Objections the

to

After several debates, in which each lord gave his duke's title. opinion with apparent freedom, the following objections were sent to the duke: 1°. That both he and the lords had sworn fealty to Henry, and of course he by his oath was prevented from urging, they by theirs from admitting, his claim : 2°. That many acts, passed in divers parliaments of the king's progenitors, might be opposed to the pretensions of the house of Clarence, which acts << been of authority to defeat any manner « of title: » 3°. That several entails had been made of the crown to the heirs male, whereas he claimed by descent from females: 4°. That he did not bear the arms of Lionel the third, but of Edmund the first son of Edward III. and, 5°. That Henry IV. had declared that he entered on the throne as the heir of Henry III. To the three first objections the duke's counsel replied: that as priority of descent was evidently in his favour, it followed that the right to the crown was his : which right could not be defeated by oaths or acts of parliament, or entails. Indeed the only entail made to the exclusion of females was that of the seventh year of Henry IV. and would never have been thought of, had that prince claimed under the customary law of descents that the reason why he had not hitherto taken the arms of Lionel was the same as had prevented him from claiming the crown, the danger to which such a proceeding would have exposed him and lastly, that if Henry IV. pronounced himself the rightful heir of Henry III., he asserted what he knew to be untrue. As, however, the principal reliance of his adversaries was on the oaths which he had taken, and which it was contended were to be considered as a surrender of his right by his own act, he contended that no oath con

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trary to truth and justice is binding: that the virtue of an oath is to confirm truth and not to impugn it: and that as the obligation of oaths is a subject for the determination of the spiritual tribunals, he was willing to answer in any such court all manner of men, who had any thing to propose against him.

mise.

Oct. 24.

At length the lords resolved that the title of the duke A comproof York could not be defeated: yet they refused to proceed to the next step of dethroning the king. To « save their oaths and clear their conciences » they proposed a compromise that Henry should possess the crown for the term of his natural life, and that the duke and his heirs should succeed to it after Henry's death. To this both parties agreed. The duke and his two sons the earls of March and Rutland, swore not to molest the king, but to maintain him on the throne; and Henry gave the royal assent to the bill declaring the duke heir apparent, allotting certain estates to him and his sons on that account, and pronouncing any attempt against his person a crime of high treason. On the conclusion of this important affair the king with the crown on his head, and attended by the duke as heir apparent, rode in state to make his thanksgiving at St. Paul's. *

But though the unfortunate monarch had consented Battle of

'Rot. Parl. 375-383. From the history of this controversy, as it is entered on the rolls, it is plain that both the feelings and the opinions of the lords were in favour of Henry. The original defect in his descent had been supplied by the consent of the nation, the undisturbed possession of the crown by his family during sixty years, and the numerous oaths of fealty taken by all men, even his very competitor. No considerations could induce them to dethrone him: all that could be extorted from them by the victorious party was a compromise, which secured the crown to him during his life:

Wakefield.

Dec. 21.

to surrender the interests of his son, they were still upheld by the queen, and the lords, who had always adhered to the house of Lancaster. The earl of Northumberland, the lords Clifford, Dacres, and Nevil, assembled an army at York: and the duke of Somerset, and the earl of Devon joined them with their tenants from those counties. This union alarmed the victorious party: York and Salisbury hastened to anticipate their Dec. 2. designs; and though Somerset surprised the vanguard of the Yorkists at Worksop, they reached before Christmas the strong castle of Sandal. Whether it were that the duke of York was compelled to send out strong parties to forage, or that his pride could not brook the taunts of his enemies, he fought them with inferior forces near Wakefield, and was either killed in the The duke is battle, or taken and beheaded on the spot. Two thousand of his men with most of their leaders remained on the field and the earl of Salisbury was taken during the night, and decapitated the next day at Pontefract. But no one was more lamented than the young earl of Rutland, a boy in his twelfth year. He had fled with his tutor from the conflict, and was stopped on the bridge of Wakefield. When he was asked his name, unable to speak through terror, he fell on his knees; and his tutor thinking to save him, said that he was the son of the duke. «Then », exclaimed Clifford, « as thy father slew mine, so will I slay thee, and all of thy kin», and plunging his dagger into the breast of the young prince, bade the tutor go, and bear the news to the boy's mother. The queen on her arrival was presented with the head of her enemy, and ordered it

slain.

Dec. 30.

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and then took it from his son to whom they had never sworn fealty, and gave it to another branch of the royal family.

to be encircled with a diadem of paper, and placed

on the walls of York. '

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Mortimer's

cross.

1461.

From this moment the war assumed a new cha- Battle of racter and the thirst for : revenge gave to the combatants of each party a ferocity to which they had hitherto been strangers. Edward earl of March, and heir to the late duke of York, was at Glocester when he received the melancholy intelligence of the fate of his father and brother and having completed his levies hastened to interpose an army between the royalists and the capital. He was closely followed by an inferior force of Welch and Irish, under the king's uterine brother, Jasper earl of Pembroke: but, apprehensive of being surrounded, suddenly faced about and obtained the bloody victory of Mortimer's cross, near Wigmore. The royalists lost about four thousand men. Pembroke himself escaped : but his father Owen Tudor was taken, and with Throgmorton and seven other captains beheaded at Hereford; as a sacrifice to the manes of those, who had been executed after the battle of Wakefield. 2

Feb. 1.

Second

battle at

St. Alban's.

While Edward was thus occupied in the West, the queen with her victorious army advanced on the road to London, and met with no opposition till she had reached the town of St. Alban's. It was held by the earl of Warwick, who had drawn up his troops on the low hills to the south. The royalists penetrated as far as the market cross, but were repulsed by a strong body of Feb. 7. archers. They next forced their way by another street as far as Barnet heath, where after a long conflict, they put to flight the men of Kent. Night saved the Yorkists

1 Rot. Parl. v. 466. Wyrcest. 484, 485. Whetham. 489. Cont. Croyl. 530. Hall, 183.

Feb. 18.

The king is free again.

Feb. 22.

from utter destruction. They separated and fled in different directions, leaving the king in his tent under the care of the lord Montague his chamberlain. He was soon visited by Margaret and his son, and embraced them with transports of joy. There fell in this battle about two thousand men. The next day the lord Bonville and sir Thomas Kyriel were beheaded in retaliation for the executions at Hereford. '

Thus by another unexpected revolution Henry was restored to his friends, and placed at the head of a victorious army. Could he have conducted that army immediately to the capital, the citizens must have opened the gates but his soldiers were principally borderers, accustomed to live by rapine; and had been allured to the royal standard by the promise of plunder. No prohibitions or entreaties could prevail on them to march forward they spread themselves around to pillage the country: and the necessity of protecting their property attached to the banners of the house of York the citizens of London and the inhabitants of the neighbouring counties. Henry announced by proclamation, that his assent to the late award had been extorted by violence, and issued orders for the immediate arrest of Edward, late earl of March, and son to the late duke of York 2. But Edward had now united his forces with

Wyrcest. 486. Whethamst. 497–501. Cont. Croylan. 55o. It is often said that Bonville and Kyriel attended the king, and would have fled, but were persuaded to remain by Henry, who gave them his word that they should not suffer. These contemporary writers do not mention it, and Wyrcester expressly asserts that it was the lord Montague who was taken with Henry. However, in the act of attainder passed in the 1st of Edward IV., it is said they had received from him a promise of protection. Rot. Parl. v. 477. 2 Rot. Parl. v. 466.