In defiance, however, of these precautions the CHAP. king's debts continued to increase and long before the termination of his reign they amounted to the sum of three hundred and seventy-two thousand pounds.216 216 Rot. Parl. v. 183. 217. HENRY VI. IS MADE PRISONER-EDWARD'S MARRIAGE—INSUR· THE REALM-RETURN-EXPEL EDWARD AND RESTORE HENRY- VICTORY AT BARNET-CAPTURE AND DEATH OF HENRY-BATTLE OF TEWKSBURY-WAR WITH FRANCE -PEACE-ATTAINDER OF CLARENCE-DEATH OF THE KING. III. Towton. CHAP. THOUGH Edward had assumed the title of king, he was not ignorant that he held it by a very precarious tenure. The losses and advantages of the two parties were still nearly balanced: and if he was acknowledged by the southern, his rival could depend on the support of the northern, counties. The earl of Warwick, anxi III. 1461. March 7. ous to bring the question to an issue, marched CHAP. from London at the head of a body of veterans: Edward in a few days followed with the main army and by the time of his arrival at Ponte- March 12. fract, forty-nine thousand men had arrayed themselves under his banner. The preparations of the house of Lancaster were equally formidable. The duke of Somerset with sixty thousand infantry and cavalry lay in the neighbourhood of York and the queen, who with her husband and son had consented to remain within the city, employed all her address, to confirm their loyalty, and animate their courage. Both armies advanced towards Ferrybridge. The passage March 28. had been gained by the lord Fitzwalter on the part of Edward: but that nobleman was surprised and slain by lord Clifford, who within a few hours met on the same spot with a similar fate from the lord Falconberg. The next day, March 29. between the villages of Towton and Saxton, was fought the battle, which fixed the crown on the brow of Edward. The engagement began at nine in the morning amidst a heavy fall of snow: the obstinacy of the combatants protracted it till three in the afternoon. At that hour the Lancastrians began to give way, at first leisurely and in good order, but finding their retreat interrupted by the river Cock, they abandoned themselves to despair, and while some plunged into the torrent, others offered themselves without resistance to the swords of the enemy. CHAP. III. Edward is crowned. April 25. Edward had forbidden his followers to give quarter, and one half of the Lancastrians perished. The earl of Northumberland and six barons fell in the battle: the earls of Devonshire and Wiltshire were taken in their flight, and beheaded. The dukes of Somerset and Exeter had the good fortune to reach York, and conducted Henry and his family to the borders. The victory was decisive: but it cost the nation a deluge of blood. Besides those who perished in the waters, a contemporary writer assures us that thirty-eight thousand men remained on the field:1 nor can we reasonably accuse him of exaggeration, since Edward himself, in a confidential letter to his mother, while he conceals his own loss, informs her that the heralds, employed to number the dead bodies, returned the Lancastrians alone at twenty-eight thousand." From this scene of carnage the conqueror rode towards York, which he entered the next morning. The escape of Henry disappointed his hopes but during his stay in the city, he gave orders that several of his prisoners should be executed, and their heads substituted on the walls for those of his father and brother. From York he proceeded to Newcastle, receiving in his progress the homage of the inhabitants, and watching the motions of the fugitives. Henry, to purchase the aid of the Scots, had delivered to 1 Cont. Hist. Croyl. 533. 2 Fenn's Letters, i. 217. III. them the town of Berwick, and, while they with CHAP. a powerful army undertook the reduction of Carlisle, penetrated with a few faithful friends into the county of Durham. He narrowly escaped being taken by the superior number of his enemies and Carlisle was relieved by the lord Montague, who slew six thousand of the besiegers. But Edward had already left the June 1. theatre of war, and hastened to London. He was crowned at Westminster with the usual June 29. solemnity; and created his younger brothers, George and Richard, who had returned from their asylum in Flanders, dukes of Clarence and Glocester.3 tainder. When the parliament assembled, both houses Bill of atwere eager to display their attachment to their new sovereign. They first pronounced the reigns of the three last kings a tyrannical usurpation, and declared that Edward had been rightfully seized of the crown and the profits of the realm, from the fourth day of March last, in the same manner as they had been enjoyed by Richard II. on the feast of St. Matthew in the twenty-third year of his reign. With certain exceptions the grants of Henry IV., V., and VI., were revoked, but their judicial acts were ratified, and the titles of honour which they had conferred, were allowed.* Next followed a long 3 Hall, 86-89. Monstrel. iii. 84. Rym. xi. 476. Fenn, i. 230 -235. Rot. Parl. v. 463-475. 489. But the titles were allowed only |