Earl of Warwick

English earl, military leader, and diplomat

• Born: November 22, 1428
• Birthplace: Probably Wessex, England
• Died: April 14, 1471
• Place of death: Barnet, Hertfordshire, England

The earl of Warwick’s activities during the Wars of the Roses proved that the accumulation of wealth and power in the hands of the nobles led only to chaos and destruction. New techniques of government nationalism and diplomacy were needed in a more modern world.

Early Life

Richard Neville was born the eldest son of Richard Neville, the fifth earl of Salisbury, and his wife, Alice (née Montacute). The Nevilles were one of the oldest, most important, and wealthiest families in England and were descended from and related to kings. Cecily Neville, Neville’s aunt, was married to Richard, the duke of York, who was heir to the English throne. Shortly before Neville’s birth, his mother’s father, the fourth earl of Salisbury, had been killed while fighting in France. In his wife’s name, Neville’s father inherited Salisbury’s lands and title. As a consequence, Neville was reared to wealth and power.

As a child, Richard was married to Anne Beauchamp, the only daughter of the earl of Warwick. In June, 1449, following the death of his wife’s brother, Richard inherited his father-in-law’s title and lands, making him the most powerful earl in England, with precedence over even his father. Not that his father minded; both his father and his grandfather had provided astutely for their numerous children. (Richard’s father had twenty-two full or half siblings.) They intended to make their family the most powerful in England, and for a short while they were successful. Of thirty-five members of the House of Lords, eleven were Nevilles. Richard Neville expected to play an important role in his country’s politics.

The influence of this small number of very powerful nobles was one reason mid-fifteenth century England was both prosperous and chaotic. Henry VI , born during the Hundred Years’ War while England was victorious, ruled both England and France. Governed by others, he never learned to rule well and was a weak king. When the war with France was lost, the English people blamed Henry’s ministers, especially those responsible for the king’s marriage to Margaret of Anjou, the niece of Charles VII of France. The war’s end brought not only popular discontent but also hosts of disbanded mercenaries. These soldiers swelled the private armies of the powerful barons, including the Nevilles.

Fifteenth century England was not isolated from international politics. Richard’s childhood was spent in the shadow of these events, as the country negotiated with France and continued its friendship with France’s enemy, Burgundy. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales were also areas of concern; Neville’s father was Henry VI’s warden of the West Marches near Scotland.

In 1450, these national and international influences resulted in the Wars of the Roses . The duke of York, supported by popular agitation to punish the ministers responsible for the mismanagement of the French war, began to demand reforms in government. Supporting those ministers, Queen Margaret excluded York from the King’s Council. The populace protested, and the barons began to choose sides. In August, 1453, when Henry VI was declared insane, the duke of York, as heir, was named regent in spite of Margaret’s animosity. The earl of Salisbury went to London to serve on the Council of Regency, and Warwick went with him. It was not until 1455, however, that Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, began his own life’s work.

Life’s Work

Having regained his senses, Henry VI summoned a Royal Council in 1455 and once again excluded the duke of York and his followers. York, Salisbury, and Warwick, with their thousands of retainers, rode to meet the king and his army at St. Albans. Discussion failed to settle the matter, and the opening battle of the Wars of the Roses between Henry’s Lancastrians and the Yorkists was fought there on May 22, 1455. York and Warwick were victorious; they captured the king, only to release him when he agreed to appoint Yorkists to government positions.

Warwick gained a military reputation at St. Albans. His chief talent, however, was administrative, and, when he was named governor of Calais in 1455, he was given the perfect setting for his talents. On the coast of France, adjacent to both Burgundy and Flanders, Calais was constantly threatened by the French because of its strategic importance. Calais also controlled the trade route between Flanders and Burgundy. Even though Calais was an important continental outpost, the garrison was seldom paid adequately or on time. Consequently, Warwick’s creativity and talent for management made him a popular commander, as he became a pirate to pay his soldiers. Seizing Spanish, French, Burgundian, and even some Hanseatic vessels en route to London, Warwick plundered them for his men, regardless of the king’s policy. All the men serving at Calais wore the Warwick badge out of admiration for their swashbuckling leader.

In 1459, at the moment when Margaret of Anjou believed herself secure enough to challenge the Yorkists, Warwick made a lightning raid on England to rescue his cousin, Edward, and his father. When Margaret’s representative attempted to seize Calais, Warwick was in control, and when the queen sent arms to her men, they fell into Warwick’s hands. To retrieve his ships from royal control, Warwick and his men slipped into the borough of Sandwich, seized them, and returned to Calais. In 1460, Warwick sailed to Ireland, conferred with the duke of York, and returned to Calais. Margaret’s naval forces offered battle; Warwick, without hesitating, bore down directly on the English fleet as it turned and fled. Mutinous English sailors refused to fight Warwick.

These years before 1460 may well have been some of Warwick’s best. Calais gave him the necessary scope for his courage, love of action, administrative skill, and vanity. Young, strong, friendly, generous, and fair, Warwick was well loved by the Calais garrison. He punished only those men who had turned against him and those nobles who had wronged him. The common people he spared. This ability to manage men and to excite their loyalty, first apparent at Calais, appeared again and again in Warwick’s dealings with individuals, Parliament, military retainers, and foreign rulers.

Calais held for Warwick in spirit, if not in fact, until he died. He returned often to Calais between battles, but after 1460, the earl’s attention shifted to England. In June, 1460, Warwick and his father landed at Sandwich after distributing throughout the country a proclamation of grievances against the king. Joining the duke of York, they defeated the Lancastrians at Northampton and again captured the king. The duke of York with difficulty resisted the temptation to claim the throne and resumed his place as regent.

In January, 1461, Margaret momentarily reclaimed the initiative at the second Battle of St. Albans a battle that cost the duke of York and Warwick’s father their lives. By the end of February, Edward of York, succeeding to his father’s title and ambition, had won the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross, claimed the throne as Edward IV, and routed the Lancastrians at Towton at a cost of thirty thousand lives, though only eight thousand of them were Yorkists. On May 1, 1461, Edward IV, Warwick’s cousin and protégé, entered London. Warwick “the kingmaker” remained in the north to pacify the English and Scottish rebels.

Wary of Margaret’s negotiations to secure French or Burgundian assistance and of her efforts to stir up Scottish and Lancastrian rebellion, the Yorkists fought sporadically until May, 1464, when the Lancastrians were finally subdued and the civil wars temporarily ended. In September, Warwick appeared before Parliament to propose a treaty with the French that would permanently prevent aid to Margaret and her supporters. To seal the treaty, he urged a marriage between the sister-in-law of Louis XI of France and Edward, only to be told that Edward had secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, a widow with a family as prolific, if not as noble, as the Nevilles.

During the spring of 1465, Warwick traveled to Burgundy and France to negotiate a truce. Burgundy vowed to continue its aid to Margaret; France quickly agreed to a truce. In 1467, Warwick returned to France to make that peace permanent. Diplomatic negotiation, like the command at Calais, was work that suited Warwick well. In England, between 1465 and 1467, Warwick spent more time on his own estates than he had during the previous ten years. The Nevilles were being replaced by Woodvilles. Edward’s dependence on Warwick waned, and the cousins grew apart. The king refused to allow his brother, the duke of Clarence, to marry Warwick’s daughter, Isabella, and dismissed Warwick’s friends and kinsmen from office. When Warwick brought the French delegates to London to conclude the peace with Edward, the king treated them coldly, having already concluded an agreement with Burgundy. The French were humiliated; more important for England, Warwick, who had placed Edward on the throne, was humiliated. These actions demonstrated foolish ingratitude on Edward’s part: Warwick was popular and seen as a friend of the people; the Woodvilles, on the other hand, were disliked as renegade Lancastrians.

At Christmas, 1467, Warwick refused to attend a Royal Council while his enemies surrounded the king. In January, 1468, popular leaders threatened to rise against the king and called on Warwick for leadership, but Warwick sent them home. In the spring, Edward attempted to reconcile with Warwick by consulting him about a planned attack against France. Warwick hid his dissatisfaction and waited. In April, 1469, he took his wife and daughters to Calais, where the duke of Clarence married Isabella. Meanwhile, riots broke out again in York. Clarence and Warwick landed in Kent with the Calais guard after the ritual demand for reforms. At Olney, Edward was outfought and captured. His capture provided the opportunity for an outbreak of private wars and the resurgence of Lancastrian rebellions. In order to restore order to the realm, Warwick was forced to bargain with Edward.

A cautious peace continued between the two, with Warwick supporters in office and Woodvilles out, until March, 1470, when Edward claimed that rebels in Lincolnshire had implicated Warwick and Clarence in their rebellion. Branded as traitors, Warwick, his family, and his son-in-law fled south to Kent, where the seafaring people helped them acquire ships. The Warwick party sailed to Calais, where the garrison reluctantly refused to admit them. Having captured a Burgundian fleet en route to France, Warwick was welcomed by Louis XI. Happy to avenge himself against Edward’s threat, Louis encouraged Warwick to reconcile with Margaret of Anjou, sealing the bargain with a marriage between Warwick’s daughter and Margaret’s son.

In September, Warwick again landed in England and declared himself for Henry VI. Quickly defeated by Warwick’s forces, Edward fled to Burgundy. From October, 1470, to February, 1471, Henry VI ruled with Warwick kingmaker for the second time as his chief minister. Through Parliament, Warwick inaugurated a new reign of tolerance and amnesty, and he concluded a treaty with France against Burgundy. Popular with some, Warwick had acquired enemies: the London merchants, the Yorkist nobles allied to the Woodvilles, and the duke of Clarence.

By March, 1471, Edward had gathered support in Burgundy and landed at Ravenspur in the north. By strategy and guile, proclaiming his loyalty to King Henry VI, Edward was able to marshal his troops, reach his wife and son in London, and reclaim the throne. Warwick, unable to unite his own forces, met Edward at Barnet on a foggy Easter morning. Warwick’s army could not defeat Edward’s troops, and the kingmaker fell in battle, at the age of forty-two. Soon after, Margaret of Anjou’s son Edward fell at Tewkesbury.

Significance

Richard Neville, earl of Warwick and Salisbury, was the last of the great English nobles to oppose the Crown. His death ended the possibility that any noble family would ever again be able to dominate the throne. The Lancastrians were killed, as were many of the Woodvilles. By the end of the fifteenth century, Henry VII, a king neither Yorkist nor Lancastrian, ruled. His primary goal was to be wealthier and more powerful than all his nobles put together. He fought few wars, balanced the budget, and strengthened the gentry and merchant classes. A new world was dawning.

Warwick was the last of a dying breed. He was also, by his ability and interest, the first of a new kind of government manager, much like those who later served Henry VIII. As a leader, he realized the importance of popularity with the ordinary man and soldier. As a statesman, he was a skillful speaker and diplomat. His negotiations with France and Burgundy were for England as a nation rather than for himself. In this sense, Warwick was future-thinking, committed more to solving problems than to fighting wars.

Bibliography

Gillingham, John. The Wars of the Roses: Peace and Conflict in Fifteenth-Century England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981. Debunks the Shakespearean myth of the Wars of the Roses as characterized by bloodshed and long-term conflict. A military history.

Hicks, Michael. The Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485. New York: Routledge, 2004. Detailed history of the military campaigns of the Wars of the Roses and the reasons behind them. Includes nine strategic maps, illustrations, bibliography, and index.

Hicks, Michael. Warwick the Kingmaker. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1998. Study of the life of Warwick and the political climate that shaped him. Includes illustrations, bibliographic references, and index.

Jacob, E. F. The Fifteenth Century, 1399-1485. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1961. The sixth volume of the Oxford History of England series presents the traditional view of the Kingmaker and his king. Portrays the problem between them as one of policy: Warwick wanted to control foreign policy with a French alliance, while Edward wanted to recover the French lands lost in 1450.

Kendall, Paul Murray. Warwick the Kingmaker. Reprint. New York: Norton, 1970. A well-written, dramatic biography enlivened by inferences and reconstructions. Portrays Warwick as a precursor of sixteenth century statesmen.

Lander, J. R. Government and Community: England, 1450-1509. London: Edward Arnold, 1980. Identifies the Yorkist party only in 1460; sees no conspiracy against Henry VI. Depicts Warwick as greedy and Edward as a more competent ruler than usually portrayed.

Oman, Charles W. Warwick the Kingmaker. New York: Books for Libraries Press, 1891. A standard laudatory biography by a military historian. Emphasizes battles and generalship.

Ross, Charles. Edward IV. London: Eyre, Methuen, 1974. Adds to the traditional assessment that the Woodvilles had kin in Burgundy to help to explain Edward’s insistence on the Burgundian alliance.

Wolffe, Bertram. Henry VI. London: Methuen, 1981. This view of Henry downplays the role of Margaret of Anjou and concedes that Edward was restored without opposition in 1471. A standard biography.

Young, Charles R. The Making of the Neville Family in England, 1166-1400. Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell Press, 1996. A study of the evolution of the power and influence of the Neville family. Provides essential background to understanding both the source of Warwick’s power and his motives in using that power. Includes genealogical tables, bibliographic references, and index.