Duke of Warwick

“ To win an easy egress from these murderous walls, I could myself plant the dagger."
"We are not executioners," interrupted the duke, who felt none of Warwick's vacillations, now sinking beneath the required tone, now wound up far above it, and was perfectly calm, though his heart, he scarce knew why, entertained no hope of success. Warwick believed that he should win, and mourned the losers in the frightful game. Richard knew that he might fail, and assuredly would, did he not meet each necessity and hazard with a dauntless spirit. ”

“ Despite Clarence's sullenness, Warwick had discovered no reason, as yet, to doubt his good faith. The oath he had taken—not only to Henry in London, but to Warwick at Amboise—had been the strongest which can bind man to man. If the duke had not gained all he had hoped, he had still much to lose and much to dread by desertion to Edward. ”

“ But now the King had in turn come back and seized his own again, and slain Warwick on bloody Barnet field—and the frightened monks had bethought them to finish the book, with sundry emblazonings of the royal arms now ingeniously married to those of the Nevills, and make it a peace offering to Duke George of Clarence, who had wedded Warwick's daughter, and would be lord of Tewkesbury in his shoes.
The half-written page of vellum on the table seemed to Hugh a living part of all this stirring new romance of blood and spark-striking steel. Almost it made a soldier out of him to touch it. ”

“ As the words left the duke’s lips, and Warwick, one foot on his dumb friend’s corpse, gave the mandate, a murderous discharge from the archers in the covert rattled against the line of the Yorkists, and the foe, still advancing, stepped over a hundred corpses to the conflict. Despite the vast preponderance of numbers, the skill of Warwick’s archers, the strength of his position, the obstacle to the cavalry made by the barricades, rendered the attack perilous in the extreme. ”

“ Warwick did not, however, apprehend any serious results from the passive distaste of the trading towns. His martial spirit led him to despise the least martial part of the population. He knew that the towns would not rise in arms so long as their charters were respected; and that slow, undermining hostility which exists only in opinion, his intellect, so vigorous in immediate dangers, was not far-sighted enough to comprehend. More direct cause for apprehension would there have been to a suspicious mind in the demeanour of the earl's colleague in the Protectorate,—the Duke of Clarence. ”

“ Warwick had drawn up his army with his brother Montagu and John Vere, son of the attainted Earl of Oxford, in charge of the right wing consisting mainly of cavalry; the Duke of Somerset in the centre with archers and bill-men; and Warwick himself, with the Duke of Exeter, in command of the left wing. The opposing force of the King was inferior in numbers to that of the rebels. Edward, accompanied by Clarence and Henry VI., commanded the centre in person. On the left was Lord Hastings, while young Richard Duke of Gloucester, who was only eighteen years of age, had charge of the right wing. ”

“ Warwick himself had no son, but he had two daughters, whom he meant to marry to the king's two brothers—George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Edward thought this would make Warwick too powerful, and though he could not prevent George from marrying Isabel Nevil, the eldest daughter, the discontent grew so strong that Warwick persuaded George to fly with him, turn against his own brother, and offer Queen Margaret their help! ”

“ But equality of influence could not co-exist with inequality of power. The part which Warwick had taken in putting down the insurrection had given him for the moment the control of the position; and Warwick, whose single and peculiar study was the advancement of himself and his family, determined, it may be after some hesitation, to adhere to the party of which he could be the undisputed chief. Had he brought the conservatives into power, he must have released the Duke of Norfolk from the Tower, and Gardiner with him. ”

“ The chroniclers might with propriety have described this as a second "dissimulated love-day." No true reconcilement could take place between the king and the king-maker. Warwick considered Edward the most ungrateful of mankind; and the king thought of the earl, as the Regent-Duke of Albany said of the third Lord Home, that "he was too great to be a subject." The king regarded Warwick's patriotic counsel with aversion: the earl's discontent could be read by the multitude in his frank face. Each, naturally, began to calculate his strength. ”

“ No great occurrence of a military or catastrophic character disturbed its sunny hills and fertile vales. And even during the reign of Edward VI., which witnessed the historical struggle between the Duke of Somerset and Earl of Warwick for power, Warwickshire enjoyed a period of rest and tranquillity, unaffected by the schemes and plotting of John Dudley, who had been created Earl of Warwick by the King. ”

“ In the reign of King Stephen, Gundreth, widow of Roger de Newburgh, whose family held the tide of Earl of Warwick, drove the King’s soldiers from the castle and surrendered the latter to Henry, Duke of Normandy, who afterwards became Henry II. A little later, during the Wars of the Barons, Sir John Gifford, governor of Kenilworth, surprised the castle of Warwick and carried off William de Mauduit, then Earl of Warwick, and his lady,—the title having at this period passed to the De Mauduits through the family of De Plessitis. ”

“ Warwick threw over the Catholics and expelled them from office and from the privy council, and the hopes they entertained were rudely dashed to the ground. But it was difficult to combine coercion of the Catholics with the proscription of Somerset; the duke was therefore released early in 1550 and restored to the privy council; and his daughter was married to Warwick's son. Warwick himself assumed no position of superiority over his colleagues, and he was never made protector. ”

“ Two days after his arrival at Rouen the king had, in person, taken the great seal from his brother; Charles's half-brother Antony, the Bastard of Burgundy, had entered England as he himself left it; and had practically settled the Burgundian marriage before he was summoned back by Duke Philip's death on 15 June (Worcester, p. 786) . Warwick was coldly received by Edward, who, after giving the French ambassadors a single freezing interview, went off to Windsor on 6 July (Wavrin, v. 545; ib. ed. Dupont, iii. 195) . In their presence Warwick hotly denounced the traitors about the king. ”

“ But Warwick meant to rely on the Protestant Administration of the duke of Northumberland. extremists; by January 1550 the Catholics had been expelled from the council, and the pace of the Reformation increased instead of diminishing. Peace was made with France by the surrender of Boulogne and abandonment 533 of the policy of union with Scotland (March 1550) ; and the approach of war between France and the emperor, coupled with the rising of the princes in Germany, relieved Warwick from foreign apprehensions and gave him a free hand at home. ”

“ A number of personal wrongs and disappointments also rankled in his breast, and gave birth to sinister projects for gratifying a wounded ambition, and taking revenge upon an ungrateful king, who owed it in no small degree to himself that he was king at all. As yet Edward was without an heir-male. He had two 248 daughters;248.1 but in the succession a brother might perhaps be preferred to a female. Warwick could marry his eldest daughter to George, Duke of Clarence, and encourage that vain prince in his expectation of the crown. The earl was governor of Calais. ”

“ Cicely, married, 1434, Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick: died July 28th, 1450. (Dugdale says that she married, secondly, 1448-9, John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester: but this is doubtful.)
3. RICHARD, Earl of Warwick, surnamed the King-Maker; killed at Barnet, Easter Sunday, Apr. 14th, 1471; buried at Bisham. Married—
ANNE, daughter and eventual heir of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and his second wife Isabel Baroness Le Despenser: born at Caversham, July 13th, 1429: married 1434: died between 1490 and Michaelmas 1493.
4. Thomas, killed at Wakefield, and buried at Bisham Feb. ”

“ In France, therefore, Warwick was received with honour and material help. Every provision was made for the wearied ladies at Valognes, where they took up their temporary abode: but for some weeks nothing would tempt Warwick from Honfleur—not even the remonstrances of his friend the Duke of Burgundy, who sent to entreat him to come to his Court. One important point was wanting—Queen Marguerite would make no move towards conciliation. In vain King Louis assured her that Warwick's help was absolutely essential to the Lancastrian cause. ”

“ But the chief commissioner, Warwick ‘the Kingmaker,’ finding Edward IV bent on throwing off his control, had other plans for the disposal of the younger brother's hand. Clarence, still heir-presumptive and involved in a quarrel of his own with the queen's kinsmen, readily lent himself to Warwick's intrigues, which included the duke's marriage to the elder of Warwick's two daughters who would inherit his vast domains. ”

“ This pretence they found it still advisable to keep up, for the city of London was devoted to Edward's interests, and the Duke of Burgundy had written to the lord mayor to confirm their loyalty and promise aid if needful. Warwick, therefore, judged it best to release his prisoner, whom, indeed, he had not kept in very close confinement, allowing him freely to hunt, though with keepers beside him. He accordingly promised to the king that he should go up to London, see the queen, his wife, and show himself to the people ”

“ Albans in 1455, at the time the Earls of Warwick and March (the latter of whom was afterwards made Edward IV.) set out for London in search of the King’s forces, the Lancastrians were actually quartered at Coventry. The troops, however, did not remain long in the town, but marching south–east under the command of the Duke of Buckingham, encountered the Yorkist forces at Northampton on July 10, 1460, suffering a disastrous defeat, when Henry himself was captured. Amongst the more notable Warwickshire adherents of the King who fell was Sir Henry Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford–on–Avon. ”

“ Warwick gave a sign that the artisan should be secured and followed the fallen duke. The old councillor kept by the side of his friend, and on their way through the corridor the Duchess of Somerset came through a side door and approached her husband, but seeing how pale he was, and that many persons were around him, she drew back disappointed in the womanly impulse which had induced her to seek an interview before he went from the palace, that the cause of her child might be justly understood.
PAINTED BY R. LANDSEER. ENGRAVED BY J. SARTAIN.
Return from Hawking. ”

“ There whom should he meet but his old enemy, Queen Margaret. She had beaten him in battle, and had beheaded his cousin Richard, duke of York; he had beaten her and driven her from her kingdom; and twice he had made her husband prisoner and taken from him his crown. In spite of all this the two now became fast friends, and the kingmaker agreed to make war upon Edward and restore Henry to the throne.
He asked assistance from Louis XI, king of France, who supplied him with men and money. So with an army of Frenchmen the kingmaker landed on the shores of England. ”

“ The duke of Burgundy supplied him with money and soldiers, and he was soon back in England.
His army grew larger and larger every day. People had been very much dissatisfied with Edward and had rejoiced to get rid of him and have Henry for king, because if Henry was not clever he was good. But in a short time they had found out that England needed a king who was not only good but capable.
So when Edward and his French soldiers landed most people in England welcomed them. The kingmaker was now on the wrong side.
Edward met him in battle at a place called Barnet, and completely defeated him. ”

“ March. Enter Warwicke, Marquesse Mountacute,
and their Army.
Warwick.
How now faire Lords? What faire? What newes abroad?
Rich.
Great Lord of Warwicke, if we should recompt
Our balefull newes, and at each words deliuerance
Stab Poniards in our flesh, till all were told,
The words would adde more anguish then the wounds.
O valiant Lord, the Duke of Yorke is slaine.
Edw.
O Warwicke, Warwicke, that Plantagenet
Which held thee deerely, as his Soules Redemption,
Is by the sterne Lord Clifford done to death.
War.
Ten dayes ago, I drown'd these newes in teares. ”

“ IV The bells pealed in Rennes, and the narrow streets were hung with banners and with tapestry, gay squares of color falling from the windows, making the old town blaze like some magic forest in autumnal splendor. The Mordelaise gate had been covered with May-boughs, and the streets strewn with rushes and with flowers. Duke John had ridden into the town with Charles of Blois—that lean and godly youth—beside him, and all the Breton nobles and seigneurs at his back. ”

“ Merlin spread his hands.
“Whom does Fulk Ferrers serve? In whose forest has he been hidden all these years? The Duke of Lancaster should know the why and the wherefore.”
“Traitor that he is! And Thomas of Woodstock—what of Thomas of Woodstock?”
“Why has he hidden himself in Wales? To wait—and to watch. This woman, Isoult of the Rose, is his spy.”
Richard sat rigid, white to the lips.
“Good father, whom can a King trust?”
“My hate, sir, is your hatred.”
“This Fulk Ferrers?”
“Can two Kings live? No peace will be yours while schemers have this puppet to play with.” ”