—resolved to do all he could, to pluck up the
Red Rose root and branch.

Queen Margaret, however, was still active
for her young son.  She obtained help from
Scotland and from Normandy, and took several
important English castles. But, Warwick
soon retook them; the Queen lost all her
treasure on board ship in a great storm; and
both she and her son suffered great misfortunes.
Once, in the winter weather, as they
were riding through a forest, they were
attacked and plundered by a party of robbers;
and, when they had escaped from these men
and were passing alone and on foot through a
thick dark part of the wood, they came, all at
once, upon another robber. So the Queen,
with a stout heart, took the little Prince by
the hand, and going straight up to that
robber, said to him, " My friend, this is the
young son of your lawful King! I confide
him to your care." The robber was surprised,
but took the boy in his arms, and faithfully
restored him and his mother to their friends.
In the end, the Queen's soldiers being beaten
and dispersed, she went abroad again, and
kept quiet for the present.

Now, all this time, the deposed King Henry
was concealed by a Welsh knight, who kept
him close in his castle. But, next year, the
Lancaster party recovering their spirits,
raised a large body of men, and called him
out of his retirement, to put him at their head.
They were joined by some powerful noblemen
who had sworn fidelity to the new King,
but who were ready, as usual, to break their
oaths, whenever they thought there was
anything to be got by it. One of the worst
things in the history of the war of the Red
and White Roses, is the ease with which
these noblemen, who should have set an
example of honor to the people, left either
side as they took slight offence, or were
disappointed in their greedy expectations,
and joined the other. Well! Warwick's
brother soon beat the Lancastrians, and the
false noblemen, being taken, were beheaded
without a moment's loss of time. The deposed
King had a narrow escape; three of his
servants were taken, and one of them bore his
cap of estate, which was set with pearls and
embroidered with two golden crowns. However,
the head to which the cap belonged, got
safely into Lancashire, and lay pretty quietly
there (the people in the secret being very true)
for more than a year. At length, an old monk
gave such intelligence as led to Henry's being
taken while he was sitting at dinner in a
place called Waddington Hall. He was
immediately sent to London and met at
Islington by the Earl of Warwick, by whose
directions he was put upon a horse, with his
legs tied under it, and paraded three times
round the pillory. Then, he was carried off to
the Tower, where they treated him well enough.

The White Rose being so triumphant, the
young King abandoned himself entirely to
pleasure, and led a jovial life. But, thorns
were springing up under his bed of roses,
as he soon found out.  For, having been
privately married to ELIZABETH WOODVILLE,
a young widow lady, very beautiful and very
captivating; and at last resolving to make his
secret known, and to declare her his Queen; he
gave some offence to the Earl of Warwick, who
was usually called the King-Maker, because
of his power and influence, and because of his
having lent such great help to placing Edward
on the throne. This offence was not lessened
by the jealousy with which the Nevil family
(the Earl of Warwick's) regarded the promotion
of the Woodville family.  For, the young
Queen was so bent on providing for her relations,
that she made her father an earl and a
great officer of state; married her five sisters
to young noblemen of the highest rank; and
provided for her younger brother, a young
man of twenty, by marrying him to an
immensely rich old duchess of eighty. The
Earl of Warwick took all this pretty graciously
for a man of his proud temper, until the
question arose to whom the King's sister,
MARGARET, should be married. The Earl of
Warwick said, " To one of the French King's
sons," and was allowed to go over to the
French King to make friendly proposals for
that purpose, and to hold all manner of
friendly interviews with him.  But, while he
was so engaged, the Woodville party married
the young lady to the Duke of Burgundy!
Upon this he came back in great rage and
scorn, and shut himself up discontented, in
his Castle of Middleham.

A reconciliation, though not a very sincere
one, was patched up between the Earl of
Warwick and the King, and lasted until the
Earl married his daughter, against the King's
wishes, to the Duke of Clarence.  While the
marriage was being celebrated at Calais, the
people in the North of England, where the
influence of the Nevil family was strongest,
broke out into rebellion; their complaint
was, that England was oppressed and
plundered by the Woodville family, whom they
demanded to have removed from power.
As they were joined by great numbers of
people, and as they openly declared that they
were supported by the Earl of Warwick, the
King did not know what to do.  At last, as
he wrote to the earl beseeching his aid, he
and his new son-in-law came over to England,
and began to arrange the business by shutting
the King up in Middleham Castle in the
safe keeping of the Archbishop of York; so
England was not only in the strange position
of having two kings at once, but they were
both prisoners at the same time.

Even as yet, however, the King-Maker was
so far true to the King, that he dispersed a
new rising of the Lancastrians, took their
leader prisoner, and brought him to the King,
who ordered him to be immediately executed.
He presently allowed the King to return to
London, and there innumerable pledges of
forgiveness and friendship were exchanged