prelude to the bloody drama, the first act of which began five years later. This Irish soldier, assuming the princely name of Mortimer perhaps with the connivance of the Duke of York -marched through Kent at the head of a clamorous mob. He entered London, lost the bridge in conflict with the citizens, saw his motley following melt into fugitive groups, and being closely pursued into Sussex, was slain there in an orchard by an esquire named Iden. If Cade's rising was encouraged by York in order to feel the pulse of the nation's loyalty, the result must have been disappointing. Three years later his opportunity came. Henry fell into a state of dull insanity, and it became necessary to give the reins of power to some strong hand, fit to guide the destinies of England. Two men sprang out at once to contend for the protectorship. These were Edmund Duke of Somerset and Richard Duke of York; the former backed by the influence of Queen Margaret, the latter supported by some of the most powerful nobles in the land. York received from Parliament the great position which he sought, and Somerset was sent to the Tower and deprived of all his offices. A lucid interval enabled Henry once more to take the sceptre in his feeble hand. York went out of office, and Somerset out of prison. This began the war. Ludlow Castle* was the nest of the Yorkist rising. Norfolk, Salisbury, and, a greater than either, the Earl of Warwick, whose figure stands out most prominently in this great battlepiece, flocked thither with their men-at-arms, ready to strike for the cause of the late protector. St. Albans† saw the first blood drawn. Surrounding this little town one summer day, a band of three thousand Yorkists, chiefly from Wales and the adjoining marches, clamoured for the possession of Somerset, who was within the walls with the king. Refusal May 23, 1455 * Ludlow Castle in Shropshire, where the Corve and Teme join, twenty-five miles south by east of Shrewsbury. St. Albans, a market-town of Hertfordshire by the Ver or Muse. It is close to the site of the Roman Verulamium. brought the enemy into the streets, which they swept with a shower of arrows. Henry, wounded in the neck, cowered in a tanner's house, until York discovered him and made him captive. Somerset was slain. To Warwick chiefly the victory was due, for his military eye detected a weak point, and his dashing valour forced a way into the town. Richard Neville, known in history as the Kingmaker, was probably then about thirty-five years of age, in the full prime of life and vigour. His father was Earl of Salisbury; his wife was Anne Beauchamp, daughter and heiress of the Earl of Warwick; and with her he had obtained in 1449 the estates of that illustrious family-a piece of good luck which caused his elevation to the great earldom. He was a first cousin of Edward, afterwards fourth king of that name. * While known only as the Lord Richard Neville he had fought in Scotland. His brilliant valour and profuse generosity of character dazzled the eyes and won the hearts of all. His boundless hospitality, added to his great family connections, so strengthened his hands that he became the foremost noble of his time in England. The immediate results of the first battle of St. Albans were the return of the king's illness, the elevation of York again to the protectorship, the appointment of Salisbury as chancellor, and of Warwick as governor of Calais-then the most honourable military command at the disposal of England. Four years passed without actual bloodshed, but intriguing of course went on incessantly. An attempt to assassinate Warwick in London in 1458 drove the Yorkists once more to arms. They were quickly dispersed. Warwick was attainted, withdrew to Calais, and supported himself and his followers by piratical warfare in the Channel. * The following branch will help to show the family connection between Warwick and the Yorks:Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. Richard, Duke of York Cecily Neville. Edward (afterwards IV.) Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. 1459 The war broke out in earnest in 1459, when at Bloreheath* the victorious Salisbury, wearing a white rose in his helmet, left a field strewn with dead Lancastrians. The rivals fronted each other at Ludlow a little later in the autumn of the same year; but as one of Warwick's officers, Sir Andrew Trollope, had deserted with most of the Calais men, there was nothing left for York but flight. He went to Ireland, where his former genial rule had made his cause dear to the people. That was a serious check, but not a lasting one. Warwick, the darling of both soldiers and seamen, landed in Kent on the 5th of June 1460; and, thirty-five days later, fought the great battle of Northampton. Under a rain so heavy that the royal cannon could not be fired, the strong earth-banks of the Lancastrian camp were scaled by the Yorkists, who drove the routed foe into the swollen Nen. Many nobles perished. Henry of Somerset got away. So did Margaret and her little son, who found shelter first in Wales and then in Scotland. Poor Henry, left to his fate, sat lonely in his tent, until his new masters came and conducted him on horseback to London. July 10, 1460 So far the protectorship had been the apple of discord. York now stretched out his hand toward the crown, and in the House of Lords at Westminster formally claimed it, amid the plaudits of the assembled peers. His claim rested on his descent from Lionel, an older son of Edward the Third than was John of Gaunt. After discussion and argument the Lords decreed that Henry should wear the crown for life, but that it should then go to York or to his heir. An Act of Settlement to that effect was passed. Margaret, who with many faults had the heart of a lioness, roused her northern friends in behalf of her disinherited Swords leaped from their scabbards at her call. York, who was keeping Christmas in his castle at Sendal, rashly * Bloreheath, in Staffordshire, near the Dove, three and a half miles north-west of Ashborne. son. + York's claim. See Genealogical Table, p. 254. courted a battle with her partisans at Wakefield.* He was defeated in half an hour, and was put to death with many indignities (December 30, 1460). Salisbury was beheaded next day; and the heads of both the dukes, encircled with paper crowns, were stuck upon the gateway of York. The father who fell at Wakefield left a gallant son to wear the crown he had claimed. So bland and handsome was this young Edward, formerly Earl of March and now Duke of York, that no one could resist his charms of face and manner. Though only nineteen, he wielded a weighty sword, which smote his opponents so heavily in the battle of Mortimer's Cross, † 1461 Feb. 2, that it placed the crown of England within his grasp. Even the defeat of Warwick by the queen at St. Albans, a fortnight later, failed to raise the fallen stem of the Red Rose. Henry, indeed, exchanged imprisonment for freedom, and was not sorry to be relieved of a crown which had never fitted well. But Margaret and the boy for whom she plotted so hard and perilled so much had no resource but to fall back on the friendly north. Edward, going triumphantly to London, took up the sceptre amid the huzzas of citizens and nobles (March 3, 1461). Within the same month was fought the bloodiest battle of all the twelve that redden the story of the war. Bent on recovering, if possible, by one convulsive effort the kingdom that had just slipped from her husband's fingers, Margaret caused her Mar. 29, 1461 captains to face the foe at Towton, eight miles from York. Sixty thousand soldiers followed her banner under the command of Somerset and Northumberland. To these were opposed almost fifty thousand adherents of the White Rose, the main body under Warwick. The arrows be * Wakefield (anciently Wachefield), a town on the Calder in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The battle was fought at Sendal Castle, two miles to the south. ↑ Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire on the Lugg, five and a half miles north-west of Leominster. Towton. The battle was fought on a heath between the villages of Towton and Saxton, three miles south of Tadcaster. |