Clarence and Warwick were sent against the rebels; but Edward, marching from a different quarter, reached them first, and defeated them at Erpingham in Rutlandshire (12th March 1470). The leaders who had not fallen in battle were sent to the block. The king now openly turned against his two lieutenants, who, it was reported, would have joined the insurgents on the following day. The "kingmaker" disbanded his forces and fled into Devonshire, whence, with his wife, daughter, and several other ladies, besides Clarence and a large number of friends, he sailed for Calais. On reaching this harbour, he found the guns pointed against his ships, and was compelled to land at Harfleur, where he was received with great cordiality and respect.

4. RESTORATION OF HENRY.-At the court of Louis XI., Warwick met the fallen Lancastrian Queen Margaret of Anjou and her son. It must have been a strange interview. The earl had accused the queen of an attempt to murder him, and knew that she had sent his old father, his friends, and associates, to the scaffold. Margaret had cursed the name of Warwick for fifteen long years of misfortune and humiliation, for through his means her husband was a prisoner, and she and her son were exiles, dependent on foreign bounty. A common interest now united them; the earl engaged to restore the Lancastrian line, and Prince Edward, Margaret's son, married the Lady Anne, Warwick's second daughter. In case there should be no male issue from this marriage, the crown was to devolve on Edward's brother.

Clarence, who by this arrangement saw another claimant interposed between himself and the throne, determined to desert the Lancastrian cause at the first favourable opportunity. Meanwhile, the strangest want of foresight marked all King Edward's movements, although his brother-in-law, Charles the Rash, duke of Burgundy, repeatedly warned him to put his kingdom in a posture of defence, and even informed him of the port at which Warwick intended to land. On the 13th Sept. 1470, the earl debarked on the coast of Devonshire, and in five or six days the whole country flocked to his standard. Edward, who was in the north, returned to Nottingham, whither the "kingmaker" rapidly hastened. The king was deserted by nearly all his troops, and compelled to flee to Holland in great distress, not even having sufficient money to pay the seamen for carrying him over. Eleven days had sufficed to complete his ruin.

Warwick now returned to London, and King Henry VI. was released from the Tower and restored to his royal title. In this rapid revolution no blood was shed, save that of the Earl of Worcester, who was hated by the people for his cruelty.

At the news of Henry's restoration, Louis XI. paid to Margaret the same honours as to his own queen; public rejoicings took place, and an ambassador was sent to London, who concluded a treaty of peace and commerce for fifteen years. The Dukes of Somerset and Exeter, who, in fear of Edward's emissaries, had long lived in obscurity, hastened to the queen, to assist in the arrangements she was making for her return to England with her son; but contrary winds retarded their departure, and a new revolution plunged them once more into an abyss of sorrow and wretchedness.

5. Battle of BARNET.-On the 12th of March 1471, about five months after his flight, Edward reappeared off the coast of Suffolk with an armament supplied to him by the Duke of Burgundy. Four days afterwards he landed at Ravenspurg, in Yorkshire, where Henry of Bolingbroke had disembarked when he came to dethrone Richard II. Treachery weakened the Lancastrian army: Montague, Warwick's brother, made no effort to arrest the progress of the Yorkist forces, which barely exceeded 1200 men; the Duke of Clarence deserted with all his adherents, and the capital joyfully received the returning monarch. On Barnet Common, about twelve miles from London, the Yorkist and Lancastrian armies encountered each other. The battle began at four o'clock in the morning of Easter Sunday, and lasted until ten, during which time there was a thick mist raised, as it was believed, by a celebrated magician, Friar Bungy. None of the great Lancastrian lords escaped, except the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Oxford, and the common dead, amounting to about a thousand of both parties, were buried on the field, where a chapel was erected for the good of their souls. The bodies of Earl Warwick and his brother Montague were carried to London, and King Henry was sent back to the Tower. But Margaret called the victor again into the field only five days after this decisive battle. She had landed at Plymouth on the very day of the kingmaker's defeat and death; but no enthusiasm marked her progress through the country. At Tewkesbury her little army was cut to pieces, and she and her son fell into the hands of their enemies. The Prince of Wales, who was

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now in his eighteenth year, was taken before the conqueror. "What brought you to England?" demanded the ungenerous king. My father's crown and my own inheritance,' replied the spirited youth. Upon this Edward brutally struck him on the mouth with his iron glove, and then Clarence and Gloucester despatched him with their swords in the king's tent. Another act of singular atrocity marked this bloody day. A party of the chiefs who had taken refuge in a church at Tewkesbury were dragged from the foot of the altar and beheaded. Margaret lived five years the prisoner of her conqueror, when she was ransomed by Louis XI., and died in France about eleven years after this fatal battle. Edward returned in triumph to London, and on the following morning King Henry was found dead in the Tower, the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., having, according to the popular rumour, murdered him with his own hands.

The triumphant party now resolved to show no mercy: some of the Lancastrian leaders were secretly assassinated ; others were imprisoned in different castles; and the rest escaped to the continent, where, for the most part, they lived in extreme poverty.

The young Prince Edward, who had been born during his father's flight to Holland, was now created Prince of Wales, and recognised as lawful heir to the crown. Peace reigned everywhere but in the breasts of the three royal brothers. The Duke of Clarence, who had married Warwick's eldest daughter, now demanded the estates of his deceased father-inlaw; but Richard of Gloucester, desirous of sharing the prize, proposed to marry Anne, the earl's youngest daughter and Prince Edward's widow. The marriage took place after much dispute, and the property was divided between the two daughters, the widowed countess being so much overlooked in this allotment that she was reduced to absolute want.

6. After enduring so many of its miseries, it might have been expected that the English nation would have been tired of war; but Edward, inflamed by the representations of the Duke of Burgundy, and desirous of punishing the French king for the favour he had shown to the Lancastrians, sent a herald to demand from Louis the crown of France as his inheritance. He followed this up by collecting an army of 16,000 men, with which he landed at Calais on the 22d of June 1475. Burgundy failed to support Edward, as he had promised, and during two months the English forces lay in

active at Peronne. Louis XI., who was more inclined to treat than to fight, agreed to all the demands of the invader, and at Pecquigny a treaty of peace was signed between the two countries. The principal articles were, that Louis should pay instantly the sum of 75,000 crowns, with an annuity of 50,000 crowns to the English king; that he should marry the dauphin to Edward's eldest daughter Elizabeth; or, in case of her death, to her sister Mary, on the parties attaining a proper age; and that a truce for seven years, together with a free trade, should be secured between the two countries. Many of the English courtiers were besides largely bribed by the wily Frenchman. This treaty was most unpopular in England, but those who had profited by it cared little for the dissatisfaction of the people.

King Edward had never forgiven Clarence's defection to the Lancastrian party, and appears to have watched for a favourable opportunity of punishing his brother. This soon presented itself. In 1476, the duke lost his wife Isabella, and one of her female attendants was executed for poisoning her. About the same time, Charles the Rash was killed at the battle of Nanci, and Clarence immediately sought the hand of his daughter and heiress, Mary of Burgundy. Edward opposed this with all his might, and the duke indulged in the most incautious language, which was industriously repeated by his enemies. Stacy, a priest of his household, and Thomas Burdett, a gentleman in his service, were tried and convicted of having recourse to magic to hasten the death of Lord Beauchamp, by melting certain waxen images before a slow fire. They both died protesting their innocence; and Clarence, for attempting to prove before the council that his servants had met with an unjust doom, was committed to the Tower, for what was called an interference with justice. On the 16th of January 1478, a parliament was summoned, before which the king appeared in person to prosecute his own brother at the bar of the Lords. The duke was accused of dealing with the devil by means of conjurors and necromancers; of having plotted to dethrone the king and disinherit his children; of spreading a rumour that his majesty was guilty of the black art and secret poisoning, and that he was, besides, illegitimate, and consequently without right to the crown. He was also

accused of still intriguing with the Lancastrians for the overthrow of the reigning monarch. Clarence vehemently denied every charge, but was found guilty, and received sentence of

death on the 7th of February. On the 18th of the same month, or, according to others, on the 11th of March, it was rumoured that the duke had died in the Tower, the popular belief being that his brothers had secretly caused him to be drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.

By the treaty of Pecquigny, the dauphin was to marry Edward's eldest daughter as soon as she was of proper age. She was now sixteen, and yet the French court did not claim her. The wily Louis XI., seeing that his son's marriage with the Princess Margaret of Burgundy would be of more advantage to the power and tranquillity of his states than an alliance with Edward, did not hesitate to break his word, without paying any regard to the threats of the insulted monarch. When the news of this perfidy reached England, Edward became furious with rage, vowing that he would carry such a war into France as had not yet been seen in that country. His passion became fatal: a slight indisposition which he had neglected assumed the most alarming appearance; and the king, whose constitution was debilitated by his dissolute life, expired after a few weeks' illness in the twenty-first year of his reign and the forty-second of his age (9th April 1483).

Edward V., A. D. 1483.

7. The Prince of Wales, who was residing at Ludlow when his father died, was immediately proclaimed king by the title of Edward V. Lord Rivers, a nobleman of literary habits, who had conferred an inestimable service on England by patronizing Caxton, the introducer of the recently discovered art of printing, had undertaken to direct the studies of his royal nephew, and to him the queen sent orders to conduct the youthful monarch to London with an escort sufficient to guard against every hostile attempt. At this the enemies of the Woodvilles took alarm, and opposed the execution of a plan in which they saw only their own destruction. Lord Hastings declared that he would immediately withdraw to his government at Calais, and the intimidated queen recalled her orders.

Gloucester was in the Scottish marches at the head of an army devoted to his service, when he received intelligence of his brother's death. Hastening his return to the capital, he ordered, as he passed through York, a grand funeral-service to be performed in the cathedral for the defunct king. He next collected all the nobles and gentlemen of that neighbourhood, swore allegiance to Edward V., and received their oaths