Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/707

Rh was to the number of about 60,000 encamped at Towton, about eight miles from York. Here Edward and Warwick met the queen s forces, and a battle of great obstinacy ensued, which, notwithstanding the arrival of a reinforce ment to Margaret in the middle of the battle, ended in her utter defeat. Henry and Margaret fled to Scotland, and on the 28 Jane Edward was crowned at London. Margaret after wards escaped to France, from which country in she made two separate attempts to retrieve the fallen fortunes of her house, but these, as well as one made by Henry in, proved utterly abortive. In May Edward was secretly married to Elizabeth, daughter of liichard Woodville, Lord Rivers, and widow of Sir John Gray; and having in the September following publicly acknowledged her as his queen, he grievously disappointed and displeased his chief supporter, the earl of Warwick, who had been nego tiating for the marriage of Edward with the sister of Louis XI. of France, Though from this time secretly bending all his energies to accomplish Edward s overthrow, Warwick skilfully concealed not only his intentions but even his share in overt acts ; and it was not till 1369 that, receiving intelligence of the success of an insurrection secretly fomented by him in Yorkshire, he showed his hand by taking the king prisoner near Coventry. Shortly after, Edward either escaped or was allowed his freedom; and in he defeated the rebels near Stamford, and com pelled Warwick to make his escape to France. Here the earl, through the good offices of Louis, was reconciled with Queen Margaret, and agreed to invade England in behalf of her husband. Landing at Dartmouth, he soon had an army of 60,000 men. Edward, taken by surprise and unable to raise a force sufficient to oppose him, fled to Holland; and Warwick, having released Henry, again got him acknowledged king. Edward in his turn adopted the tactics that had been successful against him. In he landed at Ravenspur, and professing at first to resign all claims to the throne, and to have no further aim than merely to recover his inheritance as duke of York, he soon collected sympathizers, and then, throwing off all disguise, issued proclamations against Henry and Warwick. He marched without opposition direct to London, and after entering it and taking Henry prisoner, advanced against the army which had been collected to oppose him. The encounter took place at New Barnet, April 14, when the party of Warwick were defeated and Warwick himself was slain. On the same day Margaret with her son Edward, now eighteen years of age, had landed at Weymouth, but on May 4 she was defeated at Tewkesbury and taken prisoner. Her son either perished in battle, or was slain shortly after wards by the order of the king ; and her husband Henry died in the Tower on May 21, the evening of the day on which Edward re-entered London. Secure at home, Edward now turned his thoughts on foreign conquest. In lie formed an alliance with Charles of Burgundy against Louis, but on landing on the Continent with a large army he learned that the duke and Louis had come to an understanding, and prudence compelled him to enter into a seven years treaty with the power he had hoped to conquer. Shortly after this, the duke of Burgundy having died, Clarence, the brother of Edward, wished to marry Mary, the duke s daughter and heiress; but Edward, perhaps on account of chagrin at the former deceit of her father, refused his consent to the suit. Exasperated at his brother s conduct, Clarence took no pains to conceal his anger, and Edward thought it necessary to impeach him of treason before the House of Lords. He was condemned to death,_ February 7,, and on February 17 was executed in the Tower, but with so great secrecy that the manner of his death is unknown. Edward died April 9, . The beauty of his person and the freedom of his manners rendered Edward a great favourite with the lower and middle classes, but there appears to have been little in his character to awaken real esteem. He had certainly an ability for subtle scheming and intrigue, but his memory is connected with no act conferring any benefit of importance on his country, and it is tarnished by several deeds of ruthless cruelty, and by the helpless self-indulgence into which he sank during his later years. On account of the unsettled nature of the country during his reign, the influence of Parliament on the affairs of the kingdom became virtually suspended ; while the antipathy and con tentions between the two parties of the nobles made it almost a necessity that that party which supported the king should be unable to present any strong resistance against undue exercise of authority on his part. The result was the inauguration of that form of despotism known as the New Monarchy.  EDWARDV. (–), king of England, was the son of and of Elizabeth, and was born in the sanctuary of Westminster Abbey, November 4,. As soon as was dead his brother Richard, duke of Gloucester (see ), acting so far in accordance with the late king's wishes, secured possession of the person of the young king, and was appointed by Parliament protector of the realm. He had previously arrested Earl Rivers, the young king s uncle, and Lord Richard Gray his half-brother, and his next step was to accuse Lord Hastings, president of the royal council, of designs on his life, and to have him executed almost immediately afterwards on Tower Green. The way being now cleared for a full declaration of his designs, he caused it to be decided at a meeting of the Lords and Commons that the marriage of Edward IV. had been invalid on account of the existence of a precontract ; and, receiving a petition to act in accordance with this decision and assume the crown, he after a very slight reluctance consented to do so. Edward V. and his brother were confined in the Tower. Shortly after it was known that they were dead, but though it was the general conviction that they had been murdered, it was not till twenty afterwards that the manner of their death was discovered. Brackenbury, the constable of the Tower, had refused to obey the command of Richard to put the young princes to death, but complied with a warrant ordering him to give up the keys of the Tower for one night to Sir James Tyrrel, who had agreed to provide for the accomplishment of the infamous act. He gave admittance to two assassins hired by him self, who smothered the two youths under pillows while they were asleep.

1em  EDWARDVI. (–), king of England, was the son of Henry VIII. and of Jane Seymour, and was born at Hampton Court, 12th October. &quot;Till he came to six old,&quot; he says in his journal, &quot; he was brought up among the women.&quot; He was then transferred to the direction of several masters, who instructed him in Latin, Greek, French, philosophy, and divinity. In his tenth year he was created prince of Wales and duke of Cornwall, and very shortly afterwards he succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, 28th January. The will of Henry, for the protection of the young king, had named merely a council of regency, but that council immediately chose Edward, earl of Hertford, as protector, and on the 16th February ordered that he should be created duke of Somerset. The leanings of the protector were strongly Protestant, and he inaugurated his protectorate by the repeal of various Acts whose tendency was to support the waning influence of the Churcli of Rome, and by additional 