Warwick implicated in a riot, Nov., 1458.
Seeks refuge in the city.
Leaves for Calais.
In August the civic companies were warned against furnishing the confederate lords with any war material, but were to keep their arms and harness at the[pg 295] disposal of the king alone.[874] It wanted very little to kindle the smouldering embers of dissatisfaction into a flame, and this little was soon forthcoming. In November[875] a riot occurred at Westminster, in which the Earl of Warwick was implicated. A yeoman in his suite picked a quarrel with one of the king's servants and wounded him. Thereupon others of the king's household, finding their fellow-servant wounded and his enemy escaped, way-laid the earl and his attendants as they left the council to take barge on the river. By dint of hard hitting, the earl managed to embark and to make his way to the city. But the affray was not without bloodshed, and Warwick found it convenient to withdraw soon afterwards to his post at Calais, which thenceforth became the head-quarters of the disaffected lords.
Riot between citizens and Templars, April, 1459.
In the following April (1459) another affray broke out. This time it was between inhabitants of the city and certain members of the Inns of Court, and the riot was so dangerous as to result in loss of life. The king hearing of this sent for William Tayllour, the alderman of the ward, and kept him in confinement at Windsor until the election of the new mayor, William Hewlyn, in October, by whose intercession he regained his freedom.[876]
The battle of Blore Heath, 23 Sept., 1459.
By this time the country was again divided into two hostile camps. A crisis came in September, when the Earl of Salisbury, the king's most inveterate enemy, marched upon Ludlow with a large force.[pg 296] Lord Audley, sent by the queen to arrest him, was defeated by the earl at Blore Heath (23 Sept., 1459). Later on, however, the earl and the Yorkist army were themselves compelled to seek security. The Duke of York took refuge in Ireland, and the Earl of Warwick, who had crossed from France to join his father, returned to Calais, taking the Earl of Salisbury with him.
Parliament at Coventry, 20 Nov., 1459.
On the 9th October the king issued his writ for a parliament to be held at Coventry on the 20th November. The usual writ was sent to the City of London, but the names of the aldermen and commoners elected to represent the citizens do not appear in the City's records.[877] The business of the session was the attainder of the Duke of York and his followers, and judgment was passed upon the duke, the Nevills, father and son, the young Earls of March and Rutland, and others. Two days after the date of this writ, the Common Council decided to send a deputation to wait upon the king and assure him of the City's allegiance and of the steps taken for its safe custody.[878]