the walls of the city from which he took his title. His death was soon avenged in the bloody fight of Mortimer's Cross, in Herefordshire, by his eldest son Edward, now Duke of York, who followed up his victory by beheading the King's stepfather, Sir Owen Tudor, and many other prisoners. Meanwhile the northern army, which had been joined by Margaret, advanced upon London, defeating on the way, in a second battle at St. Albans, the Earl of Warwick, and rescuing the King, whom the flying Yorkists had left behind them. But the Queen's army, largely composed of Border plunderers, wasted time and roused hostility by pillaging; while Edward, joining Warwick, boldly marched into London, where, in a council of Lords Spiritual and Temporal, he was declared King, and his claim being further acknowledged by a meeting of the citizens and common people, he was enthroned in Westminster Hall, March 4, 1461. Thus ended the reign, though not the life, of the unfortunate Henry, who is to be remembered as the founder of Eton College, and of King's College, Cambridge. His wife was the first foundress of Queen's College in that University.

5. County Elections.-In 1429 was passed a statute restricting the right of voting in the election of knights of the shire. These elections, according to the words of the statute, had "of late been made by very great, outrageous, and excessive number of people *** of which the most part was of people of small substance, and of no value." It was therefore enacted that thenceforth the electoral right should be confined to freeholders of lands or tenements to the yearly value at least of forty shillings.

6. Attainder.-In these troublous times it became the practice for the victorious party to get an Act of Attainder passed against its defeated adversaries. In legal phrase, a man under sentence of death was said to be attaint; and if attaint of high treason, he at

once forfeited his lands, he could inherit nothing, and transmit nothing to his heir. An Act of Attainder was an Act of Parliament attainting a man of treason or felony. By this he was placed in the same position as if he had been sentenced to death by the ordinary process of law. Thus his lands could be at once seized, and he himself be hanged or beheaded when caught. The Queen's party set the example by attainting, in a Parliament held at Coventry in 1459, the Duke of York and his chief adherents. In this case the attainted men were safe out of the way, and as soon as the battle of Northampton had thrown power into their hands, a friendly Parliament reversed the Acts of its predecessor.

CHAPTER XXIV.

EDWARD IV.

Edward IV.; battle of Towton (1)—efforts of Margaret; overthrow of the Lancastrians (2)-marriage of Edward; Clarence and Warwick change sides; restoration of Henry; return of Edward; battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury; death of Henry VI.; Richard, Duke of Gloucester (3)-invasion of France (4)—death of Clarence; death of Edward (5).

1. House of York. Edward IV., 1461-1483. Marching to the North, where the Lancastrian forces now lay, Edward completed his triumph by the victory of Towton, near Tadcaster. The fighting began about four in the afternoon, was continued into the night, and was renewed the next morning, Palm Sunday, March 29, in the midst of a snowstorm which blew in the faces of the Lancastrians. These at last gave way, and, quarter having been forbidden, the slaughter was great. Henry and his family, who had awaited within the walls of York the issue of the

fight, escaped to Scotland. The conqueror soon returned to Westminster to be crowned and to hold his first Parliament, which passed Acts of forfeiture and attainder, including the late King, his wife and son, and all who had been active in their cause, from dukes and earls down to yeomen and tradesmen. The new King, who was about nineteen at his accession, passed for the most accomplished, and until he grew unwieldy, the handsomest man of his time. He had the art of making himself popular; but he was bloodthirsty, unforgiving, and licentious.

2. Overthrow of the Lancastrians. - For three years Margaret and her friends, flitting between England, Scotland, and the Continent, maintained a fitful struggle in the North. A foreign chronicler of the time tells a story that during her wanderings Margaret fell among thieves, and was plundered of all she had. While they quarrelled over their booty, she escaped with her young son Edward into the depths of the forest. There she was met by another robber, to whom, in desperation, she presented the boy, saying, "Here, my friend, save the son of thy King." The outlaw's generosity was touched, and he led them to a place of safety. The Lancastrians were at last crushed for a time by the defeats of Hedgeley Moor, near Wooler, and Hexham, where the Duke of Somerset, son of the rival of Richard of York, was taken and beheaded. King Henry, 'after this last defeat, lay for more than a year hidden in Lancashire and Westmoreland; but he was finally betrayed and brought prisoner to the Tower. The ascendancy of the White Rose brought great suffering upon the Lancastrians, their lands being made over to Yorkists, and themselves reduced to exile and poverty. Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter, concealing his name, is known to have followed the Duke of Burgundy's train barefoot, and begging from door to door.

3. Wars of the Roses Renewed.-In the

autumn of 1464, Edward avowed his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Wydevile, Lord Rivers, and widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian. Her beauty, according to the common tale, won his heart when she was a suppliant to him for the restoration of her late husband's estates. Honours and riches were showered upon her kindred-father, brother, sisters, sons—with a profusion which offended the old nobility, and especially the Earl of Warwick and his brothers. Warwick, desiring an alliance with France, had planned that Edward should marry the French King's sister-in-law, while Edward's new advisers preferred the friendship of the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, who in 1468 married the English King's sister Margaret. The Burgundian alliance was well-pleasing to the London merchants who traded with the Duke's subjects in the Netherlands, but not so to Warwick, who hated Duke Charles. Warwick was not a man who could be safely provoked. He was exceeding wealthy, his hospitality endeared him to the people, and he could raise an army at his word. In his various mansions 30,000 people are said to have been daily fed, and when he stayed in London, whoever had any acquaintance in his household might come and take as much meat as he could carry off on a dagger. To aid him in his schemes against the King, Warwick drew over Edward's brother George, Duke of Clarence, to whom he gave his daughter Isabel in marriage. An insurrection in Yorkshire was fomented by the Earl with such success that for a short time Edward was a prisoner in the hands of his over-powerful subject. But the King soon escaped or was let go; and the failure of a second revolt in 1470 obliged Warwick and his son-in-law to fly into France. Ere long they returned, and proclaimed King Henry; for at the French court Warwick had become reconciled to his old foe Queen Margaret, and had married his daughter Anne to her son Edward. The people

gathered to Warwick in crowds, and it was now King Edward's turn to fly the country; while his wife took refuge in the Sanctuary at Westminster, where she was protected by the religious feeling of the age; and Henry was replaced on the throne. Edward found shelter in the dominions of his brother-in-law of Burgundy, who privately supplied him with money and ships for his return. It was a time of sudden revolutions. On the 14th March, 1471, Edward came back with a small force, landing, like Henry of Bolingbroke before him, at Ravenspurne, and with equal success. His brother Clarence returned to his side; the citizens readily admitted him into London; and from thence he marched to encounter near Barnet the Earl of Warwick and his brother the Marquess of Montacute. The battle began about daybreak on Easter Sunday, April 14, in a mist so thick that the combatants could scarcely see each other; and after six hours' confused fighting Edward gained the victory, Warwick"the King-maker," as historians call him-and Montacute being both slain. The struggle was not quite over, for that same day Queen Margaret landed, and on the 4th May her army encountered that of Edward at Tewkesbury, where it was utterly defeated, she herself being captured soon after. Her son Edward was killed: the common story is that he was brought before his victoricus namesake, who asked him how he durst be so bold as to make war in his realm. The youth made answer that he came to recover his inheritance, whereupon the King struck him in the face with his gauntlet, and the King's brothers, or their attendants, forthwith despatched him with their swords. The victory was followed up by the beheading of Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset-the third of that title who had perished in these wars-and many other prisoners. King Henry, who had been again imprisoned in the Tower, died shortly after-of a broken heart, as the Yorkists said, or murdered,