Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/16

2 an unstable throne. But how Warwick, so warmly hailed in the autumn, and carried on the shoulders of the Lancastrian party and the people at large to the pinnacle of power, should in the spring be as readily abandoned, is by no means clear. Had he closed that great source of his popularity, his kitchen? Did the necessity for maintaining a great force, the demands of gifts, estates, and favours by his followers in his enterprise to put down Edward; and his repayment of the advances to the King of France, compel him to contract that lavish hospitality which daily feasted 30,000 people at his palaces and castles? Probably some such causes were at work, for Warwick does not seem to have exercised any great severity in his triumph, or to have used his power haughtily. Nevertheless, his popularity appeared to thaw and flow away with the snows and frosts of winter. It must be remembered, however, that there was a terrible secret schism in his camp and party. Clarence was only waiting to seize a good opportunity to overthrow his father-in-law, Warwick, and climb the throne himself. Though he was a very weak and by no means high-principled young man, Clarence was not so weak as to build any future hopes on Warwick's having given him the succession in case of the issue of the Prince of Wales failing. Warwick had married another of his daughters to the prince, and it was his strongest interest to maintain that line on the throne.

There can be little doubt that these things were kept alive in Clarence's bosom by the same clever female agency which was employed at Calais. It is fully clear, by the immediately following conduct of the Marquis of Montacute, that there was an understanding between him and Clarence. Here was another blow to the power of Warwick, while Burgundy, however little disposed to esteem Edward, naturally preferred seeing him as his brother-in-law upon the throne of England, than as an exile and a beggar, and his great rival, Louis of France, strengthened by the alliance of Warwick and Margaret.

All these causes undoubtedly co-operated to produce what soon followed. Burgundy determined to assist Edward to regain his throne, and thus destroy the ascendancy of Warwick. While, therefore, issuing a proclamation forbidding any of his subjects to follow Edward in his expedition, he privately sent to him the cross of St. Andrew; and an aid of 50,000 florins furnished him with four large ships, which were fitted up and stored for him at Vere, in Walcheren. Besides these, he hired for him fourteen ships from the merchants of the Hanse Towns, to transport his troops from Flushing to England. These transactions could leave no question in the minds of the subjects of Burgundy which way lay the real feelings of their sovereign. At the same time, the amount of troops embarking with Edward was not such as to give to the enterprise a Burgundian appearance. The soldiers furnished ham were only 2,000. Edward undoubtedly relied on information sent him from England as to the forces there ready to join him.

The fleet of Edward steered for the Suffolk coast. It was in the south that the Yorkists' influence lay, and Clarence was posted in that quarter at the head of a considerable force. But Warwick's preparations were too strong in that quarter; an active body of troops, under a brother of the Earl of Oxford, deterred the invaders from any attempt at landing. They proceeded northward, finding no opportunity of successfully getting on shore till they reached the little port of Ravenspur, in Yorkshire—singularly enough, the very place where Henry IV. landed when he deposed Richard II. From this same port now issued the force which was to terminate his line. At first, however, the undertaking were anything but a promising aspect. The north was the very stronghold of the Lancastrian faction; and openly was displayed the hostility of the inhabitants towards the returned Yorkist monarch. But Edward, with that ready dishonesty which is considered defensible in the strife for crowns, solemnly declared that he had abandoned for himself all claims on the throne; that he saw and acknowledged the right of Henry VI. and his line, and for himself only desired the happy security of a private station. His real and most patriotic design, he gave out, was to put down the turbulent and overbearing power of Warwick, and thus give permanent tranquility to the country, which never could exist so long as Warwick lived. He exhibited a forged safe-conduct from the Earl of Northumberland; he declared that he sought for himself nothing but the possessions of the Duke of York, his father; he mounted in his bonnet an ostrich feather, the device of the Prince of Wales, and ordered his followers to shout "Long live King Henry!" in every place through which they passed.

These exhibitions of his untruth—called by politicians expediency, by men of honour lies—were too barefaced to deceive any one. The people still stood aloof, and on reaching the gates of York, Edward found them closed against him. But by the boldest use of the same lying policy, Edward managed to prevail on the mayor and aldermen to admit him. He swore the most solemn oath that he abjured the crown forever, and would do all in his power to maintain Henry and his issue upon it. Not satisfied with this, the clergy demanded that he should repeat this oath most emphatically before the high altar in the cathedral. Edward assented with alacrity, and would undoubtedly have sworn anything and any number of oaths to the same effect. He then marched in with that bold precipitance which was the secret of his success, and which, as in the case of Napoleon in our times, always threw his enemies into consternation and confusion. At Pontefract lay the Marquis of Montacute, Warwick's brother, with a force superior to that of Edward, and all the world looked to see him throw himself across the path of the invader, and to set battle against him. Nothing of the kind; Montacute lay still in the fortress, and Edward, marching within four miles of this commander, went on his way without any check from him. This must have convinced every one that there was more beneath the surface of affairs than met the eye. It was not the first time that Montacute had played this equivocal part. Edward had formerly stripped him of the earldom of Northumberland, for alleged conspiracy with Clarence, and that he was now in league with Clarence, for Edward, and against Warwick, was sufficiently clear.

As Edward approached the midland counties, and especially when he had crossed the Trent, the scene changed rapidly in his favour. He had left the Lancastrian districts behind, and reached those where Yorkists prevailed. People now flocked to his standard. At Nottingham the Lord Stanley, Sir Thomas Parr, Sir James Harrington,