![]() ![]() Henry left London on May 21 bound for Leicester, where he intended to hold council with the highest peers of the realm. Talbot died at the Battle of Castillon in 1453. Henry VI appoints John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, as Constable of France. Sensing that the political tide had turned against them, York, Salisbury, and Warwick quit London for their estates in the North, where they immediately began to raise an army and reclaim power. Immediately afterward, York was again out of favor and Beaufort, Percy, and other Lancastrian peers had the king’s ear. One of his first acts was to free Somerset from the Tower. But the first protectorate came to an abrupt end in January 1455 when the king recovered enough to retake the throne. The decision to give the office to York rather than Somerset did not sit well with the Beaufort family, the poweful Percys of Northumberland, or the queen.ĭuring York’s 14-month tenure as Protector, he put Somerset in the Tower of London on charges of treason for his conduct in France during the last phase of the Hundred Years’ War. To Somerset’s surprise, the Dukes of Salisbury and Warwick put together an alliance whose members favored having York serve as Protector of England. When the king fell prey to mental illness in 1453, Somerset called a meeting of the peers of the realm to decide who would rule on the king’s behalf while he was ill. Paul’s Cathedral, vowing never again to take up arms against the king. To remain free, he was forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Henry in St. Lacking widespread support from the peerage, York had no choice but to capitulate. Raising a small army on his Welsh estates, he marched toward London but found the city’s gates barred. Fearing that Somerset was out to destroy him, York tried to seize power in 1452. ![]() Over the next two years, York sparred continuously with Somerset, who also held a claim to the throne through the Beaufort family, a branch of the House of Lancaster. He returned from Ireland in 1450 and assumed a seat on the king’s council, where he pushed for reforms and for the prosecution of those, like Somerset, whom he believed responsible for the loss of England’s possessions in France. York considered himself the best man to steer England through its unrest. By August 1450, the French had reconquered Normandy, and by October 1453 they had retaken Gascony as well. Meanwhile, England’s grip on its French territories under Somerset’s leadership was rapidly slipping away. ![]() York correctly interpreted the appointment as banishment and stayed in England as long as he could before sailing to Ireland in 1449. To do so, in 1447 Henry appointed York to serve as Lieutenant of Ireland. His opposition to French-born Queen Margaret’s push for peace with France had made the Duke of York a powerful enemy at court, and Henry gave in to his wife’s wishes to rid the country of the troublesome duke. ![]() In 1446, Henry appointed Somerset to serve as Lieutenant of France, replacing York. The only child of Henry V and Catherine Valois, Henry lacked his father’s sharp mental faculties and his martial abilities, and he had to depend on others to help him retain England’s possessions in France, which consisted of Normandy in the north and Gascony in the south. These factors were fertile ground for an explosive rivalry that developed between Richard Plantagenet, the third Duke of York, the most powerful and wealthy noble in the realm, and Edmund Beaufort, the Duke of Somerset, the king’s favorite minister. Military defeat in France, civil unrest, and royal favoritism had been the shameful hallmarks of his nearly two-decade-long reign. Indolent, weak-willed, and prone to periodic fits of madness, King Henry VI had let England slide downhill since coming of age in 1437. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |