Coronation of Edward IV and Warwick's apex

Edward was formally crowned King of England on 28 June 1461 in Westminster Abbey.^[156] Edward sought to win the affections of his vanquished foes; he pardoned many of the Lancastrians he attainted following his victory at Towton after they submitted to his rule,^[157] and permitted them to retain their property and titles.^[158]

For his part, Warwick benefited generously from Edward's patronage and became the most powerful noble in the country.^[159] He had inherited the lands and titles of both his parents,^[160] and was made High Admiral of England, Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, along with several other offices of importance.^[161] In the summer of 1462, Warwick successfully negotiated a truce with Scotland,^[96] while at Piltown in Ireland, Yorkist forces under Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Desmond decisively defeated the Lancastrians under John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond,^[162] forcing the Ormonds into exile and ending Lancastrian designs on Ireland.^[163] That October, Margaret of Anjou invaded England with troops from France, and captured the castles of Alnwick and Bamburgh,^[164] although they were back in Yorkist hands within just three months.^[165]

In the spring of 1463, the north of England rose in revolt in support of Henry when Sir Ralph Percy laid siege to Norham Castle.^[166] Separate truces had been agreed with both Scotland and France by late 1463, allowing Warwick to recover much of the territory lost in the north by 1464.^[167] The main Lancastrian army moved south through Northumberland, however, and was destroyed by a Yorkist force under John Neville at Hexham on 15 May 1464.^[168] All three Lancastrian commanders, Henry Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset,^[169] the Baron Ros,^[170] and the Baron Hungerford,^{[citation needed]} were captured and executed. Yorkist troops captured the deposed king Henry in the woods near the River Ribble,^[171] and was taken to London where he was imprisoned in the Tower.^[172]^[173] With Somerset's army defeated and Henry captured, all effective resistance to Edward's rule had been wiped out.^[174]

Edward saw no profit in killing Henry while his son remained alive, instead preferring to keep the Lancastrian claim with a frail captive.^[175] Margaret and Prince Edward were compelled to leave Scotland and sailed for the court of Margaret's cousin, Louis XI of France, where they maintained an impoverished court in exile for many years.^[176]

Discontent

Thumb — Elizabeth Woodville, queen consort to Edward IV

With his position upon the throne secure, Edward was free to pursue his domestic and foreign ambitions. Internationally, Edward favoured a strategic alliance with the Duchy of Burgundy but Warwick persuaded him to negotiate a treaty with Louis XI of France; at the negotiations, Warwick suggested Edward would be disposed to a marriage alliance with the French crown, the intended bride either being Louis' sister-in-law Bona of Savoy, or his daughter, Anne of France.^[177] To his considerable embarrassment and rage, Warwick discovered in October 1464 that four months earlier on 1 May, Edward had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian noble.^[178] Elizabeth had twelve siblings, some of whom married into prominent families, turning the Woodvilles into a powerful political establishment independent of Warwick's control.^[179] The move demonstrated that Warwick was not the power behind the throne as many had assumed and the marriage was criticised by Edward's Privy Councillors, who felt that marriage to a woman who was the daughter of neither a duke nor an earl was unbefitting a man of royal blood.^[180]^[181] Warwick attempted to restore his lost influence by accusing Elizabeth and her mother Jacquetta of Luxembourg of witchcraft, a ploy which failed but did not break the relationship between Warwick and Edward.^[182]^[183]

Edward's choice of bride plagued him politically for the rest of his reign.^[184] Politically, it opened Edward up to accusations that Warwick had been deceiving the French into believing the king was committed to the marriage proposal.^[185] Elizabeth's family began to ascend to positions of great importance; Edward's father-in-law, the Earl Rivers, was appointed as Lord High Treasurer, and supported the king's position for a Burgundian alliance.^[186] Without Warwick's knowledge, Edward had already concluded a treaty in secret with Burgundy in October 1466, while leaving Warwick to continue with doomed negotiations with the French court.^[187] In 1467, Edward removed Warwick's brother, the Archbishop of York, from his office of Lord Chancellor, while the king refused to entertain a marriage proposal between Warwick's eldest daughter, Isabel and Edward's brother, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence.^[188] For various reasons, Clarence greatly resented his brother's interference.^[188] In 1468, Edward retook Jersey from the French.

Redesdale's rebellion

In April 1469, a rebellion broke out in Yorkshire under a leader known only as Robin of Redesdale.^{[citation needed]} A second pro-Lancastrian revolt broke out the following month, which demanded the restoration of Henry Percy as Earl of Northumberland.^[189] The revolt was quickly crushed by the earl, John Neville, though he made little attempt to quell Redesdale's actions.^[189] Warwick and Clarence had spent the summer assembling troops, officially to suppress the revolt but in early July they travelled to Calais, where Clarence and Isabel were married in a ceremony overseen by Warwick. They returned to London, where they assembled their troops, ostensibly to remove 'evil councillors' from the king's company and re-establish good governance and moved north to link with the Yorkshire rebels.^[190] Privately, Warwick hoped to depose Edward and install the nineteen-year-old Clarence on the throne.^[191]

Redesdale defeated royal troops at Edgcote on 26 July 1469; although Redesdale was reportedly killed, the two royal commanders, William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon were both captured and executed.^[192] Elizabeth Woodville's father, Lord Rivers, and brother Sir John Woodville were apprehended and murdered.^[193] After the battle, Edward was taken captive by George Neville and held at Middleham Castle.^[194] It soon became clear to the rebels that neither Warwick nor Clarence enjoyed significant support, and unable to quell the growing disorder, Edward was released in September of that year and re-assumed his duties as king.^[195] In March 1470, Warwick and Clarence exploited political instabilities to incite the 1470 Lincolnshire Rebellion, hoping to lure Edward north where he could be taken by Warwick's men.^[e] On 12 March 1470, Edward routed the Yorkist rebels at the Battle of Losecoat Field and captured the rebel leader, the Baron Willoughby, who named Warwick and Clarence as the "partners and chief provokers" of the rebellion.^[197] Physical evidence also came to light which proved the complicity of the two men, who fled to France in May.^{[citation needed]} Willoughby was beheaded and his lands seized.^{[citation needed]}

Rebellion by Warwick and Readeption of Henry VI (1470–1471)

Seeking to capitalise on Warwick's disfavour with the king, Louis XI of France arranged a reconciliation between Warwick and his bitter rival, Margaret of Anjou, with the objective to restore Henry to the throne.^[198] As part of the arrangement, Warwick agreed to marry his daughter Anne to Edward of Westminster, Margaret and Henry's son and heir apparent;^{[citation needed]} while the marriage was solemnised, it may not have been consummated, as Margaret was hoping to find a better match for her son once he became king.^[199] Staging a diversionary uprising in the north, Warwick and Clarence launched a two-pronged invasion of England at Dartmouth and Plymouth on 13 September 1470.^{[citation needed]} Warwick's brother, the Marquess of Montagu joined him, bitter with the king that his support for the crown during the preceding revolts did not result in the restoration of his earldom.^[200] Edward rushed south to meet the invasion, while Montagu's forces advanced from the north, and the king found himself surrounded.^[201] With few options, Edward, his younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and several hundred retainers fled to Flanders on 2 October, then part of the Duchy of Burgundy, his ally.^[f]

The Readeption of Henry VI restored him as king, a throne which Warwick was now indisputably in effective control of.^[204] In November, Edward was attainted, and his brother Clarence was awarded the title of Duke of York.^[205] Burgundy was ruled by Charles the Bold, husband of Edward's sister Margaret. Charles rendered precious little assistance to his brother-in-law, something Edward would never forget.^[206] However, unfortunately for Warwick and Clarence, Henry's new regime was precariously unstable; Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset held Warwick responsible for his father's death in 1455, and the ensuing internal disputes eventually left Warwick and Clarence politically isolated.^[207] With the backing of Flemish merchants, Edward landed at Ravenspurn in Yorkshire on 14 March 1471, supported by the Earl of Northumberland.^[208] Edward was joined by troops under Sir William Parr and Sir James Harrington, a move which convinced Clarence, who was politically disadvantaged by his agreement with the Lancastrians,^[209] to abandon Warwick and Henry and join his brother.^[210] Edward's army made rapidly for London, where they took the by now feeble king Henry prisoner and sent him to the Tower of London.^[211]

Poor weather contained French troops under Margaret and Edward of Westminster on the continent, preventing Warwick from being reinforced.^[212] Despite this and Clarence's defection, Warwick marched in pursuit of Edward's growing army, and the two sides met in battle at Barnet on 14 April 1471.^[213] Poor visibility due to thick mist and the similarity of Edward's heraldic sun to the Earl of Oxford's star^[214] led to the Lancastrians attacking their own men,^[215] and, coupled with Edward's determined attack, Warwick's army was destroyed. During the rout, Warwick was unhorsed and killed,^[216] along with his brother the John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu,^[217] while Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter was apprehended and imprisoned in the Tower of London.^[218] In 1475, Exeter would be sent on a Yorkist expedition to France, where he was reputed to have fallen overboard while at sea, and drowned without any witnesses.^[219] Warwick's defeat and death was a catastrophic blow for the Lancastrian cause,^[220] and the Neville family's political influence was irrevocably broken.^[221]

Defeat of Henry VI by Edward IV

The return of Henry VI to the throne did not last long. Though the Nevilles had been defeated, on the same day of the clash at Barnet, Margaret had managed to land her forces at Weymouth, and augmented her army with recruits from the Welsh Marches.^[222] Despite the heavy defeat they had suffered at Barnet, survivors from the battle rallied around the Lancastrian queen.^[220] Edward moved to intercept the Lancastrian army, realising they were attempting to cross the River Severn into Wales. Acting upon correspondence sent by Henry VI, Sir Richard Beauchamp, governor of Gloucester, barred the gates to Margaret's troops, preventing the Lancastrians from crossing in time.^{[citation needed]} On 4 May 1471, Edward intercepted and engaged Margaret's army at Tewkesbury, defeating it. Henry VI and Margaret's only son, Edward of Westminster, was killed by Clarence's men,^[223] while the Duke of Somerset^[223] and John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon^[224] were both killed.

The royal propagandist of the Historie of the arrivall of Edward IV suggests the royal army was, "though small, well-armed and determined" and that Edward claimed he had returned solely for his duchy of York.^[225] However, Henry VI could not start raising a force of any numbers until well to the south (of England), in Lord Hastings's estates in the Midlands (about 3,000 men in Nottingham, where he was joined by William Parr and James Harrington, with their personal forces of sixty men-at-arms). Whereas, in the north, came "not so many as supposed would have come", reported the Arrivalist.^[226]

Edward IV entered London on 21 May. Henry VI died that night, or soon afterwards, perhaps on Edward's orders. A contemporary chronicle (favourable to Edward IV) reported Henry's death as caused by "melancholy" after hearing of his son's death.^[227] It is widely suspected however, that with Henry's only heir dead, Edward had ordered the former king's murder.^[228] Margaret of Anjou was imprisoned until she was ransomed by Louis XI in 1475 to France,^[229] where she would live for the remainder of her life, dying on 25 August 1482.^[230]

Second reign of Edward IV

With the defeats at Barnet and Tewkesbury, armed Lancastrian resistance appeared to be at an end. However, Edward IV's regime was progressively fractured by a worsening feud between his brothers, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. On 22 December 1476, Clarence's wife Isabel died. Clarence accused one of the late Isabel's ladies-in-waiting, Ankarette Twynyho, of having murdered her, and, in turn, Clarence murdered her. Ankarette's grandson received a retrospective pardon for Ankarette from Edward in 1478, illustrating the quasi-monarchical attitude of Clarence which Edward was growing wary of.^[231] In 1477, Clarence was proposed as a suitor for Mary, who had just become Duchess of Burgundy, but Edward objected to the match, and Clarence left the royal court.^[232]

For his part, Gloucester was married to Anne Neville; both Anne and Isabel were daughters of the Countess of Warwick, and therefore heirs to their mother's considerable fortune.^[233] Many of the estates held by the two brothers had been bestowed upon them by Edward's patronage (who retained the right to revoke them). This was not the case with property acquired through marriage; this difference fuelled the disagreement.^[234] Clarence continued to fall out of favour with Edward; persistently widespread claims he was involved in a revolt against Edward led to his imprisonment and execution at the Tower of London on 18 February 1478.^[235]

Edward's reign was relatively peaceful domestically; in 1475 he invaded France, however he signed the Treaty of Picquigny^[236] with Louis XI whereby Edward withdrew after receiving an initial payment of 75,000 crowns plus an annual pension of 50,000 crowns,^[237] while in 1482, he attempted to usurp the Scottish throne but was ultimately compelled to withdraw back to England. Nevertheless, they were successful in retaking Berwick.^[238] In 1483, Edward's health began to fail and he fell fatally ill that Easter. Prior to his death, he named his brother Richard to act as Lord Protector for his twelve-year-old son and successor, Edward. On 9 April 1483, Edward IV died.^[239]