Warwick The Kingmaker

AWAY FROM WARWICK

Guisnes had welcomed Somerset and Sir Andrew Trollope, who made it their base of operations. However, they could not act against Calais for a while since they lacked horses and weapons. They couldn't hurt Warwick until they had reequipped themselves with assistance from the French of Boulogne. Meanwhile, they were essentially shut off from England since Warwick's ships controlled the straits and prevented any men or news from reaching them. The Earl was forced to prepare for garrison members to go out every market day to accompany the Flemings and their waggons. At the same time, Somerset got to work intercepting Warwick's supplies, mainly from Flanders. If this source of supplies had been shut off, things might have gotten rough with Calais. Still, Warwick had made a secret pact with Duke Philip, according to which the Flemish authorities were to sneer at the admission of food into the town, regardless of any treaties with England that might exist. The ongoing fights that followed the Lancastrians' attempts to stop the waggon trains from Dunkirk and Gravelines brought in little money for Somerset or Warwick.

So, November and December 1459 went by with little excitement but much argument. Christmastide, however, brought great excitement: The Queen had finally taken action to fortify Somerset, and Lord Rivers and his son Sir Antony Woodville had travelled to Sandwich with a small contingent of soldiers to take advantage of the first opportunity to cross to Guisnes. However, the period was turbulent, and the soldiers rebelled; they received little to no pay and dispersed across the neighbourhood to live in free quarters, leaving Rivers in Sandwich essentially unsupervised. Because his large ship—which he had used when he was admiral—lay at Sandwich in Lord Rivers' hands with many other ships, the Earl gathered his men-at-arms at Christmastime. He inquired whether it was not feasible to obtain it back. If the Earl would grant him four hundred soldiers to go with him, Sir John Dynham promised to take it back with God's help. The Earl then ordered his troops to equip and outfit his warships; Sir John Dynham and Sir John Wenlock, a prudent knight who had performed several feats of arms in his day, were tasked with handling the matter. They left at night and landed off Sandwich before morning. They dashed into the harbour at five in the morning while they waited for the tide to come in. Since all the men-at-arms were confined below hatches, the men of Sandwich assumed they were simply lumber ships from the Baltic and paid them no regard.

Wenlock successfully grabbed the ships and outfitted them swiftly since there was no disturbance in the town. However, Dynham could sweep the streets and capture Lord Rivers' men-at-arms when they showed up to look into the matter. One hour later, Sir Antony Woodville was apprehended as he rode into the town from London, where he had gone to request money from the Queen. Before Lord Rivers realized what was occurring, he was discovered. He is still dozing off in his bed at the Black Friars. Hauled on board his ship.

There was no fighting because the men of Sandwich, like the rest of the Kentish men, had no wish to hurt the Yorkists. So, with their prisoners and every other warship in the harbour save from the Grace Dieu, which was discovered to be entirely unprepared for the sea, Dynham and Wenlock sailed home at their leisure without exchanging a single stroke.

That evening, they successfully returned to Calais and handed Warwick their booty. It was a lovely and irreverent show when the prisoners were brought out. That evening, 166 candles were used to present Lord Rivers and his son to the three Earls. The Earl of Salisbury then criticized Lord Rivers, calling him a knave's son, for being so impolite as to brand him and these other lords' traitors since they would be discovered to be the King's genuine lieges. In contrast, he would be discovered to be an actual traitor. Then my Lord of Warwick appraised him, saying that his father was just a squire and that he had only recently become a lord via marriage; therefore, holding such rhetoric about lords of the King's blood was not his responsibility. And after that, my Lord of March assessed him similarly.