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III.

rated their offences, but exhorted them to return CHAP. to their duty within a certain term, assuring them, that if they they could vindicate their innocence, he would accept their justification with pleasure; and that if they could not, he would still remember that they were allied to him by blood, and had been once numbered among his dearest friends.54 At the same time he took from Clarence the lieutenancy of Ireland, and gave it to the earl of Worcester; restored to Henry Percy the earldom of Northumberland and the wardenship of the east marches, giving in compensation to Warwick's brother, who had March 25. held him ever since the battle of Towton, the barren title of marquess Montague; and having learned that the fugitives, unable to corrupt the fidelity of the lord Stanley, had marched to the south, issued commissions to array the popula- March 26. tion of all the counties through which it was probable they would pass. From York he hastened to Nottingham; where, as the time allotted March 31. to them had expired, he declared them traitors, and, having offered rewards for their apprehension, continued his march with the greatest expedition. But they fled more rapidly than he could pursue and by the time that he reached Exeter, had collected ships at Dartmouth, April 15. whence they set sail for the harbour of Calais.55

54 Rot. Parl. vi. 233, and Fenn ii 36.

55 Ibid. Rym. 654-657. The reward was 100%. per annum in

CHAP.
III.

They are excluded from Calais.

But re

Warwick had intrusted the government of Calais to a gentleman of Gascony, named Vauclerc, a knight of the garter. To his dismay and astonishment the batteries of the place opened upon him, as he attempted to enter. It was in vain that he sent an officer to remonstrate. Vauclerc, acquainted with the recent transactions in England, had resolved to play a deep, but, he trusted, a secure game. To Warwick he apologised for his conduct, by informing him that the garrison was disaffected, and would, if he landed, infallibly betray him. At the same time he dispatched a messenger to Edward with assurances of his loyalty, and his determination to preserve so important a fortress for his sovereign. What impression his reasons made on the mind of Warwick, we know not: but Edward rewarded him with the government of Calais, and the duke of Burgundy granted him a pension of a thousand crowns. The fugitives, after some deliberation, steered their course towards Normandy, captured every Flemish merchantman which fell in their way, and were received at Harfleur, with distinguished honours, by the admiral of France.56

Louis XI. had hitherto espoused but faintly ceived by the cause of the house of Lancaster: but he now saw the advantage to be derived from the arrival

Louis XI.

land or 1000/. in money. Hence we may infer that land in this reign sold at ten years' purchase.

56 Commines, iii. 4. Monstrel. addit. 34.

CHAP. II.

of Warwick and his friends; and ordered them and their ladies to be provided with the best accommodations in the neighbouring towns. Clarence and the earl were invited to his court at Amboise; where they met Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou. No two persons had ever inflicted more serious injuries on each other than the earl and that princess: but misfortune had blunted the edge of their mutual hatred, and interest induced them to forget their past enmity. A reconciliation was speedily effected: Edward, June. Margaret's son, married Anne, the second daughter of Warwick: it was agreed that both parties should unite to restore Henry to the throne; and that in failure of issue by the prince, the crown at his death should devolve on the duke of Clarence.57

is dissatis

The only persons dissatisfied with this ar- Clarence rangement were the duke and his duchess. Clarence had hitherto been induced to follow the councils of Warwick by the prospect of succeeding to his brother on the throne: he now saw another claimant interposed between himself and the object o his ambition; and his chance of success made to depend on a distant and very uncertain contingency. His discontent was artfully fomented by the intrigues of a female agent. A lady belonging to the suite of the duchess had in the hurry of the flight been left in Eng

57 Com. ibid. Hall, 206, 207. Frag. 304. Lell, Coll, ii. 503. VOL. V.

T

III.

CHAP. land: but was permitted to follow, in appearance through the attention of the king to his sisterin-law, in reality that she might carry private instructions to Clarence. She represented to that prince how unnatural it was for him to fight against his brother, and to support the cause of family, the prosperity of which must depend on the destruction of his own. These sugges

The exiles return and land.

tions were not lost on a mind already predisposed to receive them: and the duke found the means to assure Edward, that when the occasion should offer, he would prove himself a loyal subject and affectionate kinsman.58

The conduct of that prince during this interval is almost inexplicable. If we except the execution of some and the banishment of others, among the adherents of Warwick, he took no precautions to avert, made no preparations to meet, the approaching storm. His time was spent in gallantries and amusements: the two brothers of Warwick were received into favour; and one of them, the marquess of Montague, was honoured with the royal confidence.59 In such circumstances no man but the infatuated monarch himself entertained a doubt of the result, if Warwick should effect a landing. That nobleman had always been the favourite, his exile had made

58 Commines, iii. 5.

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* Though the archbishop was allowed to remain at the Moor in Hertfordshire, ther was beleffte with hym dyverse of the kynge's "servantes," evilently to watch his motions. Fenn, ii. 48.

III.

him the idol, of the people: no ballad was po- CHAP. pular in the towns and villages which did not resound his praise; and every pageant and public exhibition made allusions to his virtues and his misfortunes. But if Edward was indolent, his brother-in-law, the duke of Burgundy, was active. He sent emissaries to Calais to watch the conduct of Vauclerc: complained to the parliament of Paris of the reception which had been given to his enemy; sought by menaces and preparations of war to intimidate Louis; seized all the French merchandise in his territories as an indemnity for the captures made by Warwick; and dispatched a powerful squadron to blockade the mouth of the river Seine. But the Burgundian ships were dispersed by a storm; and the next morning the exiles, under the protection of a French fleet, left their anchorage; and steering across the channel, Sept. 18. landed without opposition at Plymouth and Dartmouth.60

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driven out

The incautious Edward had been drawn as Edward is far as York by an artifice of the lord Fitz-hugh, of the brother-in-law to Warwick, who pretended to kingdom. raise a rebellion in Northumberland, and on the approach of the king, retired within the borders of Scotland.61 Thus the southern counties were

60 Commines, ibid. Hall, 207, 208. The duke of Burgundy wrote with unusual warmth on these subjects. Par St. George, says he in one of his letters, si l'on n'y pourvoid, a l'aide de Dieu j'y pour. veoirai sans vos congiés n'y vos raisons. Apud Duclos, ii. p. 11. "Fab. 500. Fenn, ii. 48.

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