Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/261

 in person to the chancellor's inn, ‘without the bars of Westminster,’ where he was lying sick, and took from him the great seal, which he put into the hands of keepers until a new chancellor was appointed (, p. 3;, p. 786; , p. 236). In the later months of this year the breach between the king and the Nevilles seemed likely to take a dangerous turn, but shortly after Epiphany 1468 an apparent reconciliation was effected as the result of an interview between the archbishop and Anthony Wydeville, earl Rivers [q. v.], the queen's brother, at Nottingham. The ex-chancellor was again in attendance on the king. It was expected that the great seal would be restored to him. He and Warwick had high words with the Duke of Norfolk in the king's chamber regarding the duke's treatment of the Pastons, whom the archbishop and his brother had taken under their protection. The archbishop declared that ‘rather than the land should go so [i.e. to the duke] he would come and dwell there himself’ (, p. 789; Paston Letters, ii. 324–6). In February 1469 he received a grant from the king of the manor of Penley and other lands in Buckinghamshire (Fœdera, xi. 640).

But the Nevilles were not really reconciled to the king, and while Edward was drawn northwards by the rising of Robin of Redesdale [q. v.], which they had stirred up, the archbishop crossed to Calais, where Warwick was residing, and on 11 July performed the marriage between Warwick's elder daughter Isabel and the Duke of Clarence, which threw down the gage to the king (, p. 6). He signed the manifesto issued from Calais next day, and crossed with Warwick and Clarence into Kent (ib. p. 46). After the defeat of the king's forces by Redesdale at Edgecote, on 26 July, the archbishop found Edward deserted by his followers at Honily, near Coventry, and took him to Warwick Castle, whence he was presently removed to Middleham Castle, in Yorkshire, for safer keeping. Public opinion in the north compelled Warwick to relax the restraint upon Edward's liberty; but, according to Warkworth's account, he only got clear away to London by the connivance of the archbishop, whom he had talked over by fair speech and promises (ib. p. 7; Continuation of Croyland Chronicle, pp. 551–2; State Papers, Venetian, i. 421; cf. Paston Letters, ii. 368). Neville accompanied the king from York towards London, but, with the Earl of Oxford, did not go beyond the Moor, his house at Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, which he had ‘builded right commodiously and pleasantly’ on an estate formerly belonging to Cardinal Beaufort (, pp. 24, 70). When Neville and Oxford ventured to leave the Moor and ride Londonwards, they received a peremptory message from the king to wait until he sent for them (Paston Letters, ii. 389), Edward took precautions to prevent the archbishop giving assistance to Warwick when an open breach once more occurred in the spring of 1470. Warwick and Clarence being driven out of the country, he had to take a solemn oath to be faithful to Edward against them, and in August was living at the Moor with ‘divers of the king's servants and license to tarry there till he be sent for’ (ib. ii. 406).

But on Warwick's return in September, and Edward's flight to Holland, Neville once more became chancellor, this time in the name of Henry VI, and he opened parliament on 26 Nov. with a discourse on the text ‘Revertimini ad me filii revertentes, ego enim vir vester’ (, p. 12). He obtained a grant of Woodstock and three adjoining manors, and compelled the Duke of Norfolk to surrender Caister Castle to John Paston (Fœdera, xi. 670; Rot. Parl. vi. 588; Paston Letters, ii. 417). He remained in London with the helpless King Henry when, on Edward's return in March 1471, Warwick went into the midlands to intercept him. After Warwick had been foiled in this attempt, he is said to have written to his brother, urging him to provoke the city against Edward and keep him out for two or three days (Arrival of Edward IV, p. 15). The archbishop held a Lancastrian council at St. Paul's on 9 April, and next day took King Henry in procession through Cheapside to Walbrook and back to the bishop's palace by St. Paul's. But the fighting men of the party were either with Warwick or on the south coast awaiting the arrival of Queen Margaret from France, and the citizens thought it prudent to come to terms with Edward, who had now reached St. Albans in force. Thereupon the archbishop, as the official account put forth by King Edward asserts, sent secretly to the king, desiring to be admitted to his grace, and the king, for ‘good causes and considerations,’ agreed (ib. pp. 16, 17). The Lancastrian Warkworth (p. 26), who professes to believe that Neville could have prevented Edward from entering London if he had pleased, accuses him of treacherously refusing to allow Henry to take sanctuary at Westminster. However this may be, Neville surrendered King Henry and himself to Edward when he entered the city on 11 April,