Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales

Transcript:

Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales:

Welcome, I hope you’ve all enjoyed the last four episodes about Richard, 3rd Duke of York. This week we’re moving on to the young man who would be a thorn in his son, Edward IV’s, side (see what I did there?). Yes, there will be two important men named Edward in this episode. To keep them straight I’ll refer to our subject as Edward (young Edward when he was child, or Prince Edward) and, Edward IV as King Edward or Edward of March before he becomes king. Many of you probably realise this, but I can’t refer to King Edward as ‘the king’ because there is another king alive throughout the entire time period of this subject’s life, Henry VI, whom I’ll refer to as Henry or King Henry. I’ll be using sources that focus on his father’s life, since those who die young don’t often get their own biography. Henry VI by Bertram Wolffe and The Reign of Henry VI by Ralph A. Griffiths, plus two books titled ‘The Wars of the Roses’ one by Robin Neillands and the second by Charlie Ross. Oh, and the source I always forget to mention despite using it contantly WInston Churchill’s A History of the English-Speaking Peoples. Before I start this episode I want to make something clear. When I’m covering a subject I give them the benefit of the doubt, history has happened, but the motivations of all participants are unknown. So, in the last four episodes, Richard, 3rd Duke of York was the main character, but in this episode it’s Edward. So, Richard’s moves will be discussed from Edward’s point of view and Edward is the main character. I hope this helps, I’m very serious about examining multiple sources and not just picking one point of view. I really like making sure that I don’t paint subjects as one-dimensional charyactatures, so Richard isn’t just a scheming usurper, Robert Curthose wasn’t a lazy do-nothing, John of Gaunt wasn’t ever planning on taking his nephew’s throne, and Isabella of France wasn’t the ultimate seductress. Charles of Valois though might have been poisoning everyone (don’t invite him to Christmas dinner). I bring the above up because this is the first time I’ve had two characters, especially in a row, who are so literally opposed. I’m sure Matilda wasn’t a fan of her uncle, but he was in prisoned for most of the time she would have known him. 

This will be the first time I stick to using the names for the opposing parties in the Wars of the Roses, Lancaster and York. Because I don’t think everyone knows this, Lancastrians were supporters of Henry VI and his line, including Prince Edward, Yorkist were supporters of Richard, 3rd Duke of York and his line, including Edward of March. The Yorkist name’s origin in obvious, but the Lancastrian might not be if you’ve just started listening at this episode. Lancaster was the dukedom that Edward III had granted to his cousin and long-time supporter Henry of Lancaster. Lancaster’s younger daughter, Blanche, was married to John of Gaunt, the third surviving son of Edward III. After Lancaster’s death without male issue his lands were eventually inherited by Gaunt via his wife. Edward III then elevated his son, to the dukedom of Lancaster. Gaunt’s son, Henry Bolingbroke usurped Richard II, Henry’s cousin, and was crowned Henry IV. As the heir of his father Henry IV was also duke of Lancaster. The subject of this episode, Edward, was Henry IV’s great grandson. Honestly, when I was in my early teens and not interested in this period of history I had no idea who these people were. Oddly, patron Mark and Cindy's daughter, Emily, is the first person who introduced the Wars of the Roses to me, I was so confused. 

Now, because you’ve all heard a bit of the happenings around Edward, I’ll make sure to focus on his actual life and not the slow-motion train wreck that was the end of his father’s reign. Edward was born on the fest-day of St Edward the Confessor, the 13th of October 1453. He was the first last and only child of both King Henry VI of England and his queen, Margaret of Anjou. Henry was 31 at the time of his son’s birth, and suffering from his first mental breakdown. He was unable to acknowledge his son’s birth. His 23 year old wife, would later be accused of resorting to an affair with Edmund Beaufort, the 2nd Duke of Somerset, to conceive the prince. Henry and Margaret had been married for eight years by the time their son was born. This slander was partially due to the long gap between marriage and Edward’s birth, but also because Beaufort was known to be well, really good at being friendly with French women. You may remember from Richard, 3rd Duke of York, that Edmund was also accused of seducing Catherine of Valois, King Henry’s widowed mother. I am taking the stance that gossip mongers are going to  gossip and anything that could injure the queen’s reputation could be used against the king. I think if anyone had thought this was true it would have come out in Parliament. And I think Richard would have used it outright when claiming the throne, so I don’t think anyone who mattered believed it at the time. Griffiths also makes the point that her condition would have been known, at least by her, the king, and their closest companions, by mid-to-late spring and was unlikely to have precipitated the king’s collapse. I only bring this up because, yes, later, historians have suggested the king’s collapse was due to learning his wife was pregnant by another man. Until someone shows me DNA testing of young Edward that shows he’s not Henry’s son I’m going to accept that he was the king’s son. 

Even though there were rumours swirling around this tiny baby he was well cared for. His father, obviously, couldn’t govern at the time. Queen Margaret had attempted to have herself declared regent while her husband was unwell, but the leaders in England had basically just blinked at her. They were not ready for a woman to have this much power. While some previous wives had acted as regent while their husbands were overseas, their hadn’t been one for a minor and this was the first time since 1066 that a king had been completely unable to rule due to mental health issues. You’ll remember me discussing Isabella of Angouleme, Henry III mother, who would have been the first post-Conquest queen who could have acted as regent. I described her as unsuitable earlier, and I stand by that. I’m not judging her as a young widow, she was at the most 30 when king John died, for marrying a second time. But her choice in husband was questionable as you’ll learn when I return to the early Plantagenets. The English nobility and even the Commons were not going to let a  queen rule without her husband’s consent, and Henry could not consent to anything. Instead, as you know, Richard, 3d Duke of York was selected as the Lord Protector of the realm. Richard made sure Edward was invested as Prince of Wales on the 15th of March 1454. 

Edward’s father recovered from his breakdown around Christmas, 1454, more than a year after his birth. When the king had finally regained his sense of himself and those around him he was overjoyed to be presented with the boy. He was apparently rather pleased with his son’s name, since Edward the Confessor was his favourite saint. With his father’s recovery it looked, at least for a moment, that young Edward’s life might continue on a more normal path. But, we all know that’s not what’s going to happen. Since Edward of Westminster was never king (remember, you’re listening to Passed), he doesn’t have a proper biography, so learning about his childhood is a bit of extra work. He did spend most of it with his mother and was in her care regularly. She travelled through the midlands prior to the king’s recovery and after stayed at court with her husband. 

Now, you all know the best bit from Richard of York’s episodes, but here’s what young Edward was doing during this time. It appears that the young prince and his mother remained in London during the First Battle of St. Albans. After his father’s defeat and return to London, Edward and his parents were held in London or in Hereford. Richard did claim that the king was unwell, and having lost a battle and being injured it’s not an unreasonable assumption that Henry may have been struggling mentally. Henry made a recovery in February 1456 and retook control of the realm. Again, Margaret of Anjou took the prince on a tour of the midlands, including Chester, which was part of his future inheritance. His father would join them for a time in late-summer 1456. It’s important to remember that Edward was still a little child through all of this, he wasn’t three at this point. By the time of the disastrous and farcical ‘Love Day’ he was four and a half. It would have been a chaotic childhood, but for much of it at least, he would have been near his mother and those around his father were at least claiming they supported the Lancastrian line. This all changed in 1459. 

In autumn of that year Yorkist forces supporting Richard, Duke of York, began to assemble in the west of England. The Yorkist faction had been excluded from invitation to the upcoming Parliament and could see the writing on the wall. That writing was treason. Please listen to fourth Richard, 3rd Duke of York episode for the full details, but the Yorkists lost to royalist forces and were forced to flee. Things looked great for the young prince at this point. But, much like his father’s first recovery this wasn’t to be. Edward's mother, Queen Margaret, was able to pass a bill of attainder against Richard, Salisbury, and Warwick. Remember, and attainder would not only a bill against the person named, but would disinherit their heirs and spouse. Instead of just staying away, Richard and his Yorkist supporters were able to regroup in Ireland and Calais. In June of 1460 Salisbury, Warwick, and Edward earl of March (the future Edward IV, spoilers) landed in England and were able to enter London. While the city was theirs the Tower of London was held by forces loyal to Henry, Salisbury remained in London to besiege the tower. Warwick and Edward Earl of March defeated royal forces at the Battle of Northampton on the 10th of July 1460. Not only were royal forces defeated, but Edward’s father, king Henry, was taken captive, and a handful of major nobles were killed. Young Edward and his mother were not present at the battle, and not taken (good luck for Prince Edward, bad luck for Richard as you all know). Margaret of Anjou was able to escape with her son, they reached his uncle, Jasper Tudor, while Tudor was besieging Denbigh, in Wales. And this is where our subject’s life will never be the same. While Edward and his mother were fleeing, Warwick and Edward Earl of March, escorted the captured king back to London where the city welcomed them, and the Tower surrendered.

As you’ll remember from the final Richard of York episode, while Edward and his mother were fleeing Richard was at first trying to get himself declared king. When that didn’t work he switched tact and had himself declared Henry’s heir. Prince Edward was disinherited less than two weeks after his six birthday by the Act of Accord. Thankfully, at least for this episode, his story doesn’t end there. While Richard was disinheriting him Edward and his mother were raising troops. Henry was under control of Richard and his forces, this made Edward the figurehead of the Lancastrian cause. He, well, mainly his mother and uncle, were joined by his cousin, Henry Holland, the Duke of Exeter (you’ll remember he is also Richard’s son-in-law), Henry Beaufort, the 3rd Duke of Somerset (and the son of Edmund Beaufort from our previous episodes), Henry Percy (the son of the Henry Percy discussed in the previous four episodes, and the grandson and great-grandson of the traitorous Henry Percys in even earlier episodes), and other earls and lords. While Richard had been popular with the common people Queen Margaret and these magnates still had their supporters, plus many would feel bad for a young child being disinherited. Most importantly, Queen Margaret was unwilling to accept this eventuality, she wasn’t going to let her son he disinherited without a fight. These supportive magnates would harry lands that were supportive of Richard while Queen Margaret and Prince Edward sailed to Scotland to ask for assistance from the Scottish crown. Yeah, no one thought to tell her that using the Scots to attack England might not impress the English people. 

Queen Margaret came to terms with the Scots for support, well, the Scottish queen Dowager, Mary of Guelders (James III of Scotland was only eight or nine at this time). Berwick-on-Tweed, which had been won by Edward III in 1333 at the Battle of Halidon Hill, was to be returned to Scotland, and Prince Edward was to marry one of James III’s sisters (I’m sure they were hedging bets in case one died by just picking a general sister), in return, Queen Margaret would receive, well, I can’t find an exact number, but the Queen would expect general support in the form of men to fight for her. As some of you may know, this agreement did not hold for long. But, for a short moment this wasn’t important. While Queen Margaret and Edward were in Scotland their English forces won a huge victory. On the 30th of December 1460 royalist forces defeated and killed Richard Duke of York (and Salisbury and York’s 16 year old son Edmund) at the Battle of Wakefield. With Edward’s greatest rival dead it would be easy to think he could return to London and free his father and just take…wait, no, that wasn’t going to happen. 

First, Henry VI was still in Yorkist control, held in London by Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. Second, Edward of March, Richard of York’s oldest son, was mustering forces, these were obviously meant to assist his father. Third, The Act of Accord, was still in place, it declared Edward of March the heir to Henry VI following the death of Richard of York. So, there were a few things against Edward, but he still had his mother and their supporters. Plus, Henry was still alive and the king. We’re about to get into a bunch of battles, I’ll just give the name of the battle, the date, who won, and any important people to die or be captured. Before Edward could even try to reclaim his inheritance he (or at least his mother) would have received some pretty bad news. On the 2nd of February 1461 Jasper Tudor and his forces lost the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross against Edward of March. Jasper survived the battle, but his father, Owen Tudor, the step-father of Henry VI, did not, the elder Tudor was executed at the end of the battle (this was actually shocking, but Edward of March wasn’t throwing any punches after the death of his father, this would be the first sign of a huge change in the assumptions about hostages in battle). Edward of March had attacked Jasper’s forces to prevent them from joining with the remaining Lancastrian forces led by Queen Margaret and Prince Edward. 

This might have been disastrous for Prince Edward and his supporters, but due to Edward of March’s decision to stop Jasper meant that he wasn’t able to meet up with Warwick’s forces who were marching north from London with Henry VI to block the Lancastrian forces. Queen Margaret and her forces, including Henry Beaufort, who had been successful at Wakefield, were marching south towards London with the aim of retaking the city. On the 17th of February 1461, Warwick and the Lancastrian forces met at St Albans, this would be the Second Battle of St Albans. Unlike the earlier battle at the same city Warwick was rather unprepared for the timing of the assault. His scouts hadn’t warned him of the location of the Lancastrians and they were able to arrive overnight at the location. He had prepared the city for battle in general, possibly over prepared, but his archers were outflanked and the wet weather meant his artillery was useless. Warwick was defeated, but able to escape, his brother, John, however was captured. Henry VI was also released after this battle. This battle is where we get the first hint to Prince Edward’s character. Until this point he’s just been following his mother around and we know very little about him. Now, I have checked all my sources for this next story, and I do believe parts of it are true. The classic story is that the Queen, having found the King in a tent protected by two Yorkist supporters William Bonvill and Thomas Kyriell, asked the Prince Edward what should be done with these surrendering knights. The Prince responded that they should die. Prince Edward was seven at the time, now there are different versions of this story, some have Prince Edward calling for death, some have the queen asking him how they should die, and some have the Prince just looking on while the knights were executed. The quote I have is from Neilland’s book ‘“Fair son,’ said the Queen to the Prince, ‘by what manner of means shall these knights die?’ ‘Let their heads be taken off,’ replied the Prince. Now, there weren’t many accepted ways to kill captured knights in this period, so if offered his choice for how to kill prisoners beheading or hanging were probably the only choices he would have had to pick from. I assume if the prince really did choose this it was because the knights were on their knees in front of an executioner with a sword. Had there been a gallows being built in front of him I imagine he would have chosen hanging. I mean, he could have told his mother to drown them, which would be an odd choice. Do I think a seven year old is already making these decisions without any undue influence, no? I will say, Queen Margaret may have realised that things were going to rough and that her son needed to be ready for things that were coming. I think this was probably a bad choice on Queen Margaret’s part, because that would be traumatising. In much sweeter family news, Henry VI knighted his son, just wanted to finish that bit on a happier note. The young prince then knighted a further 30 fighters from his supporters. Oddly, Warwick’s brother, John, wasn’t executed. Oh, there was one important person killed at this battle, well, at least for the future of Prince Edward’s competition. John Grey, the heir to the Barony of Ferrers of Groby, while he wasn’t a big player in anything that had happened, his widow, Elizabeth Woodville, will play a huge role in everything to come. 

While Henry was able to knight his son and celebrate their victory, it does appear that he was unwell again. Despite the win the royal family and their forces didn’t march directly for London. They would have received word that the gates of the city were barred (the Londoners were waiting for the Yorkist forces, I did mention how popular Richard of York was with the common people, especially the people of London in the last few episodes). Their forces were know for sacking towns once they won, and London was not interested in having that happen. The Lancastrian forces also learned that a combined Yorkist force (Warwick and the survivors of St Albans having reach Edward of March) were marching towards London. Instead, they turned north and retreated to Dunstable, loosing many of their Scottish soldiers as they went. 

With Prince Edward and his parents to the north of London, the other Edward, the earl of March or even more properly the Duke of York, entered the city on the 27th of February to cheering crowds. He didn’t have the king, and the king was still alive, but the people of London proclaimed him as king. But, yes, Edward of March was being elevated to monarch through proclamation. On the 4th of March he was declared king, but not yet crowned (he did have possession of the crown though). Now, how had his father not done this same thing six months earlier? Well, there were some nobles who didn’t want Richard of York to be king who weren’t around, plus, this was the common people, and as I mentioned in his final episode, not reaching for the throne with the Commons present was one of his greatest mistakes, right up there with leaving Sandal Castle. On the 11th of March King Edward sent his part of his army to track the Lancastrian forces, on the 13th he joined them. 

While Edward of March was becoming King Edward, Prince Edward and his parents were regrouping and gather supplies for their forces. On the 29th of March 1461 Yorkist forces defeated the Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton. No, I’m not going to go through the whole thing, but there were an estimated 50,000 combined troops present at the battle. King Edward was actually outnumbered at the start of battle, but William Neville, Warwick’s uncle, took advantage of weather conditions (it was a snowy, windy day) and allowed the Yorkist archers to achieve greater distance. King Edward’s supporter, the Duke of Norfolk, arriving late to the battle and was probably a deciding factor in the Yorkist victory due to providing more rested troops and morale for the exhausted troops. In an interesting history fact for you Henry Percy, the fifth of his name, but only the 3rd Earl of Northumberland, died in the battle. He was the fourth Henry Percy in his family to die in battle (his oldest son and heir, creatively named Henry, would die in a riot breaking the trend). In what I find properly funny, the current heir apparent to the family’s subsequent title is the CEO of a company called Hotspur Geothermal, so he’s keeping those fun nicknames going. It’s also important the share that Prince Edward and his parents weren’t involved in the fighting, they might let seven year olds watch beheadings, but having them actually fight is a pretty bad call. The, um, sometime royal family stayed in York during the battle. Upon receiving word of the rout of Lancastrian forces Prince Edward and his parents fled for Scotland, they were eventually joined by the 3rd Duke of Somerset . King Edward continued practicing the new rules of battle that he had deployed after the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross and executed his noble Lancastrian prisoners. This is a huge change in the rules of combat. Chivalry is no longer alive and well on the battlefield, at least if King Edward is there. Interestingly though, those that hadn’t stood against him were not attacked. 

Prince Edward, along with both his parents would remain in Scotland for the next three years. While Mary of Guelders, the dowager queen of Scotland, was alive they were under her protection. King Edward was crowned on the 28th of June 1461, which would have stung the sometime royal family a bit. His mother tried to inspire their supporters in England to continue to fight against the Yorkist throne. This inspiration may have been inspiring, but did very little in the long-run. It does appear that King Henry didn’t want to leave England and spent much of his time waiting right near the border. I do struggle to find what Prince Edward was doing in these years, especially when his mother leaves for France in April of 1462 (I honestly don’t know if he went with her or not, he isn’t mentioned in any of my sources when she went to France, I’ll let you know further on when he’s mentioned again). At this point he was eight and a half, when he’d normally start leaving his mother’s household and beginning his training to be a knight, military leader, and king, but he was in Scotland hoping his mother could get help from her French allies. Margaret was, well, quickly handed off from the Duke of Brittany to her father, Rene of Anjou. He wasn’t ready to fight for his daughter’s cause, in his defence he was 53 and hadn’t had the easiest life. She was in luck though. The French king, Charles VII’s son, Louis XI was keen to meet with her. Louis was hoping to use Queen Margaret and her husband and son’s claims to distract King Edward from trying to retake parts of France. The French king agreed to an exchange, Calais’ return for solders and their commander, the seneschal of Normandy. The king though wouldn’t provide her with funding, those came from the company commander, Pierre de Breze. She only had a force of about 300, plus a few loyal Lancastrian supporters, including her brother-in-law, Jasper Tudor. 

Sometime Queen Margaret, de Breze, Jasper Tudor, and possibly Price Edward sailed back to Scotland to pick up Henry (and possibly Prince Edward) and the 3rd Duke of Somerset, before heading to Bamburgh and taking the castles of Bamburgh, Dunstaburgh, and Alnwick, the last of which the Percy family held in October of 1462. Warwick, King Edward’s Capitan of the North, marched towards them leading Margaret and Edward to sail back to Scotland, on their way they were shipwrecked, and their mercenary force was drowned (though de Breze survived). Obviously Prince Edward survived or this would be the end of the episode. King Edward marched to join Warwick. The King Edward came down with measles, but after his recovery they besieged Bamburgh, which Jasper surrendered on Christmas Eve 1462, Jasper quickly returned to Scotland. At around the same time the 3rd Duke of Somerset surrendered Dunstaburgh, he also swore an oath of loyalty to King Edward, ouch, talk about changes in fortunes. He was joined in this defection by Sir Ralph Percy, the younger brother of the Henry Percy who died a Towton. The final castle, Alnwick still resisted royal control.

In spring of 1463 Ralph Percy and Somerset decided they preferred their old friends and turned against King Edward (was this their plan all along?). Sometime Queen Margaret and King Henry, along with de Breze marched south to retake Bamburgh, Warwick though, did keep a Scottish force from invading. Somerset joined the King Henry in Bamburgh not long after it was retaken. Thing were stuck in stalemate, with minor fighting, until April the following year. On the 25th at the Battle of Hedgeley Moor Warwick’s younger brother (he had three) John Neville, Baron Montagu (whom, I’ll refer to as Montague from here on out), defeated an attempted ambush by a force lead by Somerset and Percy. Percy was killed in the fighting, keeping up family tradition, Somerset fled the field of battle. This win for Yorkist forces allowed them to begin negotiating a peace treaty with Scotland. Despite his mother’s agreement with France Louis XI would begin negotiating with King Edward. 

Prince Edward’s mother wasn’t giving up though. She travelled to Flanders and then onto France in August 1463 to try to prevent the Anglo-French treaty from happening. Luck wasn’t on Edward’s side though. The Anglo-French treaty was agreed in October of that year and an Anglo-Scottish truce was agreed in early December 1463 (Queen Margaret’s protector, Mary of Guelders died on the 1st of December). While the former treaty was a blow, the truce was a disaster for the Lancastrian royal family. While Prince Edward and Margaret were on the continent King Henry was in Scotland though. After the Anglo-Scottish truce was agreed he was forced to return to England, but he was able to avoid Edward’s supporters, for a time at least. At the time of these agreements, Prince Edward was only 10, but he was his mother’s traveling companion so would have witnessed a great amount of her negotiations with various leaders. Throughout 1464 Queen Margaret attempted to bring supporters to her son’s cause. She contacted his relatives in Portugal and Castile (you’ll remember John of Gaunt’s oldest and third daughter, respectively, married into each of those families). Sadly for Prince Edward, her work was in vain. France wasn’t willing to annoy their new ally and Louis XI was dealing with his own issues (his sons and he didn’t get along, this is a Valois family trait, plus a few of his cousins join in on the prince’s side). Things kept getting worse for the young prince. Lancastrian forces lost the Battle of Hexham on the 15th of May that year. Somerset, and other leading Lancastrians were killed (either in the battle or executed after) and the side’s support in England was pretty well ended. And then, on the 13th of July 1465 Henry was captured near Bashall. He was held in the Tower after his capture. 

For the next five years Prince Edward and Margaret focused on gaining support in France, with minimal luck. It appears they were treated well, and the prince was raised with boys his own age as would be expected for a future king. There area few quotes about Prince Edward that I want to share. I got these both from The Reign of King Henry VI, and they originally from the Calendar of state papers, Milan, compiled in 1912 by AB Hinds. In 1467 the Milanese envoy to France said Price Edward ‘already talks of nothing but cutting off heads or making war, as if he had everything in his hands or was the god of battle of the peaceful occupant of that throne’. And further ‘as soon as he became grown up, he gave himself over entirely to martial exercises; and seated on fierce and half-tamed steeds urged on by his spurs, he often delighted in attacking and assaulting the young companions attending him, sometimes with a lance, sometimes with a sword, sometimes with other weapons, in a warlike manner and in accordance with the rules of military discipline.’ I think it’s important to remember that he had experienced one of the more violent upbringings of any English king since probably Henry III. His grandfather, Henry V had been a martial king and Prince Edward seemed to be in his mould with a slightly sadistic streak. As Griffiths puts it ‘It was as if Edward consciously strove to develop qualities that were diametrically opposed to those of his gentler father.’ 

In 1470 some luck came Prince Edward and Margaret’s way. King Edward and his greatest ally, Warwick, had a falling out due to Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville (plus a bit of King Edward taking Warwick for granted). Warwick and King Edward’s brother, George, Duke of Clarence rebelled against King Edward, attempting to put Clarence on the throne, Clarence was Warwick son-in-law, yes, rather related (Clarence will not be getting an episode). When this failed Warwick fled to the continent with George, Duke of Clarence and met with Queen Margaret to form an alliance. Warwick and Clarence’s flight was actually horrible, they attempted to sail to Calais, which you may remember was somewhere Warwick had been rather popular. Calais though raised their chain and prevented Warwick from coming into their harbour. Warwick, Clarence, their respective wives and Warwick’s unmarried daughter, Anne Neville, were forced to flee to France. Warwick realised he’d never be able to convince the Lords or Commons to accept Clarence, so he selected another potential king to support, Prince Edward. Thankfully, Warwick had that unwed daughter, so in addition to his military prowess he had a bargaining chip. Queen Margaret, Prince Edward, and Warwick agreed to join forces in late July 1470. In December of 1470 Prince Edward married Anne Neville, he was 16 and she was 14. There is no record of this marriage being consummated. Between these two events Warwick returned to England (he took Clarence with him). He was able to temporally overthrow King Edward and restore Henry VI to the throne. From early October 1470 until mid-April 1471 Henry was the puppet king of England, with Warwick pulling the strings. 

In the biggest mistake Queen Margaret and Prince Edward would make they waiting until early-April to leave for England. They arrived on the 14th of April 1471, which happens to be the day Warwick died at the Battle of Barnet. King Edward was able to defeat his cousin’s forces, who may have outnumbered his by up as many as two to one. Clarence had already returned to his brother’s side. Warwick’s brother, Montague was also killed and King Edward’s youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester was injured. Oh, there was one more family member there, Henry Holland, King Edward’s brother-in-law, was fighting on Warwick’s side and surrendered. He was forcibly divorced from King Edward’s sister and imprisoned. Interesting story, in 1475 on a return voyage from France he was pushed…or fell overboard and drowned. There were rumours that King Edward ordered his now-former brother-in-law’s death. 

Prince Edward and his mother received this news as they were marching towards Bristol, likely to meet-up with Prince Edward’s uncle, Jasper. This meeting never occurred, due mainly to river flooding. Instead on the 4th of May 1471 At the Battle of Tewkesbury, King Edward defeated the forces of Prince Edward and became the undisputed king of England. Now, there are no clear records on how Prince Edward died, but it was likely in battle, many of his leading supporters were killed in this battle as well. In a said prologue Queen Margaret survived the battle and was taken hostage. She was ransomed in 1475 and returned to France. She was the first-cousin of the French king, but remained in Anjou, before dying, poor, on the 25th of August 1482, more than eleven years after the death of her beloved son. Prince Edward’s father didn’t fare well after Tewkesbury either. On the 21st of May 1471 he was killed in the Tower. He had been kept alive because his son was an almost scary opponent. As long as Henry was alive Prince Edward couldn’t be the final rallying point, once Prince Edward was dead Henry was surplus, England didn’t need two kings. There are no records of how Henry died, just gossip written long after the events transpired. 

Analysis:

As always, would this Passed have been a better king than the king who ruled in his stead? I don’t know. Edward IV is an often romanticised king, who wasn’t horrible, but really didn’t achieve much. He had an impressive court, full of culture, and he was better financially and military than Henry, but was he that impressive? No. But, Prince Edward was often described as war-like and cruel. We don’t know much more about his character, he’s often portrayed in modern historical fiction as a cruel, evil young man with no redeeming qualities. I think really, someone should have stopped things before the 1st Battle of St Albans and Queen Margaret and Richard, 3rd Duke of York should have figured out a way to get along, I truly mean that mutually, they really seemed to have not been willing, either way, to give each other understanding. 

There’s something important to remember here, Edward’s father’s lack of sound financial management of England was something that was hurting the Lancastrian regime in general. Henry’s poor work at managing his nobles and their complaints against and with each other was destructive to Edward’s chances of ever ruling. While kings have seemingly always struggled with money, they usually had might to back up their need for it, say in Edward I’s case, or were willing to listen to their magnates to find a solution, say in Edward III’s case. Kings that didn’t listen to the magnates or didn’t have the might to back up their financial requests usually did poorly. Off the top of my head King John, Henry III, and now Henry VI are examples of this. They were three men who were weak military and lacked the fore site to listen to financial advice until it was too late. Henry III was only saved from absolute ruin due to his son, Edward I, being old enough and capable enough to come to his aid in his time of need. Edward of Westminster was not in that position at any point until it was too late for this help to matter. Good fiscal policy is really the minimum kings need to be successful and Henry VI failed badly and it left his wife and son in a bad position when his mental health deteriorated.

My next few episodes will be about the women who had a claim to the throne, first Lady Margaret Beaufort, then Elizabeth of York, and finally, well, I’m still deciding, I know I promised Isabella of Castile in the introduction, and I might still do her if she’s wanted. But, this not-so-mini-series has  been so much longer than I expected, so I might stop with Elizabeth of York. I do have the next mini-series already planned, and I’d love to get started on it soon. Thank you as always for listening and I’ll be back next week with a titan of a woman who may not have officially ruled, but no doubt made sure the king listened to her wishes. See you then.