25
Warwick had no plans to surrender to the man who sat upon the throne of England because of his help. Warwick ignored Edward’s summons and continued marching his army to Rotherham but when he arrived, he was very disappointed to see so few supporters there to join him. So he tried a different mustering point, moving his troops to Lancashire where he erroneously thought he had could count on support. Upon his arrival he found that none of the nobles there would help him either. Helplessly outnumbered by the king’s army, Warwick and Clarence fled to Dartmouth where they took a ship to France to hide in exile. They tried to land in Calais but the king had sent advanced word to the town to repel the two men. As Warwick sailed along the French coast looking for a safe place to land, his daughter Isabel, wife of Clarence, went into labour and her child was stillborn.1
Desperate, Warwick sent a message to his old friend King Louis XI and was granted political asylum in France. Louis was a staunch Lancastrian supporter and soon persuaded Warwick that he had a better chance of ruling England through old King Henry than through a strong, warrior king like Edward. Convincing Margaret of Anjou to join forces with Warwick was another thing as it took all of King Louis’ powers of persuasion to convince her to join in their plan. Louis, Warwick, and Margaret met at Angers on 22 July 1470 to seal their joint alliance against Edward. A few days later, Margaret’s son, Prince Edward, was betrothed to Warwick’s youngest daughter Anne. This move ensured Warwick that his daughter would be queen one day and he would be the grandfather of kings.
With Warwick in command of the Lancastrian invasion, he once again called on his northern supporters to launch uprisings to make King Edward leave London with his army and head north to deal with the rebellions. While Edward was distracted in the north, Warwick took his opportunity to issue a new proclamation calling on his fellow countrymen to help him rescue Henry VI from the Tower. Warwick and his new allies set sail from Calais on 8 September 1470 with a large fleet of sixty French ships. They landed at Exeter and then marched nearly 250 kilometres to Coventry, gaining members along the way until their ranks swelled to a reported 30,000 soldiers.2
When Edward received news of Warwick’s invasion, he immediately left York and headed south to intercept Warwick’s Lancastrian army. He stopped for the night at Doncaster and there he received the disastrous news that Lord Montagu had defected and joined the Lancastrians. Furthermore, Montagu’s army was quickly approaching Doncaster with orders to capture the king. In a panic, Edward and a small retinue fled the town and travelled to King’s Lynn where he procured three ships to take him and his party to Burgundy, arriving on 11 October 1470. Edward had long cultivated an alliance with Burgundy and could count on them for protection, especially since his own sister Duchess Margaret was married to Charles, the duke of Burgundy.
Meanwhile Warwick’s forces had overtaken London and gained possession of the Tower. King Henry was promptly rescued and moved back to his royal apartments at Westminster Palace. On 13 October 1470 Warwick staged a second coronation for King Henry VI at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. After the ceremony, Henry was taken back to his royal apartments while Warwick took over running the country.3 At the 26 November parliament, Warwick had Edward declared a usurper and revoked all the lands of titles of Edward’s allies. Warwick also had the line of succession legally established: after Henry VI, the throne would pass to George, Duke of Clarence, and the heirs of his body, followed by Edward’s other brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
While Warwick established his authority in London, Edward was in Burgundy planning his comeback. With the Burgundian assistance of ships, money, and 1,500 soldiers, Edward sailed home to England, landing 12 March 1471 at Ravenspur on the Norfolk coast. There he was met by his loyal brother Richard and the queen’s father, Richard Woodville, Earl Rivers. As they headed north to York, their numbers swelled as nobles and common men flocked to join Edward with the understanding that he was there to reclaim his duchy of York, not the throne of England.4
On 14 March 1471 messengers arrived in London reporting Edward’s invasion of England. Warwick gathered all the men he could and rode hard to Coventry where he planned to rendezvous with George’s troops. Unbeknownst to Warwick, George had reconciled with Edward and flipped back to his brother’s side. Fortune was seemingly on Edward’s side but then news came that Margaret and her army had just landed in England. Suddenly, it was a race to London to get control of the city before Margaret could arrive and sack it. Although Warwick was the de facto leader, London opened its gates to his enemy. Edward was hastily re-crowned king before it was time to muster men once again to deal with the impending arrival of Warwick’s army.
Edward left London on 13 April with an army of 9,000 men and marched them up the Great North Road to the town of Barnet where they camped for the night.5 Edward’s scouts reported that Warwick’s men were on the opposite side of the ridge so Edward launched a rare night attack in the thick fog which caused much confusion.6 Warwick’s men mistook each other for the enemy and unknowingly slayed each other, causing cries of treason to reverberate through his army until many abandoned the field. Warwick perceived the situation to be hopeless and fled but was captured and executed by Edward’s men. The Battle of Barnet was a decisive victory for Edward as he finally overpowered his one-time ally Warwick who had helped put him on the throne ten years prior.
Edward had little time to celebrate his victory over Warwick at the Battle of Barnet. Two days after the battle, Edward got news that Margaret and her army had landed in England. She was supposed to have joined Warwick’s offensive against Edward but bad weather had delayed her sailing from France and now she was suddenly without Warwick’s assistance. She turned her army towards Wales where she could count on protection from Jasper Tudor but now Edward’s army was in hot pursuit of her. After marching her army relentlessly for days, Margaret had to stop and rest at Tewkesbury on the evening of 3 May, where Edward caught up to her and the two sides prepared for battle.
In the early morning hours of 4 May 1471, the king’s brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, opened the Battle of Tewkesbury against Margaret’s army. King Edward had the advantage in numbers and position which served to quickly overwhelm Margaret’s army. As her soldiers fled from the battlefield, Edward’s men chased them down and put them to death, including Margaret’s own son, Prince Edward. Margaret hid in sanctuary at a local abbey for three days before she surrendered herself to the final victor in this battle, King Edward IV.
On 21 May 1471, Edward made a triumphant entry into London with his brothers and loyal nobles, as well as the former Queen Margaret whom he paraded in a carriage. That very night Henry VI died in the Tower. The official story from Edward’s government was that Henry died of natural causes. That’s a little too coincidental to be believable that Henry died the very day Edward regained control of the kingdom. Nevertheless, Edward was immediately re-crowned king of England and ruled his country with no further threats to his reign until his unexpected death in 1483. He did, however, have to deal with lots of trouble from his greedy brother George as well as the few remaining Lancastrians who were now hiding in Brittany, France.