Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/17

A.D. 1471.] Sir Thomas Montgomery, and several other gentlemen, came in with reinforcements. Edward felt himself strong enough to throw off the mask: he assumed the title of king, and marched towards Coventry, where lay Warwick and Clarence with a force sufficient to punish this odious perjury. But a fresh turn of the royal kaleidoscope was here to astonish the public. Edward challenged the united army of Warwick and Clarence on the 29th of March, 1471. In the night, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, paid a visit to his brother Clarence. The two brothers flew into each other's arms with a transport which, if not that of genuine affection, was at least that of successful conspiracy. The morning beheld the army of Clarence, amounting to 12,000 men, arrayed, not on the part of Warwick, but of Edward; the soldiers wearing, not the red, but the white rose over their gorgets.

Here, then, was fully disclosed the secret which had induced Edward to march on so confidently through hostile districts, and people standing aloof from his banners. Not Montacute only, but Clarence had been won. Clarence, whether in weak simplicity, or under the influence of others, sent to Warwick to apologise for his breach of his most solemn oaths, and offered to become mediator betwixt him, his father-in-law, and Edward his brother. Warwick rejected the offer with disdain, refusing all further intercourse with the perjured Clarence; but he was now too weak to engage him and Edward, and the Yorkist king then boldly advanced towards the capital. The gates of the city, like those of York, he found closed against him, but he possessed sufficient means to unlock the one as he had done the other. There were upwards of 2,000 persons of rank and influence, including no less than 400 knights and gentlemen, crowded into the various sanctuaries of London and Westminster, who were ready not only to declare, but to operate in his favour. The ladies, who were charmed with the gay and gallant disposition of Edward, wore all avowed his zealous friends; and, perhaps, still more persuasive was the fact that the jovial monarch owed large sums to the merchants, who saw in his return their only chance of payment. Edward even succeeded in securing the Archbishop of York, who was, in his brother Warwick's absence, the custodian of the city and the person of King Henry. All regard to oaths, and all fidelity to principle or party, seemed to have disappeared at this epoch. By permission of the archbishop, Edward was admitted on Thursday, April 2nd, by a postern into the bishop's palace, where he found the poor and helpless King Henry, and immediately sent him to the Tower.

Warwick hastened after Edward and Clarence, intending to risk an engagement rather than allow them to gain the capital. What was as strange as anything which had gone before, was that Montacute was now marching in conjunction with Warwick. Had Edward shown any distrust of the traitor, or did he mean, like Clarence, to go completely over to the Yorkists, when they came face to face? Both suppositions were entertained by different parties. Which was true never was determined; but there was Montacute.

So confident now was Edward of victory, that he disdained to shelter himself within the walls of the city, but marched out against the enemy. The hostile armies met near Barnet. Here again the weak Clarence made another offer of mediation. No doubt his wife, who was the daughter of Warwick, and her sister the wife of the Prince of Wales, was anxious enough to avert the danger of her father, and, if possible, unite contending relations. But Warwick was too much enraged both against Edward and Clarence to listen to any proposals of reconciliation. The leaders on both sides were now too much embittered against each other, guilty of too many changes and acts of perfidy, ever again to put reliance in each other, much less to cement a genuine friendship. Warwick said indignantly to Clarence's messenger, "Go, and tell your master that Warwick, true to his oath, is a better man than the false and perjured Clarence." Nothing but blood could wash out the enmity of these infuriated parties.

It was late on Easter Eve when the two armies met on Barnet common. Both had made long marches, Edward having left London that day. Warwick, being first on the ground, had chosen his position. Edward, who came later, had to make his arrangements in the dark, the consequence of which was, that he committed a great error. His right wing, instead of confronting the left wing of Warwick, was opposed to his centre, and the left wing of Edward consequently had no opponents, but stretched far away to the west. Daylight must have discovered this error, and most probably fatally for Edward; but day came accompanied by a dense fog, believed at that day to have been raised by a celebrated magician, Friar Bungy. The left wing of each army advancing through the obscurity of the fog, and finding no enemy, wheeled in the direction of the main body. By this movement the left wing of Warwick trampled down the right wing of Edward, and defeating it, pursued the flying Yorkists through Barnet on the way to London.

Meantime, the left wing of the Yorkists, instead of encountering the right of the Lancastrians, came up so as to strengthen their own centre, where Edward and Warwick were contending with all their might against each other. Both chiefs were in the very front of the battle, which was raging with the utmost fury. Warwick, contrary to his custom, had been persuaded by his brother Montacute to dismount, send away his horse, and fight on foot. Was this an act of bravery on the part of Montacute, or of treason? Such was the ambiguous conduct of this nobleman, that his contemporaries and the historians were again divided on the point. If it were treason, and he meant to take the opportunity of Warwick's personal engagement, in the thick of the melée to draw off to the other side, he paid the penalty of it, for he was speedily slain.

The battle commenced at four o'clock in the morning, and lasted till ten. The rage of the combatants was terrible, and the slaughter was proportionate, for Edward, exasperated at the Commons, who had shown such favour to Warwick on all occasions, had determined no longer to issue orders to spare them, as was his wont, and to kill all the leaders, if possible. It was terminated by a singular mistake. The device of the Earl of Oxford, who was fighting for Warwick, was a star with rays, emblazoned both on the front and back of his soldiers' coats. The device of Edward's own soldiers on this occasion was a sun with rays. Oxford had beaten his opponents in the field, and was returning to assist Warwick, when Warwick's troops, mistaking through the mist the stars