writes the Duke of Milan's ambassador to France on Edward IV's prospects of retaking England.
"It is a difficult matter to go out by the door and then try to enter by the windows. They think he will leave his skin there." writes the Duke of Milan's ambassador to France on Edward IV's prospects of retaking England. It was in the second week of March 1471 Richard Neville had received news that ships flying the Yorkist banner had been spotted off the coast of Norfolk, and on this day the 14th of March, Edward, William Hastings and Richard, Duke of Gloucester had arrived at Ravenspur on the east coast of England, the very port Henry IV had landed seventy years before to claim the English throne
0 Comments
The second reign of King Henry VI began on the 3rd October 1470, it lasted six months. Richard Neville, Henry's champion had played the game and lost and Edward IV had all the assistance he needed to win back his throne by force. Edward returned to England from exile arriving at the beginning of March accompanied by William Hastings and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, they disembarked onto English soil at Ravenspur on the east coast of England, the very port Henry IV had landed seventy years before to claim the English throne, Edward's desire was no only to reclaim his crown but deal with Neville. After leaving Humberside, Edward made his way to London via Beverly, Wakefield, Nottingham and Leicester and with no obvious Lancastrian force to oppose him he arrived in the city on the 10/11th April 1471 where he would stay until the 13th. It was here in London that Edward was proclaimed England's king once more. In the two days Edward spent in London he visited St Paul's Cathedral for prayers and to give thanks, he was reunited with his wife who presented him with his six month old son who had been born while his mother was in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. Following discussions with his councilors Edward spent his last night at his mother's home of Baynard's Castle, the next morning his troops were armed and departed heading north along Watling Street. By the 13th the Yorkist forces had arrived at Monken Hadley, a small village just twelve miles from London. Edward made his camp next to the village church on a hill that overlooked the town of Barnet, that night Edward placed his troops in their battle positions, the following morning he would find that they were very close to Richard Neville's lines. The king's force at Barnet, according to the unknown writer of The Arrivall, numbered nine thousand, but it is thought there were far more than this, Edward himself had landed in England with about two thousand, six thousand men joined his army at Nottingham, three thousand at Leicester, the Duke of Clarence now reconciled with Edward, brought around seven thousand, however Warwick commanded many more. It was on Easter morning, the 14th April, that had dawned grey and foggy, that the Battle of Barnet took place.
On the 11th of April 1471 Edward IV entered London unopposed, supplied his troops with arms and left again heading north, and on the 13th he arrived at Monken Hadley, two days later. The Yorkist forces made their camp next to the village church on a hill that overlooked the town of Barnet, that night he placed his troops in their battle positions, the following morning he would find that they were very close to Warwick’s lines. Edwards force at Barnet, according to the unknown writer of The Arrivall, numbered nine thousand, but it is thought there were far more than this, Edward himself landed with about two thousand, six thousand men joined his army at Nottingham, three thousand at Leicester, the Duke of Clarence, who had now switched his allegiance again, brought around seven thousand, but Warwick commanded many more. Easter morning dawned grey and foggy, Edward instructed that no fires be lit and no noise be made so not to give their position away but eventually the noise of the clash of sword on sword could be heard. The Battle of Barnet had begun and it ended with it the death of Richard Neville, the man who was said to be the second most powerful man in England. Of the battle the Arrivall states that Edward fought ‘manly and vigorously assailed in the midst and strongest of their battle, where he, with great violence, beat and bore down afore him all that stood in his way … ..nothing might stand in the sight of him and the well assured fellowship that attended truly upon him’. The Yorkist did not have it all their way, the Lancastiran army came very close to victory, however the weather was on the Edwards side, for Warwick's soldiers, unable to see clearly through the fog, could not differentiate between their own forces and that of their enemy and attacked their own men in error confusing the Earl of Oxford's badge of the star with Edward’s emblem of the sun. According to English chronicler John Warkworth, who wrote of the battle at the time, Oxford’s soldiers considered themselves betrayed and fled, crying ‘Treason! Treason!’. Eventually the battle went the way of the Yorkists, their leaders watched as the Lancastrian army disappeared into the mist. It is estimated that both sides lost over one thousand men, among the nobility were Sir Humphrey Bourchier and William Fiennes fighting under Edward and under the Lancastrian flag Sir William Tyrrell and John Neville, the King Maker's younger brother. Of Richard Neville Charles Oman in his book “Warwick” writes: “He (Warwick) began to draw back towards the line of thickets and hedges which had lairn behind his army. But there the fate met him that had befallen so many of his enemies, at St Albans, and Northampton, at Towton and Hexham. His heavy armour made rapid flight impossible; and in the edge of Wrotham Wood he was surrounded by the pursuing enemy, wounded, beaten down and slain.” There are a number of different versions regarding the death of Richard Neville. Philippe de Commines suggests that it was his brother's fault that Warwick died that day. Montagu had persuaded Warwick to dismount his horse and fight at ground level, he subsequently died at the hands of the Yorkist infantry. Another version says he was killed while fleeing. With the plunge of a Yorkist sword Edward had dealt with Warwick, he also had suppressed a number of important Lancastrian nobles. However, John de Vere, the formidable Earl of Oxford, was out but not down, but the two most important members were still at large. Margaret of Anjou and her son had set foot in England the very same day its soil ran red with Warwick’s blood. Within three weeks, the Lancastrian forces under Edmund Beaufort had taken up arms, but they would, once again be defeated.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2022
|