204
Constitutional History.
[chap.
Margaret France, she enlisted some sympathy for her wrongs: and on
maintains √ χ √ α
a warfare on the northern border, where the Percies were strong, she main-
the border. , 3 , ,
The earl of tamed a stout resistance, to the Hnal ruin of her friends. In
to death, February 1462 the earl of Oxford, on suspicion of intriguing
Feb. 1462. w∣tJ1 }ιel.j was arres⅛edj fried before the high constable, the earl
of Worcester, and beheaded with his son, a knight, and two
squires ɪ. In March Somerset arrived in Scotland, and under-
took the command whilst the Queen went to France2. In the
summer the border castles fell; in the late autumn Margaret
Somerset recovered them ; in November and December the king retook
them again, and admitted Somerset to peace and favour3; early
in 1463 Bamborough and Alnwick were again in Lancastrian
Foreign.in- hands. The politicians of both parties, in the summer of this
tɪ 1gues1n x ɪ 1
i463∙ year, went abroad to canvass for new allies. The duke of Bur-
gundy was courted by both, and in his magnificent way listened
to both. To Margaret he gave money, with bishop Neville he
negotiated a truce. In the meantime money was required for
the maintenance of the government. The convocation had in-
deed made its grant in 1462, and Edward had done his best Io
disarm the clerical opposition by granting on November 2 the
same yeari letters patent which guaranteed the confirmation of
ecclesiastical privilege. But the lay estates were as yet untaxed,
of r463lsnt 'ɪ'θ ra'se suPPlies a new parliament met on the 29th of Apiil,
1463, which sat by virtue of several prorogations, at West-
minster and York, until the year 1465". The Piolls preserve little
record of its transactions beyond a few trade petitions, an act
of resumption, and the attainder of those enemies who incurred
the guilt of treason during its continuance6. It showed how-
ever towards Edward an amount of confidence which must have
been based either on fear or on hope, for it could not have been
1 The earl, his sou Aubrey, Sir Thomas Todenliam, and two esquires
were beheaded ; Gregory, p. 218 ; Chron. Lond. p. 142 ; W. Wore. p. 779∙
2 Gregory, Chr. pp. 219, 221 ; W.ΛVorc. p. 779 > Paston Letters,ii. 131.
3 W. Wore. p. 780. On the exact chronology of these years see an
article by Mr. Perceval, in the Archaeologia, xlvii. 265-294, and Mr,
Plummer’s notes on Fortescue, pp. 61, 62, 63. The queen went to France
in April and returned about October, 1462. She sailed again to Flanders,
probably in June, 1463.
t Rymer, xi. 493-495 ; Wilkins, Cone. ili. 582.
s Rot. Pari. V. 496-570. John Say was speaker. c lb. v. 511.
XVIII.]
Benewal of War.
aoʒ
the result of experience. A grant of £37,000 was made for Money
the defence of the realm, to be levied in the way in which the 4∣⅛s’°
fifteenth and tenth were levied, and to be subject to the usual
deduction of £6000 for the relief of decayed towns ; this grant
seems to show that £37,000 was the ordinary produce of a
fifteenth and tenth1. This was done in the first sitting which
closed in June 1463. On meeting again in November the
commons changed the foɪm of the grant and ordered it to be
levied under the name of a fifteenth and tenth2. In the closing Grant for
life in 1465.
session, January 21, 1465, tunnage and poundage and the sub-
sidy on wool were granted to the king for his life3; but this
was after the battle of Hexham had made him practically
supreme. By these grants the commons probably obtained the
royal assent to several commercial statutes, which show that
with a strong government the interests of trade were reviving,
and the national development following the line which it had
taken in the better days of Henry V and Henry VI. But the
interest of the drama still hangs on the career of Margaret4.
which drew near its close.
Having obtained some small help from Lewis XI, she re- Renewal of
° TiiA rr< ii τ warfare in
newed the struggle at the close of 1463j : Somerset had returned x464.
to his allegiance® early in the next year; the Lancastrian host
entered England from the north. John Neville, lord Montague,
brother of Warwick, was sent to meet the invading forces,
and defeated them in two battles ; at Hedgley Moor on
the 25th of April, and at Hexham on the 8th or ɪ,ɔth of
May7. At Hexham the duke of Somerset, the lords Eoos and
1 Kot. Parl. v. 497 ; Warkworth, p. 3. Convocation granted a tenth,
July 23, 1463; Wilk. Cone. iii. 585, 587 ; and in 1464 a subsidy of six-
pence in the pound for the crusade ; p. 598,
2 Rot. Parl. v. 498 ; Nov. 4. 3 Rot. Park v. 508.
4 In June 1462, at Chinon, Margaret borrowed 20,000 livres of Lewis XI
to be repaid within a year after the recovery of Calais ; in default of pay-
ment Calais was to be delivered to Lewis ; App. D to Foed. p. 86.
5 It appears almost certain that Margaret, after her departure from
England in 1463, remained abroad until 1470: see Perceval, Arch, xlvii.
cited above, p. 204, but of. Plummer, p. 62.
c Gregory, p. 223 ; W. Wore. p. 781.
’ The exact date of the battle of Hexham is not certainly fixed. According
to Gregory the march on Hexham began May 14, and on the 15 th Somerset