Edward IV

Edward IV (1442–83), king of England (1461–70, 1471–83). The tall and handsome ‘Rose of Rouen’, so nicknamed because he was born in that city, the eldest son of Richard, duke of York, and Cecily Neville, gained the throne of England in March 1461 when he was only 18. Possession confirmed on the field of Towton a few weeks later, he was crowned in June. His reign, however, was interrupted in 1470 by his deposition and the temporary restoration of Henry VI.

During his first reign Edward was never fully secure. It took three years for him to eradicate Lancastrian opposition in England, concentrated in Northumberland, and sustained by Scottish and French help. In these early years he owed much to the earl of Warwick and his kinsmen. No sooner had Lancastrian resistance been brought to an end, however, than his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, the promotion of her family, and a disagreement over foreign policy led to a rift between them. The Lancastrian exiles in France offered a convenient rallying-point for dissidents, the option Warwick finally took in the summer of 1470. When Warwick invaded England, Edward, caught on the wrong foot, fled precipitately to the Netherlands. Here he received the backing of the duke of Burgundy, his brother-in-law, who was also threatened by a Franco-Lancastrian declaration of war. In March 1471 a small fleet put Edward ashore at Ravenspur. Initially claiming only the restoration of his duchy (consciously imitating Henry IV), Edward successfully evaded the forces opposing him in Yorkshire, was reinforced in the midlands, most significantly by his fickle brother George (Clarence), and defeated Warwick at Barnet. He then rapidly marched west to intercept and overwhelm a Lancastrian army at Tewkesbury. With Warwick and Edward of Lancaster dead, and Henry VI promptly murdered on royal orders, he was now secure.

Edward began his second reign with a determination to secure reconciliation through war against the king of France, who had instigated his short-lived deposition. For four years he bent every sinew to achieve this end. Parliament, meeting in six sessions in 1472–5, voted generous taxation; a triple alliance with Brittany and Burgundy was forged and a truce with Scotland concluded. In 1475 the largest army to invade France since the days of Edward III crossed the Channel. But at the eleventh hour, after his allies deserted him, Edward came to terms with Louis XI at Picquigny, accepting a generous pension. For the remainder of his reign Edward sought to enjoy the fruits of success. In 1477, however, he turned on and destroyed his brother Clarence, who was executed in 1478. Two years later, largely through the pressure of his younger brother Richard of Gloucester, he became embroiled in war with Scotland. Moreover, the treaty of Arras, concluded between France and Burgundy in 1483, left his foreign policy in tatters.

Edward died peacefully in his bed after a short illness on 9 April 1483, having apparently secured his dynasty and ended the Wars of the Roses. Yet immediately his body was buried, a fierce competition for power during the minority of Edward V ensued, leading to the seizure of the throne by his brother Richard, the renewal of civil war, and the ultimate destruction of the dynasty: a pattern of events in stark contrast to the minority of Henry VI. Thus historians have always found it hard to judge his achievement. The earliest admired the manner in which he restored peace and prosperity in his second reign, but admiration gave way to disapproval in the 19th cent. when his personal morals and political failures coloured interpretation. More recently his star has risen again. Impressed by innovations in government, the recovery of royal finances, and the determination with which he imposed his will after 1471, he has been seen as the progenitor of the revival of royal authority, developed further by Henry VII, and known as ‘New Monarchy’; the disaster that followed his death has been placed firmly at the feet of Richard III.

But it is a misjudgement to see novelty in Edward's kingship. Indeed it was backward-looking. His reliance on a small circle of trusted intimates, most marked after 1471, has an Arthurian ring to it; and his knights were collectively as reliable and loyal as Arthur's fabled round-tablers. Rule through a band of mighty subjects was no foundation upon which to lay a permanent recovery of the monarchy. The use of members of his household to manage finances and sustain the administration was factional in genesis, the easiest way to survive from day to day in a kingdom over which he did not at first exercise full control. Edward IV aimed low: like Charles II two centuries later, his principal objective after 1471 was never to go on his travels again. In this he succeeded. And had he lived but four years longer his son would have succeeded him without challenge.

Contemporaries attested to Edward's personal charm and ease of manner. He could, when resolved, be decisive, authoritative, even ruthless. He was a brilliant general, victorious in all his battles, who preferred to avoid war against France. In his youth he was callow and inexperienced. He was excessively generous to Warwick; his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, its manner as much as its fact, was ill judged. Even when he was older, he was not capable of sustained attention to business. He maintained a magnificent court, influenced by the Burgundians. He was a notorious philanderer, whose last mistress, Jane Shore, was shamefully victimized by Richard III; his over-indulgence in food and drink made him in his later years, like his grandson Henry VIII, ‘fat in the loins’. It is probable that his excessive life-style contributed to his early death. He devoted himself to the completion of St George's chapel, Windsor, which he turned into his mausoleum and where he lies buried.

Anthony James Pollard

Bibliography

Lander, J. R. , Government and Community: England 1450–1509 (1980);
Ross, C. D. , Edward IV (1974);
Scofield, C. L. , The Life and Reign of Edward the Fourth (2 vols., 1923).