Readeption of Henry VI — London Secured by Warwick 1470
Who Fought
History & Significance
The Readeption was the restoration of Henry VI of England to the throne of England in 1470. Edward, Duke of York, had taken the throne as Edward IV in 1461. Henry had fled with some Lancastrian supporters and spent much of the next few years in hiding in Northern England or in Scotland, where there was still some Lancastrian support. Henry was captured in 1465 and was held as a prisoner in the Tower of London. Following dissent with his former key supporter, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, Edward was forced to flee in 1470. Henry was then restored to the throne, although he was deposed again the following year.
The period known as the Readeption was so named because of the formula at the start of Henry VI's issuants, viz. "the forty-ninth year of the reign of King Henry VI and the first year of the readeption of his Royal power".
King Henry VI had been king of England nearly all his life: his father Henry V had died in 1422 on campaign in France when Henry VI was only a few months old. Henry VI was never a strong king like his father; he was unable to keep a firm hand on either government or the nobility, and by the mid-1450s civil war had broken out. The main protagonists were supporters of Henry and his Queen—Lancastrians—and those of the recalcitrant Richard, Duke of York, or Yorkists. These civil wars—known today as Wars of the Roses—broke out in 1455 when Henry's army was defeated by a Yorkist one at the First Battle of St Albans, and there were further bloody encounters between the two sides until, eventually, in March 1461, the Yorkist army led by Edward, Duke of York, beat the royal army at Towton. This decisive engagement has been described as the biggest battle ever fought on English soil: it resulted in Edward taking the throne for himself as King Edward IV, and King Henry and Queen Margaret escaping into Scottish exile.
Edward reigned for the next ten years, supported by his close allies the Neville family—pre-eminent amongst them, Richard, Earl of Warwick. It was not particularly peaceful; until 1464, there were continuous sieges, clashes and encounters in the North of England, until these were eventually crushed by Warwick's brother John. John was rewarded with the earldom of Northumberland, a title that had traditionally been held by the Nevilles' bitter territorial rivals in the north, the Percy family.
Warwick, however, was increasingly discontented with his former protégé, King Edward. Not only did he disagree with the pro-Burgundian and anti-French foreign policy Edward was pursuing, but the king had made an unpopular marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, whom Warwick appears to have considered of parvenu stock. Edward's younger brother George of Clarence was also, for his own reasons, turning against Edward, and by the late 1460s, he and Warwick were in political alliance against the King. In late 1467, Warwick withdrew from the court to the north and his Yorkshire estates. George was equally dissatisfied with his lot under his brother's regime, particularly as Edward had recently forbidden a marriage between George and Warwick's eldest daughter, Isabel Neville. The king had also recently dismissed Warwick and John's brother George from the chancellorship—in (says historian Charles Ross) a "pointed" manner.
The ground they fought on
The site of Readeption of Henry VI — London Secured by Warwick 1470 lies on Thames Group, bedrock that formed in the Eocene. The rock here is clay, silt, sand and gravel.
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- Readeption of Henry VI · Wikipedia
- Edward IV's flight to Burgundy · The Wars of the Roses