rture of the embassy the young king informed his
Council that he was already wedded. By a second match with a Kentish
knight, Sir Richard Woodville, Jacquetta of Luxemburg, the widow of the
Regent Duke of Bedford, had become the mother of a daughter Elizabeth.
Elizabeth married Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian partizan, but his fall some
few years back in the second battle of St. Albans left her a widow, and
she returned to her mother's home. Here on his march northward to meet the
rising which ended at Hexham, she caught the young king's fancy. At the
opening of May, at the moment when Warwick's purpose to conclude the
marriage-treaty was announced to the court of Burgundy, Edward secretly
made her his wife. He reserved, however, the announcement of his marriage
till the very eve of the negotiations, when its disclosure served not only
to shatter Warwick's plans but to strike a sudden and decisive blow at the
sway he had wielded till now in the royal Council. The blow in fact was so
sudden and unexpected that Warwick could only take refuge in a feigned
submission. "The King," wrote one of his partizans, Lord Wenlock, to the
Court of Burgundy, "has taken a wife at his pleasure, without knowledge of
them whom he ought to have called to counsel him; by reason of which it is
highly displeasing to many great lords and to the bulk of his Council. But
since the marriage has gone so far that it cannot be helped, we must take
patience in spite of ourselves." Not only did the negotiations with France
come to an end, but the Earl found himself cut off from the king's
counsels. "As one knows not," wrote his adherent, "seeing the marriage is
made in this way, what purpose the King may have to go on with the other
two points, truce or peace, the opinion of the Council is that my Lord of
Warwick will not pass the sea till one learns the King's will and pleasure
on that point." Even Warwick indeed might have paused before the new
aspect of affairs across the Channel. For at this moment the growing
weakness of Duke Philip enabled Charles of Charolais to overthrow the
Croys, and to become the virtual ruler of the Burgundian states. At the
close of 1464 the League of the Public Weal drew fast to a head, and
Charles despatched the Chancellor of Burgundy to secure the aid of
England. But the English Council met the advances of the League with
coldness. Edward himself could have seen little save danger to his throne
from its triumph. Count Charles