Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 17.djvu/82

Edward IV a strong force levied in Wales, met the rebels at Edgecote, near Banbury, and was defeated, 26 July, with great slaughter. He and his brother, Sir Richard Herbert, were taken prisoners and brought to Northampton, where they were beheaded. The king himself was taken by the Archbishop of York near Coventry, and brought first to the town of Warwick and afterwards to Middleham. Earl Rivers and his son, Sir John Woodville, were also taken by the rebels and put to death at Coventry.

Clarence, Warwick, and the Archbishop of York had left Calais and come over to England on the king's summons. They issued a proclamation on 12 July, couched in the ordinary language of revolted subjects, as if their only object was to be a medium with the king to redress the grievances of his people. This pretence they found it still advisable to keep up, for the city of London was devoted to Edward's interests, and the Duke of Burgundy had written to the lord mayor to confirm their loyalty and promise aid if needful. Warwick, therefore, judged it best to release his prisoner, whom, indeed, he had not kept in very close confinement, allowing him freely to hunt, though with keepers beside him. He accordingly promised to the king that he should go up to London, see the queen, his wife, and show himself to the people; and he wrote to the Londoners that the king was going to pay them a visit, and that they should see there was no truth in the report that he had been made a prisoner. Edward was glad to condone the past. He came up to London, and though he bade the Archbishop of York remain behind till sent for at his palace of the Moor in Hertfordshire, he spoke not only of him but of Warwick and Clarence also as his very good friends.

Warwick and Clarence received a general pardon before Christmas for all their past offences. Edward's confidence in his brother at least appears to have returned; and it was confirmed when in the beginning of March 1470, on the breaking out of a new insurrection in Lincolnshire, Clarence sent to offer him his service and that of the Earl of Warwick to put it down. This new outbreak was a movement avowedly in behalf of King Henry, headed bv Sir Robert Welles, the eldest son of Lord Welles; it had been carefully organised by Warwick and Clarence beforehand, and had been purposely deferred till they had left the king and retired into Warwickshire. They had now intimated to the rebels that they would come from the west and join them; yet Edward was slow to believe their treason. Fortunately for him Warwick and Clarence failed to make good their promise when he came upon the insurgents at Stamford and utterly routed them in the battle of Losecoat Field. Sir Robert Welles was put to death after the battle, and before he suffered made a full confession, by which it appeared that he was merely the instrument of Clarence and Warwick's perfidy.

On this revelation Edward summoned the duke and earl to come to him and clear themselves, but they withdrew into Lancashire, endeavouring still to raise the north of England against the king. Edward could not pursue them through the barren country intervening, but pushed northwards to York, where several insurgent leaders came in and submitted to him; then issued a proclamation dated 24 March allowing the duke and earl still four days to come to him and clear themselves. The four days expired, and Edward, who finding Yorkshire submissive was now returning southwards, proclaimed them traitors at Nottingham on the 31st. They now prepared for flight, and, taking their wives along with them, embarked somewhere on the west coast for Calais, where they expected to be secure. Edward had anticipated this movement, and had warned the Lord Wenlock, the earl's lieutenant there, not to let him enter the town; and though he fired a few shots he found it was hopeless to force an entry, as the Duke of Burgundy, being notified of the situation, was coming to the rescue. Warwick then cruised about the channel and captured a number of vessels. In the end he and Clarence sailed to Normandy and landed at Honfleur, where they left their vessels and repaired to the king of France at Angers. And here occurred one of the strangest negotiations in all history.

Warwick, Clarence, Margaret of Anjou, and her son, Prince Edward, were all equally opposed to Edward IV, but they had been no less enemies to each other; and Margaret particularly looked upon Warwick as the cause of all her misfortunes. Nevertheless Louis contrived to bring them together at Angers and reconcile them with a view to united action against their common enemy. In the end Margaret was not only induced to pardon Warwick, but to seal the matter with a compact for the marriage of her son to the earl s second daughter on condition that Warwick should in the first place invade England and recover the kingdom for Henry VI. Assisted by Louis he and Clarence crossed the Channel (a convenient storm having dispersed the Burgundian fleet) and landed a force in the ports of Plymouth and Dartmouth shortly oefore Michaelmas.