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EARL OF RICHARD NEVILLE WARWICK (1428...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 340 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EARL OF RICHARD NEVILLE WARWICK (1428—1471)  , called " the king-maker," was eldest son of Richard Neville,
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earl of Salisbury, by Alice, only daughter and heiress of Thomas, the last Montacute earl of Salisbury . He was born on the 22nd of November 1428, and whilst still a boy betrothed to Anne, daughter of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick . When her
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brother's daughter died in 1449, Anne, as only
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sister of the whole
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blood, brought her
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husband the title and chief share of the Warwick estates . Richard Neville thus became the premier earl, and both in power and position excelled his
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father . Richard, duke of York, was his
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uncle, so when York became
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protector in 1453, and Salisbury was made chancellor, it was natural that Warwick should be one of the council . After the king's recovery in 1455 Warwick and his father took up arm's in York's support . Their victory at St Albans on the 22nd of May was due to the fierce energy with which Warwick assaulted and broke the Lancastrian centre . He was rewarded with the important office of captain of
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Calais; to his position there he owed his strength during the next five years . Even when York was displaced at bonne, Warwick retained his
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post, and in 1457 was also made
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admiral . He was
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present in
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February 1458 at the professed reconciliation of the two parties in a loveday at St Paul's,
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London . During the previous
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year he had done some good fighting on the march of Calais by
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land, and kept the sea with vigour; now on his return he distinguished himself in a
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great fight with
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Spanish
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ships off Calais on the 28th of May, and in the autumn by capturing a German salt-
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fleet on its way to
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Lubeck . These exploits brought him a
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prestige and popularity that were distasteful to the home government .

Moreover,

England was at war neither with Castile nor with the Hanse . Warwick's
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action may possibly have formed
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part of some Yorkist design for frustrating the
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foreign policy of their rivals . At all events there was pretext enough for recalling him to make his defence . Whilst he was at the court at Westminster a brawl occurred between his retainers and some of the royal household . Warwick himself escaped with difficulty, and went back to Calais, alleging that his
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life had been deliberately attempted . When in the following year a renewal of the war was imminent, Warwick crossed over to England with his trained soldiers from Calais under
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Sir Andrew Trollope . But at Ludlow on the 12th of
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October Trollope and his men deserted, and
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left the Yorkists helpless . Warwick, with his father, his cousin the young
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Edward of York, and only three followers, made his way to
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Barnstaple . There they hired a little fishing vessel . The master pleaded that he did not know the Channel, but Warwick resourcefully took command and himself steered a successful course to Calais . He arrived just in time to anticipate the duke of Somerset, whom the Lancastrians had sent to supersede him . During the winter Warwick held Calais against Somerset, and sent out a fleet which seized Sandwich and captured Lord Rivers .

In the

spring he went to Ireland to concert plans with Richard of York . On his return voyage he encountered a
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superior Lancastrian fleet in the Channel . But Exeter; the
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rival
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commander, could not
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trust his crews and dared not fight . From Calais Warwick, Salisbury and Edward of York crossed to Sandwich on the 26th of
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June . A few days later they entered London, whence Warwick at once marched north . On the loth of
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July he routed the Lancastrians at Northampton, and took the king prisoner . For the order to spare the
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commons and slay the lords Warwick was responsible, as also for some later executions at London . Yet when Richard of York was disposed to claim the
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crown, it was, according to Waurin, Warwick who decided the discussion in favour of a compromise, perhaps from
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loyalty to Henry, or perhaps from the wish not to change a weak
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sovereign for a strong . Warwick was in charge of London at the time when Richard and Salisbury were defeated and slain at Wakefield . The Lancastrians won a second victory at St Albans on the 17th of February 1461, possibly through lack of general-
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ship on Warwick's part . But in his plans to retrieve the disaster Warwick showed skill and decision . He met Edward of York in Oxfordshire, brought him in triumph to London, had him proclaimed king, and within a month of his defeat at St Albans was marching north in pursuit of the Lancastrians .

The good generalship which won the victory of

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Towton may have been due to Edward rather than to Warwick, but the new king was of the creation of the powerful earl, who now had his
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reward . For four years the government was centred undisputedly in the hands of Warwick and his friends . The energy of his brother John, Lord Montagu, frustrated the various attempts of the Lancastrians in the north . In another sphere Warwick himself was determining the lines of
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English policy on the basis of an
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alliance with France . The power of the Nevilles seemed to be completed by the promotion of George, the third i,rother, to be archbishop of York . The first check came with the announcement in September 1464 of the king's secret
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marriage to Elizabeth Woodville . This was particularly distasteful to Warwick, who had but just pledged Edward to a French match . For the time, however, there was no open breach . The trouble began in 1466, when Edward first made Rivers, the queen's father, treasurer, and afterwards threw obstacles in the way of an intended marriage between Warwick's daughter
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Isabel and George of Clarence, his own next brother . Still in May 1467 Warwick went again with the king's assent to conclude a treaty with France . He returned to find that in his absence Edward, under Woodville's influence, had committed himself definitely to the Burgundian alliance . Warwick retired in dudgeon to his estates, and began to plot in secret for his revenge .

In the summer of 1469 he went over to Calais, where Isabel and Clarence were married without the king's knowledge . Meantime he had stirred up the

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rebellion of
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Robin of Redesdale in
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Yorkshire; and when Edward was
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drawn north Warwick invaded England in arms . The king, outmarched and outnumbered, had to yield himself prisoner, whilst Rivers and his son John were executed . Warwick was apparently content with the overthrow of the Woodvilles, and believed that he had secured Edward's submission . In March 1470 a rebellion in
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Lincolnshire gave Edward an opportunity to gather an army of his own . When the king alleged that he had found proof of Warwick's complicity, the earl, taken by surprise, fled with Clarence to France . There, through the instrumentality of Louis XI., he was with some difficulty reconciled to Margaret of
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Anjou, and agreed to marry his second daughter to her son . In September Warwick and Clarence, with the Lancastrian lords, landed at Dartmouth . Edward in his turn had to fly oversea, and for six months Warwick ruled England as
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lieutenant for Henry VI., who was restored from his prison in the Tower to a nominal
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throne . But the Lancastrian restoration was unwelcome to Clarence, who began to intrigue with his brother . When in March 1471 Edward landed at Ravenspur, Clarence found an opportunity to join him . Warwick was completely outgenerailed, and at
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Barnet on the 14th of
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April was defeated and slain .

Warwick has been made famous by

Lytton as " The Last of the Barons." The title suits him as a great feudal lord, who was a good fighter but a poor general, who had more sympathy with the old order than with the new culture . But he was more than this . He had some of the qualities of a strong ruler, and the power to command popularity . He was a skilled diplomatist and an adroit politician . These qualities, with his position as the head of a great
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family, the chief representative of Beauchamp, Despenser, Montacute and Neville, made him during ten years " the king-maker." Warwick's only children were his two daughters . Anne, the younger, was married after his
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death to Richard of Gloucester, the future Richard III . Their husbands shared his
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inheritance and quarrelled over its division .

End of Article: EARL OF RICHARD NEVILLE WARWICK (1428—1471)
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SIR PHILIP WARWICK (1609-1683)

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