Advance-
ment of the
queen’s
relations.
Waι*wick
plans a
marriage
for his
daughter
with
Clarence.
Conflicting
foreign
policy,
208 Conditutlonal History- [chap.
involves fewer points of political principle and more of mere
personal rivalry. Edward was tired of the domination of the
Nevilles, who, like the Percies sixty years before, seemed to be
overvaluing their services and undervaluing their rewards.
Warwick, like Hotspur, was a man of jealous temper and high
spirit. The king, unwilling to sink into the position of a
pupil or a tool, had perhaps conceived the notion, common to
Edward II and Richard II, of raising up a counterpoise to the
Nevilles in a circle of friends devoted to himself. From the
time of the declaration of his marriage he seems to have laboured
incessantly for the promotion of his wife’s relations. Her
father, a man of years and experience, already a baron, became
in March 1466 lord treasurer1, in the following May an earl,
and in 1467 high constable of England ; his eldest son Antony
was already a baron in right of his wife, the heiress of lord
Scales ; another, John, was married in 1465 to the aged duchess
of Norfolk. Of the daughters, one was married in 1464 to the
heir of the Arundels, another in 1466 to the duke of Bucking-
ham, another to the lord Grey of Ruthyn, and another to the
heir of lord Herbert, the king’s most confidential friend2. The ∙
same year the queen’s son, by her first husband, was betrothed
to the heiress of the duke of Exeter, the king’s niece. These
marriages, especially those which connected the upstart house
with the near kindred of the royal family, the Statfords and
the Hollands, were very offensive to Warwick, who did not
scruple to show his displeasure, and began a counter-intrigue
for the marriage of one of his daughters with the duke of
Clarence, the heir-presumptive to the throne3. The appoint-
ment of lord Rivers as treasurer was even more offensive, since
he had been a warm partisan of the Lancastrian cause, for
which also the queen’s first husband had fallen. In foreign
policy too the aims of Edward and Warwick were now diverging,
the king making approaches to Burgundy, the earl trying to
negotiate an alliance with France. On this errand Warwick
was absent when Edward next met the parliament, in June 1467.
1 W. Wore. p. 785. 2 lb. pp. 783, 785, 786.
3 lb. p. 788.
χvιιι.^] Alienation of Warwick.
209
The session was opened on the 3rd with a discourse from the Parliament
bishop of Lincoln, in the absence of the chancellor 1. On the june 1467.
6th the king made a declaration of his intention ‘ to live of his
own,’ and only in case of great necessity to ask the estates
for an aid ; and the declaration was followed up with an act of
resumption, in which, although provision was made for Clarence
and Warwick, archbishop Neville was not spared2. On the Neville
8th the absence of the chancellor was explained; the king and from the
lord Herbert visited archbishop Neville in his house at West- chanoery∙
minster, and took from him the great seal3 ; it was given the
next day to Robert Stillington, bishop of Bath. On the day Prorogation
of Warwick’s return, July ι, the parliament was prorogued,
and did not meet again till the 12th of May, 14684. Before
that time Warwick’s influence over the king’s mind was entirely
lost and his own position seriously imperilled.
The French ambassadors whom he brought over in July 1467 Aiiianceof
were treated. by the king with scant Civihty ; the negotiations with Bur-
with Burgundy, where duke Charles had in June succeeded his
father Philip, were busily pressed ; and in a great council held
in October it was agreed that Charles should marry the king’s
sister, Margaret of York5. Warwick, perhaps as a counter-
move, urged on the project for Clarence’s marriage with his
daughter. Just at the same time a courier of queen Margaret
was arrested by lord Herbert, and to save himself laid infor-
mation against several persons as favouring the intrigues of his
mistress0. War wick’s name was in the list, possibly placed Warwick
, *, . charged
there by Herbert and the Wydvilles : although it was possible, with in-
j ∙ j j . , l7 . . λ . trigιxe with
and indeed not improbable, that in the disappointment of his the Lancas-
foreign policy he had opened communication through Lewis XI
with Margaret. Having declined to accept an invitation from Heisac-
, ι , ∙ , . ' . , , quitted, but
the King, he was examined at Middleham by a royal messenger, offended.
and the charge was declared frivolous. But the accusation,
whether based on fact or not, sank deep into his soul. Edward,
feeling that there was cause for mistrust, surrounded himself
1 Rot. Parl. v. 571. 2 Rot. Parl. v. 572-613; W. Wore. p. 786.
3 W. Wore. p. 786 ; Rymer, xi. 578, 579 ; Warkworth, p. 3.
* Rot. Parl. v. 618 ; W. Wore. p. 7§7- 5 W. Wore. p. 788.
6 W. Wore. p. 788.
VOL. ɪɪɪ. 1>