Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/293

 Paul's next day Warwick bore the sword before the king, and the people are said to have shouted, ‘Long live King Henry and the Earl of Warwick!’ (, v. 318). When, in December, the queen rallied the Lancastrians in Yorkshire, and York and Salisbury went north to meet their death at Wakefield, while March was sent to raise troops on the Welsh border, Warwick was left in charge of London and the king, and kept Christmas with Henry in the Bishop of London's palace by St. Paul's.

The death of his father finally concentrated the power of the house of Neville in Warwick's hands. The earldom of Salisbury and its lands in the south passed to him, as well as the Neville estates in Yorkshire, with the great family strongholds at Middleham and Sheriff-Hutton. He was in no haste to communicate with Edward, the young Duke of York. Master of the king's person, he doubtless intended to continue to rule in his name. He had himself created knight of the Garter and great chamberlain of England, while his brother John became Lord Montagu and chamberlain of the household. A third brother, George, was chancellor. He held the threads of foreign policy in his own hands. He was in correspondence with the Duke of Milan, and was soliciting a cardinal's hat for Coppini from Pope Pius (State Papers, Venetian, i. 363–4). But the fortune of war took the direction of affairs out of his hands. When news came that the queen was marching on London with her undisciplined northern host, Warwick collected his forces, and, taking the king with him, he left London on Thursday, 12 Feb., accompanied by the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Earl of Arundel, Viscount Bourchier, Lord Bonvile, and his own brother Montagu (Chron. ed. Davies, p. 107). His plan was to intercept the queen at St. Albans, and he seems to have pitched his camp on Barnet Heath, the open high ground at the north end of the town, as if he expected the enemy to come by the Luton road (, i. 391; cf. Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, p. 155). But the queen's forces entered the town before he expected them, on Tuesday, 17 Feb., by the Dunstable road; and after being driven back from the market cross by a few archers, made a circuit, and forced their way into the main street between Warwick and the town. He hastily fell back, with the king and the bulk of his army, towards Sandridge, three miles north-east (Chron. ed. Davies, p. 107). A force, estimated by Whethamstede at four or five thousand men, remained behind, and opposed a stubborn resistance to the enemy; but, unsupported by the main body, and deserted by some of their number, they at last gave way. The main body then broke up, and their leaders, Warwick among them, fled, leaving the king to be recovered by his friends. The engagement is known as the second battle of St. Albans. Warwick, who had shown a signal lack of generalship, hurried westwards with the remnant of his army, and at Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire, met the young Duke of York, who had dispersed the western Lancastrians on 2 Feb. at Mortimer's Cross (, p. 777; cf., p. 215). The queen having withdrawn into the north without occupying London, Warwick rode, with Edward and his Welshmen and western men, into the capital on Thursday, 26 Feb. (ib.)

The events of the last few months had removed any reluctance of the Yorkists to deprive King Henry of his crown. Warwick, too, had lost control of him, and he saw that his interests were now bound up with those of the Yorkist dynasty. He consequently joined the handful of peers at Baynard's Castle on 3 March in declaring Edward king. But his influence was for the moment diminished, Edward was at the head of a victorious army, and Warwick was a vanquished general. His brother was confirmed in his office of chancellor. Without waiting for his coronation, Edward determined to follow the retreating Lancastrians into the north. Warwick was sent forward with the vanguard (7 March), troops were despatched after him, and Edward, leaving London, by 16 March overtook him at Leicester (Chron. of White Rose, p. 8). They reached Pontefract on the 27th, and Warwick was sent on with Sir John Ratcliffe, titular Lord Fitzwalter, to secure the passage of the Aire at Ferrybridge, some four miles north, where the great north road crossed the river (Croyland, Cont. p. 532;, p. 216). Hall says they found the bridge unoccupied, but were surprised in Ferrybridge at daybreak on Saturday, 28 March, by Lord Clifford and a detachment of the Lancastrian army which was encamped at Towton, nine miles north on the road to Tadcaster and the Wharfe (, p. 254; cf. State Papers, Venetian, i. 370). Fitzwalter was slain and Warwick wounded in the leg with an arrow (, p. 216). But the passage of the river was ultimately effected, and in the course of the day the Yorkist army moved up to Saxton, at the foot of the Towton plateau, on which the battle of Towton was fought next day, Palm Sunday. For the skilful leadership of the inferior Yorkist forces Edward rather than Warwick was responsible. Warwick, accord-