Why_Did_Edward_Iv_Lose_the_Throne_in_1470,_Yet_Regain_It_in_1471_

There are many factors that contribute to Edward's loss of the throne in 1470, including his foreign policy, as Edward failed to secure alliance with Louis XII and France, failure to deal with problems in the North of England, his inability to see that nobles were turning against him and the fact that he didn't want to believe those such as Percy and Somerset were moving against him and his financial policies, though mostly effective were based on loans showing that Edward was unable to be a great monarch during his first reign, yet I believe that the most important factor that contributes to the loss of the throne for Edward was his broken alliance with the Earl of Warwick and it was also the decreasing power of Warwick that enabled Edward to restore the throne in 1471. Edward’s relationship with the Earl of Warwick is a major factor when considering the loss of Edward’s throne. Warwick was the most influential and the largest landowner in the Kingdom after the death of his father at Wakefield in 1460, Warwick posed as a threat, as he could easily gain power over the king. Problems between Edward and Warwick began when Edward secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, destroying Warwick’s plans for Edward to marry a French Princess to acclaim a marriage alliance. The news that Edward had married a commoner spited Warwick as it was now evident that the King wasn’t listening to Warwick, he became increasingly worried. He had seemed to be incredibly influential during Henry VI’s reign as he had been able to excel the interests of York. Edward was unable to successfully take action at this early stage and was unable to see the frustration of Warwick and the dangers this would lead to. This would later cost Edward the throne. The dealing with nobles such as Warwick can be used to show how ineffective Edward IV was during his first reign. Edward IV had to try and think of a way to suppress nobles’ power due to the corruption and problems caused by them during the time of Henry VI. He was able to do this partly with the use of attainders, meaning that nobles could be executed without trial, however this was not used for those like Warwick, who posed the greatest threat. Pickering states that Warwick was the ‘mightiest of subjects’. The king needed to find a way of restricting the power of Warwick. Warwick’s salary was larger than the heirs to the throne with him receiving two times more than the Duke of Clarence. Edward therefore is seen to be ineffective in dealing with the most powerful and influential nobles, he only dealt with minor nobles, the most powerful ones such as Warwick were never dealt with and this effectively lost Edward IV the throne in 1470. Edward's cousin, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, was a powerful man in his own right and was later known as Warwick the Kingmaker. Edward's brother, George, the Duke of Clarence, hated the king's new wife, Elizabeth Woodville. Warwick wanted to arrange a marriage between his oldest daughter, Isabel, and Clarence. Edward refused to sanction the marriage but Clarence married Isabel anyway. Warwick would cause huge problems during Edward IV’s first reign; however he didn’t take any direct action until 1469. Finally Warwick and Clarence's openly revolted, Edward's forces were defeated by them at the Battle of Edgecote Moor in 1469, and the king himself captured, Warwick attempted to rule England in Edward's name, but a counter rebellion forced the king's release. This rebellion was instigated by the Warwick faction when they spotted the King was in rebellion in the North. Edward was slow in responding to Warwick, showing that he was particularly ineffective in dealing with major disturbances, a huge factor as to why he later lost the throne. The fact that the King was captured shows us that he was unable to deal with problems caused by who had been one of his closest advisors and also showed that he was unable to rule the whole of England at the same time, as being occupied in the North led to his late response to his brother’s and Warwick’s rebellion. Edward should have seen the power Warwick held over him, and dealt with it much better than he did to have kept the throne. While Edward was held, many Woodville’s were killed. Earl Rivers, Sir John Woodville, and the Earl of Pembroke were all beheaded and it wasn’t until a pro-Lancastrian rebellion developed and was suppressed in the North, that Edward was released and regained power over his country. According to Warren ‘Edward wanted to place Warwick in a power structure but not allow him to dominate’, we can see that Edward failed to do this as Warwick performed a successful against him, with the King unable to resist it. However, though this is part of the reason as to why he lost the throne, this is something Edward did do when he reclaimed the throne in 1471. Edward’s failure to punish the Earl of Warwick allowed him back to his original position. Cook states ‘he did not want to believe that Warwick was involved in treason’, this may explain why Edward didn’t ensure that Warwick would pose no further threat. Failure to take this huge advantage and ensure that the one of the main causes of rebellions was suppressed, showing how ineffective Edward was and resulting in the loss of his throne. In 1470, Warwick once again rebelled. Instead of manipulating the King, he targeted Edward’s younger brother, George, Duke of Clarence. Clarence being ‘eager to help’ joined arms with Warwick against the King. Local feud turned in to a full blown rebellion, the rebels were quickly deposed of. Warwick’s plans were disposed of, he was no longer able to raise any men from the North. Despite attempts at reconciliation on Edward's part, Warwick and Clarence headed a further rebellion in 1470 but they were ultimately defeated. Warwick entered into an alliance with the Lancastrians agreeing to restore the deposed Henry VI in exchange for French support. It seemed that everyone was switching allegiance to the Lancastrians. Edward was forced flee England and escape to the Continent. This shows that Edward was somewhat effective during this second rebellion as he did successfully get Warwick and Clarence out of England, however he didn’t completely dispose them, but they were unable to cause any further rebellions in England. However this did potentially cause greater harm. In France, Warwick had access to Henry VI and Louis XI, one of the most effective and successful king’s of the time. Henry VI was briefly restored to the throne in 1470 but Warwick controlled him. However, the support of France was actually a political disaster for Warwick as it pushed Chales, Duke of Burgundy into close alliance with Edward. Warwick could not longer rely on widespread public support and desperately tried to assemble an army to defeat Edward. Edward had growing support, and had yet to lose a battle, he had gained the support of his brother Clarence, who had realised he would be in a better position as the brother of the king. Warwick was losing power, the fact that he had previously had so much power had cause Edward to lose the throne, but now he had lost this, Edward could see the opportunity to restore the throne. The earl of Warwick was killed and Edward regained the throne. Edward IV showed that one of his main weaknesses was his inability to tax his subjects freely and that this in turn was a product of his political stability. Which again shows that Edward was reliant on other people, he therefore didn't show himself to be very powerful politically. It is claimed that his revenues were very low compared with the £800,000 commanded by the king of France to the £1,100,000 by the Emperor in the 1520s. Edward relied on his personal energy top maintain his affluence and more on his ability to keep out of war. Edward's regime wasn't always sucessful and poverty did turrn out to be a major problem resulting in him losing the throne. However, despite this, Edward did gain support from people willing to lend him money. In particular, there were three groups of people; the Londoners, The Company of the Staple and the alien bankers and merchants. They appreciated the efforts the government was making to meets its obligations despite the difficulties. Edward began to get wealthier. He began to enforce his feudal rights more sharply and draw revenues from vacant prelacies. The fact that people supported Edward could mean that although Edward alone, was pretty inefficient, he was able to restore the throne due to the endless support people seemed to offer him. Charles Ross states that by May 1470 Louis XI ’had endured twenty months of the most acute anxiety and strain – the nightmare vision of an active combination of England, Burgundy and Brittany’. It was this feeling that led him to make the unholy alliance with Margaret and Warwick, which resulted in Edward IV losing the throne. Without Louis XI’s assistance financially, diplomatically and militarily , Edward would have likely remained King in 1470. Similarly it is to foreign policy and Warwick’s declaration of war against Burgundy that Edward’s restoration can be traced. Although there were other reasons for Henry VI’s unpopularity, Warwick’s inability to keep England neutral, rather than blindly follow France’s lead, forced Charles of Burgundy to assist Edward with money (£20,000) and ships, and gave a focus of discontent to those opposing the Warwick and Lancastrian alliance. Whilst most of the reasons for Edward’s return to the throne can be traced to his actions when in England, the crucial role played by foreign policy was to place him in Yorkshire with a chance to retake his crown. Many factors actually enabled Edward to reclaim the throne, but the support of Charles of Burgundy was vital in the restoration. Although Warwick had a major part to play in Edward's loss of the throne in 1470, there are many contributing factors that led to this 'broken alliance'. The main problem was that Edward had secretly married Elizabeth, who had a long line of Lancastrians in her family. The fact that Elizabeth had seven sisters immediately concerned Warwick who had wanted Edward to marry in to a French alliance, and had wanted his daughters to marry into the royal family. One key issue that led to Edward's loss of the throne and possibly the restoration as well, was the power that Warwick held. A major problem that Edward was faced with was the power of the greater nobles, Edward failed to control them and they often had fueds between themselves, Warwick was concerned with the growing power of Sir William Herbert, William was striped by the Act of Attainder in 1469 again showing that Edward IV was ineffective in stopping fighting between nobles, especially at a time when he needed a united force to beat the Lancastrians. This ineffectiveness, again, shows us why Edward IV did lose the throne. Edward also had problems with controlling Law and Order, he found it difficult to implement his orders effectively and also struggled to enforce his policy on law breakers. An example of this can be seen in the response of the king to Lord Strange who claimed that someone was unlawfully in possession of his estates. The king sent out letters with his personal seal ordering him to appear before a council, the messenger of these letters was beaten to death. This tells us that the king's orders were not followed, thus proving that people did not see him as a threat, which again links to the fact that nobles felt they were more powerful than the king himself, which in the end resulted in his loss of the throne. Edward readily pardoned criminals and many suspects escaped trial and conviction by proclaiming royal pardons, Ross states that this 'become an abuse to the system'. Edward clearly showed that he was unable to uphold a fair judical system in his country and people recognised this weakness of his. Warwick was rewarded for his support with territories and titles such as the captain if Calais, admiral of England and constable of Dover Castle. Although powerful titles, they did not allow a monopolisation of power. In return for having those titles other were taken from him. For example the lord of Hastings was given Warwick’s stewardship of the duchy in Lancaster and Sir William Helbert, who was elevated to the lieutenancy of south Wales in place of the earl. This, however, did not stop Warwick’s thirst for power. ‘No regime, no king, especially one as tough as Edward could be, could long accept such an over-mighty subject’, frictions grow as Edward battled Warwick’s dominance. Michael Hicks reverts to an older tradition which admires Warwick as the exemplar of the true nobility, he argues that the image of man consumed with ambition, who sought little less but power is not right but that Warwick acted under a passion for the greater good. According to Warren, however, ‘Edward wanted to place Warwick in a power structure but not allow him to dominate’. Similarly some Margaret of Anjou, when the Lancastrian family was invited into power by Warwick, had forged a mistrust of Warwick. Warwick was a man that had been forgiven by Edward before and previously rewarded by him, Warwick could recognise his own power, he believed himself to be more effective in politics than the king. ‘On August 8th, 1469, the Milanese ambassador in France reported a startling rumor – that Edward IV of England was a bastard’ – at the time there would be no evidence to suggest otherwise so would mean that Edward had no right to the crown and consequently Edward’s younger brother, George Duke of Clarence was the true king. In this context, however, it is more than likely that this rumor was merely a rumor. On another occasion Warwick is supposed to have claimed that Margaret’s son, Edward, was fathered by a wandering player. Although it is debatable whether this rumor, sourced from Richard Neville, was a ‘was a figment of his lurid imagination’ or not, it did offer a legitimate reason for Edward’s disposal and subsequent replacement with Clarence. Once again, with foreign support, Warwick was able to recognise his dominance over the king. There has been dispute between historians about Warwick's motiviation for rebellion in 1470, however, it's clear that he was one of the supporting pillars that caused the usurpatopn of Edward as well as his reinstatement in 1471 as he was known as 'the setter-up and plucker-down of the king's' it is irrefutable that Warwick held a huge amount of power within the king's court. Even during Henry VI’s reign Warwick had appeared to be incredibly influential evident through his ability to excel the interests of York. This long standing power suggests that it is not merely a coincidence that Warwick had substantial power over the monarch but more down to Warwick’s personality. It can be argued that his personality enabled him to gain huge amounts of support which inevitably helped him to get Edward off the theone. Hicks argues that Warwick was ‘a statesman who both pursued an enlightened foreign policy and articulated the voice of the people for the common good’. However Warwick’s personality made him hard to hold down: ‘Warwick was a man who raised to such power and authority that he could not accept anything but a dominant role’. This tendency to want to be dominant is arguably signicant in considering Edward's loss and resotartion of the throne. Historians in general have exaggerated the personal following of the Woodville's and their influence in the king's court. Edward, in fact, had continued to grant Warwick land, stweardships and profits from mines in the 1460s so the impact of the marriage to Elizabeth in the relationship of Edward and Warwick wasn't so heavily impacted as has been suggested. Comvine with disputes over foreign policy, the friction between the two men did eventually push Warwick towards rebellion. In conclusion, although disputed between Edward and Warwick did upset Warwick hugely, ultimatey it was in fact Warwick's profoundly unreasonabl personality that led to his part in the usurpatopn of Edward. Once Warwick was killed and with the long line of Lancastrians virtually left non-existent at the Battle of Teweksbury, along with great determination and military ability, Edward was able to restore his throne. In conclusion I would say that it was the influences of other nobles that lost Edward the throne in 1470, yet enabled him to regain it in 1471, particularly the influences of the earl of Warwick. The fact that Louis XI had been prepared to join Warwick and Clarence in the move to overthrow Edward, once again shows that Warwick was much more powerful and possibly more popular than Edward at the time as he was the one able to gain foreign support. However, we're also able to see that Edward didn't really do himself justice, had he been less forgiving he may never have lost the throne in 1470. He also showed during his first reign that he wasn't actually a particularly effective king due to the fact that he wasn't able to recognise the threat he was receiving from Henry VI, the French King and of course Warwick, due to this his throne was lost. It may also be argued that he was successfully restored to the throne upon the death of Warwick, one of the most poweful and influential men of the time.