Afterwards King Edward IV. and his Queen spent the Christmas festival in the city in 1465, evidently with the intention of winning over the citizens to the Yorkist side; but it is recorded that even the presence of the King and Queen was not sufficient to alienate their affections from the House of Lancaster.
KENILWORTH CASTLE.
Four years later the outskirts of Coventry was the scene of one of the too frequent tragedies of those unsettled times, when Earl Rivers and his son were beheaded at Gosford Green by the orders of Sir John Coniers, who had obtained some partial success in Oxfordshire. In the following year, 1470, the Earl of Warwick, on his return from France, entered Coventry, which was still Lancastrian in sympathy, with much war material and hostile intentions to the inhabitants. On hearing of the Earl of Warwick’s presence King Edward, who lay at Leicester with his forces, marched thence, and after resting at Coombe Abbey, proceeded to Gosford Green, and then approaching Coventry demanded admission; but this being refused, he continued his march to Warwick. Later on, when he had won the decisive battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and had regained power, Edward, in revenge for the action of the people of Coventry in refusing to receive him in the previous year, deprived them of many of their privileges and levied upon them a considerable fine, amounting to five hundred marks. But the King soon realised that the good–will of the townsfolk was of too great importance for him to risk losing it by undue severity; and, therefore, on payment of the fine, their privileges of which they had been deprived were again restored to them.
Four years later Edward kept the Feast of St. George at Coventry, and in the same year his son stood as godfather to the Mayor’s child, and was presented with a cup and a hundred guineas, and also made a brother of the Guilds of Corpus Christi and Holy Trinity.
Richard II. also visited the city, and Henry VII. came and lodged at the Mayor’s immediately after the decisive victory over Richard III. at Bosworth Field.
It would appear that the people of Coventry of these days were opulent and generous, but exercised little originality in the form of the gifts they bestowed upon royal or distinguished visitors, for, like Prince Edward of York a few years previously, Henry VII. was presented with a cup and a hundred guineas, and seems to have made so favourable an impression upon the townsfolk that they a few years later subscribed £1100 towards the tax which was levied for the purpose of defraying the expense of the King’s expedition to France.
Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon visited Coventry in 1510, and witnessed three magnificent pageants; and it is possible that the prosperity of the town, which was popularly attributed as chiefly owing to the magnitude and wealth of its monastic institutions, may have suggested to the King’s mind the idea of the ultimate suppression of these foundations. Be it as it may, it was stated by one John Hales, Esq., to the Protector Somerset, “that in consequence of the Dissolution trade grew so low, and there was such a dispersion of people from this city, that there were not even 3000 inhabitants, whereas there had been formerly 15,000.” Although this picture of the desolation wrought by the suppression of the religious houses is probably painted in too vivid colours, there seems little doubt that great distress resulted in the years immediately following the arbitrary action of Henry VIII.’s minister Cromwell, for we find that although at least one branch of commerce, the clothing trade, was still flourishing, a charter for an additional fair was granted to alleviate the distress of the remaining inhabitants.