After this the two parties were reconciled, but the quarrel soon broke out again. The queen sent one of her friends with some troops to waylay and arrest the Earl of Salisbury. Being warned of his danger, the earl travelled with a large escort, and at Bloreheath, in Staffordshire, defeated the force sent to take him.

The Yorkist leaders were then obliged to flee the country; but they soon returned, and won a victory at Northampton. The duke thereupon claimed the crown as the rightful heir of Edward III., and it was agreed that he should become king upon Henry's death.

This arrangement roused the spirit of the queen,

whose son was thus deprived of his inheritance. She collected a large army in the north, and defeated the Duke of York at Wakefield. He was either slain in battle or executed after, and it is said that his head, with a crown of paper placed in mockery upon it, was stuck on the walls of York.

The battle of Wakefield was fought on the 30th of December. Early next year two other battles were fought. Edward, son of the late Duke of York, overcame the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire, and a fortnight later the Lancastrians overcame the Earl of Warwick at St. Alban's. The victorious and the vanquished Yorkists joined together and marched to London, where they were welcomed by the citizens.

Edward called a council of lords, and claimed the crown. His claim was granted, Henry being deposed on the ground that he had broken the agreement made with the Duke of York.

EDWARD IV.

EDWARD had the kingdom; it remained to be seen whether he could hold it. Margaret had an army of 60,000 men in Yorkshire, and the new king hurried thither with an army equally great. The two met at Towton, and a fearful battle followed. Fighting began on Saturday afternoon, and lasted far on into the night. It was renewed next morning amid a heavy snowstorm The struggle was very fierce, and the issue long doubtful. At one time the Earl of Warwick, seeing his followers wavering, dismounted, stabbed his horse in their presence, and swore to live or die with them. In the

end the Lancastrians gave way, and were pursued in every direction. No quarter being given, the slaughter was terrible; over 20,000 fell on the losing side alone. The snow lay red over all the wide battle-field; and when a thaw came, every furrow was filled with a crimson stream. Since the fight on the hill of Senlac there had been no such bloodshed in England.

The Lancastrian party was so crushed by the defeat of Towton that it would never have risen again if Edward had acted with caution. Though an able man, he was fond of pleasure, and followed his desires, not only when they were opposed to the interests of the country, but even when they were opposed to his own. Such a king was more likely to turn friends into enemies than enemies into friends.

At this time the most powerful of Edward's subjects was the Earl of Warwick. He was related to many of the chief nobles; he had inherited one great estate from his father, his wife had brought him another, and Edward had given him the lands of several of the wealthiest Lancastrians who fell at Towton. So mighty was he that people called him "the king-maker."

After Edward had been reigning for some time, a coolness sprang up between him and Warwick. The king was jealous of the power of the earl; the earl thought his advice was not followed as it should be by the king. Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, sided with Warwick, hoping by his help to win the crown. But the king proved too strong, and the plotters fled to France.

They met Queen Margaret there, were reconciled to her, and then invaded England in the interests of her party. Edward was quite unprepared for their coming; he had even entrusted the command of his army to

Warwick's brother.

He escaped to Flanders, while Henry VI. was released from the Tower and once more became king in name.

In less than six months Edward was back again. The citizens of London welcomed his return, Clarence

left his new friends to join him, and Warwick himself was willing to desert. But Edward, glad of the chance of crushing his too powerful subject, would not take him back into favour, and marched forth to do battle with him. The armies met at Barnet on Easter Sunday; the king gained a complete victory, and the earl was slain.

On the same day Margaret, with a body of Frenchmen, landed at Weymouth. Many of the Lancastrians joined her, but she was defeated at Tewkesbury, and taken prisoner. Her son, Prince Edward, was either killed in battle or murdered soon after. She herself was kept in captivity for four years, and then was ransomed by Louis XI., King of France.

Within a few hours of the return of the victorious Edward to London, Henry was found dead in the Tower. It was said he had died of "pure displeasure and melancholy," but most people believed he had been murdered.

CAXTON.

FAR more important than anything else which happened during the reign of Edward IV., more important than the battle of Towton or of Tewkesbury, more important than the murder of Henry, was the introduction of printing into England.

Till the middle of the fifteenth century, when an author composed a work, copies of it could only be made in writing; and it therefore took a very long time to make many. This, together with the fact that for about 2 five hundred years everything had to be written on parchment, made books very scarce and dear. A bishop of Winchester, in the reign of Edward I., died possessed of only seventeen; in the reign of Edward III. a bishop of Durham gave fifty pounds' weight of silver for between thirty and forty volumes; and when 3 Louis XI. wanted to borrow a certain book, he had to give security for its safe return.

Three Germans (named Guttenberg, Fust, and