Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/77

Edward IV Salisbury and Warwick, withdrew into Devonshire, and then sailed, first to Guernsey and afterwards to Calais. Then a parliament was held at Coventry in November, at which all the leading Yorkists were attainted, and among them Edward, earl of March by name, as having been arrayed against the king (Rolls of Parl. v. 348-9).

The Earl of Warwick, however, being governor of Calais, and having also command of the fleet, held a strong position, from which he and his allies, March and Salisbury, could invade England; so that every one looked for their return. A mutilated letter of the time says it was expected that Edward would claim by inheritance the earldom of Ha .... (Paston Letters, i. 497). It is difficult to fill up the name or to think of any earldom other than that of March to which he could lay reasonable claim. But the important fact was, that he and the two other earls were there at Calais and could not be dislodged, while Warwick, having command of the sea, could communicate with the Duke of York in Ireland. In vain did the government in England supersede Warwick in the command of Calais and of the fleet, the Duke of Somerset being appointed to the one office and Lord Rivers to the other. The lords refused Somerset admission into the town, and some vessels were collected at Sandwich to aid in reducing it. Lord Rivers and his son, Sir Anthony Woodville, were apparently to have conducted the squadron across the Channel. But John Dynham, a Devonshire squire, crossed the sea at night, and arriving at Sandwich between four and five on a dark winter morning, soon after Christmas, seized Lord Rivers in his bed, won the town, took the best ships lying in the harbour, and earned Rivers and his son across to Calais.

'My Lord Rivers,' as a contemporary letter says, 'was brought to Calais, and before the lords, with eight score torches; and there my lord of Sabsbury rated him, calling him knave's son that he should be so rude to call him and these other lords traitors, for they should be found the king's true liegemen when he should be found a traitor. And my lord of Warwick rated him, and said that his father was but a squire.... And my lord of March rated him in like wise.' My lord of March was then scolding his future father-in-law!

The command of the fleet was then given to the Duke of Exeter, who fared little better than his predecessor, being driven back into port by Warwick's men-of-war. Every attempt against the three earls was frustrated, and friends in large numbers came over from England to join them. At length Warwick, having sailed to Ireland and arranged measures in concert with the Duke of York, returned to Calais; and in June 1460 the three earls crossed the sea again to England. In their company went Francesco Coppini, bishop of Terni, a papal nuncio who had been in England the preceding year. Owing to the dissensions there, his mission had been a failure, but having reached Calais on his return he was induced by Warwick to remain there, and he became so complete a partisan of the three earls as to go back to England in their company, displaying the banner of the church ( II Commentarii a Gobellino, 161, ed. Rome, 1584). He was persuaded that their intentions were entirely loyal. So the three earls landed at Sandwich, as it were, with the blessing of the church; and Archbishop Bourchier, who met them on landing, conducted them to London with his cross borne before him.

They reached the capital on 2 July, and, notwithstanding the opposition of a small minority, the city opened its gates to them. After a brief stay they advanced towards the king, whose army they found drawn up in a valley beside Northampton. The king was in the camp, but the real commander seems to have been the Duke of Buckingham. The three earls occupied a hill from which they could see almost all that was passing. They sent a message to know whether the king and his advisers would quit the field or fight; to which Buckingham replied disdainfully that he could not leave without fighting. After a two or three hours' combat the royal army was defeated, the Duke of Buckingham slam, and the king himself taken prisoner, whom the earls conducted up to London with much outward respect and lodged in his palace of Westminster. The government was now conducted by the earls in the king's name; and a parliament was summoned to meet at Westminster on 7 Oct. The Duke of York was expected over from Ireland, and he had actually crossed the Irish Channel by the middle of September. The duke, as we read in a letter of the time, 'had divers strange commissions from the king to sit in divers towns' on his way up to London; and it was not till 10 Oct. that he arrived there. And now, laying aside his former moderation, he at once made it manifest that he aimed at the deposition of the king.

He took up his quarters in the royal palace, which he entered sword in hand. On the 16th he challenged the crown in parliament as rightfully his own. The lords were intimidated, and many stayed away. A compromise was finally agreed to on both sides