214
Constitutional History.
[chap.
Stamford. After the battle the king found Unmistakeable proof
that AVarwick and Clarence, whom he seems still to have trusted
were implicated in the transactions. Sir Robert, before he was
executed, confessed that the object of the rebels was to make
Clarence king2. He was beheaded on the 13th of March; on
the 23rd3 Edward issued a proclamation against his brother
Warwick and Warwick, who, having failed to find help in Lancashire,
and Clarence ri . 1 1 n 1
fly to France, and to eπect a landing at Southampton, had tied to г rance.
Slsign °t ɪɪ1 France they were brought into communication with queen
™dkWar- Margaret, and Warwick in all sincerity undertook to bring
about a new revolution; Clarence probably contemplating his
chance of recovering his brother’s good-will by betraying his
father-in-law.
km™ Sept Thedesignwasrapidlyripened. Onthe 13th OfSeptember
ι47°∙ Warwick landed at Dartmouth; Edward, finding himself for-
saken by the marquess of Montague, Warwick’s brother1, fled
to Flanders on the 3rd of October; on the 5th archbishop
Flight of
Edward and
restoration
of Henry VI.
Neville and bishop AVaynflete took Henry VI from the Tower ;
queen Elizabeth took sanctuary at Westminster ; the earl of
AVorcester, Edward’s constable and the minister of his cruelties,
was taken and beheaded5. The nation without regret and
without enthusiasm recognised the Lancastrian restoration.
On the 9 th of October writs for the election of coroners and
verderers, and on the ɪɔth the summons for parliament, were
Henry⅛ issued in Henry’s name6. On the 26th of November Henry
parliament,
November was made to hold his parliament; do formal record of its pro-
ceedings is preserved, but the writs of summons show that
1 Paston Letters, ii. 394, 395 ; Kymer, xi. 652.
2 The confession of Sir Robert Welles is printed in the Excerpta Historica,
pp. 283 sq.
s Rymer, xi. 654 ; Warkworth, notes, pp. 53-56; see also Rot. Parl.
vi. 233.
4 John Neville, who had been made earl of Northumberland in 1465,
had had to restore the Percy estates in 1470, and was then made marquess
of Montague.
ft Paston Letters, ii. 412. Tiptoft hanged the prisoners taken at South-
ampton in 1470, and impaled their bodies : Leland, Coll. ii. 502 ; cf.
Warkworth, p. 9.
6 Lords’ Report, iv. 976 ; Rymer, xi. 661 sq. The period of restoration,
‘ readeptio regiae potestatis,* or forty-ninth year of Henry VI, extended
from October 9, 1470, to the beginning of April 1471-
XVIiI.] Restoration of Henry FI. 215
thirty-four lords were called to it, and one historian has pre-
served the text of the opening sermon. Archbishop Neville,
who had been made chancellor, preached on the words, ‘ Turn,
O backsliding children V The crown was again settled on
Henry and his son, with remainder, in case of the extinction
of the house of Lancaster, to the duke of Clarence2. The
supreme power was lodged in the hands of Warwick, who
according to contemporary writers was made lieutenant or
governor of the realm, with Clarence as his associate3. TheAetsoftiie
attainders passed in Edward’s parliaments were then repealed, of J470.
and in consequence, early in 1471, the dukes of Somerset and
Exeter and the earls of Pembroke and Piichmond returned to
England.
The collapse of Edward’s power was so complete, that for No great
, . , ττι∙ι enthusiasm
some weeks neither he nor his enemies contemplated the chance for either
of a restoration. The Nevilles disbanded their forces, and k'ng'
Edward scarcely hoped for more than the recovery of his
paternal estates. For Henry it was impossible to excite any
enthusiasm ; he had never been popular : five years of captivity,
calumny, squalour, and neglect had made him an object cf
contempt. Yet the royal name had great authority, and who-
ever claimed it seemed to have the power of calling large forces
into the field ; and men fought as if to preserve their own lives
or to satiate their thirst for blood, with little regard to the
banner under which they were marshalled. As for the main-
tenance of the common weal, the nation was now fully per-
suaded that there was little to choose between the weak
government of Henry and the strong government of Edward ;
both alike allowed the real exercise of power to become a mere
prize for contending factious among the nobles : the laws were
no better administered, the taxes were no lighter, under the
one than under the other. They accepted Henry as their king
l Warkworth, p. 12. No returns to the Commons are found.
2 This act of the parliament is known only by the rehearsal in the act of
1478 which repealed it ; Kot. Parl. vi. 191-193.
i Hall, p. 286. The writer of the account of Edward’s return (White
Rose, p. 36) speaks of him as ‘ calling himself lieutenant of England by
pretended authority of the usurper Henry and his accomplices.’