The History of England Volume II

XXI. Henry VI

HistEngVii_401-450.indd 26 5/27/11 3:09 PM I4JO. XXI HENRY VI Claim ofthe duke ofYork to the crown - The earl ofWarwic- Impeachment ofthe duke of Suffolk - His banishment - and death Popular insurrection- The parties ofYork and Lancaster - First armament ofthe duke of York - First battle ofSt. Albans - Battle of Blore-heath- ofNorthampton- A parliament - Battle ofWakefield - Death ofthe duke of York - Battle ofMortimer's Cross - Second Battle ofSt. Albans - Edward IV. assumes the crown - Miscellaneous transactions ofthis reign A WEAK PRINCE, seated on the throne of England, had never failed, how gentle soever and innocent, to be infested with faction, discontent, rebellion, and civil commotions; and as the incapacity of H enry appeared every day in a fuller light, these dangerous consequences began, from past experience, to be universally and justly apprehended. Men also of unquiet spirits, no longer employed in foreign wars, whence they were now excluded by the situation of the neighbouring states, were the more likely to excite intestine disorders, and by their emulation, rivalship, and animosities, to tear the bowels of their native country. But though HistEngVii_401-450.indd 27 5/27/11 3:09 PM CHAPTER XXI these causes alone were sufficient to breed confusion, there concurred another circumstance of the most dangerous nature: A pretender to the crown appeared: The title itself of the weak prince, who enjoyed the name of sovereignty, was disputed: And the English were now to pay the severe, though late penalty, of their turbulence under Richard II. and of their levity in violating, without any necessity or just reason, the lineal succession of their monarchs. All the males of the house of Mortimer were extinct; but Anne, the sister of the last earl of Marche, having espoused the earl of Cambridge, beheaded in the reign of Henry V. had transmitted her latent, but not yet forgotten claim to her son, Richard, duke of York. The prince, thus descended by his mother from Philippa, only daughter of the duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III. stood plainly in the order of succession before the king, who derived his descent from the duke of Lancaster, third son of that monarch; and that claim could not, in many respects, have fallen into more dangerous hands than those of the duke of York. Richard was a man of valour and abilities, of a prudent conduct and mild dispositions: He had enjoyed an opportunity of displaying these virtues in his government of France: And though recalled from that command by the intrigues and superior interest of the duke of Somerset, he had been sent to suppress a rebellion in Ireland; had succeeded much better in that enterprize than his rival in the defence of Normandy; and had even been able to attach to his person and family the whole Irish nation, whom he was sent to subdue.o In the right of his father, he bore the rank of first prince of the blood; and by this station, he gave a lustre to his title derived from the family of Mortimer, which, though of great nobility , was equalled by other families in the kingdom, and had been eclipsed by the royal descent of the house of Lancaster. He possessed an immense fortune from the union of so many successions, those of Cambridge and York on the one hand, with those of Mortimer on the other: Which last inheritance had before been augmented by an union of the estates of Clarence and Ulster, with the patrimonial possessions of the family of Marche. The alliances too of Richard, by his marrying the daughter of Ralph Nevil, earl 0 Stowe, p. 387. Claim of the duke of York to the crown. HistEngVii_401-450.indd 28 5/27/11 3:09 PM The earl of Warwzc . HISTORY OF ENGLAND of Westmoreland, had widely extended his interest among the nobility, and had procured him many connexions in that formidable order. The family of Nevil was perhaps at this time the most potent, both from their opulent possessions and from the characters of the men, that has ever appeared in England. For besides the earl of Westmoreland, and the lords Latimer, Fauconberg, and Abergavenny ; the earls of Salisbury and Warwic were of that family, and were of themselves, on many accounts, the greatest noblemen in the kingdom. The earl of Salisbury, brother-in-law to the duke of York, was the eldest son by...