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Authors: Desmond Seward
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Thomas Malory,
Morte d’Arthur
‘
The getting of the garland, keeping it, losing and winning again, cost more English blood than has twice the winning of France
.’
Sir Thomas More,
The History of King Richard the Third
The ‘re-adeption’ or ‘second reign’ of poor Henry VI now began. He was released from imprisonment in the Tower of London, where he had spent five years. Still ‘not so cleanly kept as should seem such a Prince’, he was moved to the adjoining palace to receive the homage of the Earl of Warwick, who, having unmade him a King, now made him a King again. Then, hastily smartened up and put into a blue velvet robe, he was paraded through the streets to St Paul’s to give thanks – the Earl carried his train in the cathedral, a scene not without irony. Eventually Henry was installed in his Palace of Westminster as though there had never been a Yorkist interregnum. There were a limited number of reprisals; the impaler Tiptoft was beheaded and several particularly hard-line Yorkist lords were imprisoned. Queen Elizabeth Woodville found sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, where after a few weeks she gave birth to her first son by her second marriage, the future Edward V.
The Yorkist cause appeared lost. Edward and Richard’s little flotilla, after escaping from pirates only with difficulty, managed to land on the coast of Holland near Alkmaar. Commynes, who actually spoke to men who had seen them, says, ‘There never was such a beggarlycompany.’ Edward had no money and gave his ship’s master ‘a robe lined with fine marten’s fur, promising to reward him better in the future’. Luckily the Governor of Holland, Louis de Gruthuyse, was well disposed and paid for them to go to The Hague. Even so, Duke Charles (who by now had succeeded Philip the Good) was most unhappy at having these embarrassing refugees in his territory. He ‘would rather the King had been dead’.
But Warwick’s regime was extremely vulnerable. It had few rewards to offer its supporters, as it could not afford to antagonize too many people by a general redistribution of estates and offices, while Lancastrian exiles and moderate Yorkists found it hard to trust one another. Dependence on Louis XI was a serious handicap, since the English detested the idea of any alliance with France. Nevertheless, Louis forced Warwick to join him against Burgundy and to declare war on Duke Charles in February 1471. A nobleman first and foremost, and one of those who despised merchants, Warwick simply could not see that this meant the loss of England’s chief markets in the Low Countries. It was a mistake which Edward would never have made.
As so often the French King had been too clever by half. The Duke of Burgundy now had no option but to support the Yorkists – the new Anglo-French alliance was too dangerous for him to do anything else. 1 Edward and his brother were summoned to the Burgundian court where Charles gave them a large sum of money ‘to assist his return’. It amounted to 50,000 Burgundian florins, roughly £8,000 in English gold of the period. He also hired three or four large ships for him, together with fourteen well-armed Hanseatic vessels. Presumably Richard now became extremely busy organizing the expedition. However, we know that he was at Lille in February 1471, with his sister Margaret. It is possible that here he met William Caxton, an English merchant and the future father of English printing, who had recently joined the Duchess’s household.
Edward hoped to sail on 2 March, but it was still winter and the North Sea was stormy, a terrifying prospect for the little boats of the period. By 11 March the weather abated and the King’s expedition sailed out from Flushing. He made land in Norfolk the following morning, but, after a scouting party had been attacked, sailed on toRavenspur in Yorkshire, a small and long since vanished port at the very mouth of the River Humber, where he disembarked on 14 March in the
Morte d’Arthur
‘
The getting of the garland, keeping it, losing and winning again, cost more English blood than has twice the winning of France
.’
Sir Thomas More,
The History of King Richard the Third
The ‘re-adeption’ or ‘second reign’ of poor Henry VI now began. He was released from imprisonment in the Tower of London, where he had spent five years. Still ‘not so cleanly kept as should seem such a Prince’, he was moved to the adjoining palace to receive the homage of the Earl of Warwick, who, having unmade him a King, now made him a King again. Then, hastily smartened up and put into a blue velvet robe, he was paraded through the streets to St Paul’s to give thanks – the Earl carried his train in the cathedral, a scene not without irony. Eventually Henry was installed in his Palace of Westminster as though there had never been a Yorkist interregnum. There were a limited number of reprisals; the impaler Tiptoft was beheaded and several particularly hard-line Yorkist lords were imprisoned. Queen Elizabeth Woodville found sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, where after a few weeks she gave birth to her first son by her second marriage, the future Edward V.
The Yorkist cause appeared lost. Edward and Richard’s little flotilla, after escaping from pirates only with difficulty, managed to land on the coast of Holland near Alkmaar. Commynes, who actually spoke to men who had seen them, says, ‘There never was such a beggarlycompany.’ Edward had no money and gave his ship’s master ‘a robe lined with fine marten’s fur, promising to reward him better in the future’. Luckily the Governor of Holland, Louis de Gruthuyse, was well disposed and paid for them to go to The Hague. Even so, Duke Charles (who by now had succeeded Philip the Good) was most unhappy at having these embarrassing refugees in his territory. He ‘would rather the King had been dead’.
But Warwick’s regime was extremely vulnerable. It had few rewards to offer its supporters, as it could not afford to antagonize too many people by a general redistribution of estates and offices, while Lancastrian exiles and moderate Yorkists found it hard to trust one another. Dependence on Louis XI was a serious handicap, since the English detested the idea of any alliance with France. Nevertheless, Louis forced Warwick to join him against Burgundy and to declare war on Duke Charles in February 1471. A nobleman first and foremost, and one of those who despised merchants, Warwick simply could not see that this meant the loss of England’s chief markets in the Low Countries. It was a mistake which Edward would never have made.
As so often the French King had been too clever by half. The Duke of Burgundy now had no option but to support the Yorkists – the new Anglo-French alliance was too dangerous for him to do anything else. 1 Edward and his brother were summoned to the Burgundian court where Charles gave them a large sum of money ‘to assist his return’. It amounted to 50,000 Burgundian florins, roughly £8,000 in English gold of the period. He also hired three or four large ships for him, together with fourteen well-armed Hanseatic vessels. Presumably Richard now became extremely busy organizing the expedition. However, we know that he was at Lille in February 1471, with his sister Margaret. It is possible that here he met William Caxton, an English merchant and the future father of English printing, who had recently joined the Duchess’s household.
Edward hoped to sail on 2 March, but it was still winter and the North Sea was stormy, a terrifying prospect for the little boats of the period. By 11 March the weather abated and the King’s expedition sailed out from Flushing. He made land in Norfolk the following morning, but, after a scouting party had been attacked, sailed on toRavenspur in Yorkshire, a small and long since vanished port at the very mouth of the River Humber, where he disembarked on 14 March in the
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