 Chapter 8 The Battle of Bloorheath and the Attainer of the Orchists For two years following the great reconciliation at St. Paul's, March 25, 1458, England had a very varied history. First there came eighteen months of outward peace, when affairs drifted on without any catastrophe. Then came an open battle in the land, with some thousands engaged on either side, September 23, 1459, at Bloorheath, in the county of Stafford. And finally the kingdom was for a time actually dismembered. England remaining under Henry VI, Ireland offering a safe refuge to the outlawed Duke of York, and Calais being held as a small but war-like sea state by the Earl of Warwick. At the end of this time, July 2, 1460, the Orchists, from their strong base at Calais, came back to England to pursue a long, though not uninterrupted, career of victory. During these two years the figure of the Earl of Warwick stands out in bold relief. His vigor, ability, mental and physical vitality shed a light of romance and adventure over the political quarrels of the time. As Admiral of the Seas, though repudiated by the King, his fame was sufficient to attract the best sailors of England to his flag. As captain of Calais, he kept the city free from French and Burgundian alike, a safe refuge for all his fugitive friends. Royal ships, royal officers, came against them in vain. They were met before they left the soil of England, and they were carried off in triumph to Calais. When he himself replied by recrossing the narrow seas to England, he found the way open to London, almost with a triumphal progress. The year 1458 would have ended quietly for the country but for an unfortunate fray in London which might have cost the Earl of Warwick his life. He had been attending a council at Westminster, apparently to give an account of his naval exploits, especially of his attack on some Lubeck merchantmen. As he was leaving the palace and going toward his barge, a fight began between one of his followers and a servant of the court. The fight became general between Warwick's men and members of the royal household, and it was with the utmost difficulty that the Earl fought his way to his barge and escaped by water with his men. It has been suspected that this fray was deliberately planned by the Lancastrian leaders in order to get rid of the great Earl. Warwick did not feel himself safe till he had got back to his stronghold at Calais. But the Yorkists, who were left behind in England, did not feel themselves safe. Warwick, before going back to Calais, had time to visit his father and the Duke of York. Whether they had begun to concert measures for their safety and for checking the party which was in the ascendancy at court, but they agreed that no violence was to be offered to the person of the King. The Queen and her friends, meanwhile, prepared for war. Thus it is impossible to say which side was responsible for the outbreak of hostilities in September 1459, for each had been making preparations all through the year. The journeys of the court in the western counties in the previous two years had not been without effect. The Queen was now found to have quite a large party in her favor in the county of Chester, and also it seems in Hereford and Gloucester. Many of the gentlemen of Chester had accepted the livery, or rather the badge of the young Prince Edward, a silver swan, and thus had bound themselves to his cause. It was even rumored that the Queen had proposed that King Henry should abdicate the throne in favor of her son. But this would have been the most foolish of moves, for no one objected to the King, but only to his wife and her friends. The King was not inactive. In April he was sending out privy seals to all the gentlemen whom he judged faithful to be present at Leicester on May 10th. But nothing seems to have come of this assembly. It was in the next two months that the Queen was so active giving badges in the county of Chester. The Duke of York seems to have been living at Ludlow, where he had a strong castle, much property, and many friends and tenants. The Earl of Salvesbury was in the north at Middleham in Yorkshire. The Earl of Warwick was at Calais from which in September he has said to have made another successful descent upon a fleet of Spanish and Genoese merchantmen. The three great Yorkist chiefs kept as far as possible in communication with each other. As each side was collecting armed forces and each distrusted the other, it is immaterial to discuss who moved first. Early in September the Earl of Salvesbury moved southwards from Middleham with three thousand men to join the Duke of York at Ludlow. The King and Queen had also strong forces in hand. The King was at Worcester with a body of men. Lord Oddly was further north raising the militia and gentlemen of Chester and Shrewsbury, with a commission from the King to arrest the Earl of Salvesbury. He met the Earl on September 23rd on Bloor Heath in Staffordshire and a sharp battle ensued. The Yorkists were outnumbered by three to one, but the wooded nature of the country was favourable to defence. They took up a position with a wood on one flank, on the other they formed a barricade with their carts and baggage. Behind to guard against a rear attack they had dug a trench, and in front they planted stakes after the Manor of England. The battle was vigorously contested from one o'clock till five, then after Lord Oddly had lost his life the Lancastrian forces gave way and the Earl's men were left in possession of the field. But their position was by no means secure, their victory had only given them a respite. A fresh royal army was not far off, the Queen with one portion being only five miles distant at Eccles Hall and the King with the rest only ten miles away. The Earl of Salvesbury dared not stay at Bloor Heath that night, lest he should be overwhelmed by the combined royal forces in the morning. On the other hand if he left the field at once and continued his way to Ludlow he would be followed by the Resolute Queen and caught at an even greater disadvantage than if he stayed on the field. As it happened, however, his retreat was cleverly concealed from the royal leaders who imagined him to be spending the night after the battle on the field. In the evening he made off as quietly as he could with his forces, leaving his artillery behind him and an Austin friar who stayed too kept firing off the guns all that night so that the Lancastrians thought the Earl's men were still in camp there. On the morning of the twenty-fourth the royal forces advanced to Bloor Heath and found it empty save for the friar, and when they demanded of him what he did there he said he had stayed in the field all night because he was afraid to leave it. Evidently the friar who had been holding off fifteen thousand men all night had a sense of humor as well as great courage. So the Earl of Salvesbury with his men reached Ludlow safely. The Eagles were gathering together, for the Earl of Warwick soon came up too. Leaving his father's brother Lord Fulkenberg in command of Calais he had embarked for England, having on board with him two hundred lances or men-at-arms and four hundred archers. He landed in Kent where many men joined his standard and so he passed on to London where he was always a popular figure. He could have held London for the Duke of York, for all the king's men were with the king and queen in Staffordshire, but he pressed on through the Midlands passing near Coventry at Cozel. The Duke of Somerset was in Coventry with a body of men, but the two luckily did not meet. Warwick was able to pursue his way unchallenged to Ludlow where he found his father and the Duke of York. King Henry was still in the field with large forces, but although his position was strong he did not wish civil war to go further, so he sent an offer of pardon and peace to the Yorkist lords at Ludlow. To this they replied that they had already experienced the futility of such pardons owing to the bad counsellors who surrounded him, and they specially called attention to the fact that they themselves had been consistently left out of the council and that the Earl of Warwick, not long before this, when called by Privy Seal to the council at Westminster had been set upon and had nearly lost his life. They reiterated their respect for the king's person. On receiving this answer Henry displeased at the reception of his offer set his forces in motion at once. When he drew near to Ludlow he received another letter from the Yorkist lords testifying to their respect for his person and their freedom from any desire to injure him. In proof of this they said they had retired from one place to another from shire to shire in order to avoid a conflict. Now they found themselves in the extreme west and there was no other place they could retreat to with honour. So they humbly waited the king's arrival hoping it would be peaceful. It is very difficult at this point to apportion praise or blame to either side. The Yorkists felt they could not safely disband so long as the king gave his confidence to the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Wiltshire, the Duke of Exeter and others whom they believed to be their personal enemies. Nor could Henry if he was to justify himself as a king at all meekly send away his forces and receive the Duke of York and the Earl's on their own terms. A simultaneous disbandment of troops on each side would perhaps have been a satisfactory preliminary to a peace conference and settlement, but by this time all confidence was gone from each party. When things have got into such a condition of uncertainty and distrust there seems no way left but to fight it out to the end. As it turned out the king controlled the situation. He had two great advantages. In the first place he was king. All his subjects owed allegiance to him and if they fought against them they fought with an uneasy mind. In the second place he had real power. The Lancastrian state was weak because its head was weak, but for once Henry had shown real vigor. For some months now he had been campaigning with great courage and firmness so he had called out the latent strength which is ready in any country for the king who acts firmly. The Duke of York had made a fortified camp at Ludford behind the river team near Ludlow. He had dug a ditch supplied with water from the river and he had strengthened it with a line of carts and of stakes. Behind this is artillery was drawn up ready to play upon the royal forces. The two armies faced each other on either side of the river on October 12th with about half a mile between them. But no fighting took place that day. The king had it proclaimed that a pardon should be granted to anyone who should come over to the royal presence and implore his mercy. The news circulated in the camp of the Yorkists. During the night a large defection took place under Andrew Trollop, one of Warwick's men who had lately come from Calais with the Earl. With Trollop there left most of the men at arms who had come from Calais. The Earl probably had taken the least trustworthy with him when he left the town leaving those who were devoted to him to safeguard Calais behind him. The Duke saw that he had no chance. It is said that the king had 30,000 fully armed men besides naked unarmored men who were compelled for to come with the king. It is unlikely that the Duke of York especially after Trollop's desertion had more than four or five thousand. Before the night was over the Yorkists broke up their camp and withdrew under cover of darkness. There seems to have been practically no fighting except for a certain amount of cannon aiding from the Duke's camp. Finding in the morning that the Yorkists had escaped the king's army passed on and sacked the town of Ludlow. They also spoiled other small towns of that district which were on the estate of the Duke of York. After this the royal army made its way back to Worcester and there the king having taken the advice of his council gave notice that Parliament would meet at Coventry on November 20th to consider what means should be taken with regard to the late troubles. Meanwhile the Yorkist leaders were making their way out of the country as best they could. The Duke of York with a small party including his second son Edmund Earl of Rutland and of Ulster was fleeing through Wales breaking the bridges behind him as he went so as to make his retreat safe. He obtained a passage to Ireland and arrived there probably at Dublin where the nobles and officials who had known him in his former days as Lord Lieutenant received him with reverence, goodwill and affection as one for whose promised return they had long been waiting with eagerness and expectation. Warwick and Salisbury with York's eldest son Edward Earl of March and another Yorkist Sir John Wenlock who had been Speaker of the Commons in 1455 made their way southwards into Devonshire hoping to obtain a passage to Calais. In Devon by the help of a local gentleman Sir John Denham they purchased a small vessel and engaging the services of a few sailors embarked for some port apparently on the south coast but the sailors knew nothing more than the coasting routes. On hearing this the noblemen stood aghast but Warwick made them be comforted saying that with the help of God and St George he would lead them to a port of safety and so taking the tiller himself he gave orders that the sail should be raised. The wind was favorable and thus he steered the vessel to Guernsey there they waited till the wind again was favorable. After eight days fortune favored them and they were able to sail to Calais where Lord Falkenburg with the garrison received them joyfully. The campaign if such it might be called of Bloorheath and Ludford had an appropriate epilogue in the Parliament which met at Coventry on November 20th and attainted the Yorkist lords. To the upper house the whole peerage was summoned except the Duke of York the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick and Lord Clinton. Most of the peers who generally belonged to the Duke of York's party such as the Duke of Norfolk Lord Bonville Lord Storton had not taken part in the recent insurrection and so were not afraid to attend the Parliament. The Knights of the Shire were in many cases simply nominated by the great Lancastrian lords and returned by the sheriffs without election. Parliament therefore offered no obstacle to the policy of the King's party. A bill of attainder was brought in recounting the unconstitutional acts of the Duke of York from the time of Jack Cades insurrection. The chief men attainted were York, Salisbury, Warwick, Thomas and John, brothers of Warwick, captured as it seems at Ludford, two sons of Lord Berchere, Lord Clinton, Lord Gray of Powis, a number of Yorkist knights and Alice Countess of Salisbury. The King reserved to himself the right of pardon and as a matter of fact no one suffered execution. The only great peer attainted who was actually in the King's power was Lord Gray of Powis. He having voluntarily come over and submitted himself to the King's grace was pardoned in respect of his life but his property was forfeited. The Duchess of York who had submitted herself to the King's grace was given into the charge of the Duke of Buckingham whose wife was her own sister. This rising therefore was not marked by any slaughter in cold blood such as followed the later battles. The chief offenders were out of reach, many of the minor offenders had come before the King in their shirts with halters about their necks and these were pardoned in life and limb. The rest who figured in the bill of attainder were likewise pardoned. Before Parliament dissolved as it did within one month of meeting, an oath of allegiance to the King was taken by the assembled Lords, spiritual and temporal, along with an additional oath that they would defend the young Prince Edward's right to the throne. In less than one year, this last oath was formally to be broken. End of Section 13. Section 14 of the Wars of the Roses by Robert Balmain Moat. This Librivox recording is in the public domain, recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 9. The Yorkists in Exile For just over eight months the Yorkist Lords ate the bread of exile, and although at times they longed to see once more the smoke rising from their own hearths, yet their condition was by no means unfortunate. For although in exile, yet in a sense they were at home. They saw many English faces around them, they lived under the English flag. It was only a narrow sea that separated them from their own land. On a clear day they might almost see the coast of England, they had many friends there from whom came constant words of encouragement. A flying visit to England itself was not impossible for the exiles. From such a visit, which they made in force and fully armed, they did not return empty-handed. Nor were they in any poverty, for though exiles they successfully governed the countries in which they settled and the rewards of government were theirs. Strategically their position was excellent. They commanded the vulnerable points of England from two sides. The Duke of York held the English pale around Dublin. The Earl of Warwick held Calais and a great part of the English pale there. With his naval power he practically commanded the sea. The foreign trade routes in and out of England were thus at the Yorkists' disposal. By their frown they could throttle English commerce. By their favour they could guard it and leave it free to flourish. As the exiled house of God went in the days of Edward the Confessor, from Flanders and from Ireland, was master of the situation, so too the return of the Yorkists was merely a question of time. The Duke of York, when he went to Ireland, was returning to his own again. It was not merely that ten years earlier he had been a successful and popular Lord Lieutenant, one for whose return his people had always hoped. His connection with Ireland was older than this. The roots of his family were planted generations before. His mother Anne Mortimer, the heiress of the House of March, was the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth de Bourgh, who had brought the Earl of Ulster and greatest States there by her marriage with Lionel of Clarence. Richard of York, therefore, besides being a great English Lord, was a great Irish Lord too, by birth, by property, by personal service. His second son Edmund, an attractive young man, one of the best-disposed lords in this land, was Earl of Ulster, as well as of Rutland, and it was perhaps for this reason that York took Edmund to Ireland with him after the rout at Ludford, while his eldest son Edward went to Calais. Richard must have reached Dublin about the middle of October 1459 or a little later. He was received at once as the legitimate Lord and Governor by the Englishry in the Pale. He at once set himself to the business of administration. The people of the Pale were glad of his presence, for during these years the government in England was too distracted to attend to Irish affairs. One of the chief friends of the Queen was James Butler, Earl of Ormond and of Wiltshire, who had been made treasurer on October 30th, 1458. His presence on the Lancastrian side was enough to ensure for the Duke of York the support of the great Anglo-Norman family of Fitzgerald, always enemies of the Butlers. His eight months' stay in Ireland seems to have been prosperous. The government in England knew little about his doings, except that he was at Dublin, strengthened by his earls and homagers. The only effort the King made to dislodge him was to direct letters under the privy seal to the native chieftains, urging them to invade the Pale and to carry on war against the English there. This policy of stirring up the perpetual enemies of English power in Ireland and of bringing into the Pale the horrors of an Irish invasion was not likely to win any approval for the Lancastrian cause among the more stable elements of English society there. However the weak, reckless, and cruel policy of the King was ineffective, for the Duke of York showed himself quite capable of defending the Pale. He called a parliament which we are told passed many new statutes. He carried on the mint and struck a new kind of groat, which had a crown upon the one side and a cross upon the other. When Warwick sometime in March or April 1460, came from Calais by ship to visit Richard in Ireland, he found the Duke able to give him a good reception. The two together had leisure to arrange a plan for their return to England which took place successfully at the end of June in the same year, 1460. While the Duke of York was successful in Ireland, the Earl of Warwick was a no less prosperous exile in Calais. The Pale as it was called, the last great continental possession of England, was a district of about 20 square miles, strongly protected, not merely by its great fortresses Calais, Guine, Homme, but by an elaborate series of pools, canals, and waterways which would impede the advance of any invading army and render the invaders subject to destruction by sudden flooding of the country. The town of Calais itself was eminently defensible. On the land side were its strong walls and towers, its pools and waterways. From the sea the approaches were equally difficult, partly owing to natural obstacles, partly owing to the strong harbor fortifications like the tower of Riesbunk, situated on a small island over against the town. But the strong towers and walls were not sufficient to preserve any place. There must be men in ships and the means of obtaining them, that is, wealth. In this respect Calais was not deficient. In more ancient days a quiet little town depending for support on the herring fishery, it was now the great commercial market of England in foreign parts. The powerful company of the staple had a monopoly of the export trade of England in wool, and the wealthy merchants of Flanders came to Calais for their dealings. Upon wool passing through Calais the government levied a duty, and although the duty was frequently evaded the government could generally count upon raising a sum of about twenty thousand pounds each year. This was not always sufficient to pay the heavy expenses incidental to the upkeep of the garrison and fortresses of the pale, yet it was a considerable sum for the fifteenth century. And so the Earl of Warwick, by his control of Calais and of the Channel, could tap some of the stream of wealth which flowed through these parts and which could easily contribute something in return for his powerful protection. Warwick was still governor of Calais in fact, but he was no longer so in law. Before the route of Lutford the Duke of Somerset was appointed Captain of Calais about the same time the Duke of Exeter was given the admiralty of the seas. But when Warwick and his friends, escaping from England, sailed with their small ship into Calais Haven toward the end of October, they found no difficulties in their way. Warwick still held the town as captain, still could sweep the narrow seas as admiral. The Duke of Somerset followed as soon as he could to vindicate his position, but he found Warwick had been before him. Before he left England, Somerset sent a herald at advance to announce his coming and to prepare his entrance. The herald was just too late. He arrived upon the very evening of the day upon which Warwick had sailed into Calais and been so warmly received. The herald returned to England and informed Somerset. The Duke was much disturbed at the news, and swore that he would soon bring Calais back into subjection. So he set off with a small squadron of ships, designing, on the advice of Andrew Trollop, the old turncoat officer of Warwick, to make his first attempt upon Guyne. He landed at Ouisson with the men of his own ship, but owing to the strong wind that had been blowing during the passage the rest of his ships got separated from him and found themselves off the port of Calais. The news which the herald had brought on the eve of their departure, that Warwick was in possession of Calais was doubtless in the sailors' minds, and doubtless some of them were not unwilling that the wind should blow hard and drive them into Calais haven. Somerset and his followers however made their way on foot to Guyne and took up their lodging in the town beneath the walls of the strong castle. Then Andrew Trollop, who was well known to the garrison, having himself held the position of Grand Porter of Calais, approached the castle and told the garrison how the king had appointed the rich Duke of Somerset to be captain of Calais and Guyne, and had banished the Earl of Warwick as a traitor. When the constable of Guyne heard this and saw with Trollop many of the former soldiers of Calais, who had changed sides with the Grand Porter before the route of Ludford, he decided to admit the Duke. So Somerset fortified himself in the castle of Guyne, and although with insufficient forces, made many valiant attacks upon the position of his successful rival Warwick. The Duke indeed had need of all his courage as one disaster after another met him. The first news that came to his ears after he had established himself in Guyne was that the rest of his ships, which had separated themselves from him on the way over from England, had arrived at Calais, taking all his baggage and warlike stores with them, and carrying also the Lord Oddly, one of the Duke's men, whose father had been killed at Bloorheath. The ships cast anchor in Calais harbor and soon the Earl of Warwick came out to them asking what they brought. Then one of the captains, the master of the ship, the Trinity, spoke up and said they had brought harness and horses, knowing that the Earl would be much pleased with them. On receiving this reply Warwick had the cargo discharged, and the men brought into the town and a further question put to them. They were asked, what was their desire? They said, to serve the King. On receiving this answer the Earl divided the men into two lots, the first containing those who had previously been in his service and had sworn to be faithful to him. The other lot, consisting of men who had entered into no obligations toward him. These last were dismissed with the words that they should loyally serve the King, meaning probably that they might enter the Earl's service. The others were taken to prison for the night, and next morning taken out and beheaded before the Earl's and all the people for having broken their oath. When Somerset heard how his men had been thus treated he was full of wrath and he swore he would be avenged. He let out his troops and had many sharp skirmishes with the men of Warwick and the marshy land between Calais and Guine. So matters stood, through the remaining part of the year 1459. At the end of the year Warwick was still unconquered, and even had a strong party in Kent, and one of his ships was actually lying in the harbor of sandwich. At beginning of January 1460 Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers, and his son Anthony were sent down by the King with a body of men to sandwich to clear that town of Warwick's partisans and to capture the Earl's ship. Lord Rivers easily entered sandwich and held the town and harbor. Warwick was informed of all this by a gentleman, a follower of the Earl of March, but now nominally in Lord Rivers' service, who had been sent over in a small carvel to make a reconnaissance on Calais. The Earl learned from this useful servant that Lord Rivers might be surprised, and the ship recovered, for the men of sandwich would never take arms against the Earl's men. So an expedition was fitted out with three hundred men under the adventurous John Denham, the same who had helped Warwick to escape from England. They sailed over to sandwich and waiting for a favorable tide, toward evening entered the harbor disguised as merchant men carrying wood. Denham and his men landed, and at the same time some small disturbance took place in the town. As Sir Anthony Woodville was hurriedly making his way from his lodging, carrying his breastplate on his arm, to the friar's house where his father was staying, he was suddenly accosted by twelve men who asked him Keeveave, and with that they gave him a blow which almost killed him. Then they recognized Sir Anthony and asked him where his father was, so they made their way to the friar's and captured Lord Rivers too. The citizens of Sandwich received them joyfully for love of the Earl of Warwick. Thus the expedition recovered the Earl's ship, and then with their prisoner sailed back to Calais. Lord Rivers and his son were put in confinement in the castle at Calais, where they found a fellow prisoner already there, the Lord Audley. Warwick had shown himself stern and relentless in dealing with the soldiers who had broken their oath to him. He and the Earl's of March and Salisbury, who were with him, had a personal grievance against the Woodvilles, father and son, who had helped to attain them as traitors. However the cruel practice of killing noble prisoners after battle was not yet begun. The Woodvilles only had to submit to some un-gentlemanly taunts which were all the worse as being spoken to captives who could hardly reply. First of all Lord Rivers was raided by the Earl of Salisbury, who called him a naïve son, for being so rude as to say the Earl's were traitors. Then the Earl of Warwick raided him and said his father was only a squire, brought up with King Henry V, and raised by his marriage and made a lord. Then Edward, the Earl of March, had his turn, and he raided Lord Rivers likewise. After that the three Earl's returned to the son Sir Anthony and raided him in the same manner. It is not said that the Woodvilles made any answer. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that only a few years later, Edward, Earl of March, as King Edward IV, was glad to become the son-in-law of this same Lord Rivers, whose birth he so despised, and on his deathbed it was to the faithful Anthony Rivers that he confided his two sons, and Anthony lost his life for trying to protect them from Edward's own brother Richard. War exposition in Calais improved every day. His ships in the Channel brought in much spoil to him and to the men of Calais. It is true the Duke of Somerset, maintaining an active and irritating warfare from Guyne, prevented supplies of food coming in from the rest of the pale. But by an arrangement with the friendly Duke Philip of Burgundy, Warwick was able to ensure a sufficiency of supplies for hard cash. Adventurous spirits came out of England and joined the Earl's forces. In London the King's government had to take exceptional measures, and in February they hanged Richard Neville, a lawyer of the temple, and eight London merchants who were attempting to get away to Calais, carrying bow strings and pointed arrows with them. Their heads were set up on London Bridge in their quarters upon the gates of the city. Such extreme measures only helped to make smoother the return of the Earl. The Duke of Somerset was still making war from Guyne, but on April 23rd he received a severe defeat at Noonam Bridge, on one of the main waterways of the pale. It was about this time in the month before Easter that Warwick, seeing how events were all moving in favour of the Yorkists, made his visit to the Duke of York in Ireland to conserve a plan for a descent upon England. The Earl left the other lords, March, Salisbury, and Falkenburg to guard Calais. The Duke of York was glad to see him having had no certain news of his friend's movement since the flight from Ludford. These two leaders then agreed that an attempt should be made to push their fortunes in England. Warwick, from Calais, was to land in Kent, where he knew he had many good friends. The Duke of York would land in the north of Wales and make his way through his own estates on the march into the Midlands. A few days before Easter, Warwick left Ireland for Calais, taking with him his mother, the Countess of Salisbury, who while in exile with the Duke of York and Ireland had been attainted of treason in the Parliament of Coventry, 1459. The Earl's voyage was known to the Lancastery in government, and the Duke of Exeter, the new admiral, had been specially commissioned to intercept him. The Duke, in a large ship of war called La Grasse Dieu, with two large caracks and several other well-armed ships, fourteen in all, lay off the coast of Cornwall. But Warwick, like a prudent admiral, had a small carvel named La Tuque, sailing well in front of his squadron to act as a scout, and to give notice of any sign of an enemy. Thus it was that just about the time of Easter, as they were all sailing along making a good voyage, the men on the carvel's scout saw well ahead a great ship. The scout then informed Warwick's chief captain, whose ship was furthest advanced. The captain signaled the news to the Earl, and all the ships were ordered to draw close together until they should know whether the strange ship was a friend or foe. At the same time the carvel scout came upon a fishing boat and learned from the fishermen that the strange ship belonged to the Duke of Exeter. These were then taken to the Earl's ship and brought before Warwick, to whom they gave a particular account of the Duke's fleet. The Earl called his captains to consider what should be done. With one accord they advised him to fight. So the ships were got ready for action, and the captains began to maneuver in order to come down with the wind behind them upon the Duke's fleet. But the enemy did not wait for this. When the Duke of Exeter saw Warwick's fleet beginning to bear down upon him, he gave orders to retire. His fleet sailed back to Dartmouth. Warwick triumphantly continued his voyage to Calais. The reason for the Duke's sudden retreat was most probably that he could not trust his sailors, however strong in numbers, to fight their former admiral. The name of Warwick worked like magic among the seamen. Meanwhile the Duke of Somerset was still maintaining an almost daily warfare from Guine. The home government resolved to make one more attempt to support him. A force of five hundred men were collected and put under the command of Osbert Mountford, an officer of much experience who had served in the French wars and knew the pale thoroughly. Mountford with his men were sent down to Sandwich in June to be conveyed across the Straits. The fate of Lord River's expedition was forgotten, or else it was thought that having succeeded once Warwick would not think it possible to bring off another surprise. However, the unexpected happened. Sir John Denham, the hero of the previous dash upon Sandwich, crossed the Straits with a chosen band, including Sir John Wenlock, and entering Sandwich dispersed the royal forces and took Mountford prisoner. The affair was not quite so easily managed as the previous one, for Mountford and his men offered a stout resistance. Sir John Denham was badly wounded by a cannon shot in the leg. The prisoners were brought back to Calais, and on June 25th Mountford and two others were beheaded at Riesbank Tower on the opposite side of the Haven from Calais, probably because they had formerly served under Warwick in the garrison, and so were now guilty of breaking their military oath. The time was now ripe for the return of the exiles to England. The Lancastrian government was losing ground every day. The expeditions which they had fitted out had been stopped before they left the country, and arrested on English soil. The great dependencies, Ireland and Calais, were in the hands of the exiles. The only resource left to the home government was to stir up England's enemies. They appealed in Ireland to the native chiefs against York, against the power of England in the pale. In the other great pale, that of Calais, the Duke of Somerset still grimly holding on in guine, could think of no other way to keep out of Warwick's hands than to offer it to the heir of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles Count of Charole, known at a later day to history as Charles the Bold. But the Count's father the prudent Philip the Good forbade the attempt. Inside England matters were going no better for the Lancastrian government. It was not merely in sandwich that their authority was flouted. The king and queen knew that Warwick would not be content to stay in Calais, and yet they seemed to have taken no special precautions to defend the southeast coast. Indeed, the king had to face more difficulties than he could deal with. Expecting a double attack from Ireland and from Calais, he stayed mainly in the Midlands, and concentrated his forces there. Commissions, however, were directed to other shires too, bidding every man to hold himself in readiness to come when the king should send for him. But Judd, the master of the king's ordinance, as he was conveying artillery beyond St. Albans, was slain on June 22nd. The very heart of England was not secure. On June 26th, the day following Mountford's execution at Respunk, Warwick and the Earl of March and Salisbury left Calais with two thousand men. With them went the Lord Audley, who had been captured six months before, and had since learned to follow the Yorkist cause. They found a ready entry into sandwich, which apparently was already occupied by some of the force which under Sir John Denham had captured Osbert Mountford. The Lancastrian government, without money or reputation, had not maintained the Duke of Exeter's fleet. So the invasion of England offered no other difficulty than that of crossing from Calais to Sandwich. End of Section 14 Section 15 of the Wars of the Roses by Robert Balmain Mowat. When Warwick and the other two earls came back to England, they came with every chance of success, they knew that in the southeast of England at least public opinion would be on their side. They had already before leaving Calais sent to the Archbishop a document stating explicitly the faults of the Lancastrian government. These statements were to a great extent true. The earls mentioned that the church was oppressed, that the crown revenues were raised in an unequal manner, that the best men were not chosen as the king's advisors and that England was not safeguarded from her foreign enemies. These charges against the Lancastrian government would find an echo in the hearts of many people. The document, of course, omitted all the points that might be said in favour of the Lancastrian government. The good intentions of the king. The promotion of learning. The endeavour to crush the ambitions of over mighty subjects. Yet after making all allowances the fact remains that the kingdom was being ruined for lack of firmness and good counsel at the head. Certain it is that the three earls came back to England with the church on their side. A legate from Pope Pius II, Francesco Copini, Bishop of Terni, had visited England in 1459 to arrange with Henry VI that England might send representatives to Mantua for a general council of the church, which was to consider measures for opposing the advance of the Turks upon Europe. But although eminent representatives, lay and clerical, were chosen, they were prevented from going by the troubled condition of England. So the legate was returning to Italy by way of Calais, where he spoke with the Earl of Warwick. Copini had seen the distracted condition of England, and had failed to get help from the Lancastrian government. He now thought that the Earl of Warwick might achieve for him what Henry VI had failed to do. The present Earl's father-in-law, likewise Earl of Warwick and captain of Calais, had gone forty-five years before to the great council at Constance. Perhaps the legate hoped that the present Earl might go to Mantua with equally fortunate results. Anyhow, the legate came back to England with Warwick, who thus might be said to have made his venture under the banner of the universal church. The church in England, too, showed itself almost equally favorable. The three Earls pursued their way through Kent from Sandwich to Canterbury, from Canterbury to Rochester, increasing as they went, till when they reached Black Heath their numbers were twenty-thousand men. At Southwark they were met by William-grade Bishop of Elie and George Neville, Warwick's brother, Bishop of Exeter. The bishops had a large following of Londoners. As the combined multitude pressed over the bridge from Southwark to the north side, three hundred men who stumbled and fell were crushed to death, unable to rise owing to the weight of their armor and the density of the multitude. Thomas Birchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, with the bishops of London, Lincoln, and Salisbury, was in London, too, welcoming the newcomers when he had received their oath in St. Paul's, that they intended nothing against their allegiance to Henry VI. The whole of London was at their disposal, except the tower which was held for the King by Lord Scales, along with Lord Lovell, Lord Hungerford, and Thomas Thorpe. Warwick could not stay to besiege the tower, for the King was drawing toward London through the Midlands with a strong army. On Thursday and Friday, July 3rd and 4th, 1460, conferences were held between the Confederate Earls and the Civic Authorities. Finally it was arranged that the Earl of Salisbury, Lord Cobham, who adjoined the Earls and Kent, and Sir John Wenlock, would remain behind to blockade the tower, along with forces supplied by the Mayor and Alderman. Lord Cobham and one body of citizens under the sheriffs planted artillery against the tower on the north side. Sir John Wenlock, with another body of citizens under a Mercer called John Harrow, planted theirs on the side of St. Catharines by the river. The garrison of the tower had artillery, too, and a good deal of harm was done on both sides. The besiegers patrolled the river to prevent the garrison having any communications outside, but one day a Yorkist knight was captured on the river by some men of the garrison, and being taken into the tower he was broken limb by limb. Meanwhile the Earl of Warwick with a large force had marched out to encounter the King. The army traveled along the Great North Road, gaining some valuable reinforcements as it went. At St. Albans, four hundred archers from Lancashire joined the main body. The season was rainy, but Warwick, who made a point of moving rapidly, pushed down with the mounted men so as to come near the royal camp as soon as possible and to prevent men from coming to join the King. On the 8th he was within six miles of Northampton where the royal army was encamped. In two days his foot soldiers had joined him. Warwick was accompanied by the spiritual peers who had adopted his side in London. These made an attempt at pacification to avoid the effusion of blood by sending the Bishop of Salisbury to treat with the King. But it is difficult to see what terms he could offer which would have induced both sides to disband their warlike forces and to be at peace. The King could scarcely with any dignity discuss terms with rebels who stood with arms in their hands. The Bishop of Salisbury returned, apparently without having seen the King. So, on July 10th, which was a Thursday, Warwick advanced to the attack. Although it is impossible to estimate the numbers correctly it seems clear that the Yorkist forces were numerically superior. The King's army was strongly encamped in a meadow outside Northampton called the Newfield. This meadow on the south side of the Nen was partially surrounded by the river. Thus the King's army was strongly placed with the river on three sides and an entrenchment in front. Before beginning the battle Warwick issued an order that in the fight the common soldiers of the enemy should be spared and that only the lords, knights and squires as being responsible for the war should be slain. Then the attack began. The Yorkist army was in three divisions. The first battle was led by Edward Earl of March. The second or main body by Warwick himself. The third or rearguard by Lord Falkenberg. The division of the Earl of March came up to the entrenchment which consisted of a ditch and a long mound rendered almost unscalable by stakes and brushwood which had been fixed on it. But at this critical moment, while the men of Edward of March were hesitating to rush at the Foss, Lord Grey of Ruthen, one of the King's men, appeared from within with his company above the mound, stretching out their hands and offering to draw the Yorkists up into the camp. In a moment the Yorkists were over the mound and rushed on sweeping away the few men who stood there to defend it. The treachery of Lord Grey had really made resistance on the part of the King's men impossible. It is by no means unlikely that Warwick knew what was likely to happen before he entered the battle. In spite of the large numbers engaged on either side and of the completeness of the victory, there were only three hundred killed. Of these, some were killed as they fought, others were drowned either in the ditch or the river as they fled. The Duke of Buckingham, who under the King had been commander of the Royal Army, was killed standing beside his tent. He was a disinterested man who had gained the respect of all parties and so was eminently fitted to serve the King. But his ability was not great enough to guide his master through a difficult time. The Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Beaumont, and Lord Egremont also were slain. The rout offered an opportunity to anyone who had a private enmity to satisfy. Sir William Lucy, who lived besides North Hampton, heard the gunshots and came on to the field to help his King when the rout was beginning. But John Stafford, a Yorkist Esquire who loved Sir William Lucy's wife, saw him come on to the field and went and killed him. Shortly afterwards, Stafford married the knight's widow. When the battle was over, the three lords Warwick, March, and Falkenburg approached the Royal Tent where they found the King sitting alone in solitary. He seems to have taken no active part in the battle, nor to have made any attempt to escape in the rout. The three lords bowed to the ground. Then, with many reverent and comforting words, they sought to console him. At length, when the King seemed to be comforted and to breathe more easily, they led him with every show of reverence and honour to the town of North Hampton. On the next day, July 11th, the King and the lords attended Mass and Partook of the Sacrament. Then they all rode to London where the King was given a stately reception by the citizens and clergy as he rode in, attended by the Earl of March on one side and the Earl of Warwick bearing the King's sword on the other. He took up his lodging in the house of the Bishop of London. It may be remembered that this was the house in which he lodged when he came to London in May, 1455, after his capture at the Battle of St. Albans. But afterwards he went down under surveillance, no doubt lest he should escape to the Queen, to Elton and to Greenwich to divert himself with some hunting until the meeting of Parliament. The chief opponents of the Yorkists had not been present at the Battle of North Hampton. The Queen and the young Prince Edward were at Eccles Hall in Staffordshire. On receiving news of the defeat of the King, she gathered her baggage and fled with her son towards Chester. A certain John Cleager, a retainer of Lord Stanley, waylaid her and attempted to capture her, but she escaped, although her own servants did not scruple to turn against her and rob her of all her goods and jewels. She went with her son into Wales where Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, won Denby Castle and gave her a refuge. There she remained through the autumn and gathered a party of Lancastrian gentlemen, among whom was the Duke of Exeter. At the end of the year she went to Scotland where the royal family which was connected with the Beaufort branch of the Lancastrians received her kindly. Margaret did not scruple to promise to deliver up the important town and fortress of Berwick in return for their alliance. Other great lords were not present at North Hampton. The King had not collected all his forces when Warwick offered battle. The Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Wiltshire, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Clifford, who were among the greatest of Lancastrian magnates were all absent. On July 18 the tower was surrendered by Lord Scales on condition that he himself and Lord Hungerford should go free while the rest should stand their trial. Seven of the garrison, who were in the service of the Duke of Exeter, were convicted by a jury of citizens and beheaded at Tyburn. Their offense seems to have been that having served Warwick when he was admiral they had accepted the Duke of Exeter when Warwick was superseded. Thomas Thorpe, the former Lancastrian speaker who had helped to defend the tower was still kept a prisoner. He made one attempt to escape and succeeded in getting out, but was brought back. His head was shaven and he was lodged again in the tower. On Sunday the 20th following the surrender of the tower Lord Scales was sent by the new custodians Sir John Wenlock and John Harrow the Mercer in a barge up the river to Westminster where he could take sanctuary. But he was stopped by some shipmen in the service of Warwick and March. He was taken to the bank just below the wall of the house of the Bishop of Winchester and their slain. William of Wooster saw his body lying stripped of all clothing in the cemetery near the porch of the Church of St. Mary of Overy in Sutherk. The body lay for some hours naked as a worm on the ground. At length it was honorably buried at the orders of the Earls of March and Warwick. On hearing of the murder of Lord Scales Warwick had had once ridden to the tower and there made a proclamation repeated through all the city that no one should slay, steal, or murder on pain of death. But the proclamation came too late. Lord Scales had surrendered himself into the safekeeping of the Earls. Warwick must have known how violent and cruel his shipmen were and he should have taken precautions to preserve his prisoner's life. The murder of Lord Scales is of the same sort as the murder of the Lancastery in Duke of Suffolk by the shipmen of Kent in 1450. The Yorkists had won all that they claimed. The Duke of York was still in Ireland, but Warwick was well able to settle everything that was necessary. He had reestablished himself and his party in England. The only other thing immediately necessary was to change the ministry which had hitherto guided the King. Accordingly, two good Yorkists were appointed to the chief positions. George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, a brother of Warwick, was made chancellor and Lord Birchier became treasurer. It might have been expected that the Yorkists, having set up a ministry from their own party, would proceed to clear the country of such of their great enemies as were left or else bring them to terms. Then supporting the King with their strong arm, they might have secured to the country peace and order. But York had not yet returned from Ireland and Parliament would not meet till October 7th. The final settlement of the Nation's affairs had not yet been reached. The Duke of York had not descended upon England at the same time as Warwick. The reasons for this delay are by no means obvious. He waited till Warwick had gained control of the greater part of England. Then he returned, landing at Redcliff in Lancashire about September 2nd, 1460. Meanwhile, affairs had not been going altogether badly for the Yorkists. Queen Margaret, it is true, had found a supporter in James II of Scotland, who had seized the opportunity to make a bid for the Castle of Roxburgh, which although, on the Scottish side of the border, was in English hands. But on August 3rd, while he was besieging the castle, one of his cannons burst and killed the King, who was standing near. The Scots lords nevertheless carried on the siege and captured the castle within two days. But the death of their King made a prolonged campaign impossible. So after a dash across the border they withdrew into Scotland. As the North of England was mainly Lancastrian in sentiment, Warwick perhaps was content to leave the defence of it to the local Lancastrian lords. He showed more anxiety for the fate of Calais. Somerset was still established at Guine, a constant menace to the Yorkist power. But Warwick commanded the sea, and Somerset could not maintain himself much longer. On August 5th, Henry had legally reinstated Warwick in his position as captain of Calais. Shortly after the Earl crossed the sea and met Somerset at Newham Bridge, the two lords kissed each other, and Somerset, unconquered, agreed to evacuate Guine. He retired to Dieppe where he remained for the next two months, waiting for an opportunity to join Queen Margaret in Wales. Warwick returned into England with his mother the Countess of Salisbury. Parliament had been appointed to meet on October 7th. The election of members to the lower house in this Parliament had no doubt been carefully supervised. The Commons certainly showed little opposition to the claims of the Yorkists when Parliament assembled. It is only too likely that interference in parliamentary elections by the party in power had been made easy by the law passed in 1430, which limited the franchise in counties to free holders who had land to the amount of forty shillings a year. This law must greatly have reduced the number of voters. A later law had enacted that members from the county must be of the dignity of night. Moreover, many people felt that in Warwick and the Duke of York lay the only chance which the land had of quiet and orderly government. If ought come to my Lord Warwick but good, wrote Friar Brackley to John Paston, this land were utterly undone as God forbid. John Paston himself was sent up to this Parliament and was encouraged to support York by his friend. He had many good prayers, one of the Convent City and Country, wrote Friar Brackley. The members for a borough's two would probably be Yorkist. London always was so. The other towns would be equally anxious to support that party which was strong enough to enforce its will and to give the country peace. So the only difficulty in the way of the Duke of York would come from the Lords, who would not consider so much the question of peace and quietness but would follow the tradition of their family and support the Prince to whom they were pledged. But although all the baronage was summoned, the great Lancastrian Lords, those who were still alive, did not appear, for in their eyes a state of war was in existence between the King and the Yorkists. No Parliament could be free as long as Henry was a prisoner. The Battle of North Hampton had robbed him of some of his chief supporters, notably the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Shrewsbury. The Duke of Somerset was at Dieppe, meditating how to renew the struggle along with Queen Margaret. Of the other great Lords, the Duke of Exeter was with the Queen in Wales, the Earl of Wiltshire was in Sanctuary with the Friars at Autry, the Earl of Northumberland, the Lords Clifford and Neville were still unconquered and defiant in the North. It was the Yorkist Lords who came in full strength to Parliament on October 7th. Nor was there any doubt about the spiritual peers. Already when Warwick made his descent upon Kent in July, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of Salisbury, Exeter and Ely had adopted the Yorkist cause. With these and the papal legged on his side, the Duke of York was not likely to experience much difficulty from the Episcopate. Thus it happened that the Duke of York by parliamentary procedure was given a legal status at the head of England and a legal victory over all his enemies and yet he had only one half the country and but a few months more saw him defeated in the field and dead. York after landing at Redcliffe went to his castle at Ludlow. From there with five hundred armed men in a livery of blue and white he proceeded toward London. At Hereford he was met by his wife, who, released from all constraint since the Battle of Northampton, had come from London on receiving a message from him. His eldest son, Edward, Earl of March also joined him. The Duke held diverse, strange commissions from the King to whole courts of justice as he passed along in Ludlow, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Leicester, Coventry. At Obbingdon near Oxford he displayed banners with the royal arms of England upon them. Thus with noise of trumpets and bugles he came to Westminster on October 10th three days after the opening of parliament. Without delay the Duke entered the chamber where the lords deliberated and walking up to the throne which as the King was not present stood empty he put his hand for a moment on the cushion of it as if he was going to take possession. Then he turned and gazed upon the assembled peers. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Birchier, saluted him and asked whether he wished to see the King. To which the Duke replied, I do not remember to have known anyone within the Kingdom whom it would not become rather to come to me and to see my person than for me to approach and visit his. The Archbishop retired to report this to the King who had gone to live in the Queen's apartments. The Duke retired to the King's own apartments in which he had chosen to lodge. The Duke's demonstration in the House of Lords had not been a great success. Among an assembly of peers who were nearly all supporters of his he met with no acclamation, no encouragement. The Abbot Wettemstead says the Duke made his dramatic claim by his own inspiration as if he had not even consulted Warwick. The next step came six days later. On October 16th the Duke again entered the House of Lords and placed in the hands of the Chancellor a written claim to the throne of England. The claim was the well known Yorkist pedigree. It showed that in strict hereditary succession traced through a female line Richard of York stood nearer to the Patriarch, Edward III, than did Henry VI. For Richard was descended directly through Philippa, only daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the second son of Edward III. Henry VI was descended in direct male line from John of Gaunt, third son of Edward III. The crown of England was not entailed upon heir's male, but could undoubtedly pass through a female. It is true that by an act of 1406 it had been entailed upon heir's male, but that act, although it was now cited, had been repealed by an act of Henry IV himself in Parliament, and it was definitely recognized that the crown could pass through females. Footnote. The claim of Henry IV to succeed to the throne directly from Henry III through Blanche of Lancaster proves that the Lancastrians themselves held this view. And footnote. There was indeed no need to go into legal subtleties. The plain facts were that in 1399, when Richard II was deposed, there were two great branches of the royal house left. An elder branch, the House of March, later merged in the House of York, and a younger branch, the House of Lancaster. An act of Parliament had given the throne to the House of Lancaster and thereby excluded the House of March or York. This act was perfectly good in law, being the work of a legal Parliament under Richard II. It had moreover been confirmed by a usage and prescription of sixty years. But if the Parliament of 1460, with the ascent of King Henry VI, chose to supersede the act of 1399 by a new act giving the throne to the House of York, that new act would be good in law and the House of York would lawfully hold the crown. It was this fact which the Duke had now to recognize. Since 1399, at latest, the crown had become Parliamentary, and if he wished his case substantiated, he must get the consent of King and Parliament to his claim. The judges refused to give an opinion. The law officers of the crown also refused. The lords then discussed the whole matter and drew up a memorial, in which they particularly noticed, firstly, the oaths they had sworn to serve Henry as their king, and secondly, the acts of Parliament which had definitely recognized the title of the House of Lancaster. Finally, a result was arrived at on October 25th. The oath to Henry was not to be broken, for he was to remain king as long as he lived. And no constitutional law was to be violated, for the act on which the Lancastery and title was held to depend would be repealed, and another act would establish the succession of the Duke of York on the demise of Henry VI. All this was accordingly enacted with the king's consent on October 31st. The revolution was carried out with all due legal forms, but people believed that it was only made legal by covert threats of violence. The Duke of York says the chronicler Gregory kept King Henry there at Westminster by force and strength, till that last the king for fear of death granted him the crown, for the man that hath by little wit will soon be a fear of death. And yet Gregory thought that the king need have no fear, for there was no man that would do him bodily harm. There was one at any rate that would not submit tamely to see her son disinherited. This was Queen Margaret, who was still in Wales, where she had been joined by the Duke of Exeter. The northern lords, Northumberland, Clifford, Dakers, and Neville were forming plans to assist her in the north. End of Section 16. Section 17 of The Wars of the Roses by Robert Balmain Moat. This Librovox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 12 Wakefield. The Duke of York now seemed to have got all he could want. He was not, it is true, actually crowned King, although he had intended to be crowned on November 1st. But the legal position of himself and his friends had been made thoroughly secure. All the disabling acts of the Coventry Parliament of the previous year had been repealed. The King's favorite ministers, whom York felt to be his enemies, had been removed. In their place the Duke's firm supporters had been raised up. The Duke himself had been put at the summit of the kingdom. He was acknowledged heir to the throne to the exclusion of the King's own son. His person was to be sacred and any attempt made against it would be treason. He was protector of the realm so as to be ruler, even before he came to reign. He was to be created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and a special income of ten thousand marks annually was assigned to him to support his new duties and dignities. Yet all this came to nothing, for he had delayed in order to get the empty titles before he had conquered the kingdom. All the north was still to be conquered. The further Richard went in legally depressing the Lancasterians and exalting himself, the more chance he gave for reaction to set in, and for the still unconquered Lancasterian lords to gather their forces and concert their plans. Here then was his great mistake. He who had previously shown himself so strong, so self-restrained, now had ruined his cause by his haste and delay, haste in grasping at titles, delay in striking at the enemies in the field. Between July and September, before the Battle of Northampton, and his landing in Lancashire, he was losing valuable time in Ireland. During the proceedings of the October Parliament, while he hurried the estates into passing vain laws for his own satisfaction, he was losing valuable time in London. When he did actually march north, the forces against him had grown too strong, and he only marched out to his ruin. Yet the Yorkist position after the Battle of Northampton had really been a good one. It only wanted one more defeat of the Lancasterians to make the Yorkist ascendancy possible, both in law and in fact. This was shown by the accession of the young Edward as king immediately after his victory at Mortimer's Cross. If Richard, after the first victory at Northampton, instead of waiting for a Parliament, had hastened over from Ireland and struck another hard blow at the Lancasterians who were still in the field, he might then safely have left the rest of Parliament. But he would not defer his legal recognition. He wanted the titles, the strong legal position first, he would do the fighting afterwards. Thus it often is. A man who for years has waited and worked with the greatest self-control may ruin himself at last when his goal is all but reached by an over-hasty leap. The Earl of Northumberland, the Lords Clifford and Dakers came together and held a council at York and mustered their troops. They sent out bands of men and laid waste the estates in Yorkshire belonging to Duke Richard and to the Earl of Salisbury. Shortly before, at the end of October probably, the Duke of Somerset with Andrew Trollop and some others who had accompanied him from Geane crossed over from Dieppe to Dorset and was admitted into Corf Castle. There he received a message from the Queen who was still in Wales to gather his tenants together and go north to Yorkshire to join the Northern Lords. A similar message was sent to the Earl of Devonshire. While the Yorkists were still delaying in London, the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Devonshire were able to march with an armed force of the men of the West through Bath, Sirencester, Evesham and Coventry into Yorkshire. On arriving in the North they found everything ready. The Queen had been busy sending messages to all her friends and supporters. The whole rising was so carefully organised and the secret so well kept that the Yorkist leaders seemed to have been taken by surprise. When rumours of it got about people refused credence to them but said, ye talk right, ye would it were, and gave no heed. Yet the Lancastrians were believed to have got together no less than fifteen thousand troops in the North. The Queen who had done so much to concert this rising went to Scotland to await the event. At last the Duke of York began to move. On December 9th he set out for the North with his second son Edmund, Earl of Rutland and the Earl of Salisbury. He had a regular force of knights and squires and a large body of London citizens under John Harrow the Mercer who had been so prominent in the Siege of the Tower of London. With Harrow was associated in this expedition another Mercer called James Pickering. The total number of York's forces seems to have been about six thousand men. They went with the King's commission to put down the rebels of the North. The Earl of Warwick stayed behind in London with the King. York's eldest son Edward Earl of March was on the Welsh border at Shrewsbury directing operations against the Lancastry and Gentry of North Wales who were showing considerable activity under Jasper Tudor, Earl of Penbrook. As the forces of the Duke of York proceeded northwards a sharp skirmish occurred at works up between his vanguard and a force under the Duke of Somerset. York's advance guard was practically destroyed. This must have occurred about December 16th, 1460. On the 21st the Yorkists arrived at Sandal Castle, one of Richard's chief residences, two miles from Wakefield. At Sandal they kept their Christmas. The Duke of Somerset and Earl of Northumberland kept theirs at Pontifract. There was probably some tacit understanding that the Holy Day should pass in peace. Five days later, December 30th, the Battle of Wakefield was fought. The truth about this disaster is very difficult to obtain. The Duke of Somerset evidently had a very strong force including great lords such as the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Northumberland, Lord Ruse, Neville Clifford. Among the officers of lower rank was the experienced Captain Andrew Trollop who had come with Somerset from Geane. The Yorkists had to send parties over the country to collect stores. Five different authorities say that there was a definite truce at the time. The Abbot Wedham Stead even says that negotiations had been entered into and a certain day fixed for the battle. But this is very unlikely. Party feeling ran far too high for either side to give up all chance of taking the other at a disadvantage. The time was passed when battles were looked on as a sort of tournament to be arranged methodically by heralds and persuivants. This at least seems clear. The Lancastrians with superior forces took the Yorkists by surprise toward evening as some Yorkist foraging parties were returning and were still outside their own lines under sandal. The actual battle cannot have lasted long. The Yorkist forces must have been taken at a terrible disadvantage for at the end of the fight and pursuit the Duke of York and it is said no less than twenty-five hundred of his men were dead. The Lancastrians are said to have lost only two hundred. There was evidently no order given on the Lancastrian side as Warwick had commanded at Northampton that the gentry should be killed and the commons spared. Indeed it was probably best in the long run that no such distinctions should be made for nothing but hard fighting to a finish would ever definitely settle the question at issue. But there is no excuse for the extreme cruelty according to which when the battle was won no quarter was given. Many were killed in the actual fight. The Duke of York, Lord Thomas Neville, son of Salisbury, the Londoners, hero in Pickering. The Earl of Rutland, York's son, eighteen years old, tried to escape by mingling with the band of Lord Clifford which was pursuing the flying Yorkists toward Wakefield. But Clifford recognized him and although the young man begged for mercy on his knees on the Bridget Wakefield stabbed him to the heart with a dagger exclaiming, by God's blood thy fathers slew mine and so will I do thee and all thy kin. These words express one side of the war of the roses which now becomes prominent, the hereditary feud. Clifford's father had been killed fighting against the Yorkists at St. Albans so had Somerset's father. Other lords had their feelings of revenge to satisfy and so from Wakefield onwards the sequel to a battle is very often the execution or murder of lords against whom some family had a feud. It is needless to argue that one side or the other began this practice. The battle of Wakefield is the first striking example of it but Warwick had executed more humble prisoners in Calais and in London. Prolonged war in any country has a brutalizing effect. The finer qualities, courage, fidelity, self-sacrifice which often flourish in a national war or in a war in defense of the homeland may become debased into greed, hate and treachery in a long fought out civil trouble. But although the wars of the roses were not characterized by the sense of justice and humanity which ennobled the mutually respecting combatants in the great rebellion in England or the great civil war in the United States yet they were not fought entirely without principle for there are many instances of men who were faithful to their leaders and followed them to the death. The old Earl of Salisbury had escaped from the battlefield of Wakefield but during the night he was captured by one of the men of Andrew Trollop taken to Pontifract and on the morrow he was killed by the bastard of Exeter an illegitimate son of the Duke of Buckingham. The heads of the three great lords York, Rutland, Salisbury with the heads of six other leading men were set up in prominent places in the city of York. The Lancastrians had scored a great success and it is a great testimony to the energy of Queen Margaret who had gathered together from the defeated and dispersed remnants of her party such a formidable army. At the time of the battle she was in the south of Scotland. The honours of the day must be given to the Duke of Somerset who whether the imputation of treachery be true or not had nevertheless shown energy determination and skill such as he had previously proved himself to possess when he held guine against Warwick. The great Duke of York was completely ruined just when his fortunes were at their height. His success in the Parliament of 1460 seems to have robbed him of his old prudence yet he was a wise statesman and his triumph would not have been a bad thing for England. He had more self-restraint than his son Edward who became king, more dignity and moderation. The courtly herald may be held to exaggerate when he calls Richard la fleur de gentillesse but when he died sword in hand at the age of fifty he left a memory behind him which when all is said and done is strangely free from evil imputations. End of section 17 section 18 of the wars of the roses by Robert Balmain Moat this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Pamela Nagami chapter 13 Mortimer's Cross and the Second Battle of St. Albans the overwhelming disaster at Wakefield did not ruin the Yorkist cause but it had removed some of the chief men of the party. The death of Duke Richard of York had it occurred earlier would have removed one great cause of the war. By this time however the war did not concern merely the position of Richard of York or the kind of ministry which Henry VI should trust. The cause of the war was now deep discontent among a section of the governing classes with the Lancastrian dynasty and its administration. So although the great Duke was gone the party of opposition remained. Yet it might have been expected that the loss of their head would leave the Yorkist party so weak that at most they could only keep the Lancastrian party in check and make a deadlock so that all orderly government would be further off than ever. The speedy triumph of the Yorkist party on the morrow of two great defeats proves that the discontent felt with their opponents was deeper than appeared and that the Yorkist cause really had the tacit approval of a solid part of the nation which did not take part in the battles. The ability of Warwick the firmness of young Edward alone would not have sufficed but joined with a somewhat latent approval on the part of the towns and more subtle parts of the country these qualities of Edward and Warwick were sufficient to establish the Yorkist cause at last. At the time when his father was killed at Wakefield Edward was on the Welsh march at Shrewsbury ready to meet any attempt from Jasper Tudor Earl of Pembroke. When he heard of the rout at Wakefield and that the men of the north were marching south on London he immediately resolved himself to leave the march and to hasten with all available forces into the Midlands where joining with the Earl of Warwick the two together might meet the northern army before it could reach London but suddenly came other news that Jasper Tudor and James Butler Earl of Wiltshire had collected a strong force including Frenchmen and Breton and Irish and were raising all the country beyond the march. Edward who was now at Hereford having already started on his march into the Midlands turned back and met them at Mortimer's Cross on the Welsh march about halfway between Ludlow and Hereford. The battle took place on February 2nd the Yorkist force seems to have been much superior in numbers. Before the battle the sun has said to have appeared in the east as three separate sons and then to have joined together again. Edward therefore knelt down and made his prayers and thanked God. In a non-freshly and manly he took the field upon his enemies and put them at flight and slew of them three thousand men and some of their captains were taken and beheaded. But Pembroke and Wiltshire stole away privately disguised and fled out of the country. There was very little known about the battle. The route must have been complete if three thousand of the enemy were slain. The House of York had great estates in that part of the march and it is likely that its tenants would give little quarter to any fugitives. Like the Lancastrians after Wakefield Edward showed much cruelty after the victory in his treatment of the more important prisoners. Among these was Owen Tudor the father of Jasper Earl of Pembroke. Owen was founder of the great Tudor House by his marriage with Queen Catherine the widow of Henry V who had brought to that monarch the fatal inheritance of half France. Owen was beheaded in the marketplace of Hereford and his head set up on the market cross. To the very last he could not believe that he would be executed not till he saw the axe and the block and when that he was in his doublet he trusted in pardon and grace till the collar of his red velvet doublet was ripped off. Then he said that head shall lie on the stock that was wont to lie on Queen Catherine's lap and put his heart and mind wholly unto God and full meekly took his death. When the head was severed from the body a mad woman combed his hair and washed away the blood from the face and got candles and set them around burning to the number of a hundred. Edward when his forces were rested from the battle pursued his way through the Midlands to join Warwick. Before the junction could be effected the forces of the Earl had suffered a tremendous defeat on the site of a former Yorkist victory, St. Albans. Queen Margaret had come from Scotland and joined the Northern forces at York after the Battle of Wakefield. A council of the chiefs of the army was held and the resolution was formed to march forthwith upon London to get the King out of Yorkist hands. This plan is marked by all the characteristic boldness and energy of Margaret. The Lancastrian army which is said to have now contained Scots and Welsh as well as men of the North crossed the Trent and marched southwards following much the same line as that which is now used by the great Northern Railway. As they went they left behind them only plundered and burned towns, for the Northern men claimed it as a right to plunder freely anywhere south of the Trent. A track of destruction was left behind them at Grantum, Stanford, Peterborough, Huntington, Melbourne, Royston and so on for the rest of the journey. At Dunstable on February 16th they had an encounter with a party of Yorkists who are said to have been led by a butcher of that town. The Queen's army was successful and the Yorkists lost two hundred men. The butcher is said for shame and sorrow to have hanged himself. Warwick had put himself at the head of a large force raised chiefly from London and from Kent. With him were the King, the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Arundel, Lord Birchier, Lord Bonville. When the Queen's army reached St Albans Warwick had already made a fortified camp and established his army in it on a field at the north end of the town called Barnet Heath. He had also stationed a body of archers in the center of St Albans around the Great Cross. Warwick's camp was a strong one, for he had a good force of artillery protected by an elaborate system of network and palisade full of projecting nails. He had obtained from the friendly country of Flanders a body of Burgundian musketeers to use a modern word hardly applicable to them, for each man had to rest his gun on a stand with a considerable chance of the clumsy weapon injuring himself rather than the enemy as indeed happened in the battle which ensued for the wind being in the faces of the musketeers the flame from their guns was blown back in their faces and eighteen were burned to death. The battle was fought on February 17th, 1461 in the afternoon. The forces which actually took part in the fight were five thousand on each side. The Queen's army which was commanded by the Duke of Somerset a skillful leader consisted mainly of feudal retainers from the north grouped under their separate lords each wearing their lords badge that every man might know his own fellowship by his livery. They all wore also the livery of the Queen's son Edward who was with them. This livery was a bend of crimson and black with a design of ostrich feathers. The vanguard was led by the veteran Andrew Trollop. The Yorkist forces were evidently taken by surprise. Their scouts or outposts were quite at fault. Their prickers came not home to bring no tidings how nigh that the Queen was save one came and said she was nine mile off. So everything was to seek and out of order. The advance guard of the Lancastrians entered St. Albans but was driven back in flight by the archers posted around the cross. However the rest of the Queen's army pushed up to the north end and attacked the main camp of the Yorkists. In confusion and surprise Warwick's men made little use of their artillery. Their leaders attempted to change the formation of the line of battle so as to meet the assailants better but in the critical time between the breakup of the old formation and the completion of the new the Queen's forces were upon them. It is said that there was treachery in the Yorkist camp on the part of a certain Lovelace captain of Kent. In the middle of the battle the King was able to go over to the Queen's side. This could hardly have been possible without some help from men within Warwick's forces. Henry is said to have broken his word by so doing but it is difficult to attach much blame to him. Warwick and Norfolk were glad to escape with their lives leaving about half of their men dead behind them. The King celebrated the victory and the reunion with his family by knighting his son Edward Prince of Wales who was now just under eight years old. He also knighted the old soldier of Calais Andrew Trollop who had gone over to the King's side at Ludford and who since that time had been with Somerset at Geane and now again had brought luck to the Lancastrians at Wakefield and St. Albans. Trollop could scarcely move owing to a wound in his foot. Although but a rude soldier he made a good speech to the Prince in acknowledging the honour of knighthood. My Lord he said, I have not deserved it for I slew but fifteen men for I stood still in one place and they came unto me but they bowed still with me. Another sequel to the victory was much less pleasant and showed that English manners and warfare had now degenerated. It seems to have become a matter of course that any victory of one party should be followed by the execution of notable prisoners from the other. But in this instance the executions were peculiarly distasteful owing to the fact that they were carried out in the presence of the Queen and her eight-year-old son. It is even said that the boy was taught to pronounce the fatal sentence. According to Wara, Queen Margaret put the question to the Prince Edward, Fair son, with what death shall these two knights die whom you see there, referring to Sir Thomas Carille and his son? And the Prince replied that their heads should be cut off. Another great Yorkist to suffer death was Lord Bonville. Thus the victory of Queen Margaret was completed. The Yorkist forces had been scattered and London lay open to the victors. As has so often occurred in history the question arose, should a bold advance at once be made upon the capital? It is the same question as faced Hannibal after Conni, Gustavus Adolphus after Breitenfeldt, Charles I after Edgehill and Brentford. London with its wealth, its dignity, was the most substantial support of the Yorkist cause, but now there was no army between the Queen and the city, and behind her was a large force flushed with the success of battle, irresistible in its ardor, so at least thought many people at the time. The city of London showed a certain readiness to meet the Queen by sending two noble mediators immediately after the battle. These were the Duchess of Bedford and the Duchess of Buckingham. It was expected hourly that the Queen would be in London, and the two great Yorkist prelates, Thomas Burchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, and George Neville, Bishop of Exeter, remained prudently in Canterbury, awaiting the issue of events. But the Lancastrians did not advance. Instead they retired from St. Albans to Dunstable, and this was the ruin of King Henry and his Queen. It was generally believed at the time that the King and Queen refrained from advancing upon London, wishing to save the citizens from the horrors of a sack at the hands of the victorious army, for they deemed that the northern men would have been too cruel in robbing if they had come to London. The city was not in a very defensible condition, and William of Worcester believed the citizens would not have shown fight. If they, the King and Queen, had come with their army to London, they would have had all things as they wished. Certainly the Londoners during these wars never showed any tendency to resist a victorious army. But on this occasion there are indications that the Lancastrians would not have entered without a blow. The citizens stopped and appropriated to themselves a train of provisions, bread and victual, which the mayor and aldermen were sending with a certain sum of money to propitiate the Queen. Moreover, the force which the Queen had sent under Sir Baldwin Fulford to secure Westminster was beset there by the Londoners and prevented from going any further. One London chronicler believed that the King did not dare to make the attempt, and so the King and the Queen proposed for to come to London and do execution upon such persons as were against the Queen, but the commons of the city would not suffer them, nor none of hers to enter into London and so they turned northward. It was known, of course, that Edward of March was on his way with an army from Wales, and even if Henry had obtained an entry into London, his position would have been a very awkward one, with hosts of turbulent citizens within and the victorious army from Mortimer's Cross without. So the royal forces retired unto York, as the Elizabethan chronicler Hollinshed puts it. The Queen, having little trust in Essex, less in Kent, and least of all in London, departed from St. Albans into the North Country, where the foundation of her aid and refuge only rested. End of Section 18