had been from time immemorial part of the stores of political
warfare ; but it comprises other points which, whilst they evince
the unscrupulous hostility of the accusers, at the same time
reveal the causes of the king’s fall and explain his helplessness
in the great crisis. First come the oppressions of the church,
offences which least of all could be laid to Henry’s charge ; then
follow, as notorious grievances, the poverty of the king, which
has compelled the practice of purveyance ; the perversion of the
law, whereby all righteousness and justice is exiled from the land;
the waste of royal revenue on men who are ‘ the destroyers of the
land,’ so that the king cannot live of his own as his ancestors
did, but is obliged to plunder the commons ; the heavy taxation
which had enriched the very men who had lost Anjou, Maine,
and Normandy ; the recent demand of a force to be maintained
by the townships for the king’s guard; the attempts made
to stir up the Irish against the duke and the French against
Calais, attempts which show that the ministers are ready to
betray the realm into the hands of foreigners ; the murder of
Gloucester and attempted murder of the duke of York and the
earls; the influence of the earls of Shrewsbury and AViltshire
and the lord Beaumont, who have prevented the king from
showing grace to them, hoping to escape the penalty due to
them for causing the misery of the kingdom, ‘ whereof they be
causes and not the king, which is himself as noble, as virtuous,
as righteous, and blessed of disposition as any prince earthly; ’
and the acts of the parliament of Coventry which were really
the acts of the same lords. In expectation of a French invasion,
the writers pray the archbishop and the commons to assist
them in gaining access to the king, and call on God, the Virgin,
and all saints to witness the sincerity of their profession of
fealty. In another memorial, circulated among the Kentish-
men, all these charges are repeated and the king’s friends are
accused of teaching that his .will is above the law¹. Having
thus prepared the way the lords marched on London, where the
citizens received them on the 2nd of July². With March and
AVarwick were the lords Fauconberg, Clinton, Bourchier, Audley,

* Chr, White Rose, p. Ixxv. ⁸ VZ. Wore, p, 773 > Eng- Chr. p. 94.

Bergaveiiny, Say, and Scrope. Tlie lords Scales, Vesey, Lovell,
and de la Warr, held out against them in the Tower. Con-
vocation was sitting at the time, and Warwick took the oppor-
tunity of stating his grievances before the clergy, and swearing
faith and allegiance on the cross of Canterbury. Then, leaving
the earl of Salisbury as governor of London, they set out to
meet the king.

Henry, who was with his council at Coventry, marched, Battieof
when he heard of the landing of the earls, for Northampton ; ton, July
Margaret was gathering forces in the north. At Northampton ^lo,146°'
the earls arrived with 60,000 men, and after Warwick had

made three separate attempts to force himself into the king’s
presence, in which he was foiled by the duke of Buckingham,
the battle OfNorthampton was fought on the ɪoth of July¹.
Like the first battle of S. Alban’s it was marked by a great Slaughter of
.    - -     ITT Λ T» 1 ∙ 1      the I^jancab*

slaughter of the Lancastrian lords ; the duke of Buckingham, tria∏ ioι⅞.

the earl of Shrewsbury, the lords Beaumont and Egremont,
were slain beside the king’s tent. It is a miserable sign of
Warwick’s vindictiveness that those against whom he had
private grievances, such as Egremont, or with whom he was
in public rivalry, such as Beaumont and Shrewsbury, were the
special victims. He had given orders that no man should lay
hand on the king or on the commons, but only on the lords,
knights, and squires ; and the command was so far faithfully
obeyed². The lord Grey of Ruthyn, who led the king’s van- Desertion
guard, went over to Warwick, and the battle lasted only half Ruthyn-°^f
an hour. Henry was taken in his tent and obliged to accept The king
the profession of devotion which the earls consistently prof-brought to
fered³. On the 16th of July he was brought to London⁴. On ^London’
the 19th the defenders of the Tower surrendered, and lord
Scales, on his way to sanctuary, was murdered by the boatmen
on the Thames⁵. On the 25th George Neville, bishop of Exeter,
brother of the earl of Warwick, was made chancellor⁸. On

¹ Eng. Chr. pp. <95-97 ! Gregory, p. 207 ; W. Wore. p. 773 ; Whetham-
stede, i. 372 sq.

^a Eng. Chron. p. 97.              ³ lb. p. 97.               ⁴ lb. p. 98.

⁵ W. Wore. pp. 773, 774 > ^Eng- ^chr∙ P∙ 9⁸∙

⁶ Rymer, xi. 458, 459, 460. Cf. Ordinances, vi. 303.

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