CHAPTER EIGHT
We have been fortunate enough to have some information on Warwick's travels after the army of York dispersed. While closely followed by Sir Andrew Trollope and his soldiers, he and his father escaped south along with the Duke and his two sons, Edward and Edmund. The pursuit was so intense that John and Thomas Neville, following their father and brother after both sustained injuries at Blore Heath, were captured. The approaching danger compelled the party to disperse at this point. The Duke of York travelled to Wales with his second son Edmund to catch a ship bound for Ireland. Warwick, Edward Plantagenet, and Salisbury, the young Earl of March, York's eldest son and Salisbury's godchild and nephew, fled across Herefordshire by crossroads, avoiding the towns. After making the treacherous voyage through Gloucestershire and Somersetshire, they eventually arrived on the Devon shore, ostensibly not far from Barnstaple. They were joined by Sir John Dynham and only two other people. The group fled to a fishing town, where Sir John Dynham purchased a one-masted fishing ship for 224 nobles, the whole value of the group's assets. He hired a master and four workers to steer the little boat and announced that he was headed towards Bristol.
Warwick asked the skipper whether he was acquainted with the English Channel and the seas off Cornwall after they were sufficiently away from land. The man replied that he was absolutely ignorant of them and had never circled the Land's End. "When the Earl saw that his father and the other travellers were discouraged, he promised them that, with the aid of God and St. George, he would personally lead them to a safe harbour. He immediately assumed control of the ship, stepped out of his doublet, lifted the sail, and pointed the bows west "the master and his four hands, who had not anticipated such a journey when they hired themselves to sail to Bristol town, much to their dismay, we doubt.
Warwick's two-year patrol of the Channel wasn't for nothing. He then displayed his skill as a seaman by guiding the little boat through the Bristol Channel, over the Land's End, and across to Guernsey. Unfortunately, they were eight days wind-bound at this point. Still, after setting sail on the ninth, they raced safely through the Channel. They arrived at Calais on November 3rd, barely 20 days after Ludford's defeat. Eleven people, including the crew, had been aboard the ship.
When Warwick returned from England two months earlier, he saw Calais still in the care of his uncle Fauconbridge, whom he had placed in charge of the town and his own wife and daughters. Falconbridge met him on the pier and fell on him, overjoyed at the news. "Then they all made a pilgrimage to Notre Dame de St. Pierre to express their gratitude for their safety. When they arrived in Calais, the mayor, the ward council members, and the Staple merchants came out to greet them and cheer them up. They were having a good time that evening when they suspected their opponents may have already taken control of Calais."
Given that the Duke of Somerset and several hundred men-at-arms were already in Sandwich, such may have been their fate. He was on his way to detach Fauconbridge and take control of the town after being named Captain of Calais by the King. But Somerset remained on the coast thanks to the southwest breeze that brought Warwick up from Guernsey.
The wind changed that evening, and Somerset's herald showed up late in front of the water gate to inform the garrison that his master would be arriving to take charge the next day. The guard then responded to the messenger by saying they would inform the Earl of Warwick, who served as their sole and only captain, and that he would soon get Warwick's response. The herald, who was highly humiliated, managed to get him away and returned that evening to his Lord. Nobody in England knew what had happened to Warwick or Salisbury, so Somerset's amazement at learning that they had seen him coming to Calais was equal to his rage. The following morning, he sailed towards Guisnes with his men, the majority of whom were Sir Andrew Trollope's soldiers, intending to invade Calais from the land side. However, a storm developed while he was at sea. And even though he and the majority of his troops disembarked at Guisnes, the ships carrying their horses, supplies, and armour were pushed into Calais Harbour for protection and forced to submit to Warwick. The Earl was grateful for the opportunity because his soldiers desperately needed weapons and "thanked Providence for the present, and not the Duke of Somerset." He brought the prisoners out and proceeded through their ranks. He then selected those who had served as officers under him and had taken an oath to him as Captain of Calais and imprisoned them. The remainder, however, he sent away safely, explaining that they had only done their best to serve their King. Only Lord Audley remained free. The nobleman Salisbury had killed at Blore Heath, the son of Somerset's second-in-command, was confined within the castle and was not allowed to leave. However, the soldiers who had betrayed their pledge to Warwick were hauled out the following day and decapitated in front of a large crowd of residents.
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.
Last but not least, Sir Antony received the same grade for his language from the three lords. Rivers must have seen the irony in the Nevilles' admiration of him for having "created himself by his marriage" if he had any sense of humour. More than any other race in England, who had advanced via a succession of lucrative marriages. However, his fear and wrath were likely enough to prevent him from thinking in such ways. Warwick could have been more respectable in the moment of his victory if only; Although his words were harsh, his behaviour was not: When Rivers and his kid arrived at the castle to join Lord Audley, they were well cared for unharmed. Before many months had passed, they embraced the cause of their captors.
The actors in the situation could not have foreseen the changes that ten years would bring about in their interpersonal ties. By 1470, Rivers was destined to marry the young Earl of March, who at the time was betraying him verbally in the Neville tradition and dying while serving the family of York. On the other hand, Warwick would take up the Lancastrian cause that Rivers had abandoned and become the deadly adversary of the young Prince whom he was now harbouring and arming.
Skirmishes with the garrison of Guisnes and Somerset continued throughout January and February without producing any notable results; However, during the start of Lent, word reached Calais that the Duke of York, about whom nothing concrete had been heard since October, was now in considerable force in Ireland, where he had taken control of Dublin, "and was much supported by the earls and homagers of that nation." The Lancastrians would eventually be able to bring across enough men to form the siege of Calais without any severe offensive action being taken in the spring. At that point, the town would be unable to hold out indefinitely. As a result, Warwick immediately decided to sail to Ireland to coordinate strategies with his uncle and learn if an invasion of England would be possible.
Warwick, therefore, outfitted his ten most significant ships, staffed them with 1,500 sailors and men-at-arms, "the best stuff in Calais," and proceeded down the Channel towards Ireland despite the storms of March being at their worst. The journey was long and arduous, yet it was undisturbed by the enemy. The Countess of Salisbury, who had fled to Ireland after learning that her name had been added to the list of people in the Lancastrian Parliament, which convened in Leicester in December 1459, was also present when the Earl finally arrived in Waterford. York and his son Rutland were also there.
The Duke was in excellent spirits and so confident that Warwick might convince him to lead a descent on Kent at the same time, the Duke was willing to participate in landing in Wales in June with the entire army that could be raised in Ireland. Following the approval of this proposal, the Earl departed for home around May 1st, bringing his mother, who was eager to reunite with her husband after not seeing him for almost a year.
The Duke of Exeter, who succeeded Warwick as admiral, swore to prevent him from returning to Calais once the Lancastrian government learned of his departure for Ireland. Exeter was therefore besieging the Channel with "the big ship named the Grace Dieu, and three huge carracks, and eleven smaller ships all properly armed and commanded." A squadron was off Dartmouth when Warwick's squadron was off Start Point. Several fishing boats with whom communication had been kept claimed that the Duke of Exeter was in charge. The ship that had sailed ahead of Warwick's squadron to scout the route quickly returned with the news.
Despite the enemy's far larger army, Warwick remained determined to fight. He sent for his commanders on board his carvel "and prayed that they would serve him faithfully that day, for he had a good expectation that God would grant him the victory," They replied that they were in good spirits and ready for a fight. In keeping with this, the 10 ships of the Earl attacked the fourteen of the Duke. When the entire Lancastrian fleet abruptly turned around and fled in chaos behind them into Dartmouth Harbour, a conflict looked to be ready to break out. Mutiny on board was the reason for this unanticipated move. Immediately after giving the order to prepare for war, the Duke's officers hurried to him in amazement to report that if their previous leader returned, the soldiers wouldn't raise their weapons. He approached the Earl any closer, and the crews would rise and deliver them to the enemy. The order to withdraw inside the port was then given by Exeter.
Warwick tried to discover why the enemy fled but was unsuccessful. Warwick continued on his journey, taking advantage of a strong west wind at his back and a strong desire to return to Calais, where he had been absent for more than ten weeks, without attempting to assault Dartmouth. On June 1st, he safely arrived in Calais. He was happy to reunite his mother with his father after she had "suffered grievously from the sea throughout her trip." The length of his absence had greatly concerned Salisbury and Falconbridge, and the most frightened members of the garrison had started to whisper that he had abandoned them permanently and gone to another country to protect his own person.
But now, there was a commotion in Calais because Salisbury and Falconbridge wholeheartedly endorsed the invasion strategy that had been coordinated in Dublin. The news from England was, in fact, all that I might have hoped for. The Leicester Parliament's rash attaining of all the Yorkists had drawn strong criticism. The unprovoked sacking of the town of Newbury by the supporters of Ormond Earl of Wiltshire was the most egregious wrongdoing carried out by the retainers of the Lancastrian rulers. The execution of seven civilians seized in the Thames while travelling to Calais to join the Earls, together with one member of the Neville family, caused severe grumbling in London. The mob booed down the "unlearned preachers" that the government sent to Paul's Cross to criticize York. When the White Rose flag was to be raised in England, the Commons of Kent was making it clear that they were prepared to join the Earls. It is worth reproducing a portion of a song hanging on Canterbury's gate in June by an unknown hand to represent their sentiments. "Send them back, please, Jesu, most merciful please send home the real blood to his appropriate vein. Richard Duke of York, your servant insigne, Richard Duke of York, your servant insigne, whom Satan never ceases to despise, but who is protected by you so that he may not be killed, Like before, he set him "ut seat in principibus," and so, Lord, please bend your ear to our new hymn, Glory, honour, and praise be to Christ the Redeemer!"
Richard Earl of Salisbury, whose reputation will extend throughout the world, Edward the Earl of March, whose name is Prudence, Richard Earl of Warwick, a great knight and symbol of manhood who serves as our defence shield, A knight of great esteem is also tiny Faulconbridge, A knight of great esteem is also tiny Falconbridge; restore them to their former honor!
Additionally, not just the Commons was prepared to join in on a fresh call to arms. The York supporters among the influential houses, who had avoided capture and attainder because they had not made a firm commitment at the time of the defeat of Ludford, announced their readiness for battle in Calais. Lord Bourchier and Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, two brothers, and the Duke of Norfolk were prominent members of this group. They promised to mobilize their retainers as soon as Warwick crossed the ocean.
In the final week of June, Warwick decided to cross into Kent with any man who could be rescued from Calais, but not carelessly. He had decided to eliminate the sole Lancastrian army observing him before moving forward—a body of 500 men-at-arms dispatched to Sandwich. Should take the place of Lord Rivers' forces and make an effort to contact Somerset at Guisnes. Osbert Mundeford, one of the officers from the Calais garrison who had abandoned Warwick along with Sir Andrew Trollope, oversaw this body.
As a result, on June 25th, Rivers' prisoner, Sir John Dynham, made his second voyage to Sandwich and was defeated by Mundeford's army. The Lancastrians were not caught napping this time, so there was a heated skirmish; nonetheless, the Yorkists prevailed again. Dynham was definitely hit by a bombardment shot, but his forces assaulted the town, routed the enemy, and captured Mudeford. He was sent to Calais, where, like the November 3rd detainees, he was convicted for deserting his commander and executed outside the city walls the next day.
On the 27th, Warwick, his father, the Earl of March, Lord Falconbridge, Wenlock, and the other leaders at Calais crossed to Sandwich with 2,000 troops in excellent order, leaving the town with the lowest garrison that could be relied upon to carry out the task of keeping Somerset out. They had released a manifesto before their landing that reiterated the stereotypical Yorkist complaints about the ineffective government, the oppressive taxes, the King's kin being excluded from his council, the diverting of tax money to the courtiers, the wrongdoings of particular Lancastrian chiefs, the treatment of the King's lieges, and all the other usual gripes.
The Archbishop of Canterbury and several armed tenants of the church greeted the three Earls shortly after their intended arrival in Sandwich. The Kentish men then surrounded them in large numbers. Yet, no one lifted a hand in opposition to them as they marched forward.
The Lancastrians had been completely taken off guard. They have anticipated Warwick incursions on the eastern coast rather than the southern one. Besides Mundeford's routed company, no one was armed South of the Thames. Most Lancastrian nobles were dispersed throughout their respective domains, while the King and Queen were in Coventry. Lord Vesey, Lord Lovell, and John de Foix, the nominal Earl of Kendal, were present in London under Lord Scales's command and Lord Hungerford's command. By placing their retainers in the Tower and mounting weapons on London Bridge, these commanders attempted to secure the city. However, the inhabitants' perspective was dangerous, and Warwick was known to be approaching quickly. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the three Earls, and others were present in front of London's walls on July 1st after the arrival on June 27th. They had travelled more than seventy miles in four days via Dartford, Rochester, and Canterbury and arrived much earlier than intended.
The Lancastrian lords attempted to give opposition when the Archbishop's herald called the town. Still, the crowd rose and pushed them into the Tower while a council members committee granted a free entrance to the Yorkist army.
A specific Bishop of Teramo who had previously served as a Papal Legate, the Archbishop, dispatched by Pius the Second to try and bring the English factions together and persuade them to undertake a crusade, led the three Earls as they arrived in London on July 2nd in state. Warwick had talked over him, and he had done all in his power to further York's case. The Earls rode to St. Paul's, where Warwick "recited the cause of their coming into the land, how they had been driven out of the presence of the King with great violence, so that they might not come to his Highness to excuse themselves of the accusations laid against them," in front of a sizable crowd of both clergy and laypeople. By God's goodness, they had returned, this time with their people, to appear before him and confess their innocence, failing which they would have perished on the battlefield. He took Christ, His Holy Mother, and all of Heaven's Saints as witnesses as he swore on the Cross of Canterbury that they bore genuine faith and vengeance for the King's person. We'll see that Warwick's last assurance wasn't just a meaningless platitude and that his pledge was more accurate than some of his contemporaries, most notably Edward the Fourth.