Private Life of Edward IV by Ashdown-Hill John

Author:Ashdown-Hill, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2016-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

20

1470–1471: WINTER IN EXILE

As was mentioned briefly in connection with Miss Wayte’s story, in 1469, 1470 and 1471 Edward IV was, at times, forcibly separated from Elizabeth Widville. In 1469 he was for a time a virtual prisoner in the hands of the leading anti-Widville campaigners, his cousin the Earl of Warwick and his brother the Duke of Clarence. Subsequently those two were forced to flee to the European mainland, whereupon Warwick adopted the role of a Lancastrian supporter and brought about the brief restoration of King Henry VI. As a result, Edward IV and his loyal brother the Duke of Gloucester then found themselves forced into exile in the Low Countries.

Ironically, however, not only did Edward’s forced separation from Elizabeth Widville make no significant break to the then regular pattern of conceptions by the latter of royal children, but it also coincided with her most significant pregnancy – the one which finally resulted in the delivery not of yet another royal daughter but of a son. It seems, therefore, that his period of serious trouble may have been the very period which started producing sons for Edward IV. In November 1470, while the king himself was in exile in the Low Countries and Elizabeth Widville was in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, the latter gave birth to the son whom she named Edward after his father, and who was subsequently proclaimed Prince of Wales. As for Miss Wayte, it may have been about two months after the birth of Edward, Prince of Wales, that she gave birth to little Arthur Wayte, an initially insignificant and unrecognised royal bastard who would have been born while his father was still out of the country. What is more, that may not be the end of the story of royal sons at that period.

Edward IV and his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had fled from England on 29 September 1470. The dethroned king

fled straight to Holland. At this time the Easterlings were enemies of both the English and the French and had several warships at sea. The English were very frightened of them and not without cause, for they were good fighters. … The Easterlings espied the ships in which the king was fleeing from a great distance and seven or eight ships began to give chase. But he was too far ahead of them and reached Holland or rather a little further up the coat because he landed close to a small town called Alkmaar in Frisia [just north of Amsterdam]. He anchored his ship because the tide was out, and they could not enter the harbour, but they came as close to the town as they could. The Easterlings did the same, anchoring close to him with the intention of boarding him at the next tide. … [But] by chance my lord of Gruthuse, the duke of Burgundy’s governor in Holland, was then at the place where King Edward wanted to disembark. He was immediately told about this, for they had landed some men, and about the danger they were in from the Easterlings.

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