his eldest son, Edward. The king's party was defeated in a bloody battle at Towton, and Edward became king as Edward IV.

CHAPTER XV.

THE HOUSE OF YORK.

(EDWARD IV., 1461. EDWARD V., 1483. RICHARD III., 1483.)

1. Edward IV. and the Barons.-Edward IV. claimed the throne because he was the heir of an older son of Edward III. than the great-grandfather

of Henry VI. had been; but he had had other things besides his birth to help him. In the first place he was a much better soldier than any one who was on the Lancastrian side. In the second place, a very great number of people who did not care. whether the king were of one family or another, cared very much to have a king who could really govern and keep order. We are so used to see order kept that it is hard for us to understand how difficult it was to do it in the time of the Wars of the Roses. A few policemen are quite enough to keep many thousands of people peaceable, because only a very few people now think of making a disturbance if they do not get what they want at once. Nobody now is armed as a soldier unless he wears the queen's uniform, and is ready to obey the orders of the officers set over him by the queen. In the time of Henry VI. the great lords had a large number of armed followers, who were usually ready to do anything that their lords told them to do. Whenever there was going to be any fighting the lords gave out liveries, as they were called, which were what we should call soldiers' uniforms. The word livery means something delivered, and these liveries were coats delivered to the followers with the lord's particular mark. Coats of this kind are still worn by footmen and coachmen, and do not do anybody any harm. Then, when two or three thousand coats were seen about with the bear and ragged staff worked on the front, people knew that the great Earl of Warwick, who had done so much to help Edward IV. to the throne that he was known

as the King-maker, was going to fight somebody. When they saw men with a particular kind of knot worked on their breasts, they knew that the Earl of Buckingham was going to fight somebody. Each great lord thus had a little army of his own to dispose of, and was always ready to employ it. Peaceable persons, therefore, wished very much to have a king strong enough to put down all these little armies, and they thought that a king like Edward, who could win the battle of Towton, was much more likely to be able to put them down than a king like Henry VI. who was usually out of his mind.

2. The Barons and the Middle Classes.--If these great lords had contented themselves with marching about and fighting one another it would have been bad enough. What was worse than this was that they used their men to hurt innocent people. A man who had displeased a great lord was pretty sure to meet a band of ruffians. He would then be beaten or wounded, and he would be very lucky if he was not actually killed. If a great man coveted a house belonging to some one else, he sent to take it. A certain John Paston, for instance, lived in Norfolk. One day when he was in London his wife looked out of a window and saw about a thousand men in armour, with guns and bows. They brought with them ladders and long poles with hooks at the end, to pull the house down, and pans with burning coals to set fire to it if they could not pull it down. They set to work first to break down the supports of the room in which the lady was. They then made their way into the house, dragged the lady out by force,

broke open all the doors, and carried off everything they could find. These men were not common robbers. They were sent by a lord who unjustly claimed the house as his own. Many years afterwards the son of this Paston was treated in much the same way. His wife was left at his house near Norwich, whilst he was away on business. This time the attack was made by a duke. He sent a little army to get for him what he wanted. The lady stood a siege, but was at last obliged to let the duke's men in. They destroyed the house entirely, carrying off even the iron-work. To this day the ruins of the house are to be seen, to remind us what sort of things lords and dukes could do at the time of the Wars of the Roses.

3. Difficulties in the way of getting Justice.--The strangest thing is that all these things were done while the courts of law sat as usual. Judges went round to hold the assizes, and juries gave verdicts just as they do now. We think it a very excellent thing that nobody can be punished unless twelve

en, who make up a jury, agree in thinking that he has really done what he is accused of. But that is because we know that, though the twelve men may sometimes make mistakes, they will at least try honestly to say what they really think. In the days of the Wars of the Roses they did not try honestly

to speak the truth. They were very often chosen to be jurymen because they were friends or dependants of the great landowner of the neighbourhood. If they had to try one of the great man's friends they would say that he was innocent, whether he were so

or not. If they had to try one of the great man's enemies, they would say that he was guilty, whether he were so or not. Even if the jurymen wished to say what was true, they were often afraid to do so. A juryman who set himself against the wishes of the

great man would probably be waylaid on the way home and soundly beaten.

4. Growing Power of the King. It is easy to understand why Edward was popular. The gentlemen with small estates, the farmers and husbandmen, the shopkeepers of the towns, all wanted a king who