Against him York, having a private complaint, obtained damages of 1,000l. for trespass, on which he was committed to the Fleet. On the reassembling of parliament at Reading, on 11 Feb. 1454, it was again adjourned to the 14th, to meet at Westminster, a commission being given to York on the 13th to hold it in the king's name.
On 19 March the commons petitioned for the appointment of a governing council. On the 22nd Cardinal Kemp died, and the see of Canterbury and the chancellorship were both left vacant. On the 23rd twelve lords were deputed to wait on the king at Windsor, to see if any communication were possible on public affairs. They reported that the king understood nothing whatever. The lords then, on 27 March, elected the Duke of York protector and defender of the kingdom. The duke accepted the office under protest that he did so only as a matter of duty, requesting that they would notify his excuse to the king whenever he was restored to health. He also demanded that the terms on which he was to act should be distinctly specified, and his formal appointment was made by patent on 3 April. He appointed his brother-in-law, Richard, earl of Salisbury, lord chancellor. His enemies the Duke of Exeter and Lord Egremont soon after raised men in the north, and York had to go thither in May to suppress disturbances. He made a most satisfactory expedition, staying some time at York, and returned to London in the beginning of July. The Duke of Exeter meanwhile had come up incognito, and taken sanctuary at Westminster, from which he was removed by the council and committed to the custody of York, who again went northward with him, and placed him in Pomfret Castle. On 18 July York was appointed captain of Calais for seven years in place of Somerset. A question arose the same day in a great council whether the latter, who had not yet been tried, should be liberated on bail. York only insisted that the opinion of the judges should be taken; and the result was that Somerset was left in prison. On the 19th York was appointed keeper of the king's mines in Devonshire and Cornwall for ten years from the preceding Easter (Patent Roll, 32 Hen. VI, m. 9). On 1 Dec., owing to the death of his deputy in Ireland, Sir Edward Fitzeustace, he obtained a confirmation of his own original appointment as lieutenant of Ireland for ten years (Patent, 33 Hen. VI, pt. i. m. 14).
At Christmas the king recovered from his long illness, and after the new year (1455) he was capable of attending to business. On 9 Feb. apparently, York's protectorship was revoked. On the 5th four of the council became bail for Somerset, who, on 4 March, at a council before the king at Greenwich at which York was present, complained of his long imprisonment; he offered, if any one would accuse him, to defend himself like a true knight. The king replied that he was assured of his loyalty, and his bail was discharged, he and York being both bound in recognisances of twenty thousand marks to abide the award of eight other councillors in the matters in dispute between them. Then on the 6th the government of Calais was taken from York and given to Somerset; on the 7th the great seal was taken from Salisbury and given to Archbishop Bourchier; on the 19th the Duke of Exeter was sent for from Pomfret Castle. Everything was to be reversed. A council was called at Westminster, to which York and his friends were not invited; and another was summoned to meet at Leicester, professedly for the surety of the king's person.
York, who was in the north, joined the Earl of Salisbury and his son the Earl of Warwick, afterwards the famous ‘king-maker’ [see Neville, Richard, Earl of Salisbury, 1400–1460, and Neville, Richard, Earl of Warwick, 1428–1471]. Together the three lords came with a considerable following to Royston. Thence, on 20 May, they despatched an urgent letter to Archbishop Bourchier, declaring that they were as ready as any to defend the king's person if necessary; but hearing that their personal enemies aspersed their loyalty, they wished him to remove suspicions in the king's mind, and also to fulminate ecclesiastical censures at Paul's Cross against all who should attempt anything against the king's welfare. Next day they wrote from Ware to the king himself, with strong protestations of loyalty and complaints of being shut out from his presence. The archbishop, on receipt of the letter addressed to himself, sent it by a special messenger, who overtook the king at Kilburn on his way to Leicester. It was read by Somerset, but he did not deliver it to Henry. The second letter also, though addressed to the king himself and received for him by the Earl of Devonshire, was in like manner withheld from his knowledge. The result was that when the king came to St. Albans on the 22nd there was an appearance of a hostile army outside the town. A conflict, however, was deferred for nearly three hours, during which York and his friends not only strove to represent to the king the perfect loyalty of their intentions, but also insisted that certain per-
