His first sign of revolt was his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville,
a lady of decidedly Lancastrian connexions, for her father and her first
husband were both members of the defeated faction. Warwick was at the
moment suing for the hand of Louis XI.'s sister-in-law in his master's
name, and had to back out of his negotiations in a sudden and somewhat
ridiculous fashion. His pride was hurt, but for two years more there was
no open breach between him and his master, though their estrangement
grew more and more marked when Edward continued to heap titles and
estates on his wife's numerous relatives, and to conclude for them
marriage alliances with all the great Yorkist families who were not of
the Neville connexion. In this way he built up for himself a personal
following within the Yorkist party; but the relative strength of this
faction and of that which still looked upon Warwick as the true
representative of the cause had yet to be tried. The king had in his
favour the prestige of the royal name, and a popularity won by his
easy-going affability and his liberal gifts. The earl had his
established reputation for disinterested devotion to the welfare of the
realm, and his brilliant record as a soldier and statesman. In districts
as far apart as Kent and Yorkshire, his word counted for a good deal
more than that of his sovereign.
Warwick organizes a rebellion.
Rising of "Robin of Redesdale."
Unhappily for England and for himself, Warwick's loyalty was not
sufficient to restrain his ambition and his resentment. He felt the
ingratitude of the king, whom he had made, so bitterly that he stooped
ere long to intrigue and treason. Edward in 1467 openly broke with him
by dismissing his brother George Neville from the chancellorship, by
repudiating a treaty with France which the earl had just negotiated, and
by concluding an alliance with Burgundy against which he had always
protested. Warwick enlisted in his cause the king's younger brother
George of Clarence, who desired to marry his daughter and heiress
Isabella Neville, and with the aid of this unscrupulous but unstable
young man began to organize rebellion. His first experiment in treason
was the so-called "rising of Robin of Redesdale," which was ostensibly
an armed protest by the gentry and commons of Yorkshire against the
maladministration of the realm by the king's favourites--his wife's
relatives, and the courtiers whom he had lately promoted to high rank
and office. The rebellion was headed by well-known adherents of the
earl, and the nickname of "Robin of Redesdale" seems to have covered the
personality of his kinsman Sir John Conyers. When the rising was well
started Warwick declared his sympathy with the aims of the insurgents,
wedded his daughter to Clarence despite the king's prohibition of the
match, and raised a force at Calais with which he landed in Kent.
Battle of Edgecott. Edward a prisoner.
Execution of the queen's relatives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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