CHAPTER XVI.

DYNASTIC WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER (1447-1485)

AFTER the death of the Duke of Gloucester and of Cardinal 249. Rival- Beaufort in 1447, the factional strife in England became ry of York Henry VI. was weak, timid, and inefficient. and Suffolk very bitter. Richard, Duke of York, who succeeded Gloucester as heir presumptive to the throne, believed that his position and abili

250. Misgovernment under Suffolk

Suffolk was powerless to preserve order at home, where agrarian troubles were daily increasing. Farming had become less profitable than sheep raising (§ 231); and the grasping lords of the manor insisted on inclosing for their private use the common grazing lands on which by immemorial custom all the tenants had hitherto pas- (1447-1450) tured their stock. The greater barons maintained hordes of armed retainers generally soldiers trained to brigandage in the French wars - and renewed the lawlessness of Stephen's reign, robbing their weaker neighbors of goods, cattle, and even whole manors. Within the century, a dozen statutes were passed to abate the evils of "livery and maintenance," that is, the keeping up of bands of liveried ruffians who terrorized alike the parliamentary electors and the judges and juries of the law courts; but under such a minister as Suffolk the laws were powerless. For a time he gained supporters by making generous grants to court favorites from the crown estates, but in 1450 he was impeached, banished, and murdered on his way to France.

251. Cade's

Since Suffolk's friends remained in power, riots immediately broke out in Middlesex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Kent. An Irish adventurer named Jack Cade moved on London with thirty thousand men; published a manifesto charging upon Rebellion the king's ministers excessive taxation, exclusion of the (July, 1450) lords of royal blood from a share in the government, promotion of upstarts, abuse of "purveyance," or right to seize goods for the royal household, false claims to land, treasonable loss of France, extortion, and undue interference with elections, from all of which the country was suffering; and demanded the restoration of the Duke of York to power. The rebels were tricked into dispersing, and Cade was killed, but the popular demand for reform could not be stilled.

Edmund, Duke of Somerset, nephew of Cardinal Beaufort, succeeded Suffolk as the rival of Richard of York. He had

252. Rivalry of York and Somerset

the support of the queen, Margaret of Anjou, who believed that York was plotting to secure the succession to the throne. A son, Edward, was born to her in 1453; but a few weeks earlier Henry had been seized with an illness which resulted in temporary idiocy, and Parliament, ignoring Margaret's wishes, appointed the Duke of York Protector (1450-1455) and Defender of the Realm. On the king's recovery, a few weeks later, he restored the Beaufort faction to power; and York, claiming that his legal rights and even his personal safety were endangered, rallied his followers at Leicester and marched toward London. He was met by the royal army at St. Albans, and in the battle that followed (May 1455) Edmund of Somerset was slain, the king was taken prisoner, and York became head of the King's Council.

253. First

Wars of the

Roses

The battle of St. Albans marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses, so called from the badges used by the contestants a white rose for York and a red rose for Somerset. At first the issue was simply whether Richard, Duke of issue in the York (who might at any time become heir to the throne), or Henry, the new Duke of Somerset (who belonged to a younger branch of the Lancastrian family), should control the principal offices of state under the king. York claimed that he should be placed in a position to guard his prospective rights; Margaret and Somerset claimed that this would expose the reigning family to intrigue. The issue was complicated because the king was incompetent to choose wise advisers, because York was the ablest and most popular statesman in the kingdom, and because his claim to the throne was by the strict laws of hereditary succession better than the king's-all of which made the suspicions of the queen the more reasonable.

In less than a year after St. Albans, Margaret induced her husband to dismiss York from office, and for the next 254. First three years the two parties maintained an armed neustage of the trality, each warily guarding against a sudden attack.

war

At (1455-1460)