The Wars of the Roses: II (1460 I461). Attempt of Yorkists to seize the Crown

Thus far the war had been in the main a struggle of one party of the nobility to improve the government of the kingdom and to remove from the side of the king his bad advisers. From this time, however, it became a deliberate attempt on the part of the Yorkists to seize the crown as their right. The three earls, Warwick, Salisbury, and Rutland, after spending six months in preparation, landed, in June, 1460, on the coast of Kent and were hailed with acclaim by the people. The Yorkists, as had been apparent since the rebellion of Jack Cade, had found their support in the towns and among the yeomanry. London opened its gates to the earls, who now published proclamations, giving as their reasons for their coming the bad administration of the lands, the perversion of justice, the heavy taxation, the squandering of the patrimony of the king, and the extortionate practices of sheriffs and purveyors in the counties and townships.) The first battle was fought at Northampton on July 10, 1460, where the Yorkists were victorious. The king was captured, and great numbers of Lancastrian knights and nobles were slain. Immediately a parliament was summoned, which repealed the act of attainder against the Yorkists and passed another against Margaret and the Lancastrian leaders.

The duke of York returned from Ireland, and changing his policy, made an open demand for the crown. This meant the deposition of Henry VI, and to this extreme the lords were unwilling to go. A compromise was reached whereby it was agreed that Henry should retain the crown for life and that Richard of York should be his heir.' But Margaret refused to surrender the rights of her son, and gathered about her the nobles of the north, where lay the strength of the Lancastrian party. Supported by the Percys, the Nevilles, and other border barons, she met the Yorkist forces at Wakefield and won a victory in which the duke of York himself was slain (December 30, 1460). The Lancastrians displayed great ferocity, and scores of the Yorkist leaders were killed. Salisbury was captured after the battle and beheaded.

Civil war was now in full swing. The young Edward, Earl of March, now Duke of York, took up his father's cause and defeated the Lancastrians of Wales (Tudors and Pembrokes) at Mortimer's Cross on February 2, 1461; but this victory was offset by that of the northern Lancastrians at St. Albans on the 17th. Each battle was followed by a merciless slaughter of prisoners, and atrocities and reprisals accompanied this duel to the death between the great feudal parties. At London, whither Margaret of Anjou dared not take her northern followers on account of their lawless character, Edward of York was proclaimed king, as Edward IV, by a council of lords and the commons of the city.

The object of the war was to maintain the title thus won. Edward and Warwick, gathering their forces, hastened northward, and meeting the Lancastrians at Towton (March 29, 1461), fought a battle of revenge on a bleak hillside during a blinding snowstorm. The Lancastrians were defeated with such a slaughter of the northern nobles as to show the desperate ferocity of the Yorkists. People said that the slain numbered twenty-eight thousand men.

The Wars of the Roses : III (1461-1471). Struggle of Edward IV to maintain his Crown

Edward was crowned at London on June 30, 1461, and his title was confirmed by parliament. The four years from 1461 to 1465 were occupied with successful efforts to complete the victory. Margaret fled to Flanders ;' the battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham broke the power of the Percys; while Henry, Duke of Somerset, son of Edmund, Duke of Somerset, and one of the last of the house of Beaufort, was captured and beheaded. No mercy was shown on either side.

For four years Edward and Warwick ruled together, the one as king, the other as the real power at the head of the kingdom. Finally, Edward wearied of Warwick's control, and determined to be king himself, in fact as well as in name. He thwarted Warwick's plans by a romantic marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian knight, and began to raise members of her family to important positions at court. He interfered with Warwick's scheme for a peace with Louis XI of France, son of Charles VII, who had aided the Lancastrians. He negotiated a treaty with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, the last great feudal opponent of the French king, and gave to him his sister in marriage.' And, lastly, in 1467, he dismissed Warwick from office.

Then Warwick, around whom as the kingmaker and "last of the barons" romance has thrown an undeserved halo, conspired against his king. Allying himself with the duke of Clarence, Edward's younger brother, he became reconciled with Margaret of Anjou, and bound himself to aid in restoring Henry V1. Devoid of principle, loyal only to his own ambitions, and representative of a degenerate and fast disappearing feudal class, the kingmaker did what many another of the nobility had done at this time gave his services to the cause which promised the greatest reward.

WARWICK CASTLE.

One of the oldest and most famous of English castles. The portion here represented was used for residence and is not older than the fifteenth century. With the execution of Edward, Earl of Warwick, 1499, the castle reverted to the crown. It was given to John Dudley when he was created earl of Warwick, but after his execution (p. 279) again reverted to the crown.