Pg. 615

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Charles Dickens.] A CHILD’S HISTORY OR ENGLAND. 615

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 the Duke of York accused the Duke of Somerset, and the Duke of Somerset ac­cused the Duke of York; and, both in and out of Parliament the followers of each party were full of violence and hatred towards the other. At length, the Duke of York put himself at the head of a large force of his. tenants, and, in arms. demanded the reforma­tion of the Government. Being shut out of London, he encamped at Dartford, and the royal army encamped at Blackheath. Accord­ing as either side triumphed, the Duke of York was arrested, or the Duke of Somerset was arrested. The trouble ended, for the moment, in the Duke of York renewing his oath of allegiance, and going, in peace to one of his own castles.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 1 Half a year afterwards the Queen gave birth to a son, who was very ill received by the people, and not believed to be the son of the King. It shows the Duke of York to have been a moderate man, unwilling to in­volve England in new troubles, that he did not take advantage of the general discontent at this time, but really acted for the public good. He was made a member of the cabinet, and the King being now so much worse that he could not be carried about and shown to the people with any decency, the duke was made Lord Protector of the kingdom, until he should recover, or the Prince should come of age. At the same time the Duke of Somerset was committed to the Tower. So, now the Duke of Somerset was. down, and the Duke of York was up. By the end of the year, however, the King recovered his memory and some spark of sense; upon which the Queen used her power—which recovered with him—to get the Protector disgraced, and her favourite released. So, now the Duke of York was down, and the Duke of Somerset was up.

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 1 These ducal ups and downs gradually sepa­rated the whole nation into the two parties of York and Lancaster, and led to those terrible civil wars long known as the Wars of the Red and White Roses, because the red rose was the badge of the House of Lancaster, and the white rose was the badge of the House of York.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 1 The Duke of York, joined by some other powerful noblemen of the White Rose party, and leading a small army, met the King with another small army at St. Alban’s, and de­manded that the Duke of Somerset should be given up. The poor King, being made to say in answer that he would sooner die, was in­stantly attacked. The Duke of Somerset was killed, and the King himself was wounded in the neck, and took refuge in the house of a poor tanner. Whereupon, the Duke of York went to him, led him with great submission to the Abbey, and said he was very sorry for what had happened. Having now the King in his possession, he got a Parliament summoned and himself once more made Protector, but, only for a few months; for, on the King getting a little better again, the Queen and her party got him into their possession, and disgraced the Duke once more. So, now the Duke of York was down again.

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 1 Some of the best men in power, seeing the danger of these constant changes, tried even then to prevent the Red and White Rose Wars. They brought about a great council in. London between the two parties; The White Roses assembled in Blackfriars, the Red Roses in Whitefriars; and some good priests communicated between them, and made the proceedings known at evening to. the King and the judges. They ended in a peaceful agreement that there should be no more quarrelling; and there was a great royal procession to St. Paul’s, in which the Queen walked arm-in-arm with her old enemy, the Duke of York, to show the people how comfortable they all were. This state of peace lasted half a year, when a dispute Between the Earl of Warwick (one of the Duke’s powerful friends): and some of the King’s servants at Court, led to an attack upon that Earl—who was a White Rose—and to a sudden breaking out of all the old animosities. So, here were greater ups and downs than ever.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 1 There were even greater ups and downs than these, soon after. After various battles, the Duke of York fled to Ireland, and his son the Earl of March to Calais, with their friends the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick; and a Parliament was held declaring them all traitors. Little the worse for this, the Earl of Warwick presently came back, landed in Kent, was joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other powerful noblemen and gentlemen, engaged the King’s forces at Northampton, signally defeated them, and took the King himself prisoner, who was found in his tent. Warwick would have been glad, I dare say, to have taken the Queen and Prince too, but they escaped into Wales and thence into Scotland.

¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 1 The King was carried by the victorious force straight to London, and made to call a new Parliament, which immediately declared that the Duke of York and those other noblemen were not traitors, but excellent subjects. Then, back comes the Duke from Ireland at the head of five hundred horsemen, rides from London to Westminster, and enters the House of Lords. There, he laid his hand upon the cloth of gold which covered the empty throne, as if he had half mind to sit down in it—but he did not. On the Arch­bishop of Canterbury asking him if he would visit the King, who was in the palace close by, he replied “I know no one in this country my lord, who ought not to visit me.” None of the lords present, spoke a single word; so, the duke went out as he had come in, esta­blished himself royally in the King’s palace, and, six days afterwards, sent in to the Lords a formal statement of his claim to the throne. The lords went to the King on this momentous