Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3b.pdf/572

WAR He then followed Queen Margaret into Yorkshire, and by the great victory of Towton (29th March), secured the throne to the new monarch. During the next two or three years he reduced the strong fortresses in the north, which still held out for the Lancastrians, conducted the unfortunate Henry to the Tower in 1465, and established the Yorkist power on an apparently secure basis. No reward seemed too great for the services of the puissant baron. He obtained immense grants of territory, was constituted general warden of the West Marches on the Scottish border, constable of Dover, great chamberlain of England for life, and lord high-steward. His next brother. Lord Montague, obtained the extensive estates of the Percys, with the title of earl of Northumberland, and was moreover made warden of the East Marches; and his youngest brother was created lord high-chancellor, and archbishop of York. Suspicions and jealousies, however, by and by arose between Edward and his too powerful kinsman, and the marriage of the king, the dislike of the queen's relations, the Wydvilles, and various other causes, contributed to widen the breach. Warwick's brothers were deprived of their offices in 1467, and the earl left the court in high displeasure. A temporary reconciliation was repeatedly effected, but neither party could now trust the other. At length Warwick and his son-in-law Clarence fled to the continent in 1470, and there effected a reconciliation with Queen Margaret, sealing their alliance by the marriage of Prince Edward, Margaret's son, to Warwick's second daughter, Anne. The earl then embarked for England at the head of a powerful force, and landing at Plymouth, 13th August, proclaimed Henry VI. king. Edward was compelled to take refuge in Holland, and Henry was once more formally reinstated on the throne, while Warwick and his brothers obtained the restoration of the offices of which they had been deprived. The triumph of the Lancastrians, however, was short-lived. In March, 1471, Edward landed with a body of troops at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and succeeded in inducing first Clarence, and then the archbishop of York, to abandon the cause of Warwick. On the 14th of April the two armies encountered at Barnet, and notwithstanding the skill and valour of the great earl, the Lancastrians were defeated, and Warwick and his brother, the marquis of Montague, slain. The earl left two daughters, Isabella, married to the duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV.; and Anne, whose first husband, Edward, prince of Wales, was put to death in cold blood in 1471, after the battle of Tewkesbury, and who was married the next year to the duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III.—J. T.  WARWICK,, Earl of, a famous semi-mythical personage, frequently mentioned by mediæval chroniclers, and of whose exploits many traditionary tales are told. Knapton, Dugdale, and other writers consider the story of Guy to be not wholly legendary; and some of them are of opinion that he flourished about the close of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century. The romance of Sir Guy is mentioned by Chaucer, and some account of it will be found in Warton's History of English Poetry, vol. ii., and in Ellis' Metrical Romances, vol. ii. A compendious summary of the hero's exploits is given in the Legend of Sir Guy, published by Percy in his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, vol. iii.—J. T.  WARWICK,, Earl of. See.  WARWICK,, author of the well-known "Memoirs," was born in 1608. He was elected to the Long parliament as member for Radnor, and joined the court party, having been secretary to Juxon when lord treasurer, and clerk to the signet. He was one of the minority who voted against the bill for Strafford's attainder. He joined the king at Oxford, and was an active supporter of the royal cause. At the Restoration he was knighted, receiving more than one official employment, and was elected member for Westminster in Charles II.'s first parliament. He died in January, 1683. Besides his "Memoirs," he wrote a "Discourse on Government," published in 1694. His Memoirs of his own time to the Restoration (published in 1701), are written with considerable fairness. They would be valuable were it only for their notices of Cromwell, of whose person and demeanour in the house of commons, just after the opening of the Long parliament, they contain a very interesting account.—F. E.  WARWICK, R. . See.  WARWICK,, second earl of, descended from Lord Chancellor Rich, succeeded to the title in 1618. Described by Clarendon as a man of a jovial and prodigal turn, he took the puritan side in religion, and opened his house to the ministers whom Laud silenced. He and the earl of Manchester came to be considered "the two pillars of the presbyterian party." Having concurred in the prosecution of Strafford and Laud, he was appointed by the parliament in 1642 their admiral of the fleet. He was one of the few noblemen who adhered steadily to Cromwell. It was the earl of Warwick who carried the sword before the great general at his inauguration as protector. He was one of the six old peers to whom Cromwell offered seats in the protectoral house of lords; and in 1657 his grandson and heir, Robert Rich, married the Lady Frances, Cromwell's youngest daughter. Lord Warwick died in 1658, a few months before Cromwell, who, says Clarendon, "seemed to be much afflicted at the death of his friend, the earl of Warwick, with whom he had a fast friendship, though neither their humours or their natures were like."—F. E.  WASHINGTON,, first president of the United States of America, and commander-in-chief of their army during the war of independence, was born on the 22nd of February, 1732, in the family homestead at Bridge's Creek in the county of Westmoreland, parish of Washington, and state of Virginia. He was the great-grandson of John Washington, who was the son of a whilom mayor of Northampton in England, and whose elder brother. Sir William Washington, married a half-sister of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham. John and a younger brother, Lawrence, emigrated in 1657 to Virginia, where they bought land, became planters, and founded the American branch of the family. George Washington was the eldest son of the children by his father's second marriage. When he was a boy of eleven his father died, leaving him heir to considerable landed property. George's earlier education was of the simplest and most meagre kind, received from one of his father's tenants, who was also sexton of the parish; nor did he ever master any language but his own. From childhood he displayed strong military predilections, making soldiers of his school-fellows, and engaging them in mimic warfare. This taste was strengthened and developed by the conversation of an elder brother, Lawrence, who had served under Admiral Vernon (hence the name of his seat, Mount Vernon), and been at the siege of Carthagena. When about fourteen he was nearly entering the British navy. A midshipman's warrant was obtained for him, and he was on the point of starting to join his ship. The destiny of America hung in the balance, when his mother's heart gave way; she refused to part with him, and instead of going to sea he returned to school. There for two years he applied himself diligently and successfully to the study of mathematics and land-surveying. Despite his military or naval ardour, he was the most precise and methodical of boys, and one of his amusements was to copy out forms of all sorts of legal deeds. With a strong constitution and great muscular power, he was fond of athletic exercises, and a good horseman. On leaving school he passed the winter of 1748-49 at Mount Vernon, the seat of his brother Lawrence, who had married a daughter of William Fairfax, a relative of and agent for the eccentric Thomas, Lord Fairfax, who arrived just about that time from England to settle for life in his vast American possessions between the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers, and stretching across the Alleghanies. Squatters were settling on the best spots of this enormous tract, which had never been surveyed. For legal purposes Lord Fairfax wished his domains surveyed, and, estimating highly the character of Washington, intrusted the task to him, though he was then scarcely sixteen years of age. Amid hardships and physical difficulties the task was successfully performed. Washington received a commission as public surveyor, and followed the profession for three years. His practice was a lucrative one, for he had few competitors; and accustoming him as it did to judge of ground and distances, it helped to train him for future generalship. His reputation was now such, that when the fear of Indian depredations and French encroachments induced the Virginian government in 1751 to reorganize the militia, Washington was appointed adjutant-general—with the rank of major, and pay at the rate of £150 a-year—of one of the districts into which the province was divided for military purposes. Under an old Westmoreland volunteer who had served with his brother, he studied diligently military tactics and regimental details. At twenty-one he came into possession of his own property, and seems to have bid farewell for ever to land-surveying. The military organization of the province was recast, and Washington became, with enlarged duties and responsibilities, adjutant-general of the northern, one of the four large districts into which Virginia was 