Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/183

 and he only landed near Harfleur in June, some weeks after Paris had been recovered by the French. They had just before recovered great part of Normandy, and the Duke of Burgundy had not only gone over to their side, but was laying siege to Calais. York succeeded in recovering Fécamp and some others of the captured places in Normandy. But the difficulties of his position increased as time went on, and in 1437 he insisted on being recalled, notwithstanding urgent letters from the council asking him to prolong his stay beyond the terms of his agreement. The war was draining the pockets of everybody. York himself had advanced 1150 marks for it, which was not duly repaid, and the taxation of the conquered country could be carried no further. Richard de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick [q. v.], who was appointed to succeed him as lieutenant-general, crossed the Channel on 29 Aug., and York returned later in the year. In February 1438 the privy council, with the king's assent, offered him some of the royal jewels in pawn for the loan that he had advanced for the war, repayment of which had been long overdue. It was probably in the course of this year that he married Cicely, daughter of Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland [q. v.]; the eldest child of their large family, Edward (afterwards Edward IV), was born in August 1439.

On 30 April 1439 Warwick died at Rouen, and the chief command in France devolved for a time on John Beaufort, earl (and afterwards duke) of Somerset [q. v.], a nephew of Cardinal Beaufort. But York was again appointed the king's lieutenant on 2 July 1440. Owing, however, in all probability, to the disputes between the cardinal and Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, to whose party York belonged, nearly a year passed away before he crossed to France. He insisted on his own conditions. His term of office was to be five years, the king agreeing to grant him 20,000l. a year from the second year, out of the revenues of England, for defence of the English conquests in France; besides which he demanded thirty-six thousand francs for his own household, which was twelve thousand francs less than the Duke of Bedford had, but six thousand more than Warwick's allowance. One great difficulty that he foresaw was from the number of posts that had been granted away in reversion, and he demanded that he should have the power to appoint efficient men without regard to such claims.

During this last stay in England he obtained letters from the king (18 Jan. 1440) to the sheriffs of Northumberland and Yorkshire to remove the armed forces from Barnard Castle and the manor of Gayneford, and deliver these places to the custody of himself, the Earl of Salisbury, and others, during the minority of Henry de Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick's son and heir (Patent Roll, 18 Hen. VI, pt. ii. m. 25 d; cf. royal letter of 12 May 1441, misdated 1438 in, ii. 438; Collections of a London Citizen, Camden Soc. p. 183; Privy Council Proceedings, v. 142, 145–6). At length, in June 1441, when the continued success of the French had plunged the English council at Rouen into despair, York landed at Harfleur, and, joining Talbot, relieved Pontoise in July. He failed to provoke Charles VII to a pitched battle, and, being unable to feed his men in the country, returned to Rouen on 1 Aug. The English hold on Normandy was irreparably shaken.

In 1442 the French succeeded in recovering the greater part of Guienne, and York received a commission to treat on 9 Sept. He also made efforts for a renewal of the old understanding with Burgundy, the duchess negotiating with him in behalf of her husband; and after much communication with the government at home, he concluded a truce with the duke through her agency on 23 April 1443. The council at home, however, appointed Somerset, who was now raised to the dignity of duke, lieutenant and captain-general of Guienne. They intimated to York that there was no intention in this to interfere with his authority, and asked him to ‘take patience’ for a time as to his demand for the stipulated 20,000l. to be sent over to him, considering the great charges the king had incurred in setting forth a new army under Somerset. York sent over the Earl of Shrewsbury and others to demand fuller explanations. Somerset explained to the council that he would attempt nothing to York's ‘disworship.’ He crossed to Cherbourg in August with a much larger force than had been placed at the command of York, the money for which was advanced by his rich uncle, Cardinal Beaufort. Passing through the confines of Brittany, he, to the great disgust of York, pillaged La Guerche, a town of the friendly Duke of Brittany, and thereby incurred a severe reprimand from the home government; then, after wasting two months in an ineffectual siege, Somerset returned to England, where he died next year.

On 18 March 1445 York met Margaret of Anjou at Pontoise, and conducted her to the coast on her way to England to be married to Henry VI. He himself was in correspondence with Charles VII for the marriage of his own eldest son, Edward [see ], to whom Charles offered his infant daughter, Madeleine, though York would have preferred her elder sister, Jeanne. The