Page:The Complete Peerage (Edition 1, Volume 8).djvu/72

62 WARWICK. reooodlad ftfc Angen, to Margaret, Queen Oonaort of Hen. VI., and landing at Plymouth, 18 Sep. 1470 (with the Duke of Clarence, the Barl of Oxford, &c), proclaimed Henry YL aa King (wboee reatoration ia dated aa 6, or 9 Oct. 14tfO), and accompanied him in atate to Weatniinater. The pari, met 26 Not. 1460, and appointed him and hia aon-in-law, the Duke of Clarence, joint Lieutenanta of the Realm. By that Duke, however, he waa deaerted, and he waa alain with his said brother, the MarqueBS of Montagu, at the batUe of Bamet,(*) 14 April 1471, at which date Ed. IV. waa again acknowledged aa King. Both brothere were (after two days ezpoaure, " naked," at St. Paul's), bur, at Bisham Abbey. He (who is well known in history aa ** Tke King-maker) d, s.p.m., aged 48, p') his own and his wife's vast eatatea fa«tng divided between his two daught<sni,(*) (the righta thereto of his widow, the heiress of the great family of Beauchamp, being ignored), when the heirship to death would lead to the presumption that no such attainder would be [was] enacted : Edward IV. did indeed issue a proclamation, 81 Mar. 1470, declaring the Duke of Clarence and the Barl of Warwick rebels and traitors, but this proclamation waa apeedily followed bv his own expulsion from England, and the restoration to power of King Henry Vl. through the iotttru mentality of this powerful Baron. At the period of his death (at the battle of fiamet) in the year following, his eldest da. Isabel, coheir of his vaat estates, was married to Qeoiige, Duke of Clarence, who had lately made hia peace with King Edward, by treachery towards his father-in-law ; and the death of Edward, Prince of Wales, at Tewkesbury only a few weeks after, opened the wav to the marriage of liichard, Duke of Gloucester, with Anne, the younger da. and coheir. By an Act of 18 Edw. IV. (1473), it was ordained that * George, Duo of Clarence and laabell hia wyf, Richard, Due of Glouc. and Aune hia wyf, doughters and heirea to Richard Nevill, late Erie of Warwyk, and doughters and heirea apparantes to Anne, Countes of Warwyk, late wyfe to the seid Erie, shall from henceforth have, possede, enherit and enjoy, as in the right of their seid wyfes, all Honours, Lordships, hcf Enheritameuts, &c., which were or be belongyng to the seid Aune, Countess of Warwyk, &c., and that the same Isabell aud Aune, the doughters, be heires of blode to the same Countes, &c., aud to all othor thoir auiicttstrcH, as yf the seid Countes were nowe naturally dede.' This Act, though annulled by another, 3 Hen. VI(. (1487>8), as 'against all reason, conscience, and course of nature, and contrary to the laws of God and man,' aeems decisive as to the fact, not only that Isabel and Anne had aucceeded their father aa his lawful heirs, but also that no legal impediment exiated to the enjoyment of Aun, Countess of Warwick of the Honours and Lordshipa belonging t^i'her aa heir of that Earldom, for, had tliei-e iteen such impediment, tliia unnatural proceeding need not to have been rusorteil to. Henry VII., though ready to stigmatise the act of his predecessor, seems to have been induced to do so, mora with a view to his own advantage than from compassion towarda the Countess ; for we find that no aooner waa she possessed of her large inheritance, by the reversal of the Act of 1478, than it was all aettled by her upon the King, and we search in vain for further trace of the histoty of this unfortunate lady ; upon her death, which is supposed to have happened about 1490, the ancient Earldom of Warwick, and what- ever dignity she possessed under the Patau t of 1450, devolved upon her grandson, Edward, Earl of Warwick." [Oourthope.] (•) See p. 66, note " f," Bub. '* Saye." {^) That he waa " Miles audax agilia et animoeua " (aa stated in J. de Whetliam- ■iade'a " Ohron,**) is no true character of him, indeed it waa hia deficiency in military akill, which, with perhaps a suspicion of his want of courage, acoounta for the contempt in which Ed. IV. held him. His success waa due to his popular bearing, hia hoapitality, hia knowledge of men and his great diplomatic talent. He is iippa- rently first called ** JUgum ereaUr " in the Latin history of Scotland by John Major [1461-1560], and ia styled by Hume, *' The Latt of the Barone*' which is the title of Lytton*s historical romance concerning him. This term indeed "is not wholly inapplicable to [him, aa being] the laat representative of the class of Great Nobles in opposition to the Crown." [NaL Biog,' (^) These were (1) Isabel, who m. George (Plantagenet), Duke of Clarence (attainted 1478) and cf. 22 Dea 1476, leaving issue Edward (Plantagenet), Earl of Warwick, only a. and h., who d, unm., 28 Nov. 1499 ; (2)' Anne, who m. firstly 1470, Edward, Prince of Wales, who d a.p., 4 May 1471 ; she m, secondly, 12 July 1472, Biohard H!., •nd d a.p.8., 16 March I486.