sought the hand of Edward's sister, because the change was in part due to the Wydevilles, who had Burgundian connections, and knew how popular the Burgundian alliance was among the English trading classes (Chastellain, v. 311–12). Warwick had, as ambassador, to reject Louis's offers of Burgundian territory, accept the offered alliance, and suggest a further match between Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charolais, and the Duke of Clarence, whom he had perhaps already designed for his own elder daughter. He did it with a bad grace, and lost no opportunity of putting obstacles in the way (Croyland Cont. p. 551; Wavrin, ed. Hardy, v. 458; Fœdera, xi. 562–6).
In the autumn, while Warwick was on the Scottish marches, the queen's stepson was married to the heiress of the Duke of Exeter, whom Warwick had intended for his nephew, the son of Montagu, and Edward concluded a private league with the Count of Charolais, in order to forward his match with the king's sister (Fœdera, xi. 573–4; Wavrin, iii. 341, ed. Dupont). To get Warwick out of the way while the marriage was concluded and his ascendency shaken off, he was sent to France in May 1467, commissioned to hold out a prospect of an offensive alliance against Burgundy and the marriage of one of Edward's brothers to a daughter of Louis (State Papers, Venetian, i. 404). Warwick, bent on averting the Burgundian alliance, reached Rouen on 6 June, and found Louis, who was resolved to recover the towns on the Somme from Burgundy, ready to bid heavily for English support. His only hope of averting the threatened Anglo-Burgundian alliance lay in Warwick, whom he therefore entertained at Rouen with honours almost royal for twelve days, holding secret conferences with him, and finally dismissing him with an embassy charged with tempting offers to King Edward (Chron. of White Rose, p. 21; Wavrin, ed. Hardy, v. 543). But Warwick returned to London early in July to find that his opponents had sprung their mine. Two days after his arrival at Rouen the king had, in person, taken the great seal from his brother; Charles's half-brother Antony, the Bastard of Burgundy, had entered England as he himself left it; and had practically settled the Burgundian marriage before he was summoned back by Duke Philip's death on 15 June (Worcester, p. 786). Warwick was coldly received by Edward, who, after giving the French ambassadors a single freezing interview, went off to Windsor on 6 July (Wavrin, v. 545; ib. ed. Dupont, iii. 195). In their presence Warwick hotly denounced the traitors about the king. Charles, the new Duke of Burgundy, confirmed (15 July) the treaty of the previous October, Rivers was made constable of England, and by October Charles's marriage to Margaret was definitely settled (Chastellain, v. 312; Worcester, p. 788). Warwick, who had been further irritated by the pointed omission of some of his grants from the crown from the exceptions to the Resumption Act of the June parliament, saw the French ambassadors off at Sandwich, and, without visiting the king again, betook himself to Middleham.
His close relations with Clarence, for whose marriage with his daughter Isabel he was seeking a papal dispensation, and the suspicion of some secret arrangement with the French king, were very disquieting to the court. An intercepted envoy of Margaret of Anjou was induced to accuse Warwick of favouring her party. Warwick was summoned to court to answer the charge, but declined to appear, and demanded the dismissal of the Wydevilles and others about the king (Worcester, p. 788). Though a royal representative sent to Middleham reported the charge groundless, Edward took the precaution of surrounding himself with a bodyguard and watching Warwick's movements from Coventry (ib.) There was very real cause for alarm. Warwick's attitude had put new heart into the Lancastrians, and in December Monipenny came into England on a mission from Louis to Warwick only (Wavrin, ed. Dupont, iii. 192). His Kentish friends began to move. In the Cinque ports he was particularly popular, because he always connived at their piracies (Olivier de la Marche, ii. 276). Rivers's Kentish estate was pillaged by the mob on New-year's day 1468 (Wavrin, ed. Dupont, iii. 192). Warwick evaded a second summons to court in the first week of January. The mysterious Robin of Redesdale had taken up arms, with three hundred men, for him in Yorkshire, but Warwick had made them go home for the present (ib.) With the king on his guard and Clarence at court, Warwick felt that it was not yet time to move. Towards the end of January Archbishop Neville persuaded him to meet Rivers at Nottingham, where they were outwardly reconciled (Worcester, p. 789). They then went on to the king at Coventry, where the pacification was completed. Edward was able to announce to parliament, to its great delight, his intention of recovering the English dominions in France, and brought the Burgundian marriage to a conclusion in July. Warwick had accompanied Margaret to the coast, ‘riding before her on her horse’
