What if Edmund, Earl of Rutland survived? - A Second White Rose

[Zestinobambino]

Edmund, Earl of Rutland. Born in Rouen, 1443, died near Wakefield, 1460. He was the second son of Richard, Duke of York - his older brother being Edward, Earl of March, later King Edward IV. Rutland died when he was 17 at the Battle of Wakefield, but what if he didn’t?
I’ve been working on this timeline for a little while now, inspired by others on here. Wouldn’t mind some feedback or some friendly discussion about my ideas.
The main POD is that it’s Sir John Grey of Groby who apprehends Edmund during the Battle of Wakefield and decides to let the young man go, thinking of his own two sons. This lets Edmund survive, of course, but also butterflies John’s survival into Edward IV’s reign, while killing off Sir Henry Stafford and John Stafford.
I’ll post on this a few paragraphs at a time. Let me know what you think, and enjoy.

 

[Zestinobambino]

Edward IV came to the throne on 28th March 1461 following the Battle of Towton and faced a tricky situation – his power came from only a handful of nobles and centred on a single family, and most nobles were either neutral towards him or were actively opposed to him. England’s finances were in a shoddy state following Henry VI’s frittering away of crown lands, and the war in France had effectively ended with total English failure. His reign promised much, and it was up to him to deliver.

His priority initially was to build on the handful of nobles that had supported him, and to appease the Lancastrian nobles that had opposed him. His brothers were all raised to dukedoms – Edmund’s earldom of Rutland was raised to a duchy, and he was also made the Earl of Hereford and Northampton as subsidiary titles; George was made Duke of Clarence; and Richard was made Duke of Gloucester. Henry Bourchier was made Earl of Essex and the Nevilles were vastly rewarded with positions of economic and military power. Around Edward a small group of lesser nobles and gentry emerged as well, such as Humphrey Stafford; John, Lord Audley; Sir John Wenlock; Sir Walter Blount, Lord Mountjoy; Sir Walter Devereux; and Sir John Howard, as well as William Hastings (later Lord Hastings) and William Herbert (later the Earl of Pembroke). Edward also tried to reconcile himself with the Lancastrian nobles, with varying degrees of success. While throughout his reign Edward IV reconciled nobles including Sir John Grey and Henry Tudor, others – like Edmund, Duke of Somerset, Sir Ralph Percy, and the Earl of Northumberland – remained against Edward until their deaths.

Edward IV’s oldest brother Edmund, now the Duke of Rutland and Earl of Hereford and Northampton, had a bit of personal patronage to give out. At the Battle of Wakefield (30th December 1460), Edmund had been accosted by Sir John Grey of Groby. Grey had two young sons himself, and couldn’t bring himself to kill the seventeen-year-old Edmund, instead choosing to let him escape with his life. Even though Grey fought for the Lancastrians, he did not fight again for them after Wakefield, and Edmund remembered his goodness of soul. Shortly after Edward’s succession, he summoned Grey to London to meet with him. Here, he thanked Grey for saving Edmund’s life and pardoned him for fighting for the Lancastrians - the first nobleman to be pardoned by Edward IV. Edmund also expressed to Grey his own personal gratitude, and a friendship between the men began to form.

 

[Zestinobambino]

The Earl of Northumberland was probably the most powerful man in the North of England (possessing castles like Alnwick, Bamburgh and Dunstanburgh) and was a staunch Lancastrian supporter. Following the Battle of Towton he retreated to his castle at Alnwick, where he began to draw up plans for a rebellion alongside his brother, Sir Ralph Percy. Their plans boiled over into rebellion on 5th May 1461, when an army of 6,000 gathered at Alnwick and proclaimed Edward IV illegitimate. They were soon joined by 1,000 Scottish troops led by Margaret of Anjou and Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. As the rebels consolidated their northern territory, Edward rushed north alongside Rutland, Warwick, and Warwick’s brother John Neville to put the rebellion down.

The Yorkists raised an army of 12,000 from lands as they went north, to be reinforced by the Duke of Norfolk later. Also involved in the rebellion were members of the senior branch of the Neville family, headed by the Earl of Westmoreland but represented by the earl’s nephew, Sir Humphrey Neville. Neville joined the rebellion and got as far south as Brancepeth, but he was halted here by a group of Warwick’s men. Humphrey was captured and taken to York, where he met Edward IV. Together, Edward, Warwick and Humphrey began to deal with the Neville-Neville feud. It was Edward’s aim to win over the senior Neville branch to his cause so that the Earl of Westmoreland would no longer support Northumberland’s rebellion and the Scottish invasion. Edward did this by confiscating some of Warwick’s lands that he inherited from the Nevilles and giving them back to the Earl of Westmoreland, while also promising Warwick that he would be given some of Northumberland’s lands in compensation, whereas Westmoreland would not. This agreement was acceptable to both Nevilles and was agreed upon on 7th June 1461. Meanwhile, the war was left to Edmund, Duke of Rutland, and John Neville, who were an effective team. They beat the Lancastrians back at Consett and again at Newbiggin, where they managed to capture Sir Ralph Percy. In the Battle of Newcastle (12th July 1461), the Yorkists finally received the support of 4,000 men under the Duke of Norfolk, and they defeated the Scottish force led by the Earl of Argyll, who was killed by one of Rutland’s archers. The Scots retreated, and the Lancastrian leadership went with them – including the Earl of Northumberland. At the same time, Edward IV issued a pardon for all rebels who surrendered, which prompted most rebels still alive to go home. In the aftermath of the rebellion, Northumberland was attainted by the November 1461 parliament, and his estates were shared out between Edward IV, Rutland and the junior Nevilles. Content with the end of the Neville-Neville feud, Edward also made Humphrey Neville Baron Egremont. However, more Percy estates were given to Rutland than to Warwick – this was perceived by Warwick to be a slight against him, given that some of his lands had already been handed over to his cousins. When it came to his rebellion later in the decade, this would be one of his grievances.

Despite Rutland and Warwick’s more permanent presence in the north, there was still Lancastrian resistance to the House of York. In June 1462 the Lancastrians invaded again, led by Northumberland once more. The invasion was timed to coincide with Warwick’s absence from England – he was currently in France trying to negotiate with Louis XI for a French bride for Edward IV. However, this invasion was shorter-lived – Rutland was established enough to raise an impressively sized army – joined by troops from Westmoreland and John Neville – and halt the invasion at the Battle of Stanhope, 26th June 1462. The Yorkist army scored an incredible victory at Stanhope. Over half the Lancastrian army was wiped out and high-value prisoners were taken – including Northumberland (who was executed, and his son was arrested and incarcerated in the Tower of London) and the old king Henry VI (who was placed in the Tower of London). The remaining Lancastrians (Margaret of Anjou, Edward of Westminster and Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset) then fled to France. Edmund of Rutland benefitted greatly from the Battle of Stanhope – for defeating the marauding Scots in such a display of power, he became a hero in the eyes of the people of the North, winning much local loyalty – this would come back to help him when dealing with Warwick’s betrayal in 1470.

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

I don't think that Clifford would have paid any attention to Grey or anybody to spare Rutland. Perhaps you could change that by having Grey getting to Rutland first and hidding him from Clifford.

 

[Zestinobambino]

I don't think that Clifford would have paid any attention to Grey or anybody to spare Rutland. Perhaps you could change that by having Grey getting to Rutland first and hidding him from Clifford.

Good point, I’ve edited that bit now. Thanks for the suggestion.

With the Lancastrians in France, Edward now had to decide how he would deal with France. On the one hand, the new French king Louis XI had supported Edward’s bid for the throne, but on the other hand France now held Edward’s dynastic opponents. Warwick advocated for an alliance with France (in particular by marriage to Bona of Savoy, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy and Louis’s daughter-in-law), but Edward settled against this when Edmund pointed out that Louis XI probably supported the Yorkist rebellion more out of a desire to cause problems for the last English king than out of any dire support for the House of York. As well as that, Edmund reminded Edward of their father’s own hard work in trying to procure a bride in Catherine of Bourbon (born 1440, the niece of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and the sister of John, Duke of Bourbon) for either Edward or Edmund before his death, and that now that Edward was a king, such a marriage would be very useful. To that end, Edward IV sent Edmund and John de la Pole to negotiate with Philip the Good and the Duke of Bourbon for Catherine’s hand in marriage for Edward. This match had been suggested even before Edward was king, and now the offer was gladly taken up. Edward and Catherine were married in Westminster Cathedral on 23rd January 1462. They had their first child in 1465 - a daughter whom they named Cecily, after Edward’s mother.

Now that Edward’s marriage was secured, Edward organised a match for Edmund. Edward had two aims when organising his brother’s marriage – he wanted to pacify one of the more powerful Lancastrian families, and he wanted to reward his brother with a family that brought plenty of land. It just so happened in 1462 that Aubrey de Vere was executed for treason, which made a widow of Anne Stafford, the eldest daughter of the late Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham (died 1460). Edward pitched the idea of Edmund marrying Anne to Edmund, and he accepted readily. After a year of mourning, the two were married in 1463. In celebration of the marriage, Edward transferred wardship of the young Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham (Anne’s five-year-old nephew) to Edmund, who was then able to gather the finance raised from the Stafford estates until Henry came of age in 1476. In 1464, Edmund and Anne had their first child - a boy, who the shrewd Edmund named Lionel. This was done to emphasise that the House of York’s claim to the throne came from Edward III’s second son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, in comparison to John of Gaunt, the third son, from whom the Lancastrians took their claim.

John de la Pole was married to Elizabeth of York, one of Edward IV’s many sisters. The son of the late Duke of Suffolk, who had been attainted before his death in 1450, John had not been able to inherit his father’s lands or titles yet. However, he now found himself as the brother-in-law of the King of England who had just negotiated for the hand of Catherine of Bourbon for the king, and Edward was pleased with his work. Therefore, in 1463, Edward reversed the attainder on John, making him the Duke of Suffolk and returning him to a position of power in England. Suffolk became one of Edward IV’s main nobles, serving him well until his death.

In 1464, Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset landed in Cornwall from France with the aim of causing a rebellion against Edward IV by raising troops in his family heartlands. Beaufort whipped up a fury of anti-Yorkist propaganda that called Edward IV illegitimate (these claims were based on the theory that he was conceived by his mother’s affair with a French archer), but these claims were not readily believed by the people. However, Somerset did still manage to pull together an army of 6,000 rebels. On the royal side, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke began to raise an army to chase the Lancastrians down, and he caught up with the rebels at the Battle of Marlborough, 13th March 1464. The battle was a defeat for the Yorkists as the Lancastrians continued their march east, but Herbert had done reasonable damage to their army and escaped with his life. He retreated to try and resupply, but his part in the rebellion was done. Beaufort learned that Edmund of Rutland was currently at Stafford Castle and sent a small group of rebels led by his brother Edmund Beaufort to kill the Duke of Rutland. 1,000 rebels descended on Stafford Castle, hoping to catch him off-guard, but Rutland was ready, having prepared the castle for battle alongside his ally Sir John Grey and his kinsman Edmund Grey. The rebels gave battle on 16th March 1464, and in a tragic accident the young Duke of Buckingham – who was watching the battle from the castle walls, was shot by a rogue arrow and died. The Duchy of Buckingham went into abeyance for three years afterwards. Rutland and the Greys fought the rebels back and captured Edmund Beaufort.

In London, Catherine of Bourbon showed her first sign of being politically active and made a speech to the people of London motivating them to defend the city while Edward IV and Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, prepared the city defences. Thomas Neville, Bastard of Fauconberg, brought a fleet of six ships and moored them in the river Thames for defence. On the morning of 18th March, battle began. The Lancastrians were promptly defeated, and Somerset was killed in battle. Shrewsbury, however, managed to escape to France, where he joined Margaret of Anjou and her son Edward of Westminster. Somerset’s lands and titles were then absorbed by the crown.

In 1465, the Earl of Warwick already had a sense that he was losing influence over Edward IV, especially when he compared his position to that of Edmund, Duke of Rutland. To that end he attempted to place his family in a more important position to the throne by requesting the hand of the two younger York brothers – George, Duke of Clarence and Richard, Duke of Gloucester – for marriage to Warwick’s two daughters Isabel and Anne. Isabel was born in 1451 and Anne was born in 1456, making them a good fit age-wise for George (born in 1449) and Richard (born in 1452). However, Edward had other ideas and rejected both matches. For Isabel, Edward suggested an alternative match – one with Thomas FitzAlan, the son of the Earl of Arundel. The Earl of Arundel was one of York’s staunchest supporters and Edward had believed that he needed rewarding well. Certainly a marriage between Arundel’s heir and the heir presumptive of the country’s most powerful noble (at this point) was a fantastic reward. Arundel leapt at the idea, but Warwick took a bit more time to warm to the prospect. In the end he relented, and the two were married in 1466. This decision of course alienated Warwick, but also George, Duke of Clarence, who had been hoping to marry Isabel Neville and gain Warwick’s inheritance for himself.
Edward then found a new match for George, Duke of Clarence - Margaret Beaufort, the heiress apparent to the Beaufort estates and the widow of Edmund Tudor, half-brother of King Henry VI. Margaret had a son, Henry Tudor, who was being raised as a ward of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who wanted Tudor to eventually marry his daughter Maud. As per the marriage agreement, Henry Tudor’s wardship would be transferred to George, allowing him to gain income from the Richmond lands as well. With the promise of the Beaufort and Richmond lands, George agreed to Edward’s plan. He married Margaret in June 1466 at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Family Tree by June 1466:
Edward IV m. Catherine of Bourbon

1) Cecily of March (1465)​

Edmund, Duke of Rutland m. Anne Stafford

1) Lionel, Earl of Northampton (1464)​

Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk m. John, Duke of Suffolk

1) John de la Pole (1462)​

2) Geoffrey de la Pole (1464)​

3) Edward de la Pole (1466)​

George, Duke of Clarence m. Margaret Beaufort

Isabel Neville m. Thomas FitzAlan, Baron Maltravers

Sir John Grey m. Elizabeth Woodville

1) Thomas Grey (1455)​

2) Richard Grey (1457)​

3) Jacqueline Grey (1466)​

 

[The Gunslinger]

I can't see anything bad happening with the marriage of George and Margaret Beaufort.

 

[Zestinobambino]

In 1465, Isabella of Bourbon, wife of Charles the Bold, heir of the Duke of Burgundy died. Just weeks after Isabella’s death, Charles’s close advisor William de Clugny travelled to London and met with Edward IV, where he suggested a match between Charles and Edward’s unmarried sister Margaret. Edward responded warmly to the idea, especially given his hopes for an anti-French alliance and his marriage to Duke Philip’s niece, but the plan was initially opposed by Warwick. In the spring of 1466, Edward dispatched Sir John Howard to Burgundy to formally offer Margaret’s hand in marriage to Charles the Bold. Louis XI desperately attempted to disrupt the marriage plans by offering alternative matches, such as his daughter Anne to Charles, his younger daughter Joan to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and his brother-in-law Phillip to Margaret. Louis’s plans failed, and the marriage went ahead in March 1467. In June 1467, Phillip the Good, Duke of Burgundy died, and Charles became Duke of Burgundy. Within three months of marriage, Margaret was made Duchess of Burgundy in his own right. The marriage treaty was a complicated document that came with several terms regarding fishing rights, freedom of movement, trading relations, mutual defence, and currency exchange, as well as a term that seceded the counties of Artois and Picardy back to England in turn for a large payment from England to Burgundy. This was done to consolidate the English sphere of influence around the port of Calais, allowing Edward IV to begin rebuilding the lost empire in France.

As soon as he learned that Charles had accepted the offer of Margaret of York’s hand in spring 1466, Louis XI began to support Margaret of Anjou and the Lancastrians more, and outlawed trade between England and the northern coast of France to damage the English economy. Edward began to look for foreign support from further abroad, and considered an Iberian match with Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The Privy Council investigated the idea and suggested Eleanor of Viseu, a Portuguese princess, as a match. The match was suggested to the King of Portugal, Alphonso V, but was not accepted immediately due to his son John’s fondness for Eleanor. The marriage was eventually accepted in 1468, and it was decreed that Richard and Eleanor would be married in 1472 when Eleanor was fourteen.

In the parliament of August 1467, Edward IV passed an act that banned any person guilty of treasonous acts from inheriting lands, money, or titles through their wife. The act was specifically designed to benefit Edmund, Duke of Rutland, thanks to his marriage to Anne Stafford. Anne’s two sisters – Katherine and Joan – were both married to Lancastrians – Katherine was married to John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and Joan was married to Viscount Beaumont. The act made it so that it was impossible for Shrewsbury and Beaumont to inherit any of the Stafford inheritance due to their role in the Battle of Towton, which was declared as treason because it took place after Edward was declared Edward IV. As a result of this act, Edmund inherited all the Stafford titles, such as the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Stafford, and the array of Stafford estates across the Midlands, the Welsh Marches and Kent. This move irritated Viscount Beaumont (whose own estates had been given to William Hastings in 1461 and now had no hope of getting any land back) and Shrewsbury, and it also angered Warwick because Edmund now finally outmatched him in terms of land and influence.

As the younger brother of Edward IV, George, Duke of Clarence was an important figure in the royal family, which put him in the crosshairs of his brother’s political opponents. Following his marriage to Margaret Beaufort in 1466, George had become almost an object of ridicule among the Lancastrians, as he had repeatedly failed to make her pregnant. He was insulted and ridiculed not just by Lancastrians, but slowly by his own people too, and even by Edward himself. As a deeply arrogant man, George couldn’t handle this and took a mistress in Lady Joyce Percy to prove that he wasn’t infertile, but that his wife was barren. George and Joyce had a daughter in 1469, called Grace. George grew to despise Margaret and Edward for making him marry her, and as his discontent grew, Warwick reached out to him with a plan.

By 1468, not even a decade after the last spell of civil war, the English aristocracy was becoming divided once more into two factions – one led by Edmund, Duke of Rutland and the other led by Richard, Earl of Warwick. Essentially the dispute came down to who should have greater authority over Edward IV. In the last seven years of Yorkist rules, Rutland had made several allies within the nobility, most notably John Grey, Baron Ferrers, and the rest of the Grey family as his allies. While Rutland’s support was numerous, it was much less powerful overall than Warwick’s faction, which was composed mostly of disaffected Yorkists and a handful of Lancastrians who were still hanging around. Second to Warwick in his faction was George, Duke of Clarence, the third oldest of the York brothers, who was angry that he had not been given a fertile wife or much land by his brother. The Earl of Oxford also joined Warwick, furious about his father and brother’s executions in 1462, and Shrewsbury and Beaumont also joined the conspiracy. Of course, the rebel faction could also count on aid from France and the Lancastrian court-in-exile, consisting of Henry VI, Margaret of Anjou, Edward of Westminster and a handful of Lancastrian nobles such as Jasper Tudor, the uncle of the Earl of Richmond, who had once been Earl of Pembroke under the last king. The stage was now set for the next phase of the Wars of the Roses.

Family Tree by 1468:
Edward IV m. Catherine of Bourbon

1) Cecily of March (1465)​

2) Edmund, Prince of Wales (1468)​

Edmund, Duke of Rutland m. Anne Stafford

1) Lionel, Earl of Northampton (1464)​

Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk m. John, Duke of Suffolk

1) John de la Pole (1462)​

2) Geoffrey de la Pole (1464)​

3) Edward de la Pole (1466)​

4) Elizabeth de la Pole (1468)​

George, Duke of Clarence m. Margaret Beaufort

George, Duke of Clarence a. Lady Joyce Percy

1) Grace Plantagenet (1467)​

Margaret of York m. Charles the Bold

Isabel Neville m. Thomas FitzAlan, Baron Maltravers

Sir John Grey m. Elizabeth Woodville

1) Thomas Grey (1455)​

2) Richard Grey (1457)​

3) Jacqueline Grey (1466)​

4) Edward Grey (1468)​

 

[FalconHonour]

Edmund, Earl of Rutland. Born in Rouen, 1443, died near Wakefield, 1460. He was the second son of Richard, Duke of York - his older brother being Edward, Earl of March, later King Edward IV. Rutland died when he was 17 at the Battle of Wakefield, but what if he didn’t?
I’ve been working on this timeline for a little while now, inspired by others on here. Wouldn’t mind some feedback or some friendly discussion about my ideas.
The main POD is that it’s Sir John Grey of Groby who apprehends Edmund during the Battle of Wakefield and decides to let the young man go, thinking of his own two sons. This lets Edmund survive, of course, but also butterflies John’s survival into Edward IV’s reign, while killing off Sir Henry Stafford and John Stafford.
I’ll post on this a few paragraphs at a time. Let me know what you think, and enjoy.

Which means that Edward can't marry Elizabeth Woodville. Either he'll get Bona of Savoy or a Brittany girl here, or he'll marry Eleanor Talbot... Both of which will have massive butterflies for the English Succession.

Also, I suggest a Edmund/Margaret Beaufort match. They're about the same age, and it would neutralise Margaret and her young son as a threat...

 

[FalconHonour]

With the Lancastrians in France, Edward now had to decide how he would deal with France. On the one hand, the new French king Louis XI had supported Edward’s bid for the throne, but on the other hand France now held Edward’s dynastic opponents. Warwick advocated for an alliance with France (in particular by marriage to Bona of Savoy, the daughter of the Duke of Savoy and Louis’s daughter-in-law), but Edward settled against this when Edmund pointed out that Louis XI probably supported the Yorkist rebellion more out of a desire to cause problems for the last English king than out of any dire support for the House of York. As well as that, Edmund reminded Edward of their father’s own hard work in trying to procure a bride in Catherine of Bourbon (born 1440, the niece of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and the sister of John, Duke of Bourbon) for either Edward or Edmund before his death, and that now that Edward was a king, such a marriage would be very useful. To that end, Edward IV sent Edmund and John de la Pole to negotiate with Philip the Good and the Duke of Bourbon for Catherine’s hand in marriage for Edward. This match had been suggested even before Edward was king, and now the offer was gladly taken up. Edward and Catherine were married in Westminster Cathedral on 23rd January 1462. They had their first child in 1465 - a daughter whom they named Cecily, after Edward’s mother.

Now that Edward’s marriage was secured, Edward organised a match for Edmund. Edward had two aims when organising his brother’s marriage – he wanted to pacify one of the more powerful Lancastrian families, and he wanted to reward his brother with a family that brought plenty of land. It just so happened in 1462 that Aubrey de Vere was executed for treason, which made a widow of Anne Stafford, the eldest daughter of the late Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham (died 1460). Edward pitched the idea of Edmund marrying Anne to Edmund, and he accepted readily. After a year of mourning, the two were married in 1463. In celebration of the marriage, Edward transferred wardship of the young Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham (Anne’s five-year-old nephew) to Edmund, who was then able to gather the finance raised from the Stafford estates until Henry came of age in 1476.

Okay, caught up now. Not the matches I would have gone for, but they work fine! Watched!

 

[Zestinobambino]

Which means that Edward can't marry Elizabeth Woodville. Either he'll get Bona of Savoy or a Brittany girl here, or he'll marry Eleanor Talbot... Both of which will have massive butterflies for the English Succession.

I did consider a Breton match for Edward, but I couldn’t find one that would fully work. I’d seen a lot of TLs say Marie of Brittany would be a good match, but I’d read she married in December 1462, so not a lot of time for Edward to get Brittany to scrap that marriage and then negotiate a new agreement. I’d also thought about Isabella of Castile, which would be a really interesting timeline, as it would have huge butterflies for Spain as well as England. Overall I decided Catherine of Bourbon was the best match though, because Richard of York had looked into getting Edward and Catherine married even before the war broke out.

Can’t lie, I’d forgotten about Eleanor Talbot.

Okay, caught up now. Not the matches I would have gone for, but they work fine! Watched!

Thanks!

 

[Zestinobambino]

In March 1468, Warwick incited a rebellion in his northern estates with the aim of removing Edmund, Duke of Rutland from power. He also turned his rebels against the other crooked and corrupt advisors that surrounded Edward IV such as Pembroke, and he even led a siege against the Earl of Westmoreland in Raby Castle, which had once belonged to him. The Siege of Raby began on 2nd March 1468 and resulted in the capitulation of Westmoreland to Warwick on 14th March. Westmoreland was then executed as Warwick claimed that he had polluted Edward’s mind, and the earldom passed to his nephew Ralph Neville, himself only twelve years old and the cousin of Humphrey Neville, Baron Egremont. However, the siege had given the royal army a chance to prepare for battle. Led by Edmund of Rutland, Richard of Gloucester and Lord Hastings, Warwick’s forces were beaten at the Battle of Knaresborough on 17th March 1468. Warwick and his rebels scattered, and Warwick and Clarence fled to France along with Isabel and Anne. Here, they joined the Lancastrians in France, where Louis XI offered them support for an invasion of England. He put Warwick, Clarence, and Margaret of Anjou together at Angers, and they discussed an agreement for the future of England. It was decided that Warwick and Clarence would lead an invasion of England backed by French troops to free Henry VI from captivity. Edward of Westminster would be heir to the throne with a council including Warwick and Clarence, who would be made Duke of York. Edward of Westminster would also marry Anne Neville, Warwick’s younger daughter. Edward and Anne were married in Reims in 1469, when she was thirteen years old. At the same time, the Archbishop of Reims dissolved the marriages of George, Duke of Clarence and Margaret Beaufort and of Isabel Neville and Thomas FitzAlan so that Clarence and Isabel could be married. This ceremony took place just days after the marriage of Isabel’s younger sister.

While Warwick and Clarence fled to France to make alliances with the Lancastrian court-in-exile, the Earls of Oxford and Shrewsbury and Viscount Beaumont continued their campaign within the country. Between them they raised an army of 4,600 men across the Midlands and besieged Northampton, one of Rutland’s towns. The Siege of Northampton began on 17th May 1468, and the town very quickly collapsed into the hands of the besiegers due to poor planning. From there, the rebels planned to march on London to depose Edward IV and hold the throne for Henry VI’s triumphant return. They set off but were met on 4th June at the Battle of Bedford. In the following battle the Lancastrians were defeated. Shrewsbury was captured and Oxford and Beaumont were able to hide, but the Yorkist commander John Tiptoft was killed in battle.

Before their return to England, Warwick tried to drum support for himself up by inciting his family into rebellion. This plan was successful – Thomas, Bastard of Fauconberg, rebelled and led a fleet down the Thames into London (he was beaten off by the Earls of Kent and Essex), and Warwick’s brother John Neville also rebelled, despite having been well-rewarded by Edward IV with Percy lands. Warwick and Clarence then went back across the Channel with 3,000 French soldiers, joined by Louis XI’s brother Charles, Duke of Normandy, and they landed in Kent on 20th August 1469. The Battle of Edgcote (27th August) was the culmination of the first stage of Warwick’s Rebellion and saw very little support come out for Warwick, since by 1469 Edward IV had an heir in his young son Edmund, and the dynasty seemed relatively secure. The Lancastrians fled back to France and were joined by Viscount Beaumont and the Earl of Oxford. Warwick beseeched Louis XI for more men and he reluctantly handed over 1,500 more soldiers but swore that if Warwick failed again then Louis’s support would dwindle.

After the rebels had fled to France once again, Edward IV decided that he needed to shore up his strength in the rebellious north. Luckily for him, it was around this time that Henry Percy, recently released from the Tower of London, began to petition Edward for a regrant of his lands and title as the Earl of Northumberland. Edward was torn over this. On the one hand, the Percy family had been staunch Lancastrians earlier in the war, so Edward wasn’t sure if he could trust Percy now. On the other hand, the Percy family was well-suited to fill the void left by the junior Nevilles, who had now all left England, and were still popular among their old tenants. Rutland advised against allowing Percy to retake his estates, but this was one of the few occasions Edward went against his brother’s advice and decided to give Henry Percy what he wanted. He returned to his estates in July 1469, but was only formally recognised as Earl of Northumberland by parliament in the 1472-1473 parliament, which was mainly used to raise finances for the coming war with France. Percy also went on to marry Katherine Herbert, daughter of William, Earl of Pembroke. By the time the rebels invaded England again, Northumberland was well established enough to assist Rutland, Gloucester and Westmoreland in defeating the enemy.

The Lancastrians returned in March 1470 with an army led by Warwick, Clarence, Beaumont, Shrewsbury, and Oxford, with a small command given over to Edward of Westminster. They landed in Sandwich, Kent, on 12th March. Only a few days later, John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury was killed at the Battle of Kennington (17th March) by an archer fighting under the banner of the Earl of Kent, Edmund Grey. Small-scale skirmishes erupted across the south of England as the Lancastrians pushed towards London. The Battle of Tilbury Fort (25th March) saw Edward of Westminster’s first victory and proved to England the cruelty of this young prince – he took four hundred prisoners, including the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Audley, and had them all executed. Meanwhile, Edward IV came face-to-face with Warwick and Clarence on 4th April at the Battle of Bletchley. In the battle, Edward was captured by the Lancastrians, but not before he rapidly depleted their army with over 3,000 Lancastrian casualties. Warwick then fled north, taking Edward with him as a prisoner, and holed up in Middleham Castle to rebuild his army. In the King’s absence, Queen Catherine took control in government and ordered Baron Egremont to besiege Middleham Castle. Egremont arrived at the castle with 5,000 troops on 12th April 1470 and began the Siege of Middleham. Meanwhile, Catherine sent both Rutland and Richard of Gloucester north to help Egremont, and Rutland was joined by his allies in the Grey family, including John Grey, Baron Ferrers, and Edmund Grey, Earl of Kent. Meanwhile, Catherine ordered Essex, Suffolk, and Hastings to rally a counterattack around London, joined by more nobles as they came in. Catherine personally took control of the royal army in the south, bolstered by the people of London once more. Together, 20,000 people repelled the Lancastrians from their base in Greenwich on 14th April, sending their forces scattering. Oxford fled north to Scotland, whereas Edward of Westminster returned to France. Viscount Beaumont was captured and placed in the Tower of London for two weeks until his execution on 28th April.

Meanwhile, the Siege of Middleham continued. By 28th April, the castle was surrounded by 40,000 soldiers under the banners of Rutland, Gloucester, Kent, Ferrers, Egremont, and Northumberland, including siege machines. An additional 15,000 commons were brought into the siege out of deep personal affection for Edmund, Duke of Rutland that he had built up following the Battle of Stanhope in 1462. The total force was put under the general command of Edmund, Duke of Rutland, and he exercised his command even after Edward was released. However, fearing using the machines and killing their king, the Yorkists chose instead to starve Warwick and Clarence out. On 29th May, Warwick realised the situation was no longer winnable and surrendered, leaving Middleham Castle and bringing Edward IV out with him. Clarence, on the other hand, did not see the same sense that his father-in-law had and continued to hide in Middleham Castle. With Edward out, Edmund authorised an attack on the castle using the siege machines. On 2nd June the castle portcullis was rammed open, and Northumberland’s soldiers flooded the castle. They captured Clarence, and he was taken to the Tower of London as well. Warwick’s Rebellion – which had lasted for over two years and resulted in Edward IV’s capture – was over.

No family tree in this post - big changes to come in the next tree!

 

[Zestinobambino]

In almost a decade of Yorkist rule, Warwick’s Rebellion was the largest threat that Edward IV had to face, and it almost resulted in Yorkist defeat. Edward was determined to ensure that it would never happen again. First, he had Henry VI executed on 6th June – the Lancastrians had come close to freeing their king, and Edward couldn’t risk them trying again and having potentially more success. Viscount Beaumont was also executed a few days after Henry VI. Punishing those rebels who had been Edward’s supporters until recently proved harder to do. John Neville and Thomas, Bastard of Fauconberg were both incarcerated within the Tower of London for life, and their lands and titles were stripped from them and given to Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Edward refused to have Warwick or Clarence executed but still levied economic punishments against them. Both nobles were forced to swear their loyalty to Edward IV in an official ceremony in front of parliament in 1472. The majority of Clarence’s territories – apart from a small cluster of land in the south – were confiscated from him and given instead to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, whom Edward began to use as his primary noble in the north of England, with Northumberland and Egremont as his subordinates. However, Edward IV did waive the 1467 inheritance through traitors act in Clarence’s case, meaning that he could still inherit lands through Isabel Neville. Edward agreed to allow George and Isabel to stay married. Margaret Beaufort was still without a husband, but over the turn of the rebellion she had met and grown fond of Edmund, Duke of Rutland, who was the same age as her. He allowed her and Henry Tudor to enter his household. It was rumoured that Edmund had an affair with Margaret, but this was never proved.

The Rebellion ended in such a way that Isabel and Anne Neville were still in France. The marriage between Edward and Anne was dissolved by the Pope himself on the grounds that Anne was under the age of consent (14) when they were married. Margaret then ransomed the Neville sisters (and Isabel and George’s infant daughter Joan of Clarence) back to England in 1471. In a display of solidarity with Warwick and Clarence and anxious not to appear weak or to allow innocents to be in harm’s way, Edward paid the ransom. The Neville sisters and Edward arrived in London in February 1471. Weeks after they arrived, it was discovered that Anne Neville was pregnant with Edward of Westminster’s child. The Yorkists were ecstatic – without realising it, Margaret of Anjou had handed over her son’s legitimate heir to her enemies! Anne gave birth on 8th November 1471 to a girl, whom she named Isabel after her sister. Isabel of Lancaster was not just the Lancastrian heir, but also heir to a portion of the Neville inheritance as the granddaughter of the Earl of Warwick, with a co-heir in George of Clarence. This meant that Isabel of Lancaster was an incredibly important heiress, and her marriage could change the course of the Yorkist dynasty. As soon as he heard the news, Edward decided to betroth his son and heir Edmund, Prince of Wales to the young duchess Isabel in order to tie the Houses of York and Lancaster together and hopefully bring peace. Edmund was then made Duke of Lancaster in right of his wife. Warwick later tried to gain custody of his granddaughter Isabel, but Edward IV didn’t trust to leave the Lancastrian heiress to a man that had so recently rebelled and kept Isabel within his own household. Tragically, Anne died shortly after giving birth to Isabel of Lancaster, on 30th November.

Prior to Edward’s reign, Edmund, Duke of Rutland had gained a little experience with the Irish as he had travelled with their father the Duke of York as Lord Lieutenant to Ireland. Edmund had been made Lord Chancellor by Henry VI, with authority exercised through a series of professionals until he was of age and was also made Earl of Cork. Early in Edward’s reign, Edmund was made Lord Lieutenant in Ireland, but as he was busy with developments in England, Rutland had allowed the Earl of Kildare to govern Ireland in his absence as Lord Deputy. However, following Warwick’s Rebellion, Edward suggested that Edmund take some time in Ireland to distance himself from Warwick and Clarence while the situation calmed down. Reluctantly, Edmund agreed. In a show of faith and brotherly affection, shortly before Edmund’s departure from Chester to Dublin, Edward made his brother the Earl of Ulster, a title that Edward had held himself as the de Burgh heir. Edmund landed in Dublin on 9th September 1470 with a body of 600 soldiers and his wife Anne Stafford and children Lionel, Richard and Cecily (Margaret Beaufort and Henry Tudor stayed in England, where Edmund trusted Margaret to run his estates for him in his absence). During his extended tenure in Ireland, which lasted until March 1473 (when he was called away to fight in the Franco-Triad War), Edmund continued the reputation of his father and was well-liked by the Anglo-Irish lords. He was able to anglicise the Dempsey clan by investing Sean Dempsey as Earl of Maliere. He also met Eleanor FitzGerald, the lovely daughter of Thomas, Earl of Kildare, soon after his arrival in Dublin. Edmund established Eleanor as the Lady of the House in his Irish household. After Anne Stafford’s death in 1472, Edmund requested Eleanor’s hand in 1474, and the two were married in 1476.

Following the failure of his rebellion, Warwick was aware that Edward’s goodwill and desire for reconciliation toward him might not last. To that end, Warwick began to draw his will up. As the heir of four different families – the Neville, Beauchamp, Montagu and Despenser lands were all his, with all the titles to accompany them – he had a lot to dispense in his will. Warwick decreed that:
• The ancestral Neville lands would be returned to Humphrey Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, thus finally ending the power of the junior branch in favour of the senior branch.
• The Despenser lands, including the Lordship of Glamorgan, would pass to his eldest daughter Isabel and her husband George, Duke of Clarence.
• The Montagu and Beauchamp lands, including the Earldoms of Salisbury and Warwick, would pass to his granddaughter Isabel of Lancaster, and this meant they would pass to Edmund, Prince of Wales jure uxoris.
All parties involved with the will were satisfied with their shares. Humphrey Neville was pleased to have finally rebuilt the elder branch of the Neville family to its previous position of power and domination in the north. When Warwick eventually died (spoilers), the earldoms of Warwick and Salisbury then became royal possessions and were both upgraded to duchies for the king’s sons.

Family Tree by 1472
Edward IV m. Catherine of Bourbon
1) Cecily of March (1465)
2) Edmund, Prince of Wales, Duke of Lancaster (1468) (betrothed to Isabel of Lancaster)

Edmund, Duke of Rutland m. Anne Stafford
1) Lionel, Earl of Northampton (1464)
2) Richard, Earl of Hereford (1469)
3) Cecily Plantagenet (1471)

Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk m. John, Duke of Suffolk
1) John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln (1462)
2) Geoffrey de la Pole (1464)
3) Edward de la Pole (1466)
4) Elizabeth de la Pole (1468)
5) Edmund de la Pole (1471)
6) Dorothy de la Pole (1472)

George, Duke of Clarence m. Isabel Neville
1) Joan of Clarence (1470)

Sir John Grey m. Elizabeth Woodville
1) Thomas Grey (1455)
2) Richard Grey (1457)
3) Jacqueline Grey (1466)
4) Edward Grey (1468)

Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond m. Maud Herbert
1) Maud Tudor (1472)

Edward, the Red Prince m. Anne Neville
1) Isabel, Duchess of Lancaster (1471) (betrothed to Edmund, Duke of Lancaster)

Richard, Duke of Gloucester m. Eleanor of Viseu

 

[Zestinobambino]

Given Louis XI’s role in Warwick’s Rebellion, it was clear that Edward IV would want revenge against France for their role in causing him to nearly lose his throne. To that end, it was convenient that Edward had spent a portion of the 1460s working on friendly relations with other potential enemies of France – particularly Burgundy, whose army was regarded as one of the best and most talented in all of Europe. These relations were benefitted by the marriages of Edward to Catherine of Bourbon, and Charles the Bold to Margaret of York. Edward invited Duke Charles to London to draw up plans for an invasion of France, which they agreed would be focused on Normandy. Shortly after preliminary talks, Duke Francis II of Brittany was invited to London by Edward and Charles to form a three-way alliance on the invasion of France. What followed was the Treaty of London, ratified in June 1472, which gave birth to what was named the London Alliance. The Treaty stipulated that:

• All powers involved would join forces to invade Normandy in spring 1473.
• Both Charles and Francis recognised Edward IV as King of France.
• Edward recognised both Burgundy and Brittany as independent countries.
• Burgundy would be granted Champagne, Nevers, Rethel, Guise, Valois and Bar to link its northern and southern dominions.
• Brittany would be granted control over Maine and Anjou.

As well as the alliance between the three powers, Edward attempted to commit a small Portuguese force to the invasion in lieu of the wedding of Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Eleanor of Viseu. However, Alphonso V very quickly crushed Edward’s hopes of an Iberian contingent fighting in the war. Even though Edward couldn’t get support from Portugal, he and the London Alliance did find new support from within France; Jacques, Duke of Nemours (head of the Armagnac family) was in negotiations with Charles of Burgundy, and Louis, Count of St-Pol wrote to Edward to tell him that he would allow English troops into his territories if he were rewarded with Champagne (this offer was not accepted, given Charles’s desire to take Champagne, but St-Pol still helped the invaders and was rewarded by being allowed to retain his lands). John, Duke of Bourbon also allied himself with the Lomdon Alliance thanks to Edward IV’s marriage to Catherine of Bourbon.

To ensure the war went as smoothly as possible, Edward ordered a delegation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Humphrey, Baron Egremont to negotiate with the Scots for a truce while Edward negotiated with the Hanseatic League for them to not disrupt English ships. Edward began to choose noblemen for his commanders and chose John Howard, William Hastings, the Duke of Norfolk and the Duke of Suffolk. He also allowed Richard, Earl of Warwick a command despite his rebelliousness, given that he was an excellent military leader. Notably, he snubbed George, Duke of Clarence from command, given his recent rebelliousness and lack of military ability, and also left Edmund, Duke of Rutland out as he was busy in Ireland. In September 1472, Edward called a parliament in London, which was used to pass a tax to raise finances for the war (as well as this, Edward forced Warwick and Clarence to swear fealty in this parliament, and formally restored Henry Percy to the Earldom of Northumberland). In December 1473, he demanded that Louis XI hand the Lancastrians over to Hastings in Calais or risk the consequences. Louis did not respond (Edward knew he would not – the demand was more an excuse to go to war than a chance to make peace), so on 25th February 1473, England declared war on France, as did Burgundy and Brittany. The Franco-Alliance War had begun.

 

[Dragonboy]

Time for Edward to stomp the spider!

 

[Zestinobambino]

On 2nd March 1473, a force of 10,000 Burgundian soldiers - led by Charles the Bold, William Clugny and Louis de Gruuthuse - passed from Burgundy through northern France towards Brittany, where they would meet with the Breton army under Duke Francis II. The Burgundian army took France by surprise, and Louis XI was not able to muster a large army up in time to prevent the Burgundian march forwards - on 6th March in the Battle of Le Mans, a force of untrained French peasants confronted Charles’s forces, but after around ten minutes of battle, the peasant army scattered, and Charles’s march went completely unmatched. The Breton-Burgundian force, approximately 20,000 strong, now made a move towards the Cotentin Peninsula, where the English army intended on landing. The Battle of Valognes (18th March 1473) was another win for the Bruges Alliance, opening the way for the Alliance to take Cherbourg with ease, facing minimal resistance. On 21st March 1473, Cherbourg fell, and the next day 10,000 English soldiers landed.

The English force was led, of course, by Edward IV, with the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Pembroke and Richmond, and Lords Howard and Mountjoy as commanders. Edward had entrusted the governance of England to his wife Catherine of Bourbon, and instructed Richard, Duke of Gloucester to keep the north fortified in case of a Scottish attack. Once the main English force landed at Cherbourg, the Alliance forces moved south again, angled to attack the city of Caen. The Siege of Caen began on 30th March 1473 and lasted until 7th April, when the town mayor opened the gates and welcomed its new residents. After Caen, the English ships were sent past Caen towards Le Havre to besiege the port from the sea while the ground forces moved in. At the same time, from Dover, another 8,000 English soldiers - led by the Duke of Suffolk, the Earls of Warwick and Kent, and John Grey, now Baron Ferrers - departed for Calais, where they were greeted by William, Lord Hastings, who had another 2,000 soldiers raised from Artois and Picardy. This brought the total Alliance army to 40,000 strong. Suffolk’s force was to sweep to the west while the main body moved east, intending for the two armies to meet near Amiens. Before they could set off on the march to Amiens, Suffolk was joined by John, Duke of Bourbon, who brought with him 4,000 soldiers. Bourbon pledged to support the London Alliance in this war as long as they promised to allow him to keep his lands. Suffolk agreed to this, and they set off from Calais on 15th April 1473.

It was at Rouen that the London Alliance first encountered significant resistance from the French, with an army of approximately 15,000 soldiers led by the Dukes of Berry, Orleans and Lorraine, compared to 10,000 of the alliance’s soldiers, led by Edward IV and Francis II while Charles the Bold led the remainder of the soldiers to Le Havre to secure the town. Edward and Francis were repelled from Rouen this time (21st April) and retreated to Le Havre. Rouen was slowly reinforced under Berry’s watch, forcing the allies to follow the coast up to Dieppe (which fell on 3rd May), then pushed downwards to Amiens, where they grouped up with Suffolk, Warwick and Hastings, who arrived at Amiens on 12th May 1473. Amiens, part of Picardy, belonged to Edward IV as a part of his treaty with Burgundy, and the city opened its gates quickly to the leaders of the war effort. From then on, Amiens acted as the headquarters for the Bruges Alliance.

The next few months of the war saw very little change in either Allied or French strength, and the allies spent most of their time fortifying Amiens and setting up supply routes back to Burgundy and Calais. By the start of 1474, the alliance’s hold over Artois and Picardy were strong, and they held a string of ports such as Cherbourg and Le Havre across the coast, each with garrisons posted to ensure that they remained in their hands. However, on 22nd March 1474, Louis, Duke of Orleans led an attack on the garrison posted at Le Havre and drove the occupiers out into the sea, killing an estimated 1,000 Allied soldiers, including Thomas Grey, the son of John Grey, Baron Ferrers. This proved a serious setback, as it cut off supply routes between Cherbourg and Amiens, which had Le Havre roughly halfway in between the two. At the same time, Edward the Red Prince came north from Savoy, where his wife Bona of Savoy still lived, with an army of 6,000 soldiers of his own. He fought at the Battle of Compiegne (17th May 1474), which proved an emphatic French victory - it weakened the alliance‘s grasp on Picardy (although the alliance still managed to hold onto Amiens) and tragically cost the life of John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk. The Duchy of Suffolk now passed to John’s son, also called John, who was also a part of the expedition.

 

[Dragonboy]

I really hope that the tide turns in favor of england and it's allies!

Good chapter though!

 

[Zestinobambino]

I really hope that the tide turns in favor of england and it's allies!

Good chapter though!

Believe me, this war is a long way from finished yet...

 

[Dragonboy]

Believe me, this war is a long way from finished yet... not to give anything away!

Ik, i'm a huge fan of Edward IV, the Soldier King, and i want him to demostrate his prowes agaisnt someone else besides the Lancasters for a change!

 

[Zestinobambino]

Ik, i'm a huge fan of Edward IV, the Soldier King, and i want him to demostrate his prowes agaisnt someone else besides the Lancasters for a change!

Yeah, I am too. I think it helps that he’s the only king I’ve learned about that’s described in a textbook as ‘one of the lads’!

 

[Dragonboy]

Yeah, I am too. I think it helps that he’s the only king I’ve learned about that’s described in a textbook as ‘one of the lads’!

Yessir, he deserved to live longer and see the white rose flourish.