ith all speed, and Edward and Warwick
came on, greeted with loud acclamations on every side. The courage,
beauty, and virtues of young Edward could not be sufficiently praised by
the whole people. He rode into London like a conqueror, and met with an
enthusiastic welcome. A few days afterwards, Lord Falconbridge and the
Bishop of Exeter assembled the citizens in St. John's Field, Clerkenwell,
and asked them if they would have Henry of Lancaster for their King? To
this they all roared, 'No, no, no!' and 'King Edward! King Edward!'
Then, said those noblemen, would they love and serve young Edward? To
this they all cried, 'Yes, yes!' and threw up their caps and clapped
their hands, and cheered tremendously.

Therefore, it was declared that by joining the Queen and not protecting
those two prisoners of note, Henry of Lancaster had forfeited the crown;
and Edward of York was proclaimed King. He made a great speech to the
applauding people at Westminster, and sat down as sovereign of England on
that throne, on the golden covering of which his father--worthy of a
better fate than the bloody axe which cut the thread of so many lives in
England, through so many years--had laid his hand.

CHAPTER XXIII--ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FOURTH

King Edward the Fourth was not quite twenty-one years of age when he took
that unquiet seat upon the throne of England. The Lancaster party, the
Red Roses, were then assembling in great numbers near York, and it was
necessary to give them battle instantly. But, the stout Earl of Warwick
leading for the young King, and the young King himself closely following
him, and the English people crowding round the Royal standard, the White
and the Red Roses met, on a wild March day when the snow was falling
heavily, at Towton; and there such a furious battle raged between them,
that the total loss amounted to forty thousand men--all Englishmen,
fighting, upon English ground, against one another. The young King
gained the day, took down the heads of his father and brother from the
walls of York, and put up the heads of some of the most famous noblemen
engaged in the battle on the other side. Then, he went to London and was
crowned with great splendour.

A new Parliament met. No fewer than one hundred and fifty of the
principal noblemen and gentlemen on the Lancaster side were declared
traitors, and the King--who had very little humanity, though he was
handsome in person and agreeable in