Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/81

Edward IV who was only born in the seventh year of their married life; and the absence of male issue no doubt helped to strengthen the combination which drove him for a time into exile. Meanwhile fortune seemed to favour his cause. About the end of June 1465 Henry VI was taken in Lancashire, and being brought up to London in July was lodged safely in the Tower. Warwick s policy also was thwarted; for though Edward sent him to France in embassy in the spring of 1467, and he did his utmost to promote a cordial alliance, for the sake of which Louis was willing to have made large concessions, the French offers were not only rejected with disdain, but Edward showed himself bent rather on cultivating the friendship of France's dangerous rival Burgundy.

It was in honour of this alliance that the famous tournament took place in Smithfield in June 1467 between Lord Scales and the Bastard of Burgundy. About the same time Philip, duke of Burgundy, died at Bruges, and his son Charles, count of Charolois, already affianced to Edward's sister Margaret, became duke in his place. Warwick was at that very time in France, and on his return brought with him an embassy from Louis to England; but he found that his brother, the Archbishop of York, had meanwhile been deprived of the great seal, and that Edward was less inclined to a French alliance than ever. He had been cultivating alliances all over Europe, except with the old traditional enemy of England, and the idea of revindicating Englisn claims on France was still popular.

In May 1468 Edward declared to parliament his intention of invading France in person, and obtained a grant of two fifteenths and two tenths, with a view to a future expedition (Rolls of Parl. v. 622-3). The marriage of his sister Margaret to Charles the Bold of Burgundy took place near Bruges in July following. Warwick, who had held his own correspondence with Louis XI for the purpose of thwarting Edward's policy, disliked both the match and the alliance which it was to cement; but he dissembled his feelings, and conducted Margaret to the seaside on her way to the Low Countries. The French king was secretly encouraging Margaret of Anjou, and many arrests were made in England of persons accused of conveying or receiving messages from her. In June Jasper Tudor, the attainted earl of Pembroke, half-brother to Henry VI, landed at Harlech in Wales, a castle which alone at this time held out for the house of Lancaster, and succeeded for a while in reducing some of the neighbouring country, where he held sessions and assizes in King Henry's name; but he was very soon driven out by Lord Herbert, whom Edward rewarded by creating him Earl of Pembroke, the better to discredit Jasper's title.

Warwick, too, was actively intriguing against Edward in his own kingdom. He had already, apparently soon after the announcement of the king's marriage, held a conference with the king's two brothers at Cambridge, in which he made them many promises calculated to shake their allegiance. He offered the Duke of Clarence the hand of his eldest daughter, with the prospect of inheriting at least one half of his vast possessions. The duke at once accepted, and though he at first denied his engagement when Edward charged him with it, replied in answer to further remonstrances that even if he had made such a contract it was not a bad one. From this time his relations with the king were uncomfortable, and he was more and more in Warwick's confidence. He was still further confirmed in this by Edward's incivility to Warwick and the embassy that came with him from Louis XI. It was noted that he alone went to meet the ambassadors on their arrival; and when Edward, after admitting them to one formal interview, withdrew to Windsor, he and Warwick were the only persons with whom they had any opportunity to negotiate. Warwick accordingly showed the Frenchmen that the king was governed by traitors, as he called them, quite opposed to the interests of France, and that they must concert measures of vengeance together against him.

At the same time he promised Clarence to make him king, or at least the real ruler of all England. Clarence willingly trusted him, and Warwick, after the French embassy had left, conspired with his brother, the Archbishop of York, to raise up insurrections in the north at a word from nim. A commotion accordingly broke out in Yorkshire in June 1469, which is known as Robin of Redesdale's insurrection, from the name assumed by its leader, Sir William Conyers. The insurgents published manifestos everywhere, complaining of the too great influence exercised by the queen's relations. Warwick was then at Calais, of which he was still governor. To him Clarence crossed the sea, and on 11 July the marriage between the duke and the earl's daughter was celebrated, while England was convulsed with a rebellion which might be called a renewal of civil war. The king went northwards to meet the insurgents, and sent a message to his brother to Warwick, and to the archbishop to come to his aid. The new Earl of Pembroke, with