第91章 ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FOURTH(2)

A reconciliation,though not a very sincere one,was patched up between the Earl of Warwick and the King,and lasted until the Earl married his daughter,against the King's wishes,to the Duke of Clarence.While the marriage was being celebrated at Calais,the people in the north of England,where the influence of the Nevil family was strongest,broke out into rebellion;their complaint was,that England was oppressed and plundered by the Woodville family,whom they demanded to have removed from power.As they were joined by great numbers of people,and as they openly declared that they were supported by the Earl of Warwick,the King did not know what to do.At last,as he wrote to the earl beseeching his aid,he and his new son-in-law came over to England,and began to arrange the business by shutting the King up in Middleham Castle in the safe keeping of the Archbishop of York;so England was not only in the strange position of having two kings at once,but they were both prisoners at the same time.

Even as yet,however,the King-Maker was so far true to the King,that he dispersed a new rising of the Lancastrians,took their leader prisoner,and brought him to the King,who ordered him to be immediately executed.He presently allowed the King to return to London,and there innumerable pledges of forgiveness and friendship were exchanged between them,and between the Nevils and the Woodvilles;the King's eldest daughter was promised in marriage to the heir of the Nevil family;and more friendly oaths were sworn,and more friendly promises made,than this book would hold.

They lasted about three months.At the end of that time,the Archbishop of York made a feast for the King,the Earl of Warwick,and the Duke of Clarence,at his house,the Moor,in Hertfordshire.

The King was washing his hands before supper,when some one whispered him that a body of a hundred men were lying in ambush outside the house.Whether this were true or untrue,the King took fright,mounted his horse,and rode through the dark night to Windsor Castle.Another reconciliation was patched up between him and the King-Maker,but it was a short one,and it was the last.A new rising took place in Lincolnshire,and the King marched to repress it.Having done so,he proclaimed that both the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of Clarence were traitors,who had secretly assisted it,and who had been prepared publicly to join it on the following day.In these dangerous circumstances they both took ship and sailed away to the French court.

And here a meeting took place between the Earl of Warwick and his old enemy,the Dowager Queen Margaret,through whom his father had had his head struck off,and to whom he had been a bitter foe.

But,now,when he said that he had done with the ungrateful and perfidious Edward of York,and that henceforth he devoted himself to the restoration of the House of Lancaster,either in the person of her husband or of her little son,she embraced him as if he had ever been her dearest friend.She did more than that;she married her son to his second daughter,the Lady Anne.However agreeable this marriage was to the new friends,it was very disagreeable to the Duke of Clarence,who perceived that his father-in-law,the King-Maker,would never make HIM King,now.So,being but a weak-minded young traitor,possessed of very little worth or sense,he readily listened to an artful court lady sent over for the purpose,and promised to turn traitor once more,and go over to his brother,King Edward,when a fitting opportunity should come.

The Earl of Warwick,knowing nothing of this,soon redeemed his promise to the Dowager Queen Margaret,by invading England and landing at Plymouth,where he instantly proclaimed King Henry,and summoned all Englishmen between the ages of sixteen and sixty,to join his banner.Then,with his army increasing as he marched along,he went northward,and came so near King Edward,who was in that part of the country,that Edward had to ride hard for it to the coast of Norfolk,and thence to get away in such ships as he could find,to Holland.Thereupon,the triumphant King-Maker and his false son-in-law,the Duke of Clarence,went to London,took the old King out of the Tower,and walked him in a great procession to Saint Paul's Cathedral with the crown upon his head.This did not improve the temper of the Duke of Clarence,who saw himself farther off from being King than ever;but he kept his secret,and said nothing.The Nevil family were restored to all their honours and glories,and the Woodvilles and the rest were disgraced.The King-Maker,less sanguinary than the King,shed no blood except that of the Earl of Worcester,who had been so cruel to the people as to have gained the title of the Butcher.Him they caught hidden in a tree,and him they tried and executed.No other death stained the King-Maker's triumph.

To dispute this triumph,back came King Edward again,next year,landing at Ravenspur,coming on to York,causing all his men to cry 'Long live King Henry!'and swearing on the altar,without a blush,that he came to lay no claim to the crown.Now was the time for the Duke of Clarence,who ordered his men to assume the White Rose,and declare for his brother.The Marquis of Montague,though the Earl of Warwick's brother,also declining to fight against King Edward,he went on successfully to London,where the Archbishop of York let him into the City,and where the people made great demonstrations in his favour.For this they had four reasons.

Firstly,there were great numbers of the King's adherents hiding in the City and ready to break out;secondly,the King owed them a great deal of money,which they could never hope to get if he were unsuccessful;thirdly,there was a young prince to inherit the crown;and fourthly,the King was gay and handsome,and more popular than a better man might have been with the City ladies.