he was a military commander, but being accused of a design of betraying Calais, he was imprisoned in the Tower, where he died, March 3, 1542, it is said of joy at learning that the king was satisfied of his innocence; 2. Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Lumley.

The royal arms and motto were the same in this as in the preceding reign, but Edward employed other supporters, chiefly the badges of various ancestral possessi ns. Some existing examples have a black bull and a white lion, (Clarence and March); some a white lion

His badges

the posses

The black

and a white hart; others two white lions. are numerous, and likewise allude either to sions or the varying fortunes of his family. bull is the symbol of Clarence; the black dragon, of Ulster; the white wolf, the emblem of the Mortimers; the white hart shews his kindred with Richard II.; while the falcon and fetterlock indicate the depression, and the sun in splendour the triumph, of his house1.

Edward possessed great military skill and undaunted 1 Shakspeare thus alludes to the latter well-known emblem :"Now is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by the Sun of York!"

courage, a handsome person and fascinating manners; but he was also unscrupulous, licentious, and cruel. The fickleness of his temper is seen in his abandoning his father's and his own greatest friends, the Nevilles, for new favourites from his queen's family; his rapacity, in the benevolences" which he extorted; and his want of natural affection, in the part he acted in the destruction of his brother Clarence. It was remarked that he witnessed an execution with as much pleasure as others would a pageant; and indeed he seems seldom to have extended mercy to those who fell in his power, being apparently more desirous to exterminate than to conciliate his opponents.

A.D. 1461. Edward is solemnly installed at Westminster as king, March 4m.

He marches into the north, and defeats the Lancastrians at Towton, near Tadcaster, March 29, with terrible slaughter". Henry, his queen and son, with some of their adherents, escape to Scotland, but many are taken and executed°.

m His regnal years are computed from this day.

n Lord Clifford was killed the day before in a skirmish at Ferrybridge, as were Lord Fitzwalter and a natural brother of the earl of Warwick; the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, lords Dacre and Wells, Sir Andrew Trollope and many other knights fell at Towton.

Among these were the earls of Devonshire and of Ormond and Wiltshire, the father-in-law of Lady Eleanor Butler, who was very probably the wife of Edward. But in this horrible contest all ties of kindred or alliance seem to have been systematically disregarded by both parties; almost every family had fathers, sons, brothers arrayed against each other:

"Long years of havoc urge their destined course,

And through the kindred squadrons mow their way."

Henry surrenders Berwick to the Scots, April 25.

Edward returns to London, and is crowned, June 29, by the archbishop of CanterburyP; he creates his brothers, George and Richard, dukes of Clarence and Glou

cester.

The Scottish regents are willing to assist the Lancastrians, but are embarrassed by the intrigues of Edward with the Lord of the Isles and other nobles, and obliged to agree to remain neuter.

The parliament meets, Nov. 4. It declares the Lancastrian princes usurpers [1 Edw. IV. c. 1], but allows acts done by "the said pretensed kings" to remain valid, “except as to such persons, and every of them, whom our sovereign lord the king reputeth and holdeth for his rebels or enemies ¶."

All sheriffs except those of London, forbidden to proceed judicially, [c. 2].

A.D. 1462. The earl of Oxford (John de Veres), his son Aubrey, and several other Lancastrians, beheaded in London, February 26.

Edward makes a treaty for the conquest and partition

P Thomas Bourchier, brother of the earl of Essex, who was uncle to the king.

a Edward took full advantage of this comprehensive clause, and transferred lands, and privileges, and offices to his active supporters to such an extent that hundreds supposed to be Lancastrians, but not so compromised as to forfeit their lives, were yet reduced to abject poverty.

The statute states that many liege people have been harassed by indictments and presentments "affirmed by jurors having no conscience, nor any freehold, and little goods, and even by the menial servants and bailiffs of sheriffs, merely to extort money.

35

He was born in 1409, and was the grand nephew of the favourite of Richard II. He had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and had served with much distinction both by sea and land in the French wars.

of Scotland, with John, Lord of the Isles, and other nobles, Feb. 13.

Queen Margaret, by a promise to surrender Calais if it should ever be in her power, obtains a small body of French troops, who however are shipwrecked on Holy Island, and either killed or taken; she escapes to Berwick.

A.D. 1463. The duke of Somerset (Henry Beaufortt) and many other Lancastrians abandon Henry, and make terms with Edward".

The trade in and exportation of wool regulated by statute, [3 Edw. IV. c. 1].

The importation of "wares ready wrought" forbidden, [c. 4].

The apparel of all persons regulated according to their rank, [c. 5'].

Queen Margaret again sails to France, and obtains a body of troops from Louis XI. of France. She lands in Northumberland, in October, but not being joined by the people retires to Scotland. The earl of Angus makes an inroad as far as Alnwick in her favour.

A.D. 1464. Queen Margaret marches into England,

He

He was the son of the duke killed at St. Alban's in 1455. had fled to Scotland after the battle of Towton, and now gave up Bamborough castle as the price of pardon, but he soon rejoined the Lancastrians, was taken at Hexham, and beheaded. His brothers Edmund and John suffered the same fate after the battle of Tewkesbury.

Others fled to France, where they lived in abject poverty. Philip de Comines, indeed, asserts that he saw the duke of Exeter (the brother-in-law of Edward) begging in the streets.

▾ The commons of the realm, as well men as women, are said to wear excessive and inordinate apparel, to the great displeasure of God, the enriching of strange realms, and the destruction of this realmı. A somewhat similar statute was passed in Scotland in 1457.

captures several northern castles, and is again joined by Somerset, the Percies, and her other adherents.

Edward marches against them.

John, Lord Montacute", defeats the Lancastrians at Hedgley-moor (near Wooller) April 25, and at Hexham, May 15. Henry finds a refuge in Lancashire; the queen and prince retire to Flanders.

The duke of Somerset and many other prisoners are executed, and the estates and title of the Percies (earl of Northumberland) granted to Montacute.

Prince Alexander of Scotland captured at sea by the English, but released.

A fifteen years' truce concluded with Scotland, June 1; the Scots engage to give neither assistance nor shelter to the Lancastrians.

Edward avows his marriage with Elizabeth, the widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian, Sept. 29×; he heaps favours on her relatives, the Woodvilles, and thus arouses the jealousy of his brothers and his great supporter, the earl of Warwick.

A.D. 1465. The manufacture of cloth regulated by statute, [4 Edw. IV. c. 1].

Passage to or from France by any other ports than Dover and Calais forbidden, except to soldiers and merchants with merchandize', [c. 10].

W

He was the brother of the earl of Warwick, and after a variety of fortune met his death with him at Barnet, in the year 1471.

He had married her some time before, but authorities differ as to how long.

The king's command and stress of weather, duly proved, exonerated violators of this ordinance; one half of the penalties was to go to the king; the other half to be employed upon the reparation