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CHAP.

III.

On the first intelligence of the rising in Yorkshire Edward had summoned his retainers: and in the interval making a progress by the monastries in Suffolk and Norfolk, fixed his head quarters at the castle of Fotheringay. Here the advance of the insurgents, their increasing numbers, and their menaces of vengeance, created considerable alarm: and it was resolved that the Wydeviles should retire from the army, and secrete themselves in their different seats in the country. From Fotheringay the king marched to Newark but alarmed at the signs of disaffection which he every where observed, turned back to the castle of Nottingham. Thence he dispatched letters written with his own hand to his brother Clarence, the earl of Warwick, and July 9 the archbishop, requesting them to hasten to him at Nottingham with the same retinue, which usually attended them in time of peace. In the note to Warwick he added these significant words:" and we do not believe that ye should "be of any such disposition toward us, as the "rumour here runneth, considering the trust and affection we bear you. And, cousin, ne think but ye shall be to us welcome."43

64

But

course her innocence was admitted by the king. Rot. Pari. vi. 232. I have mentioned this, that the reader may see on what frivolous grounds these accusations were brought, and how anxious the highest personages were to guard against them.

43 Fenn, ii. 40. The letters are dated at Nottingham, July 9th, without any year. I have placed them in 1469, because Edward

Battle at
Edgecote.
July 26.

CHAP. the noblemen, on whose attachment and serIII. vices he rested his chief hopes were the lords Herbert and Stafford, lately created earls of Pembroke and Devon. The former, who had reduced the strong castle of Hardlough, hastened from Wales to the aid of his sovereign with eight thousand men, the latter with five thousand joined him at Banbury: but an unfortunate dispute about quarters irritated Stafford, and he withdrew his troops to another town at the dis tance of twelve miles. A numerous party of the insurgents seized the opportunity to attack the loyalists the next day at Edgecote, who, without archers, and deserted by their friends the Welshmen, offered an easy victory to the multitude of their enemies. Five thousand with their leader perished on the field: during the pursuit the victors discovered the earl Rivers and sir John Wydevile, the father and brother of Elizabeth, in the forest of Dean. They were seized, brought to Northampton, and executed by the order, or the pretended order, of Clarence and Warwick. Even Stafford did not escape. He was afterwards beheaded at Bridgewater, some say by command of the king in revenge for the loss of the battle, others with more pro

was then at Nottingham; Clarence, Warwick, and the archbishop were together at Calais, and consequently could receive letters by the same messengers; and actually did all three wait on the king a few weeks after. See Cont. Hist. Croyl. 542, 543.

bability by the fury of the people, who hated CHAP. him as a friend of the Wydeviles.**

III.

made pri

soner and

4. Clarence, Warwick, and the archbishop Edward is had now landed in England, and taking with them the archbishop of Canterbury, proceeded confined. in search of the king; whom they found at Olney, plunged in the deepest distress by the defeat of Pembroke, the murder ofthe Wydeviles, and the desertion of his friends. At the first interview they approached him with all those expressions of respect which are due from the subject to the sovereign; and Edward, deceived by these appearances, freely acquainted them with his suspicions and displeasure. But his imprudence was soon checked by the discovery that he was in reality their captive and he hastily accepted those excuses, which it would have been dangerous to refuse. The few loyalists who had remained with the king, dispersed by the permission of Warwick: at his command the insurgents returned to their homes loaden with plunder and Edward accompanied the two brothers to Warwick; whence for greater security he was removed to Middleham, under the custody of the archbishop.45

44 See Cont. Hist. Croyl. 543. 551. Fragment, 300, 301. Stow,

422.

45 Cont. Hist. Croyl. 543.551. By modern writers the captivity of Edward has been scornfully rejected. Hume says it is contradicted by records, Carte and Henry pronounce it incredible and romantic. But, if it were, they should have accounted for what in that case were more inconceivable, the mention which is made

CHAP.
III.

He is re-.

leased.

England exhibited at this moment the extraordinary spectacle of two rival kings, each confined in prison, Henry in the Tower, Edward in Yorkshire. Whatever might have been the intentions of Warwick, they were disconcerted by the friends of the former, who seized the opportunity to unfurl his standard in the marches of Scotland, under sir Humphrey Nevil.46 The conduct of the earl proved that the suspicions previously entertained of his acting in concert

of it by almost every writer of the age, whether foreigner or native, even by Commines (iii. 4), who says he received the principal incidents of Edward's history from the mouth of Edward himself; and by the annalist of Croyland (551), who was high in the confidence of that monarch. Hume's arguments are, 1o. That the records in Rymer allow of no interval for the imprisonment of Edward in 1470; and 2o. That it is not mentioned, as, if it had happened, it must have been in the proclamation of Henry against Clarence and Warwick of the same year. But in the first place, he has mistaken the date of the imprisonment, which was not in 1470, but in 1469 (ea æstate quæ contingebat anno nono regis, qui erat annus domini 1469. Cont. Croyl, 551): and in the second the proclamation ought not to have named it; because it confines itself to the enumeration of those offences only, which had been committed after the pardon granted to them at Christmas 1469 (Rot. Parl. vi. 233). But there is a record, which places the existence of the imprisonment beyond a doubt, the attainder of Clarence, in which the king enumerates it among his offences: "as in jupartyng the king's royall "estate, persone and life in straite warde, putting him thereby from "all his libertie, aftre procuryng grete commocions." Rot. Parl. vi. 193. I may add, that in the records in Rymer for 1469, there is a sufficient interval of three months from the 12th of May to the 17th of August, the very time assigned for the insurrection and imprisonment.

46 Sir Humphrey had fled from the defeat at Hexham in 1464, and concealed himself during five years in a cave, opening into the river Derwent. Year-book, Ter. Pasch. 4 Ed. IV. 20.

III.

with the partisans of that monarch, were ground- CHAP. less. He summoned all the lieges of Edward to oppose the rebels: but the summons was disregarded, and men refused to fight in defence of a prince, of whose fate they were ignorant. He therefore found it necessary to exhibit the king in public at York, having first obtained from him a grant of the office of justiciary of south Wales, and of all the other dignities held Aug. 17. by the late earl of Pembroke. From York he marched into the north, defeated the Lancastrians, and conducted their leader to Edward, by whom he was condemned to lose his head on a scaffold. By what arguments or promises the king procured his liberty, we know not. A private treaty was signed: he repaired to the capital, accompanied by several lords of the party and his return was hailed by his own friends as little short of a miracle. A council of peers was now summoned, in which, after many negociations, Clarence and his father-inlaw condescended to justify their conduct. Edward with apparent cheerfulness accepted their apology; and a general pardon was issued in favour of all persons, who had borne arms against the king from the first rising in Yorkshire under Robin of Redesdale, to the time when they were dismissed by the earl of Warwick at Olney."

47 The account of Edward's escape, which is generally given, is that the archbishop allowed him to hunt, and that one day, while

Nov. 6.

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