was betrothed as a boy to the daughter of the earl of
Warwick. When his father-in-law died in 1449, the 21-
year-old Neville succeeded to the Warwick title. This
made him the most powerful noble in the country, with
vast estates and large numbers of fighting men under
his command at a time when there was a struggle for
supremacy among the great barons over the governance
of England. The nominal ruler was Henry VI, who
had succeeded to the throne as a baby in 1422. During
Henry’s childhood, the regents Humphrey of Glouces-
ter and Richard, earl of Warwick (later Neville’s father-
in-law), had governed England in his name. Others
were jealous of the regents’ power, and Henry, an in-
decisive and weak king, found himself constantly em-
broiled in power struggles among the barons, all using
him as a figurehead. The result was the 30-year conflict
known as the Wars of the Roses (1455–85), in which
those who supported Henry VI were known as Lan-
castrians, while those who supported Richard, duke of
York (who wanted to be appointed regent), were known
as Yorkists.
In 1453, Neville—now earl of Warwick—sided
with Richard, his brother-in-law, and fought with him
in the Yorkist victory of St. Albans in 1455. As a re-
sult, Warwick was named captain of Calais, an English-
held city in France. He remained in that post for five
years and won a victory at sea against the Spanish. In
1458, as trouble from other claimants to power flared
up again in England, he took a small force there but
was defeated at Ludlow and managed to escape back
to France with only a handful of followers. In 1460, he
again came to England with an army, this time gaining
an easy victory for the Yorkists at Northampton (10
July 1460), seizing Henry VI as prisoner and taking
him back to London. Later that year, though, the Lan-
castrians rallied, and Richard of York—who was now
claiming the throne—was killed at Wakefield on 30
December 1460.
The Lancastrians won a second victory, again at St.
Albans, on 17 February 1461, but the defeat was not
enough to make Warwick flee. He now took up the cause
of Richard’s son Edward, who had a claim to the throne
though his descent from Henry III. Warwick brought
Edward to London, had him proclaimed king (Edward
IV), and marched north to defeat the Lancastrians at the
battle of Towton (29 March 1461).
For nearly four years, with Edward’s agree-
ment, Warwick was virtual ruler of England, but
Edward offended him by secretly marrying Elizabeth
Woodville in 1464, when Warwick was eager for the
king to marry a French princess. Further, Edward
immediately favored his wife’s family and gave them
positions of power, which Warwick viewed as both a
personal insult and a reduction of his authority. He
then withdrew from court, but in 1467 he agreed to
go to France to conclude a treaty with that country
on Edward’s behalf. He returned to find that, swayed
by his wife, Edward now favored France’s Burgundian
rivals.
Infuriated by this sign of the Woodvilles’ growing
influence, Warwick went back to Calais and instigated
a revolt against Edward. When Edward marched north
to deal with it, Warwick brought a small army across
from France, and Edward was defeated and captured
at the battle of Northampton in 1469. However, War-
wick was soon obliged to release him, and a rebellion in
Lincolnshire in March 1470 gave Edward the chance to
gather an army of his own. He put down a rebellion at
Stamford, but the rebel leader’s admission that Warwick
had been involved meant that Warwick once again had
to flee to France. Changing sides, he made an agree-
ment with the Lancastrians, gathered more forces, and
returned to England. He then marched on London and
proclaimed Henry VI (who had been kept a prisoner in
the Tower of London) as king in September 1470. Ed-
ward fled abroad, and for six months Warwick governed
England on Henry’s behalf. However, in March 1471
Edward returned and, on 14 April 1471, met Warwick
in battle at Barnet, outside London. Here the Lan-
castrians were defeated—and Warwick was killed. He
was buried in the family mausoleum in Bisham Abbey,
Berkshire.
Though Warwick had been the most powerful man
in England and made no claim the throne himself, he
was never content to share power with anybody else. In
the end, this proved to be his undoing.References: Oman, Sir Charles William Chadwick,
Warwick, the Kingmaker (London: Macmillan, 1891);
Young, Charles R., The Making of the Neville Family in
England, 1166–1400 (Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell Press,
1996); Richardson, Geoffrey, The Lordly Ones: A History
of the Neville Family and Their Part in the Wars of the Roses
(Shipley, U.K.: Baildon Books, 1998); Hallam, Elizabeth,
ed., The Chronicles of The Wars of the Roses (Surrey, U.K.:
Bramley Books, 1996).wARwick, RichARD neville, eARl oF