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Was Edward IV a Usurper?

Much of this chapter focused on Edward’s father Richard, Duke of York and with good reason. If not for Richard’s efforts, Edward would have never been in a position to be king. So, to answer the question of whether Edward was a usurper, we also have to pass judgement on his father’s actions.

Richard was the leading land magnate in England during the reign of Henry VI which made him a very rich and powerful man. He had royal blood on his paternal and maternal sides of the family: both his mother and father could trace their descent to King Edward III. His father was the son of Edmund of Langley, King Edward III’s fourth surviving son, making Richard the great-grandson of Edward III. Richard’s mother, Anne Mortimer, was the great-granddaughter of Lionel of Antwerp, Edward III’s second surviving son.¹ By contrast, King Henry VI could only claim English royal blood through his father, not his French mother, Catherine de Valois. Technically, Richard of York had more English royal blood in his veins than Henry VI, which gave him a very valid claim to the throne. Richard knew it, Henry knew it, and the people of England knew it too.

Richard tried repeatedly to gain his rightful spot in Henry’s government as next in line to the throne. During Henry’s bouts of madness, Richard served as the protector of England twice. Despite the inroads he made during his protectorates, Henry’s councillors always found a way to push him out of Henry’s court. When Richard died at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1461, his eldest son Edward picked up where he left off and continued the Wars of the Roses against King Henry VI.

In March 1461, the citizens of London, exhausted by years of conflict, welcomed Edward with open arms and accepted him as their new king. It’s not hard to see why. He was the polar opposite of King Henry VI. Not only was Edward young, handsome, and charismatic, but more importantly he had demonstrated his skill and prowess on the battlefield. After too many years of tumult, the people of England believed Edward had the aptitude and the ambition to protect them and lead their kingdom. Although he had some years of peace during his two reigns, he was continually faced with rebellions, both from his enemies and his own family members. As the years went on, these troubles took a toll on Edward. He became complacent about running his government and turned to pleasures of the flesh. Multiple chroniclers wrote about his insatiable lust for women and his multiple mistresses.² He became gluttonous in his later years and gained a great deal of weight. He was even said to take emetics so that he could continue gorging himself with food. There is no doubt his licentious and lustful lifestyle contributed to his death at an early age.³

Edward’s first reign as king of England began in 1461 after the Battles of Mortimer’s Cross, the Second St Albans, and Towton where his army succeeded in killing a large number of Lancastrian knights fighting for Henry VI. In 1470, Edward went into exile in Burgundy after Warwick’s invasion, then Edward won back the throne by defeating Warwick’s army at the Battle of Barnet, followed by the destruction of Queen Margaret’s army at the Battle of Tewkesbury. He returned to London and served as king of England until his death in 1483. Was Edward IV the rightful king of Edward or was he a usurper?

As we saw in Part III, Henry of Bolingbroke deposed his cousin King Richard II, yet we judged Henry innocent of the title usurper because he gained the throne by legal means and without any physical violence. Edward, on the other hand, as well as his father, Richard of York, did invoke physical violence against the sitting king of England on multiple occasions which was especially treasonous since Richard and then Edward were next in line to the throne and should have been assisting the king to keep the peace.

Both Richard and Edward were ambitious and over-reaching, but especially Richard who dreamed of being king and was willing to do anything to achieve his goal. You don’t often hear of Edward IV being referred to as a usurper but the evidence proves otherwise. Despite the desire of English citizens to rid themselves of the inept King Henry VI, there were no legal movements to depose King Henry VI and Edward very clearly used violence, not once, but multiple times against the sitting king of England. With these facts well known, Edward clearly deserves to be considered a usurper of the crown.