ι66 Constitutional History. [chap.
the carls of Salisbury and Warwick, and the lords Beauchamp
and Sudeley1. The duke found that his cause was not so
popular in Kent as he had expected ; the earls of Salisbury
and Warwick had not yet declared themselves on his side, and
he was willing to treat. He was anxious only as yet to prove
his own loyalty and to overthrow Somerset. The king offered
him pardon for himself, a general amnesty, and full opportunity
mad?bythe 0^^alnlng justice in the ordinary process of law2. It was
duke of York now, possibly, that he laid before the king his formal charges
duke of against Somerset, in a bill of accusation similar to that which
Somerset.
had proved fatal to Suffolk. According to this statement,
Somerset was directly responsible for the loss of Normandy,
where he had removed the good officers whom his predecessor
had left, and let out their places to the highest bidder ; he had
alienated the king’s friends by imprisonment and fines, he had
connived at the breaches of the truce in 1449 ; he had weakened
the garrisons, had neglected to succour besieged places, had
surrendered Rouen in a way that was treacherous and treason-
able, had allowed Calais to fall into a state in which it was
barely defensible, and had embezzled the money paid by way
of indemnity for private losses on the surrender of Maine and
Anjou 3. Here was a sufficiently formidable bill of indictment;
yet there were no charges of tyranny or maladministration at
home, nothing that on the most liberal interpretation could
justify the attempt to coerce the king. And so the lords seem
to have thought. It was agreed that Somerset should remain
in custody until he had answered the accusation, and on this
understanding the duke of York dismissed his forces 4. On the
1 Fabyan, p. 627 ; Paston Letters, ɪ. p. Ixxiv.
2 Whethamstede, i. 162.
3 The full text of the accusation is printed for the first time by Mr.
Gairdner, Paston Letters, ɪ. pp. Ixxvii sq. ; it was known to Stow, Chr.
P- 393∙
4 The duke of York yielded c on condition that his petitions before asked
for the weal of the king and of all his realm might be granted and had,
and his enemies to be committed to the Tower to abide the law, and so
the lords were agreed and granted that it should be and were sworn to
each other; and forthwith the duke sent his men home again, and he
meekly came and submitted Irinself at the Blaekheath to the king, his
adversaries there standing present contrary to the appointment and their
XVIIi.] Reconciliation. 167
ɪst of Mardi he presented himself in the king’s tent, and, to Mbunder.
ɪ 1 c< . standing
his great disgust, found Somerset in Ins accustomed place. He and recon-
, ciliation,
himself was sent under guard to London where, on the ɪ oth of March ɪo,
Marchɪ, a reconciliation with the king was effected. The duke x4s2'
of York, at S. Paul’s, swore fealty to Henry and promised for
the future to sue for remedy in legal form, whenever he should
be aggrieved. But no mention was made of Somerset, and the
duke returned to his home disappointed of his more immediate
aim. England was not yet ready for the civil war, and did The dɪɪke of
not regard an armed force as the constitutional expedient for supported,
getting rid of a minister in whom the king trusted. The king
himself, too ready to believe in the sincerity of the pacification,
issued in the following month a general pardon 2, and spent the
autumn in a royal progress the object of which was to reconcile
all parties. But the policy and influence of Somerset were still
supreme. Archbishop Kemp was transferred in July from Change of
York to Canterbury; bishop Booth of Lichfield, one of those
against whom the commons had petitioned in 1451, was pro-
moted to York. The treasury however remained under the
management of John Tiptoft earl of Worcester, a friend of the
duke of York, who had been appointed on the 15th of April.
One good effect followed the rising ; an expedition was sent in
September3 to Guienne under the earl of Shrewsbury, who
recovered Bourdeaux and gave hopes of a glorious vindication
of English renown 4.
Iu January 1453 the king called a parliament to meet at r⅛∙Hamβnt
Reading on the 6th of March5. The place was probably March ɪʌʒɜi
selected as one free from the Ycrk influence, which was
strong in London, and the election of the speaker showed that
oaths;’ Clir. Loud. p. 138; cf. Stow, p. 385. Whethamstedesaysnothing
about the arrest of Somerset, i. 163. IIall states the matter as uncertain ;
the king t caused the duke of Somerset to be committed to ward as some
say, or to keep himself privy in his own house, as others write ; ’ p. 226.
Cf. Fabyan, ρ. 627.
1 Cf. Chτon. Giles, p. 43. Stow gives the form of the duke’s submission,
Γ∙ 395- Whethamstede (ɪ. 163) says that the duke obtained papal abso-
lution from this oath before he imprisoned Somerset in 1453.
2 WhethamstedeJ. 85, 86 sq. 3 Kymer, xi. 313.
4 Mem. de J. du Clercq (Buchon1 xxxviii), liv. 2, cc. 2 ⅛q.,liv. 3, cc. 1-5.
■> Rot. ParI. v. 227.