When Henry was once restored to liberty and to his queen, after the second battle of St. Albans (17 Feb., 1461), York’s son, Edward, Earl of March, who became by his father’s death heir to the crown, was immediately proclaimed traitor in the city.(904) The queen wished for victuals to be sent from the city to her forces at St. Albans, but the carts were seized before they left the city by a mob which refused to let them go in spite of the mayor’s entreaties and threats. Margaret’s army consisted for the most part of rude northern followers who threatened to sack the city if once allowed within its walls, and the majority of the inhabitants were unwilling to supply the queen with provisions until she had removed her half-disciplined force to a distance from London. With a civilized army at her back it might have been possible for Margaret to have gained a footing in the city.(905) As matters stood, she deemed it best to accede to the request thus made to her, and to draw off her army. (M489) It was a fatal mistake, for it gave time for Edward and Warwick to join forces and march on London. The civic authorities, finding how hopeless it was to place further dependence upon Henry, and desiring above all things a stronger government than they could look for under the king, now surrendered the city to his opponents. They had not forsaken the king—he had forsaken them. They would no more of him. "He that had Londyn for sake, Wolde no more to hem take."(906) (M490) On the 1st March the chancellor called a general assembly of the citizens at Clerkenwell, and explained to them the title by which Edward, Duke of York, laid claim to the crown.(907) His title was thereupon acknowledged with universal applause, and on the 4th he proceeded to Westminster Palace, accompanied by many of the nobility and commons of the realm,(908) and was there proclaimed king by the name of Edward IV. CHAPTER XII. (M491) The new king made himself very popular with the citizens. He was not less a favourite with them because he joined their ranks and became a trader like themselves, or because he took a wife from among his own subjects and made her a sharer of his crown. At the coronations, both of Edward and his queen, which took place after an interval of three years, the City was fully represented, and its claim to services at the king’s coronation banquet duly acknowledged.(909) At the latter ceremony no less than four citizens, among them being Ralph Josselyn, the mayor, were created Knights of the Bath.(910) The citizens had previously shown their respect to Elizabeth Woodville by riding forth to meet her and escorting her to the Tower on her first arrival to London, and by presenting her with a gift of 1,000 marks or £750.(911) (M492)