The popularity gained by Henry V. in his French campaigns secured the weak title of the house of Lancaster against further attack for forty years.
Richard, duke of York, seems to have taken warning by his father's fate; but, after seeking for many years to correct by other means the weakness of Henry VI.'s government, he first took up arms against the ill advisers who were his own personal enemies, and at length claimed the crown in parliament as his right. The Lords, or such of them as did not purposely stay away from the House, admitted that his claim was unimpeachable, but suggested as a compromise that Henry should retain the crown for life, and the duke and his heirs succeed after his death. This was accepted by the duke, and an act to that effect received Henry's own assent. But the act was repudiated by Margaret of Anjou and her followers, and the duke was slain at Wakefield fighting against them. In little more than two months, however, his son was proclaimed king at London by the title of Edward IV., and the bloody victory of Towton immediately after drove his enemies into exile and paved the way for his coronation.
After his recovery of the throne in 1471 he had little more to fear from the rivalry of the house of Lancaster. But the seeds of distrust had already been sown among the members of his own family, and in 1478 his brother Clarence was put to death— secretly, indeed, within the Tower, but still by his authority and that of parliament—as a traitor. In 1483 Edward himself died; and his eldest son, Edward V., after a nominal reign of two months and a half, was put aside by his uncle, the duke of Glou cester, who became Richard III. and then caused him and his
brother Richard, duke of York, to be murdered.
But in little more than two years Richard was slain at Bosworth by the earl of Richmond, who, being proclaimed king as Henry VII., shortly afterwards fulfilled his pledge to marry the eldest daughter of Edward IV. and so unite the houses of York and Lancaster.
Here the dynastic history of the house of York ends. But a host of debatable questions and pretexts for rebellion remained. The legitimacy of Edward IV.'s children had been denied by Richard III. and, though the act was denounced as scandalous, the slander might still be reasserted. The duke of Clarence had left two children and the attainder of their father could not be a greater bar to the crown than the attainder of Henry VII. himself. Seeing this, Henry had kept Edward, earl of Warwick, a prisoner in the Tower of London. Yet a rebellion was raised in his behalf by means of Lambert Simnel, who was defeated and taken prisoner at the battle of Stoke in 1487. The earl of Warwick lived for 12 years later in confinement, and was ultimately put to death in His sister Margaret married Sir Richard Pole (or Poole), and could give no trouble, so that Henry VIII. treated her with kind ness. He made her countess of Salisbury, reversed her brother's attainder, created her eldest son, Henry, Lord Montague, and had one of her younger sons, Reginald, carefully educated. (See POLE, REGINALD and POLE, FAMILY.)