Last of the Barons | Page 4

short summary of the reasons for this rejection is given by Dr.
Lingard, and annexed below. ["Many writers tell us that the enmity of
Warwick arose from his disappointment caused by Edward's
clandestine marriage with Elizabeth. If we may believe them, the earl
was at the very time in France negotiating on the part of the king a
marriage with Bona of Savoy, sister to the Queen of France; and having
succeeded in his mission, brought back with him the Count of
Dampmartin as ambassador from Louis. To me the whole story appears
a fiction. 1. It is not to be found in the more ancient historians. 2.
Warwick was not at the time in France. On the 20th of April, ten days
before the marriage, he was employed in negotiating a truce with the
French envoys in London (Rym. xi. 521), and on the 26th of May,
about three weeks after it, was appointed to treat of another truce with

the King of Scots (Rym. xi. 424). 3. Nor could he bring Dampmartin
with him to England; for that nobleman was committed a prisoner to
the Bastile in September, 1463, and remained there till May, 1465
(Monstrel. iii. 97, 109). Three contemporary and well-informed writers,
the two continuators of the History of Croyland and Wyrcester,
attribute his discontent to the marriages and honours granted to the
Wydeviles, and the marriage of the princess Margaret with the Duke of
Burgundy."--LINGARD, vol. iii. c. 24, pp. 5, 19, 4to ed.] And, indeed,
it is a matter of wonder that so many of our chroniclers could have
gravely admitted a legend contradicted by all the subsequent conduct of
Warwick himself; for we find the earl specially doing honour to the
publication of Edward's marriage, standing godfather to his first-born
(the Princess Elizabeth), employed as ambassador or acting as minister,
and fighting for Edward, and against the Lancastrians, during the five
years that elapsed between the coronation of Elizabeth and Warwick's
rebellion.
The real causes of this memorable quarrel, in which Warwick acquired
his title of King-maker, appear to have been these.
It is probable enough, as Sharon Turner suggests, [Sharon Turner:
History of England, vol. iii. p. 269.] that Warwick was disappointed
that, since Edward chose a subject for his wife, he neglected the more
suitable marriage he might have formed with the earl's eldest daughter;
and it is impossible but that the earl should have been greatly chafed, in
common with all his order, by the promotion of the queen's relations,
[W. Wyr. 506, 7. Croyl. 542.] new men and apostate Lancastrians. But
it is clear that these causes for discontent never weakened his zeal for
Edward till the year 1467, when we chance upon the true origin of the
romance concerning Bona of Savoy, and the first open dissension
between Edward and the earl.
In that year Warwick went to France, to conclude an alliance with
Louis XI., and to secure the hand of one of the French princes [Which
of the princes this was does not appear, and can scarcely be conjectured.
The "Pictorial History of England" (Book v. 102) in a tone of easy
decision says "it was one of the sons of Louis XI." But Louis had no
living sons at all at the time. The Dauphin was not born till three years
afterwards. The most probable person was the Duke of Guienne,
Louis's brother.] for Margaret, sister to Edward IV.; during this period,

Edward received the bastard brother of Charles, Count of Charolois,
afterwards Duke of Burgundy, and arranged a marriage between
Margaret and the count.
Warwick's embassy was thus dishonoured, and the dishonour was
aggravated by personal enmity to the bridegroom Edward had preferred.
[The Croyland Historian, who, as far as his brief and meagre record
extends, is the best authority for the time of Edward IV., very decidedly
states the Burgundian alliance to be the original cause of Warwick's
displeasure, rather than the king's marriage with Elizabeth: "Upon
which (the marriage of Margaret with Charolois) Richard Nevile, Earl
of Warwick, who had for so many years taken party with the French
against the Burgundians, conceived great indignation; and I hold this to
be the truer cause of his resentment than the king's marriage with
Elizabeth, for he had rather have procured a husband for the aforesaid
princess Margaret in the kingdom of France." The Croyland Historian
also speaks emphatically of the strong animosity existing between
Charolois and Warwick.--Cont. Croyl. 551.] The earl retired in disgust
to his castle. But Warwick's nature, which Hume has happily described
as one of "undesigning frankness and openness," [Hume, "Henry VI.,"
vol. iii. p. 172, edit. 1825.] does not seem to have long harboured this
resentment. By the intercession of the Archbishop of York and others, a
reconciliation was effected, and