d the cause of Edward IV. There was a feeling
that his reign was an advance in civilization upon the monastic virtues
of Henry VI., and the stern ferocity which accompanied the great
qualities of "The Foreign Woman," as the people styled and regarded
Henry's consort, Margaret of Anjou. While thus the gifts, the courtesy,
and the policy of the young sovereign made him popular with the middle
classes, he owed the allegiance of the more powerful barons and the
favour of the rural population to a man who stood colossal amidst the
iron images of the Age,--the greatest and the last of the old Norman
chivalry, kinglier in pride, in state, in possessions, and in renown
than the king himself, Richard Nevile, Earl of Salisbury and Warwick.

This princely personage, in the full vigour of his age, possessed all
the attributes that endear the noble to the commons. His valour in the
field was accompanied with a generosity rare in the captains of the
time. He valued himself on sharing the perils and the hardships of his
meanest soldier. His haughtiness to the great was not incompatible
with frank affability to the lowly. His wealth was enormous, but it
was equalled by his magnificence, and rendered popular by his lavish
hospitality. No less than thirty thousand persons are said to have
feasted daily at the open tables with which he allured to his countless
castles the strong hands and grateful hearts of a martial and unsettled
population. More haughty than ambitious, he was feared because he
avenged all affront; and yet not envied, because he seemed above all
favour.

The holiday on the archery-ground was more than usually gay, for the
rumour had spread from the court to the city that Edward was about to
increase his power abroad, and to repair what he had lost in the eyes of
Europe through his marriage with Elizabeth Gray, by allying his sister
Margaret with the brother of Louis XI., and that no less a person than
the Earl of Warwick had been the day before selected as ambassador on
the important occasion.

Various opinions were entertained upon the preference given to France
in this alliance over the rival candidate for the hand of the
princess,--namely, the Count de Charolois, afterwards Charles the Bold,
Duke of Burgundy.

"By 'r Lady," said a stout citizen about the age of fifty, "but I am not
over pleased with this French marriage-making! I would liefer the stout
earl were going to France with bows and bills than sarcenets a