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 which had belonged to Henry, duke of Somerset. In 1469 he accompanied his brother Edward into Norfolk just before the breaking out of Robin of Redesdale's rebellion [see ], and probably went with him against the rebels. In October, when Edward IV had escaped from his temporary detention by Warwick in Yorkshire, Richard entered London in his company, and was immediately afterwards (17 Oct.) appointed constable of England for life and chief justiciar of South Wales. Next year (1470), on 26 Aug., he was further appointed warden of the west marches against Scotland (, xi. 658, 1st edit.). A month later Richard accompanied Edward in his flight to Holland, and shared his exile till the following March (1471). Sailing back with him from Flushing, he assisted him in the recovery of his kingdom. During the voyage, indeed, their ships were separated by a storm, and Richard, with a company of three hundred men, landed four miles from Ravenspur, where his brother landed; but they soon joined forces, and when Edward, pretending that he was merely come to claim his duchy of York, was allowed to enter York peacefully without his army, he at first left the latter at three bowshots' distance under Richard's command. Presently the city was persuaded to admit the forces for twelve hours; but when some of the citizens, doubting Edward's good faith, insisted on his going to the minster to make oath that he would not claim the crown, Richard proposed to the Earl of Rivers to kill the recorder and Martin De la Mere if the condition were insisted on. Edward, however, succeeded in getting his forces away without any act of violence.

Shortly afterwards, at Banbury, Richard assisted in the reconciliation between his brother Edward and Clarence. In the two battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury (14 April and 4 May) he commanded Edward's vanguard, and displayed both skill and valour. After the latter engagement he and the Duke of Norfolk, as constable and marshal of England, passed sentence on Somerset and other fugitives who had received King Edward's pardon after taking refuge in the abbey, and they were beheaded in the town. This was a serious function for a lad in his nineteenth year. Yet it is also reported, and perhaps truly, that he and Clarence butchered young Edward, prince of Wales, after the battle, and a fortnight later that he murdered the unhappy Henry VI in the Tower of London. On 3 July following, although no regular parliament seems to have been assembled, the lords met in the parliament chamber at Westminster, and each severally took an oath to Edward's eldest son, recognising him as prince of Wales and successor to the throne. After the spiritual lords the names of Clarence and Gloucester headed those of the temporal (Rotuli Parliamentorum, vi. 234). Edward rewarded Richard's fidelity by large additional grants of lands and offices. He made him great chamberlain of England (which office he resigned a year later in favour of Clarence) and steward of the lands of the duchy of Lancaster beyond Trent; and he bestowed on him the confiscated possessions of the Earl of Oxford and other Lancastrians. He also gave him (14 July 1471) the castles of Middleham and Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire, and Penrith in Cumberland—a portion of the lands of Warwick the Kingmaker. Warwick had left two daughters, of whom Clarence had already married the elder, and Richard now proposed to marry the younger, named Anne [see, 1456–1485]. She had been betrothed to the late—probably murdered—prince of Wales, but she seems to have had no great objection to marry his reputed murderer. Clarence, however, who had kept his sister-in-law hitherto in a state of pupilage (she was not yet fifteen), opposed the marriage, and particularly objected to divide his father-in-law's inheritance. He hid the young lady from his brother's eyes, but Richard discovered her in London disguised as a kitchenmaid, and placed her in the sanctuary of St. Martin's-le-Grand for security. On this a vehement dispute took place between the brothers, who each supported his own claim before the king with an ability that astonished even lawyers; and, though the king decided that Richard should have Anne, with a certain portion of Warwick's property, an ill-will that threatened at times to come to blows endured for years between the two [see ].

In September 1471 Richard is said to have caused the bastard Falconbridge to be beheaded in Yorkshire [see, the of]. But probably there is some mistake here. The bastard had commanded Warwick's fleet and bombarded London while Edward was in the west country, but had submitted to Richard at Sandwich on 26 May; and Richard took him to Middleham apparently as a prisoner on parole (, iii. 145; cf., ii. 387, n. 3, from which it would seem that ‘Merlan’ must be Middleham); but as the bastard afterwards attempted to escape, hoping, as it was believed, to have found shipping somewhere, he forfeited his claim to mercy. He was captured at Southampton, and probably executed there.