refused admission into London, and obliged to retire

to the north.

His

The duke of York enters London, Feb. 28. army being mustered in St. John's Fields on Sunday. March 2, the Lord Falconbridge addresses the citizens in favour of the duke's right to the crown.

The duke urges his claim before a council of such peers, prelates, and chief citizens as can be collected, who declare him king, March 3.

h William Neville, a younger brother of the earl of Salisbury; like him, he obtained his title by marrying an heiress. In 1462 he was created earl of Kent, and died soon after. A natural son of the preceding lord, called the Bastard of Falconbridge, was admiral of Warwick's navy when Henry VI. was restored; he in May, 1471, attempted to seize the Tower, where Edward's queen and young family resided: being repulsed from London, he lived awhile by piracy, having at one time a fleet of near 50 ships at Sandwich, but was at last captured and beheaded.

IONEL of Antwerp, duke of Clarence and earl of Ulster, the third son of Edward III., was the ancestor of this house, as his younger brother John was of the usurping Lancastrians. His wife was Elizabeth, heiress of William de Burgh, who had been killed by some of his fellow Anglo-Irish chiefs, and it was to recover her patrimony, which had been shared according to the native laws, that his expeditions to Ireland were mainly undertaken. Their only daughter, Philippa, became the wife of Edmund, and the mother of Roger Mortimer, earl of March and Ulster, who was in 1385 declared presumptive heir to the throne, and was killed in Ireland in 1398. He had married Eleonora, the daughter of Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, (half-brother of Richard II..) and left a son and two daughters. His son Edmund See vol. i. p. 393.

was the true heir to the throne, but was set aside by the parliament, and died without issue in 1424. His daughter Anne had in the meanwhile married Richard, earl of Cambridge, (second son of Edmund of Langley, duke of York,) and was by him the mother of one son, Richard, who, though he never bore the title, is justly to be regarded as the first king of the House of York b.

Neither the place nor the date of Richard's birth have been fully ascertained, but he cannot have been more than five years of age when his father was put to death. He was placed in the guardianship of Joan, countess of Westmoreland, whose youngest daughter, Cicely, he afterwards married. In 1425 he was relieved from corruption of blood, and succeeded to the estates and titles of his uncles, Edward, duke of York, and Edmund, earl of March. In 1430 the important office of constable was bestowed on him; in 1432, though very young, he was employed to guard the coasts of Normandy, and in 1436 he advanced almost to the gates of Paris. He was recalled in the following year, and though sent again in 1439 as lieutenant and captain to Normandy, he was again superseded by Beaufort, marquis of Dorset, who weakly or treacherously suffered himself to be expelled by the French, and then returning to England shared with Queen Margaret the direction of public affairs. York firmly opposed him, and in order to remove such an obstacle to their pro

...

In the first parliament of his son's reign an act was passed [1 Edw. IV. c. 1], in which he is styled "the right noble and famous prince of worthy memory, Richard, late duke of York. in his life very king in right of the realm of England, singular protector, lover and defensour of the good governance, policy, commonweal, peace and tranquillity thereof."

F

• See p. 35.

jects, he was made lieutenant of Ireland for ten years, from July 5, 1449.

Up to this time the duke of York had silently acquiesced in the Lancastrian usurpation, but he now (urged, it is said, by his brother-in-law and nephew, the earls of Salisbury and Warwick,) began to put forward his claim to the crown, having by his wise and mild government gained the firm support of the Irish, whose affection for his house continued unabated even after its fall. His claim was resisted far more strenuously by Margaret, and by Dorset (who had become duke of Somerset), than by Henry himself, and was looked on with favour by the bulk of the nation, not only from its real weight and the duke's brilliant services, but also from hatred to those who had lost the conquests of Henry V. Attempts were made to accommodate the dispute by bringing Somerset to trial, and declaring the duke of York Protector of the realm; but these failed through the violent spirit of Margaret, and arms were at length resorted to. The first battle was fought at St. Alban's (May 23, 1455); Somerset was there killed, and York again acknowledged Protector. This appointment was soon after revoked by Henry, and the Yorkists were obliged to retire. A formal reconciliation followed, but it was broken by an attempt to assassinate the earl of Warwick. The battle of Bloreheath next occurred (Sept. 23, 1459), where the Lancastrians were again defeated, but through treachery the Yorkist army was

He himself found safety there, with his son, the earl of Rutland, in 1459; they fought in the cause of his pretended grandson, Lambert Simnel, and afterwards joined Richard, who was probably the true heir.

soon after dispersed, and the duke and his friends having taken to flight, were attainted by a parliament held at Coventry.

In the summer of 1460 they returned, defeated the Lancastrians at Northampton, took Henry prisoner, and had the duke of York declared heir to the throne. Margaret, however, did not abide by this, but raising a force in Scotland and the north of England, she advanced southward. The duke marched to meet her, but, by some mismanagement not to be expected in so experienced a soldier, he suffered himself to be surrounded by her forces, and besieged in Sandal castle, in Yorkshire; and then, with equal imprudence, sallying out before his reinforcements arrived, he fell into an ambuscade and was killed, near Wakefield, Dec. 31, 1460. His head was placed on the wall of York, and garnished with a paper crown, but was taken down after the battle of Towton, and interred with his body and that of his son, the earl of Rutland, at Pontefract. Thence the bodies were removed in July, 1466, and buried with royal pomp at Fotheringhay.

By his marriage with the daughter of Ralph, earl of Westmoreland, (who survived until May 31, 1495, when she died at Berkhampstead, and was then buried with him at Fotheringhay,) he had a family of eight sons and four daughters. Of these,

EDWARD and RICHARD became kings.

Edmund, earl of Rutland, born at Rouen, May 17, 1443, was killed at Wakefield, Dec. 31, 1460.

Henry, William, John, Thomas, and Ursula, died young.