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Just as it looked like the end was near for Henry and Margaret, fortune’s wheel turned their way in 1464. First, their former ally Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, defected from Edward’s side and rejoined the Lancastrian cause, reuniting with Margaret’s court at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland. Secondly, Lancastrian loyalists began flocking to Bamburgh to join the royal army which gave them leverage to reopen negotiations for assistance with Burgundy and France. Third, common support for King Edward had begun to sour and civil unrest broke out in many counties across England over excessive taxation and the new martial state in which they lived.1 There was also a huge frustration among the people of England over Edward’s tendency to cry out for financial assistance whenever there was a threat but then rarely follow through with campaigning after getting the money. For example, in June 1463 Edward requested £37,000 from parliament to fight against Scotland but he took no action after receiving the money.2 In February 1464, he postponed parliament until May and during March 1464 he was ‘making rather leisurely preparations to go north in person’.3
With the Lancastrian cause gaining momentum in the north, Edward finally decided it was time for him to take some sort of decisive action to put down the resistance. On 27 March 1464, Edward made a public proclamation that he would lead an army north to confront the Lancastrian rebels and put them down once and for all.4 As he was building up troops in preparation to leave London, his ally John Neville, Lord Montagu, who was already on his way north, had an unexpected skirmish with the queen’s army. He was travelling north to Scotland where he would pick up Scottish envoys and escort them across the English border and into York to negotiate an Anglo-Scottish peace treaty. On his way, Montagu’s army was ambushed by a small Lancastrian force but managed to escape and make it to Newcastle where he could get reinforcements for his trip.
From Newcastle, Lord Montagu continued north towards Scotland, this time with a much larger army, and was again set upon by the Lancastrians, this time at Hedgeley Moor in Northumberland. The newly defected Duke of Somerset, Henry Beaufort, led the Lancastrian army that blocked Montagu’s path north, forcing him into a confrontation. Few details survive from the battle but we do know the Lancastrians had about 5,000 men in their army, easily outnumbering Montagu’s Yorkist forces.5 Very early into the battle Ralph Percy, one of the leaders of Northumberland and a loyal Lancastrian, was cut down on the battlefield. This was a monumental loss, so much so that a number of Lancastrian soldiers began fleeing the battlefield. Now that he was outnumbered, Somerset withdrew his troops to Alnwick Castle to regroup, and the Yorkists claimed another victory over the Lancastrian rebels.
The Lancastrians may have been defeated temporarily but they did not intend to back down. They decided that they needed something to keep their momentum going, some small win against the Yorkists before King Edward arrived with the bulk of the royal army, which they expected at any time. Upon receiving news in early May that Edward’s army was heading north, the Lancastrians marched south, hoping to attract more supporters to their cause. They were also looking for an opportunity to catch Montagu off-guard as he travelled home from Scotland so they could redeem themselves by cutting down his army. The Lancastrians arrived at Hexham in Northumberland on 14 May 1464 and made camp. Unbeknownst to them, Lord Montagu was very nearby with his army. The next morning Montagu’s army launched a surprise attack on the clueless Lancastrians which caused them to break rank and flee. The ones who remained were quickly overtaken. Somerset was executed by the Yorkists as were Lords Roos and Hungerford. By 19 July, more than two dozen other Lancastrian leaders were executed.6
The Yorkists nearly caught King Henry at Bywell Castle but he managed to escape just before they arrived. Henry was able to live on the run for over a year, continually moving between friendly allies who took turns hiding him. The Yorkists finally caught him on 13 July 1465 near Ribblesdale, Lancashire. He was bound up and taken to London where Warwick promptly arrested him in the name of King Edward and imprisoned him in the Tower of London. Warwick ordered that he be treated with proper respect due to his position and gave Henry a clothing allowance plus a number of servants to attend to his daily needs.7 Henry would spend the next five years in Yorkists’ captivity.
After Hexham, the Yorkists then successfully won back the castles of Alnwick and Dunstanburgh when the inhabitants swiftly surrendered. Bamburgh Castle initially held out against a Yorkist takeover but after cannon fire started crumbling walls, they gave up and handed over possession of the castle to the Yorkists. Margaret and Prince Edward fled England and sought exile in France. They would remain in France for several years at the graciousness of her father, Rene, king of Naples, who supported her and her court of around fifty loyal Lancastrians.8 It seemed as if the Lancastrian resistance was over but Margaret was not yet ready to give up. Although she had lost her husband the king, her son Prince Edward was nearing his teenage years and would soon be ready to take the helm of the Lancastrian cause.
With the Lancastrians definitively chased out of England and their leading magnates either executed or imprisoned, the Yorkist position in the summer of 1464 was the strongest it had ever been. King Edward IV was a force to be reckoned with and international channels opened up to him. He was well-positioned to restore honour and dignity to the monarchy of England. One of the best ways to do this in medieval Europe was by landing an advantageous foreign marriage. Edward had already turned down a marriage proposal from the king of Castile to his daughter Isabella, who would go on to become the queen of Castille and the mother of Catherine of Aragon. More recently, Warwick had negotiated a prestigious French marriage with Bona of Savoy, the sister-in-law of King Louis XII of France.9 Warwick favoured the French match because it had the added bonus of securing peace between the two nations who had just recently come out of the epic Hundred Years’ War.
Despite Warwick’s labours, the impetuous young Edward made a decision that would ultimately lead to a fracture in their relationship which caused Warwick to rebel against the man he had helped place on the throne. On 30 April 1464 as Edward travelled through Stony Stratford he stopped at Grafton Regis, a manor house belonging to the Woodville family.10 There he happened upon a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Woodville and instantly fell in love. Elizabeth was not only an unsuitable match because she was just a minor noble, but she was also five years his senior, had been previously married, was the mother of two sons, and her family was loyal to King Henry, even fighting against Edward in the most recent battles. Despite the terrible match, Edward’s passion got the best of him and he threw caution to the wind. He returned to Grafton Regis on the morning of 1 May 1464 and married Elizabeth Woodville in a secret ceremony with few witnesses.
Edward made a monumental mistake with the marriage and it would ultimately be his undoing. Edward knew full well that his marriage to Elizabeth would be controversial, so he determined to keep it secret for as long as possible. It was not until a Great Council meeting at Reading Abbey on 28 September 1464 that he was forced to reveal his secret. When his councillors pressed him for a decision on the French marriage with Bona of Savoy, Edward finally admitted that he was already married.11 Everyone was completely shocked but especially jolted was Warwick. To him, keeping this marriage a secret for over four months while he laboured on Edward’s behalf for a French marriage was humiliating.
Edward’s secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was just the latest in a string of disappointments for Warwick. He had put a lot of time and energy into building a relationship with France, despite Edward’s preference for building an alliance with France’s rival Burgundy. Warwick also had a difficult time standing by and watching the new queen’s family welcomed so heartily to court, overshadowing his own prestigious Neville family. Elizabeth Woodville’s family was huge: five brothers and seven sisters. King Edward would arrange for each Woodville sibling an advantageous marriage to the most eligible noblemen and women in all of England.12 He freely gave them lands and titles confiscated from the Lancastrians, honours that Warwick felt should have been granted to him. After all, without Warwick, Edward would not have been able to win the crown of England for the House of York. Warwick was becoming inpatient with Edward and worried about his growing independence. Whereas Edward used to rely on Warwick’s guidance and opinions, he now sought the council of his Woodville relatives. The Herberts of Wales had also taken a strong position in Edward’s court which further pushed Warwick out of Edward’s inner circle.
Warwick was also aggrieved at Edward’s hesitance to approve marriages for his two daughters who were at a marriageable age. The problem was the lack of eligible bachelors since the Woodville sisters had all been married off to Edward’s noblemen. In Warwick’s mind, there were only two eligible bachelors good enough for his daughters: Edward’s two brothers and heirs to his throne, George and Richard. If Warwick couldn’t be king himself, he would try to put his daughters in a position where they might be queen one day.
Marriages of this magnitude could not be done without the king’s blessing but when Warwick asked Edward for permission, he was denied. So in the fall of 1467, Warwick went behind Edward’s back and requested papal dispensation for the marriage of his daughter Isabel to Edward’s brother George.13 Edward found out about Warwick’s manouevre and was able to send his own letters to the pope decrying the marriage which resulted in the pope refusing the dispensation. In January 1468, King Edward summoned Warwick to explain himself, but Warwick refused to come to him. The two men spent the entirety of 1468 in a power struggle, neither refusing to bend to the others’ will. Warwick was exacerbated at Edward’s choice to ally with Burgundy and Brittany to fight a joint war against France, but Edward really didn’t care what Warwick thought. He was being counseled by the Woodvilles now.
By February 1469, Warwick was actively plotting to overthrow Edward and replace him with his son-in-law, George, Duke of Clarence.14 Warwick began trouble by stoking little rebellions all around England. He even started a rumour that Edward was illegitimate and therefore his brother George was the rightful king of England. Warwick had plenty of support, especially in the north, and was directly involved in the April 1469 rising led by Robin of Redesdale. The uprising was very similar to Cade’s Rebellion under Henry VI’s reign. Robin of Redesdale issued a manifesto, probably penned by Warwick himself, which called on Edward to rid himself of his evil advisors, mainly the Woodvilles and the earl of Pembroke, William Herbert. The earl of Northumberland put down the first instance of the northern rebellion. In June 1469, another major rebellion exploded in the north forcing Edward to gather his army and set off north from London to deal with them personally. At this point Edward didn’t believe Warwick was behind the rebellions, despite the rumours going around, but all of that was about to change when Warwick finally showed his true colors.
While Edward was on the road with his army, Warwick slipped away to Calais with his daughter Isabel and Edward’s brother George. In open defiance of King Edward, Isabel and George were married on 11 July 1469 by the archbishop of York, George Neville, who conveniently was Warwick’s brother. The day following the wedding, Warwick issued a manifesto in favour of the rebels and against Edward’s deceitful and covetous councillors, an obvious jab at the Woodvilles.15 He invited all who would join his cause to muster at Canterbury 16 July for a march north to join Robin of Redesdale’s rebel army.
When Robin got word that Warwick was coming north to join them, he led his army south to join Warwick, but he didn’t anticipate the presence of rival armies in his immediate vicinity. William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, led his army to Nottingham to join up with Edward’s forces and even though Herbert’s army was twice the size of Robin’s, the emboldened rebel couldn’t resist the temptation to fight. On the morning of 26 July 1469, the two opposing sides lined up into battle position. Robin and the rebel army attacked Pembroke’s army of Welshmen twice, but no ground was made by either side. Pembroke’s army got a boost in morale when the earl of Devon appeared with his army to join them in battle and for a time they had the upper hand over Robin’s army. But then Robin’s fortunes improved once again when Warwick arrived on the scene with his army. We do not know the size of Warwick’s army but it must have been intimidating because Pembroke’s army immediately broke ranks and fled the battlefield. The casualties for both sides were significant. Over 2,000 men from Pembroke and Devon lay dead on the battlefield.16 Pembroke and his brother were taken prisoner and later executed on Warwick’s orders. Robin of Redesdale was killed during the battle.
Edward had been travelling with his army to meet up with Pembroke and Devon when he received news of the devastating Yorkist loss at the Battle of Edgecote. Disheartened, his army broke rank and abandoned him. With only a few men still with Edward, Warwick knew that now was the perfect time to strike. But there was no fighting or bloodshed. Warwick’s brother, the archbishop of York, intercepted King Edward and requested that he go with him to Coventry to be taken under the earl of Warwick’s protection. With little other choice, Edward allowed himself to be taken into Warwick’s custody.17
Although Edward was technically Warwick’s prisoner, he wasn’t locked up in a dungeon or mistreated in any way. He was well kept and maintained, first at Warwick Castle and then further north at Middleham Castle. With news spreading about the king’s captivity, law and order started to break down all over the kingdom. Not only were crimes becoming more prevalent across many towns and villages, so too were mini-rebellions. Cropping up at all ends of the kingdom, people were protesting Warwick’s capture of Edward and the disintegration of the king’s authority across the land. There were even Lancastrian-inspired uprisings taking place on the border of Scotland. Warwick’s resources were spread too thin to respond to all the uprisings and he realised he had no choice but to release Edward or be overthrown himself.18
Edward was allowed to leave Middleham Castle in August 1469, only one month after his capture. He quickly regained control of his kingdom and things went back to normal except for his relationship with Warwick. Edward could not rid himself completely of Warwick because he played an important role in government and provided much needed support in the north. Warwick was the richest land magnate in all the realm having inherited the earldom of Salisbury from his father and the earldom of Warwick through his wife Anne Beauchamp. He had vast swaths of land and would have thousands of men at his disposal if he were to issue a call to arms. Therefore, Edward decided to tread lightly around his cousin. The king asserted his independence from Warwick, yet he was careful not to say anything that could inflame Warwick’s ire. In December 1469, Edward staged a public reconciliation at Westminster with Warwick and Clarence which included a feast of peace and forgiveness. Although Edward believed them to be reconciled, Warwick and George were secretly working against him.19
In March 1470, a new set of uprisings cropped up in the north. As Edward’s army left London and headed north, Warwick and Clarence mustered their armies as well. They wrote to Edward pledging support but secretly they were planning to ambush him.20 Warwick’s ally, Lord Welles, marched his army to Leicester to rendezvous with Warwick but Edward’s army met them at Stamford and cut them off before they could reach Leicester. Although Edward had been suspicious of Warwick and Clarence’s activities, he had no idea they were planning to join Welles’ rebel army until he saw Welles’ soldiers wearing the livery of Warwick and Clarence. Edward led his army in an attack and before long, the rebel army broke ranks and fled the battlefield. Many stripped off their uniforms as they ran, as if to erase their affiliation with Warwick and Clarence, hence the name ‘Lose Coat’ in this aptly named Battle of Losecote Field.21 In one of the coats, letters from Welles to Warwick were found, confirming the king’s suspicion that they were indeed plotting against him. Lord Welles was beheaded on the battlefield.
After the battle, Edward summoned Warwick and Clarence to come to him at Stamford but to only bring a small retinue of men. Warwick wrote back agreeing to Edward’s demands but instead of following the king’s orders, he sent orders for his northern supporters to muster their armies and join up with him in Rotherham. The king had received word of Warwick’s movements and issued a proclamation giving Warwick and Clarence five days to turn themselves in or else they would suffer a traitor’s death which usually involved hanging, drawing, quartering, and beheading. Still Warwick refused to obey Edward.