p. 632; Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, p. 70; Chron. ed. Giles, p. 45). The Yorkists were strong enough to get the Percies mulcted in enormous damages to the Nevilles at the York assizes, and in default of payment Egremont was transferred to Newgate (Whethamstede, i. 303). But he soon effected his escape, and at the temporary reconciliation of parties in March 1458 the Nevilles agreed to forego the fines.
In the summer of 1459 John Neville and his elder brother Thomas accompanied their father when he marched southwards from Middleham with his Yorkshire retainers to join his eldest son Warwick and the Duke of York in the midlands. At the battle of Blore Heath, near Market Drayton (23 Sept.), where Salisbury routed the royal troops who sought to intercept him, Thomas and John Neville, with Sir Thomas Harington, pursued the flying Cheshiremen with such thoughtlessness that they were taken prisoners next morning by a son of Sir John Dawne who had not gone with his father to the battle, and they were conveyed to Chester Castle (Gregory, p. 204; Chron. ed. Davies, p. 80). After the dispersion of the Yorkists at Ludlow they were attainted, with the rest of their family, in the October parliament at Coventry, and did not obtain their release until the summer of 1460, when Warwick returned from Calais and turned the tables upon the Lancastrians at Northampton (Gregory; cf. Hall, p. 240; Rot. Parl. v. 349). King Henry being now in the hands of the Yorkists, and Neville's younger brother, George Neville [q. v.], bishop of Exeter, made chancellor, his estates were restored to him in August by special grace, though his attainder was not removed until parliament met in October (ib. v. 374; Ord. Privy Council, vi. 306). He was raised to the peerage as Baron Montagu—a title also possessed by his father, and transmitted on his father's death at Wakefield in December to Warwick—and made lord chamberlain of the household, an office which gave him a seat in the privy council (ib. pp. ccxxiv, 310; Worcester, p. 776).
Remaining in London with Warwick, Neville escaped the fate of his brother Thomas, who was slain with their father at Wakefield; and though at the second battle of St. Albans, on 7 Feb. 1461, he fell into the hands of the victorious Margaret, his life and that of Lord Berners, brother of the Archbishop of Canterbury, were spared, while Lord Bonvile and Sir Thomas Kyriel were executed (State Papers, Venetian, i. 370). Montagu had been closely attached to King Henry's person, and was something of a trimmer in politics. He and Berners were carried by the Lancastrians to York, where they remained until the day after the battle of Towton (30 March), when the new king, Edward, entered the city and at their intercession pardoned the citizens (ib.; Paston Letters, ii. 5). While Edward went south for his coronation, Montagu won his first military laurels (June) by raising the siege of Carlisle, which was besieged by a large force of Scots and Lancastrian refugees (ib. p. 13). In March 1462 he was rewarded with the Garter left vacant by the death of his father and with the forfeited estates of Viscount Beaumont in Norfolk and Nottinghamshire (Beltz, Memorials of the Order of the Garter; Dugdale, Baronage, i. 307). His title was confirmed by the new king. He was still kept employed in the north, where the Lancastrians were assisted by the Scots, and held several of the Northumbrian castles. While his brother Warwick sought by diplomacy to detach the Scots from Queen Margaret's cause, Montagu captured (July) Naworth Castle, which was defended by Lord Dacres (Worcester, p. 779). Later in the year, when Margaret had brought reinforcements from France and Warwick was superintending from Warkworth the siege of the great coast fortresses of Northumberland, Montagu lay before Bamborough, which surrendered to him on Christmas eve (ib. p. 780; Paston Letters, ii. 121).
Warwick having returned to London and thus allowed some of the castles to be recovered, Montagu was appointed warden of the east march against Scotland on 1 June 1463, and he and Warwick relieved Norham Castle, which was besieged by Queen Margaret and a Scottish force (Gregory, p. 220). In the following spring the Scots agreed to treat for a definitive peace; Montagu, with his brothers Warwick and George Neville, was appointed a commissioner for the purpose, and, as warden of the east march, went to the border to conduct the Scottish envoys to York, where the conference was to be held (ib. p. 224). The determination of the Lancastrians to prevent an understanding which would render their position in the north untenable gave Montagu an opportunity of adding to a military reputation which had begun to put Warwick's somewhat in the shade. Narrowly escaping an ambush laid for him near Newcastle by Humphrey Neville [q. v.], a member of the older and Lancastrian branch of his house, Montagu found his road barred at Hedgeley Moor, between Alnwick and Wooler, on 25 April, by the Duke of Somerset and Sir Ralph Percy with a force estimated at five thousand men (ib.) Putting them to flight with the loss of Percy, he picked up the Scottish envoys at Norham and
