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Lancaster and York
The Quarrel of York and Neville; Part 2

The Quarrel of York and Neville; Part 2

Affairs were once more reaching a point when the only decision could be by the sword. Lancastrian partisans again appeared in the country. In 1469 the whole of South Yorkshire burst into rebellion under Sir John Conyers, a relation of Warwick's by marriage. At Edward's summons Warwick himself came over from Calais, with George Neville and the Duke of Clarence (now his son-in-law) with him. Far from helping Edward, Warwick raised a force against him. Some of the king's soldiers went over to the Neville side; the force under Lord Herbert, who remained loyal, was shattered by Conyers at Edgecott. Edward himself was captured at night by George Neville and a party of Warwick's men-at-arms. Warwick had the game in his hands, but was just too honourable to win it. He might have put Edward to death, and once more played the part of a kingmaker, this time for his son-in-law, Clarence's, benefit. Yet, though doubtless Edward would have had no hesitation in ordering Warwick's head off, Warwick was more scrupulous. He contented himself with taking vengeance on the Woodvilles, two of whom he caused to be beheaded; from the king he exacted no more than promises. Probably, over-confident of his own strength, he thought that he had given Edward a sufficient lesson. In a sense he had, yet scarcely what he intended. He had wished to discipline a young man, but he had created an implacable enemy, all the more dangerous that the pupil had taken the lesson with a smiling countenance.

Then came a year of revolutions. In March, 1470, Edward collected forces to subdue a rising in Lincolnshire, and turning suddenly on Warwick and Clarence, forced them to flee oversea. In France they found the scattered remains of the Lancastrian party, with the dauntless Margaret of Anjou at their head. Strange were the privations they had gone through, the young prince "begging from house to house", the queen, without money, baggage, or gowns, sharing a herring for the food of herself and her son, and reduced to borrow at mass from a Scottish archer, who, "rather loath, drew a Scots groat from his purse, and lent it to her". Louis XI saw his chance of striking a counter-blow at Edward to punish him for his alliance with Burgundy. He persuaded Warwick and Margaret to come to terms. It was not easy to reconcile the two who for twenty years had been the bitterest of foes, but in such tortuous policy Louis XI was a master. Warwick at length declared for King Henry, and crowned the alliance with the usual betrothal, this time of his daughter Anne to Margaret's son, Prince Edward. At first fortune smiled on this perfidious alliance. In September Warwick and Clarence landed in the west; again Edward's men deserted him. He narrowly escaped rapture at the hands of Montagu, Warwick's brother, and hastily fled from Lynn to Burgundy. Henry VI way, taken from the Tower, "not cleanly kept, as should seem such a prince", newly arrayed, and set once more on a puppet throne.

Chronology

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