Edward IV & Elizabeth Woodville: A True Romance by Amy Licence

Author:Amy Licence [Licence, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2016-02-16T21:00:00+00:00

7

TROUBLE AHEAD

1468–1469

‘Especially astute and cunning.’

I

By the late 1460s, Edward and Warwick were set on a collision course over France and Burgundy. Edward may have been born in Rouen, but it had then been an English-controlled city and had fallen to the French in 1449, after the Yorks had left. The complicated Anglo-French struggles of the Hundred Years War had technically come to an end four years later, with the defeat of the English at the Battle of Castillon. Edward may have signed a treaty of peace with Louis XI in 1463, but he would soon come to consider reopening the breach and invading France to reassert the English crown’s historic claims. Warwick had been keen to promote a French marriage for Edward in 1464, and refused to be deterred in his pursuit of a closer alliance despite the king increasingly favouring Burgundy. By looking towards the elegant and highly ritualised culture of the Netherlands, with its flourishing arts, Edward was taking a new direction, towards a northern-European Renaissance. Essentially, he may have seen France as representative of the past – of the Lancastrian regime – while Burgundy presented an exciting future.

The Milanese state papers highlight the developing tensions between the king and earl over foreign policy. Understandably, Louis was reluctant to trust English intentions after the revelations of Edward’s marriage had rendered the potential alliance with Bona of Savoy invalid. Like Warwick, Louis may have felt duped, even insulted, sympathising with the earl as someone who ‘had always been a friend to his crown’ while he suspected the other ambassadors of ‘deceit or double dealing’.1 Louis was particularly annoyed, as he had sent a contingency of men to fight alongside the Yorkists at Towton and had hoped to cement this with an alliance with the new regime. As Louis met Warwick in Rouen, the French king was aware that Edward was negotiating for his sister to marry Charles the Bold, son of Philip of Burgundy. Louis had offered the hand in marriage of his own daughter Anne to Charles, but it had been refused because the girl was only eight years old. ‘If this takes place,’ the Milanese dispatch continued, referring to the match of Charles and Margaret, ‘[Louis had] talked of treating with the Earl of Warwick to restore King Henry in England, and the ambassador of the old queen in England is already here.’ This was treasonous talk, imagining Warwick opening the back door to a French invasion to restore the Lancastrian line, dating from as early as the summer of 1467. In such circumstances, a restored Margaret of Anjou could not be expected to be forgiving. It could only mean the death or exile of Edward and his family. The Croyland chronicler stated, ‘For some years [Warwick] had appeared to favour the French against the Burgundians, [and] was deeply offended … this in my opinion, was the real cause of dissension between the king and the earl rather than the marriage between the king and queen.’

Then, in June that year, George Neville was deprived of the royal seal.

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