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Edward IV Conyers, met him three miles from the city and endeavoured to dissuade him from attempting to enter it. But as Conyers was suspected to be no sympathiser he went on and had a friendly reception. Next day he and his company went to Tadcaster, 'a town of the Earl of Northumberland's, ten miles south of York, from which they proceeded to Wakefield and his father's seat at Sandal. The Marquis Montague, who lay in Pomfret Castle, seems to have thought it prudent not to molest his passage, and the influence of the Earl of Northumberland prevented men from stirring, although the earl himself forbore to take open part with him. Few men, however, actually joined him, even about Wakefield, where his father's influence was greatest, till he had passed Doneaster and come to Nottingham. Here Sir William Parr and Sir James Harington came to him with two good bands of men to the number of six hundred. Here also, being informed that the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Oxford, and others had gathered their forces at Newark, he turned to meet them, but they fled. He pursued his journey southwards to Leicester, where his friend Lord Hastings's influence brought an accession to his forces of three thousand men.

Here the Earl of Warwick could have attacked him, but he was now in the midst of friends, and people could not be raised against him in sufficient numbers. The earl was also dissuaded by a letter from the Duke of Clarence, whose counsel under the circumstances seemed only prudent. So he retired and shut himself up in Coventry, whither he was pursued, 29 March, by Edward, who for three days challenged him to come out and decide the quarrel with him in the open field. As the earl did not accept the invitation, Edward went on to the town of Warwick, where he was received as king, and issued proclamations as such. He also offered the earl a free pardon if he would submit, but this was not accepted either. He had better hopes, however, of winning over his brother Clarence, who had secretly promised him when they were both in exile that he would desert Warwick and come to his support on his return to England. A lady passing into France from the Duke of Burgundy had carried letters to the Duchess of Clarence as if to promote a general agreement between France, Burgundy, and the house of Lancaster, but having gained access thereby, not merely to the Duchess but to the Duke of Clarence, she pointed out to him that the course he was then pursuing, besides being ruinous to his family, was utterly against his own interests.

Edward accordingly with seven thousand men issued one day three miles out of Warwick, on the road to Banhury, and saw his brother Clarence advancing to meet him at the head of a company of soldiers. When the two hosts stood face to face within half a mile of each other, Edward, accompanied by his brother Gloucester, Rivers, Hastings, and a few others, advanced towards the opposite lines, while Clarence, likewise with a select company, came out to meet him. A personal reconciliation took place, and then the two armies joined and went together to Warwick. Clarence then made some efforts, but without success, to get Warwick also to come to terms with his brother. The earl had gone too far to recede; and he was now joined by the Duke of Exeter, the Marquis Montague, the Earl of Oxford, and hosts of followers. Edward accordingly removed from Warwick towards London on Friday, 5 April; spent the Saturday and Sunday (which was Palm Sunday) at Daventry, where he duly attended the services of the day, and a very encouraging miracle was said to have been witnessed as he knelt before an image of St. Anne; and from that went to Northampton. The Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Devonshire, and others of his opponents had left London for the west, where Margaret and her son were expected to land, to strengthen them on their arrival. He arrived in London on Thursday, 11 April, his cause being so dear to the citizens — partly from the debts he had left behind him, partly, it is said, from the attentions he had paid to the citizens' wives —that he could not be kept out, and the Archbishop of York, who, perceiving this beforehand, had sued to be admitted into favour, delivered himself and King Henry into his hands. He took his queen out of the sanctuary at Westminster to his mother's palace of Baynard's Castle, and spent Good Friday in London; but next day, 13 April, soon after noon, he marched out with his army to Barnet to meet the Earl of Warwick, who, with Exeter, Montague, and Oxford, were now coming up rather late to contest possession of the capital.

Edward took King Henry along with him to the field. He that evening occupied the town of Barnet, from which his foreriders had expelled those of the Earl of Warwick before he came, and driven them half a mile further, where the earl's main body was drawn up under a hedge. Edward, coming after, placed his men in position nearly opposite to them, but a little to one side. It was by this time dark, and his true position was not understood by the enemy, who continued firing during the night at vacancy. Day broke