Lancastrians and Yorkists by D.R. Cook

Author:D.R. Cook [Cook, D.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Europe, Great Britain, General
ISBN: 9781317880967
Google: 7MIeBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-07-30T01:23:56+00:00

11

Edward IV and the Earl of Warwick

‘He may be seen as the supreme example of the overmighty subject whose end must be either to destroy or be destroyed’ (49, p. 69). This perceptive remark was made about Thomas of Lancaster, the great rival of Edward II, but it is clearly applicable to Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick. There are strong parallels between the careers of the two men. Both Lancaster and Warwick were able to gain power but found it difficult to maintain their authority. They lacked the sovereignty and prestige of kingship and experienced difficulties in cultivating support amongst their fellow nobles.

The character of Warwick remains something of an enigma. There is no surviving portrait, effigy or even a detailed description of his appearance. The Rous Roll contains a line drawing of the Earl but the illustration is more concerned with heraldry than his physical appearance. Rous revealed his admiration for Warwick in the accompanying description:

this noble earl was a knight of the Garter and he had all England at his leading and was feared and respected through many lands…his knightly acts had been so excellent that his noble and famous name could never be put from laudable memory (20, cap. 57).

However, Rous was hardly impartial. His view was determined by the size of the Earl’s benefactions to the town and churches of Warwick. Moreover the work was constructed for the favour of the current Lord of Warwick, Richard III, whose Queen was the Earl’s daughter.

There was nothing ‘knightly’ about a career which earned for Warwick the nickname of‘Kingmaker’. His whole character seems dominated by a ruthless greed and ambition for land and power. He would appear to have had the worst record in the fifteenth century, with the possible exception of Richard III, for settling private scores by violence and judicial n.urder. His execution of Herbert and the others after Edgecote had no legal justification, since they were not in arms against the King whom Warwick still acknowledged. He possessed great force of character and energy, but these characteristics seem to have been solely channelled into political activities. Warwick does not appear to have been a great builder, patron of the arts or religious founder. This might have been a matter of economics, for his large revenues may have been absorbed by his exceptional and continual need to cultivate political and military support. All the same he maintained a luxurious and extravagant household. Apparently any man who had ‘any acquaintance’ with his house could get as much meat ‘sodden or roast’ as he liked to take away. It was his hospitality, his naval prowess and his pithy turn of phrase which caught men’s imaginations. He always attracted support as the champion of the ‘common weal’, but he espoused popular grievances as a means to his own self-aggrandisement.

In 1461 Warwick played the crucial role in Edward IV’s usurpation. Some historians (41, have interpreted this as the first example of his ‘kingmaking’ p. 97). This view is based on foreign accounts, which were prone to exaggerate Warwick’s influence (54, p.

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