Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/554

540 the duke should succeed him, to the prejudice of his infant son, then in Scotland with his mother, who after the late battle at Northampton had fled with him to Durham, and from thence to Scotland: but soon returning, she applied to the Northern barons, and employed every argument to obtain their assistance. Her affability, insinuation, and address, talents in which she excelled, aided by caresses and promises, wrought a powerful effect on all who approached her. The admiration of her great qualities was succeeded by compassion towards her helpless situation. The nobility of that quarter entered warmly into her cause; and she soon found herself at the head of an army of twenty thousand men, collected with a celerity which was neither expected by her friends, nor apprehended by her enemies.

In the mean time, the duke of York hastened northward with a body of five thousand men to suppress, as he imagined, the beginnings of insurrection, lie met the queen near Wakefield; and, though he found himself so much outnumbered, his pride would not permit him to flee before a woman. He gave battle, was killed in the action; and his body being found among the slain, his head was cut off by Margaret's orders, and fixed on the gates of York, with a paper crown upon it, in derision of his pretended title.

Immediately after this important victory, Margaret marched towards London, where the earl of Warwick was left with the command of the Yorkists. On the approach of the Lancastrians, that nobleman led out his army, reinforced by a strong body of Londoners, and gave battle to the queen at St Alban's, 1461. Margaret was again victorious; she had the pleasure of seeing the formidable Warwick flee before her,