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The First Reign of Edward IV

Now that Edward had been officially enthroned as Edward IV, King of England, his first priority was to secure his rule by putting down the army of the deposed King Henry VI. If Edward didn’t put an end to the Lancastrian power, he would never be able to find any safety in his reign. Luckily, he would not have to do it alone as he had many capable Yorkist allies with huge numbers of men and resources at their disposal. Together in London they planned their strategy. They would each leave London separately and retreat to their power bases to recruit more men for their army and gather the needed weapons and resources for their next battle.

The duke of Norfolk was the first of Edward’s allies to leave London. On 5 March 1461, he left the city for East Anglia where he would gather his full army. Two days later, Warwick left London for his home base in the Midlands where he would raise his banner calling men to arms. On 11 March Lord Fauconberg departed London with a large force and finally on 13 March Edward left London with the main body of the Yorkist army, now technically the king’s army.

The disparate Yorkists armies met up and joined forces at Pontefract Castle on 27 March 1461, except for Norfolk who was running late. Their intelligence informed them that the Lancastrian army was only twenty kilometres away on the opposite side of the River Aire near the village of Towton. Warwick led a small force to try to infiltrate the enemy, making a river crossing at Ferrybridge where the Lancastrians were standing guard. At first, Warwick was successful in pushing back the Lancastrians and he even gained a little ground. But as his army slept that night, a large force of Lancastrians, including Warwick’s own great-uncle Sir John Neville, launched an ambush. Warwick’s army was completely taken by surprise and they quickly fled to avoid the slaughter. Edward rushed to the scene with the royal army and was able to push the Lancastrians back. That evening Edward was able to get his men through the river crossing. They encamped near Towton only a couple of kilometres away from the Lancastrian army and prepared to do battle the following day.

On the morning of 29 March 1461, the two armies donned their armor and lined up into position for the Battle of Towton, the bloodiest battle of the Wars of the Roses.¹ The duke of Somerset led the Lancastrian army of 60,000 men including most of England’s surviving nobles and around sixty knights. The Yorkists had 48,000 men and much fewer men of rank on their side.² The Yorkist lines were commanded by King Edward, Warwick, and Lord Fauconberg. The Lancastrian army’s lines were led by Sir Andrew Trollope, the earl of Northumberland, Lord Dacre, and the dukes of Exeter and Somerset. This was by far the largest battle of the Wars of the Roses so far in terms of the sheer number of soldiers in each side’s army. Towton was no minor skirmish; it initiated a full-scale civil war and each side had fully prepared themselves for what they believed would be a decisive battle to end the conflict once and for all.

The weather that morning was terribly cold and windy. To add to the misery, it began snowing just as they were lining up for battle. Lord Fauconberg, the leader of Edward’s front line, noticed that the wind had shifted and was now blowing into the faces of the Lancastrian army, making it very difficult for them to see. Fauconberg had the idea to unleash their archers immediately so that the Lancastrians would quite literally be blind-sided. As the Yorkist arrows rained down, the Lancastrian archers fired back but the harsh wind stopped their arrows just short of the Yorkist army. Seeing that his forces were being overwhelmed by arrows, Somerset ordered his line forward for hand-to-hand combat. The fighting was fierce and soon the entirety of both armies were involved in the melee. So many dead bodies lay on the field that fighting had to be paused a few times to clear out the corpses.³

After many hours of hand-to-hand fighting, the Lancastrians slowly gained an edge over the Yorkists. Then the Lancastrians unleashed what they intended to be their death-blow: they had hidden a secret force of men at Castle Hill Wood and now that group descended on the already weakened Yorkists. Edward’s army was pushed all the way back to their camp and on the verge of collapse when the belated Norfolk finally arrived with a large force of fresh soldiers.⁴ Norfolk was an absolute god send and it was his arrival that saved the battle for the Yorkists. Within an hour, the Yorkists forced the Lancastrians into a full retreat. So many Lancastrians were killed fleeing across the river, it was said the bodies formed a bridge.⁵

Henry, Margaret, Prince Edward, Somerset, Exeter, Lord Roos, and Sir John Fortescue fled to the safety of Scotland. Many of their nobles weren’t so lucky. Among the Lancastrian nobles who lost their lives that day included the earl of Northumberland, the duke of Buckingham, Sir Andrew Trollope, and Lord Dacre. More than forty-two of their knights were executed. In all, more than 28,000 men died in the Battle of Towton the single largest loss of life ever to occur on English soil.⁶

After the victory at Towton, Edward rode north to York and ordered the removal of the heads of his father, brother, and uncle from Micklegate Bar, and gave them all a proper burial. With his family laid to rest Edward then rode to London and made his official entry into the city on 26 June 1461. Now that the Lancastrians had been chased out of England, Edward could have the big, grand coronation that he skipped three months earlier. Following the long-held royal tradition, Edward inducted thirty-two new Knights of the Bath, including his two brothers George and Richard.⁷ Additionally, he raised his brothers up to the preeminent positions of English nobility by granting the dukedom of Clarence to George and the dukedom of Gloucester to Richard. The two brothers’ stars were rapidly rising thanks to their older brother’s powerful new position. George was especially prideful because he was now next in line to the throne until such time as Edward married and had children.

The next three years gave way to many Lancastrian-inspired revolts from both Scotland and Wales. Queen Margaret and her army of English, Scottish, and French soldiers spent most of these years encamped in Scotland where they received financial and military support from King James II and his queen Mary of Guelders.⁸ From Scotland, Queen Margaret could menace Edward with continual border raids into English territory.

The first border raid occurred in May 1461 when Margaret of Anjou’s army crossed over from Scotland and attacked the English town of Carlisle. When the citizens refused to cede their town, Margaret laid siege to the castle. Warwick soon received news of Margaret’s siege on Carlisle and sent Lord Montagu to chase the Lancastrian army back across the Scottish border, which he did with little trouble.

One month later, Margaret’s army made another border crossing into England. This time her plan was to recruit as many supporters to her cause as possible before attempting another attack on an English town. She believed she would find many English volunteers to join her army but she was unpleasantly surprised that so few men were willing to join old king Henry. The city of York had pledged their allegiance to the new king, Edward IV, and they weren’t about to anger him. After the plan to expand her army in England failed, she then received alarming news that Warwick was headed her way with his large army in tow. Seeing no other choice, Margaret fled with her army back to Scotland again.

With his allies doing a good job keeping Margaret at bay in Scotland, Edward IV turned his attention to troublesome Wales, a thorn in his side and another hotspot for Lancastrian rebels. On 8 July 1461, he commissioned William Herbert and Sir Walter Devereaux to raise troops and make preparations to subdue the rebels in Wales. Two weeks later he raised William Herbert to the peerage, probably meant to replace Jasper Tudor as his most powerful representative in Wales. With business in Wales delegated to his trusty men, Edward went on royal progress, lodging at Ludlow Castle from August to November 1461.⁹

Herbert and his men attacked Pembroke Castle in southern Wales and it easily fell to them on 30 September 1461. By taking the castle, Herbert had become the de facto earl of Pembroke, ousting Jasper Tudor who had escaped and was now on the run. Herbert also took over Jasper’s wardships, including that of 4-year-old Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, the only son of the wealthy Lancastrian heiress Margaret Beaufort. Henry Tudor inherited the earldom of Richmond from his father Edmund Tudor, half-brother of King Henry VI, and he stood to gain his mother’s huge inheritance one day, making him one of the most valuable wards in all of England. Having the wardship of Henry was a huge boon for Herbert and he would use it to his best advantage. Although he did have to pay £1,000 for the privilege of Henry Tudor’s wardship, he did plan to eventually marry Henry to his daughter Maud, which would elevate Herbert’s family even more.¹⁰

After the fall of Pembroke Castle, Herbert led his army into northern Wales in pursuit of Jasper Tudor who was thought to be hiding in the mountains of Snowdon with Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, and a small army. Herbert’s army caught up to Jasper and their two armies faced off on 16 October 1461 at Twt Hill in Caernarvon. It was a decisive win for Herbert and his Yorkist army. Luckily though, Jasper managed to escape once again and together with the duke of Exeter he sailed to Scotland to join up with Margaret and Henry in what little was left of the Lancastrian court. Jasper had now lost his nephew, his lands, and his titles with the Yorkist takeover but that only strengthened his resolve to restore his half-brother King Henry, and thus himself and his nephew Henry Tudor.

Meanwhile in Scotland, the Lancastrian leadership desperately searched for aid from foreign sovereigns who might be friendly to their cause. In August 1461 they sent an envoy to meet with King Charles VII of France whom they were confident would provide aid but during the envoy’s journey to France, King Charles died suddenly from an infection. Charles was succeeded by Louis XI who was quite hostile towards the Lancastrians. He persuaded Mary of Guelders to pull back on the manpower and financial support she had been giving to Margaret and her Lancastrian followers. But Margaret found support elsewhere and even plotted a gigantic multi-national invasion of England with the help of Denmark, Burgundy, Aragon, Castile, Portugal, and Navarre. Together they would have had over 100,000 soldiers in their armies but the plot was foiled in February 1462 when communications from Margaret to one of her co-conspirators was intercepted by Edward’s men.¹¹

With several failed attempts now under their belts, Scotland finally withdrew their support from the Lancastrians and signed a peace treaty with the Yorkists. With little other choice, Margaret, her son Edward, Jasper Tudor, and a small entourage of loyal Lancastrians left Scotland in June 1462 and sailed to France to plead for Louis’ help. King Henry VI stayed back in Scotland. This was Margaret’s first return to her homeland since becoming queen of England seventeen years earlier. She was heartily welcomed and did indeed find support from her relatives but at a huge cost. King Louis agreed to assist her with an invasion of England but in return she would have to cede Calais.¹² Calais was a hugely important port town in France that the English had managed to hold beginning in 1347 all through the Hundred Years’ War. Louis was eager to possess Calais and was willing to aid the Lancastrian rebels in order to get it. This agreement was sealed in the Treaty of Tours on 28 June 1462.

Margaret and her Lancastrian entourage spent much of the summer of 1462 in France preparing their fleet of forty ships and 2,000 French soldiers.¹³ On 25 October 1462, Margaret invaded Northumberland, taking control of Bamburgh Castle, followed by Dunstanburgh, and then Alnwick Castle. Their progress was halted however, by the arrival of King Edward’s forces who numbered around 7,000 and were commanded by Warwick.¹⁴ Edward himself was sidelined with a case of the measles so he trusted his cousin to lead the royal army against the Lancastrian rebels. Warwick split up his forces into three separate armies and each laid siege to the castles under Margaret’s control. The Lancastrian garrisons were not prepared for a prolonged siege and quickly ran out of supplies. Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh surrendered to the Yorkists on Christmas Eve 1462. Alnwick Castle finally surrendered to the Yorkists on 5 January 1463. One of Margaret’s biggest supporters, Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, defected from the Lancastrians and pledged fealty to King Edward IV. Edward flaunted his newfound Lancastrian defector around court and brought him into his close circle of trusted allies.

Despite losing their English castles and one of their leaders, Margaret and her Lancastrian supporters would not be deterred. After fleeing Bamburgh for Scotland, Margaret regrouped and launched another round of English border raids in the spring of 1463. This time her raids were successful in capturing Bamburgh Castle, Dunstanburgh Castle, and Alnwick Castle in northeastern England. Bolstered by these small wins, Margaret plotted an even bigger move.

In June 1463, Margaret and King James of Scotland led a full-scale invasion force into England and laid siege to Norham Castle. King Edward dispatched Warwick and Montagu to deal with what he assumed was another small-scale raid but this time it was different. In fact, when Warwick arrived, he was so taken aback at the huge Lancastrian force that he immediately sent word to Edward to send reinforcements to him. Edward himself led his men north to join Warwick but was delayed in Northampton. Warwick and Montagu proceeded without him, managing to sneak up to Norham undetected. The Lancastrian army, surprised and panicked, quickly fled back to Scotland, as did Margaret and Prince Edward who made it to Berwick Castle after a perilous journey, but suddenly found they were unwelcome visitors. Margaret had promised to cede several English border counties to Scotland in exchange for their support but without regaining the rule of England, she had no way to fulfill her promises.¹⁵ Again, with seemingly no other choice, Margaret and Prince Edward sailed to France to ask for Louis’ help once again. She left King Henry behind in England. They would never see each other alive again.

The penniless Margaret took her small Lancastrian retinue first to Burgundy to ask for Duke Philip’s help but he only gave her a small amount of money and then sent her on her way. Dejected, Margaret led her entourage to her father’s lands of Anjou where she would beg for his mercy. Meanwhile, King Edward worked with foreign Lancastrian supporters to end their aid to Margaret once and for all. On 8 October 1463, Edward signed a peace treaty with King Louis XI of France in which Louis agreed to give no further aid to the Lancastrians. On 3 December 1463, Edward signed a similar agreement with Scotland. Margaret’s former allies had now abandoned her. The Lancastrian cause looked as bleak as ever.