Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/67

Henry VI discussed plans for an income tax and the resumption of the royal domain. At Whitsuntide 1450 Kent rose under Jack Cade. On 6 June Henry went to London to meet the danger, lodging at Clerkenwell (ib. p. 767). On 11 June he marched through London, ‘armed at all pieces,’ and at the head of a large force to Blackheath (, p. 191). At his bidding the rebels retired. That night he slept at Greenwich; but the rebels came back to Blackheath after their victory at Sevenoaks (18 May). Panic and mutiny spread among Henry's troops, and he hurried back to London by water. He vainly sought to propitiate public opinion by sending Lord Say to the Tower. But Henry himself shared the prevailing panic. The mayor and council besought him to tarry in the city, offering to die for him, and to pay half the cost of his household. But he fled to Kenilworth (Three Fifteenth-century Chronicles, p. 67). His disorderly troops dispersed. But Kemp and Waynflete remained, and broke the back of the rising. When the danger was over Henry made a progress through Kent and Sussex, sitting at Canterbury in judgment on the rebels, and passing sentences of great severity (ib. p. 68; Chron. Giles, p. 40). After a great ‘harvest of heads’ he went on to Salisbury.

In September 1450 Richard, duke of York, came back from Ireland, posing as the successor of Gloucester, the saviour of England from anarchy, and the avenger of Normandy. He forced himself into Henry's presence, complaining bitterly of the courtiers, who declared that he was an accomplice of Jack Cade. Henry pronounced him ‘our true and faithful subject, and our faithful cousin,’ and received him and his leading followers ‘with good cheer’ (Paston Letters, i. 151, ed. Gairdner), and was forced to appoint a new council, of which York was a member. But Somerset, now back from France, struggled eagerly to retain his position. On 6 Nov. parliament met, carefully packed with York's partisans, and the commons agreed that York should be declared heir to the throne (Chron. London, p. 137). Somerset was arrested, and disorder rose so high that all parties united to put it down. On 3 Dec. Henry was paraded through London with his lords, all in full armour. During the recess Somerset was made captain of Calais. Early in 1451 Henry refused the commons' request to remove him from court. The dissolution of parliament in the early summer left him as strong as ever. Henry laboured hard, as the Paston correspondence shows, to keep up his kinsman's local influence. ‘All is nought, or will be nought,’ wrote a contemporary. ‘The king borroweth his expenses for Christmas.’ Mathieu D'Escouchy says that on Twelfth Night the king and queen could get no dinner, as they had neither money nor credit (i. 304). Debt, indecision, and faction had paralysed the government. In 1451 Guienne was lost as easily and ingloriously as Normandy.

In February 1452 York again marched to London with an army from the Welsh marches. Henry armed against him, and blocked the road to the capital. York turned aside, crossed the Thames at Kingston, and encamped at Dartford. Henry's army encamped on Blackheath on 1 March. A great battle seemed inevitable. But Bishop Waynflete and some of Henry's lords negotiated a compromise. Even on Henry's side many were anxious for the removal of Somerset. Henry pledged himself to keep Somerset under arrest. York disbanded his army, but on visiting the king's tent he found Somerset still at large, and Henry's presence did not prevent a fierce altercation. York found that he was practically a prisoner. But fear of the marchmen saved him from the Tower, and on 10 March he was released after a solemn declaration of loyalty. An effort was now made to put Calais in a proper state of defence and improve the navy. On Good Friday Henry sought to make everything smooth by pardoning all persons guilty of disloyal acts (, i. 85), and on that very day 144 sealed pardons were issued from his chancery.

Anarchy still prevailed, and Henry travelled about the country in the vain hope that his presence would procure more respect for the law. In April or May he probably visited Norfolk (Paston Letters, i. 231, 233, but cf. Preface, p. lxxxiii). In July he certainly went on progress through the west. He was at Exeter on 18 July, and thence proceeded through Wells, Gloucester, Monmouth, and Hereford to Ludlow, where he arrived on 12 Aug., showing by his visit to York's great stronghold that old feuds were at end. He then travelled through Kenilworth and Woodstock to Eltham, which he reached early in September. In October a third progress was made through the eastern midlands, during which Stamford, Peterborough, and Cambridge were visited (, Pref. to Paston Letters, i. lxxxvi). Before the end of the year Shrewsbury had won back most of Guienne. Success abroad seemed to follow the restoration of amity at home.

In March 1453 a new parliament assembled at Reading. That town was chosen in preference to London because of the Yorkist sympathies of the London populace. Somerset managed the elections so successfully that