The Brothers York: A Royal Tragedy by Thomas Penn

Author:Thomas Penn [Penn, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2020-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

During the first months of 1474, Edward’s French war still seemed a long way off. Parliament had reassembled briefly, expecting an update on his plans, before again being prorogued. No business had been done, and the frustrated lords and commons left with a series of royal excuses ringing in their ears: Edward’s chief partner in the invasion coalition, Charles the Bold, was distracted with his own expansionist military campaign; and besides, Edward had had his hands full with domestic problems. Foremost among which, of course, was the friction between his brothers.43

By the time Parliament was again recalled a few months later, a key cause of that unrest had been resolved. In mid-February the earl of Oxford, holding out on St Michael’s Mount, finally capitulated. The siege had been more long-drawn-out than it should have been, and Edward had had to sack the besieging commander, Henry Bodrugan, for fraternizing with Oxford instead of fighting him. Finally, when his men had all been bought off by bribes and royal pardons, Oxford surrendered, on condition that Edward spare his life. Following an uncomfortable audience with the king at Windsor Castle, the earl was taken across the Channel to Calais, where he was immured in the border fortress of Hammes along with his fellow prisoner George Neville. Though Oxford’s resistance had in the end proved little more than a costly nuisance to Edward, it had threatened much more.

Having tied up one loose end, Edward moved to knot another. The lesson he had tried to drive home to Clarence late the previous year had, it seemed, finally sunk in. That summer, Clarence finally agreed to the terms proposed by Edward for the splitting of the Warwick estates between himself and Richard. Then again, he had little choice: it was either that, or losing everything. In July, a mollified Edward returned most of Clarence’s confiscated lands to his brother; all except the wealthy lands around Tutbury, which remained in Hastings’ possession – as a reminder, perhaps, of what happened when you crossed the king.44

Having finally, as he thought, partitioned the Warwick estates to his brothers’ satisfaction, Edward forced through a parliamentary act enshrining it in law. It was a squalid piece of legislation. Warwick’s widow Anne was formally disinherited, her vast estates split between her two daughters – which in effect meant their husbands, Clarence and Gloucester. The Countess Anne herself was made ‘naturally dead’, the redistribution of her property ‘as good and effectual in law’ as if it had been passed on by inheritance. Edward had ridden roughshod over the accepted customs and laws of inheritance in order to promote his family’s interests, and had used Parliament, the highest court in the land, to legitimize his actions. It would not be the last time.

As the self-exculpatory wording of the act put it, the settlement was done for ‘various great and important reasons and considerations’ – the quarrel between his brothers, which Edward had otherwise struggled to control, and which had become so disruptive that it had become a major obstacle in Edward’s plans for his invasion of France.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.