Chapter the Third
Part the First
Being on the Wars of the Roses
With his great and final victory in the Hundred Years War, France passed the remainder of Charles VII reign in relative tranquility. England, however, was thrown into a tumult after its crushing defeat and the 1438 Treaty of Oxford.
Henry VI grandfather, Henry IV, also called Henry of Bolingbroke, had first seized the throne of England in a disputed succession. This had left his dynasty, the house of Lancaster, on the throne, but had fomented a great deal of tension with the equally powerful house of York, who believed they had a more legitimate claim to the throne. Henry V's victories in France, culminating with Agincourt, had made him exceedingly popular and quieted the dissent at home, but with his untimely death and the humiliating conquest of England by Charles VII this peace evaporated.
Had Henry VI been of strong character it is possible that he might have stilled the tensions and maintained his throne, but he had inherited a congenital mental illness and suffered from bouts of insanity. In his stead, England was ruled by advisors and, from 1453, by Richard Plantagenet the Duke of York in his capacity as Lord Protector. The Duke of York abused his authority to support his partisans against the backers of the Lancasters, and he was removed in 1455 by Henry VI's wife, Margaret of Anjou, who became the effective ruler of the England.
York then returned to his estates in the north of England and took to arms, hoping to seize the throne by force. Margaret appealed to Charles VII to fulfill his obligations as per the Treaty of OXford as overlord of England, but Charles VII was at that time not interested in the dynastic affairs of England and offered only token support in the form of monetary subsidies, although he entered an official military alliance with England in 1454, together with Bretagne.
For a time it appeared that this would be enough, as a series of battles were fought between the two sides in 1455-1459. York finally succeeded in the battle of Northampton (10 July 1460) in capturing Henry VI and carrying him to London, where he attempted to force immediate recognition of his claim to the throne, and the deposition of Henry VI in his favor. Shocked by his presumption, Parliament vacillated, and finally appealed to Charles VII for mediation. Corresponding by messenger with Parliament and after a geneological study, the aging French monarch agreed that the Duke of York had the better claim to the throne, yet it would not be just to simply depose Henry VI. Instead, Richard Plantagenet would be the heir designate to the throne, and would be once again Lord Protector of England.
Margaret of Anjou and the house of Lancaster were clearly displeased with this outcome, and before the ink was dry on the agreement, she began to intrigue against the Duke of York. She led Lancastrian forces against York at the battle of Wakefield (30 December 1460), which ended in her victory and the execution of Richard Plantegenet; this left Lancaster in control of the country. However, the Earl of Warwick--a Yorkist partisan--still controlled London and the south of England, and proclaimed the Duke of York's eldest son Edward the true heir of Henry VI (thereby the putative "Edward IV"). Therefore, the issue still stood and would not be ended without a final battle.
The two sides parried for advantage through the winter of 1460-61, until finally they met for a decisive engagement at Towton on 29 March 1461--36,000 of the Yorkist faction and 42,000 of the Lancastrian. The weather, which had been of blizzard conditions, was unexpectedly clear that day.
The two armies initially exchanged volleys of arrow fire, under which the Yorkists suffered the worse because of their smaller numbers. The Earl of Warwick was struck in through the eye-slit of his armor by an unlucky arrow and slain. Taking over sole command, Edward of York knew that his army could only be saved by an aggressive attack, and he closed with the Lancastrian line, leading his men from the front. The battle seemed to be going in his favor, until around noon, when a force of Lancastrian footmen launched a surprise attack from a wood on the Yorkist left flank. With his flank potentially unhinged, Edward was forced to commit all his reserves in order to save his army. As he was leading this counterattack, he was struck under his right arm by a spear thrust and had to leave the field.
Bereft of Edward's leadership, the battle wore on through the afternoon with heavy casualties, with the Lancasters having the apparent upper hand. Finally, in mid-afternoon several thousand fresh troops arrived to reinforce the Yorkist line, and the Lancasters suddenly broke and fled the field. As both sides had agreed to give no quarter, and to let this single battle decide who would be king, the Lancasters were massacred on the run during the rout. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties and the nobility of both York and Lancaster were decimated in the fighting. Worst of all, Edward IV recieved incompetent medical care and perished of his wounds the next day, apparently leaving his twelve-year-old brother George the Duke of Clarence as king of England.
Despite the technical victory of York, both sides were utterly exhausted, and the prospect of another boy-king was disquieting to many in England (the last such regency had ended with the French invasion). Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou were still alive and well in exile, although their army was for the moment destroyed; on the other side, York was nearly as broken and also effectively leaderless.
In April 1461 Charles VII demanded a halt to the hostilities so that he could resolve the dispute; however, he fell sick and was dead by 22 July. His successor, King Louis XI, also called the Spider King, was already an infamous dabbler in intrigue. Promising an end to hostilities and offering substantial bribes to Parliament, he recognized George Plantagenet as "George I" of England, and appointed himself Lord Protector of England. George was brought to Paris for his further education, or rather to be ever under the watchful eye of Louis XI.
Louis XI, the Spider King
In October 1464 George I died under mysterious circumstances. Louis XI declared himself king of England, and Parliament offered no objection. Louis XI had paid substantial bribes to the Peers and the Members of the House of Commons, and in any case the people of England wanted no part of any further warfare--they had fought and lost the Hundred Years War, suffered a crushing invasion by France, and finally endured a vicious civil war. Though international recognition of Louis's succession was not forthcoming (as will be addressed in subsequent chapters), the population of England more-or-less accepted him in the hopes of final, long-awaited peace.
Part the Second
Being on the Expansion into the Low Countries
While the Wars of the Roses were coming to their final conclusion, France was also conducting a fairly minor war within their own territory. The Duchy of Gelre, with it's allies the County of Friesland, the Republic of Genoa, and various German principalities, declared war on France in the hopes of averting a later conquest by expansionist France. This plan was poorly laid, however, as the French master of artillery, Jean Bureau, rapidly took their cities by siege and forced Gelre and Friesland to become vassals of France.
However, France prosecuted the war against Gelre's allies only half-heartedly, and finally surrendered the county of Piemonte, which had been inherited from Provençe, to Genoa in exchange for peace in January 1462. Louis XI had already charted his course for domination northwards, and had no real desire to expand into Italy.
The stage, rather, was now set for the War of English Succession.
