at once sent an army into England to check the Yorkists and beset Carlisle. But Lord Montague, who had been left to guard the north while Edward went to London to be crowned, relieved Carlisle, and overthrew the Scots with great slaughter. On the 28th June Edward was crowned, and Parliament met on the 4th November. had already given new honours to many of his truest friends. His two young brothers, George and Richard, were made Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, William Neville Lord Falconbridge was made Earl of Kent, Lord Bourchier Earl of Essex, and Humfrey Bourchier and William Herbert barons. Parliament declared Edward's title good, and the three Henries usurpers, but confirmed the Acts passed under

He

their rule, so that no man should suffer by the coming of the true king. A Bill of Attainder was passed against the late king, his wife and son, and the chief lords that had stood by them alive or dead. The young king thanked them for the tender and true hearts they had shown him with all his heart, "and if I had any better good," said he, "to reward you withal than my body, ye should have it." He did not need their money, for he had lately borrowed 120,000 florins from Cosmo dei Medici, the rich lord of Florence.

2. Henry was possibly not sorry to be rid of all the cares of the crown, but Margaret, eager to revenge her friends, and determined to win back her son's heritage, left no stone unturned in gathering strength for another attack on Edward. Scotland was at this time weakened by the struggles between the royal house and the powerful Douglas and Angus families, which had prevented the Scottish kings from taking advantage of the weakness of England during Henry VI.'s reign. And James II.'s death at the siege of Roxburgh in 1460, left his crown to a child, James III. It was in vain that Margaret gained the Earl of Angus's aid, for Edward bribed the Earl of Ross, Lord of the Isles, and won over the Dowager-Queen Mary, so the Scots agreed not to interfere. Margaret therefore sought help from abroad. The Duke of Brittany gave her money, and Louis XI. of France, on her promise of yielding Calais as soon as she had won back her husband's throne, lent her 20,000 crowns, and sent Peter of Brezé with Margaret's attacks foiled, 2000 men to Scotland with her. Put again and King Henry she failed; her friend Oxford was tried by. Roman law before the Constable Tiptoft Earl of Worcester, for corresponding with her, and beheaded. Her fleet was wrecked with all her treasure, and the most part of her foreign allies only escaped death by water to be taken prisoners on Holy Island in 1462. Margaret and Peter reached Berwick alone in a fisher-boat. The three strongholds which the Lancastrians had taken were retaken by Warwick. Even Somerset, Percy, and Sir Ralph Grey now gave up the Red Rose, and swore fealty to Edward. But Margaret did not despair, and in 1463 the exiles, with Scottish help, made a second attack upon the north of England, when they were joined by the faithless Somerset and his friends. But John Neville overcame them at Hedgley, April 15, where Percy fell "fighting like a man," and at Hexham, May 15, where Somerset was taken and beheaded, while Warwick battered Bamborough Castle

taken, 1461-1463.

with his two iron guns, "Newcastle" and "London," and his brass cannon “Dijon,” till it yielded, when its captain, Grey, was brought to the king, judged, and put to death at Doncaster. Margaret and her son were in Flanders, and King Henry in Lancashire, where he lurked in hiding till 1466, when he was betrayed by Sir James Harrington and his friends Tempest of Branwell and Talbot of Bashall. Warwick brought him to London, and had him lodged in the Tower, where he was safely kept, and not unkindly treated.

1470.

3. Edward determined to plant himself so firmly on his throne that he should not be lightly overthrown. He sent embassies to most of the courts of Europe, made truces with Scotland and France, and treaties of peace and trade with Burgundy, Brittany, Aragon, Castille, Denmark, and Poland. He took care to reward his friends, giving John Neville the earldom of Northumberland, and George Neville the archbishopric of York, and making Lord Herbert Earl of Pembroke. But he grew restless under the constant control which Warwick sought Edward marries, to keep over him, and when he was desired to and quarrels with marry Bona, sister of Louis XI., he refused, Warwick and and privately married (in 1464) a widow, Lady Clarence, 1464Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Jacquette of Luxemburgh and her second husband, the "handsome Woodville" Lord Rivers. The new queen was crowned, May 26, 1465, amid great rejoicings. And as Edward could trust her kinsfolk to stand by him, he resolved to enrich them, so that he might have partisans of his own, who should not owe anything to the Nevilles or Bourchiers. Accordingly Lord Rivers was made Treasurer, the queen's sisters married to the Duke of Buckingham and the heirs of Arundel and Pembroke, her elder brother to the heiress of Scales, her younger brother to the Dowager-Duchess of Norfolk, and her son, Thomas Grey, to the king's niece, the heiress of Exeter. Warwick looked with displeasure on the favour shown to these "upstarts," but he grew angry when Edward gave his own sister Margaret in marriage to Charles, Earl of Charolois, Burgundy's son, a man with whom he was at deadly feud. And in spite of a reconciliation (brought about by George Neville), he began to cast about for means of regaining his power. Clarence, jealous of his brother, and eager for a crown, easily fell in with the kingmaker's plans, and in July 1469 married his elder daughter Isabel, at Calais. Margaret and her party

in the north began again to raise their heads, and as Edward disgusted some men by his favour to the woodvilles, and others by his strict justice and the stern way in which he punished any one who broke the law, she found here and there those who for their own ends were ready to stir up civil war again. Early in 1469 the Yorkshire commons rose under Robert Hulyard, calling himself Robin of Holderness, and complaining of the tithes. John Neville put them down, and killed their leader. Sir William Conyers, a Lancastrian, known as Robin of Redesdale, with Clarence's approval and Warwick's knowledge had already raised a great host, and published articles complaining of the king's bad counsellors, the Woodvilles. July 26, the king's Welsh troops were beaten at Edgecote, and the Earls of Pembroke, Devon, and Rivers were afterwards taken and beheaded by Clarence's orders. Edward saw nothing better than give himself up to George Neville, by whose advice and his mother's, the Duchess of York, he was reconciled with Warwick and Clarence, who were afraid of going too far, for Edward was very well liked by the people of London and by the merchants and farmers, who were glad of the good peace and stern justice he kept. In 1470, however, Sir Robert Welles put himself at the head of a rising in Lincolnshire by secret orders from Clarence and Warwick. Edward, now knowing the danger of such movements, at once, by quick marching, came up with the rebels, and set upon them near Stamford, March 29. The fire of his cannon put them to flight, and the day was remembered as Lose-coat field, from the white gaberdines the rebels threw off in their hurry to get away. Welles was taken, and confessed that there was a plot to make Clarence king. Edward therefore wrote to Clarence and Warwick to urge them to come back to their duty, and on their delay proclaimed them traitors. They fled to France, where Louis welcomed them warmly, and, at Amboise, by his persuasion Warwick was brought to offer Queen Margaret (who was with her son at Louis' court) his help to put her captive husband back on his throne. Margaret hung back at first, but at last agreed that her son Edward should marry Warwick's second daughter Anne, and that Clarence and Warwick should be Lieutenants of the Realm till the prince was of age. Clarence, though he put a fair face on it, did not like this new plan of Warwick's, and began to write secret messages to King Edward, telling him that he was only waiting for a fit time to show his loyalty to him.