Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick

“ On 8 June 1456 he was summoned to attend an assize of oyer and terminer at Maidstone to punish rioters, and he was one of the commissioners appointed on 31 July 1458 to make public inquiry into Warwick's unjustifiable attack on a fleet of Lubeck merchantmen [see Neville, Richard, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury] . ”

“ Indeed, although Edward was nominally king, it might have been considered in some degree a question whether it was the house of York or the house of Neville that actually reigned in England.
The Earl of Warwick had two daughters. Their names were Isabella and Anne. These two young ladies the earl reckoned, as Edward did his sister Margaret, among the most important of his political resources. By marrying them to persons of very high position, he could strengthen his alliances and increase his power. ”

“ Of necessity the resting at Warwick was but brief, and then Sir Richard Neville and a party of men-at-arms rode northward. Not in haste, like his first journey, was this he was making now. Hard was it to pass by or to get away from any tower or town to which he came; but everywhere he did the errand upon which the king had sent him, and everywhere were all men readier than before in their loyalty and their service of the crown, whether they were barons or commons. ”

“ The bridal of the prince and Anne Neville having been celebrated, Warwick and Oxford prepared to return to England. Fortune, with fickle smile, cheered the king-maker's enterprise. Every thing was promising; for the English people, since Warwick had been exiled to a foreign strand, complained that England without "The Stout Earl" was like a world without a sun; and day after day came messengers to tell that thousands of men were ready to take up arms in his cause whenever he set foot on his native soil. ”

“ He was lord of Glamorgan and Morgan, and succeeded in retaining possession of the castle and honour of Bergavenny, which was claimed by his father's youngest brother, who took his title therefrom [see under Edward Neville, Baron of Bergavenny] . But it was not until the sword was bared in the strife of factions in 1455 that Warwick made an independent position for himself, and overshadowed his father. In the meantime he remained with Salisbury, outwardly neutral in the struggle between his uncle Richard, duke of York, and his cousin Edmund Beaufort, duke of Somerset. ”

“ The wizard next pretended that he had seen a vision of a certain room in a tower, in which a spirit had appeared with a coat of arms in his hand, and had "delivered the same to Sir William Neville." The arms being described as those of the Warwick family, Sir William, his brother, and Jones rode down from Oxford to Warwick, where they went over the castle. The wizard The Nevilles to recover the Earldom of Warwick. ”

“ But when Warwick and Salisbury came over in force from Calais in June 1460, Neville, with William Grey, bishop of Ely, like himself a Balliol man, took an armed force on 2 July to meet them in Southwark, and next day assisted the Archbishop of Canterbury in receiving their oaths of allegiance to the absent Henry in St. Paul's (Worcester, pp. 772–3) . He accompanied Warwick and the Earl of March to the battle of Northampton (10 July) , and on their return to London with the captive king, the great seal resigned by the Archbishop of Canterbury was given to him on 25 July (Fœdera, xi. 458) . ”

“ Something, therefore, must be done to provide a make-weight for Warwick's family connection with Edward: and while the Queen was considering how it could be done, King Louis made a suggestion to her which showed the best way to do it.
Human hearts will break through all state trappings, and will insist on being heard even through the roar of revolution. The young Prince of Wales, barely seventeen, had fallen passionately in love with the Lady Anne Neville, Warwick's youngest daughter, who was a year younger than himself. ”

“ The Duke of York and his supporters take up their quarters in the city, 1454. A crisis, in the meanwhile, was fast approaching. The birth of an heir to the throne urged the Duke of York to take prompt action. Although the majority of the nobles were opposed to him, he had on his side the powerful family of the Nevills, having married Cicely Nevill, sister of Richard Nevill, Earl of Salisbury, the head of the family, and father of the still more powerful Earl of Warwick. ”

“ The Earl of Kent left no legitimate son to inherit his honors; but he left an illegitimate son, named Thomas Neville, and known, after the fashion of the age, as "The Bastard of Falconbridge." The misfortune of Falconbridge's birth, of course, prevented him from becoming his father's heir; but, being "a man of turbulent spirit and formed for action," he had no idea of passing his life in obscurity. His relationship to Warwick was not distant ”

“ Nor was such hospitality ever refused, so long as the house could contain more guests; for each man's consequence, and sometimes his safety, depended upon the number of those whom he entertained; and even when the lord was absent from his own dwelling, the doors were always open to those who were known to be connected with him. Thus Sir Philip Beauchamp had found ready lodging in the house of one of the numerous family of that name, the head of which was then the Earl of Warwick, though, ere many years had passed, an only daughter bore that glorious title into the house of Neville. ”

“ On 29 April 1463 Neville opened the second parliament of the reign with a discourse on the theme ‘Qui judicatis terram diligite justiciam’ (ib. v. 496) . Having proved himself a man of ability and ‘moult facondieux,’ as Chastellain says, the chancellor was entrusted, in the absence of Warwick in the north, with an important foreign mission in the summer of this year. The king saw him off, and took charge of the great seal at Dover, on 21 Aug.; and Neville, with his companions, the Earl of Essex, Lord Wenlock, and others, made his way to St. ”

“ On the 12th Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick, who were advancing with an armed force towards London, sent William Courtenay [q. v.] , archbishop of Canterbury, and others to Richard, demanding that Neville, Michael de la Pole, the duke of Ireland, and others should be punished as traitors, and two days later formally appealed them of treason. Richard received the lords at Westminster on the 17th, and promised them that Neville and the four others whom they accused should attend the next parliament and answer for their acts. ”

“ The king summoned forces with which Warwick suppressed the rising. Humphrey Neville and his brother Charles were beheaded at York on 29 Sept. in the presence of the king. Edward was now free to return to London. Archbishop Neville went with him as far as his house at the Moor in Hertfordshire; but his brother Montagu, who had not been prominent in the late events, was the only Neville who, for the present, was allowed to enter London. ‘The king,’ reported Sir John Paston, ‘hath good language of the Lords of Clarence and Warwick and of my Lord of York, saying they be his best friends ”

“ The ruin of the Percies, whose lands and Earldom of Northumberland were granted to Warwick's brother, Lord Montagu, raised the Nevilles to unrivalled greatness in the land. Warwick, who on his father's death added the Earldom of Salisbury to his earlier titles, had like his father warmly espoused the cause of Richard of York, and it was to his counsels that men ascribed the decisive step by which his cousin Edward of March assumed the crown. ”

“ They openly accuse him of cowardice, Commines asserting that he always fought on horseback to secure a safe retreat. If he was not a butcher like Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, he rarely spared his enemies when they fell into his hands. Of Worcester's love of learning there is no trace in Warwick, and beyond joining his brother George Neville, then bishop of Exeter, in founding in 1460 St. William's College, opposite the east end of York Minster, we do not hear of his devoting any part of his great wealth to public purposes. ”