mer, heiress of the claims of the third line, who returned to England from Ireland; his power, however, was not enough to oust his rival, the duke of Somerset, grandson of John of Gaunt, and in 1452 he was induced to dismiss his army, and then forced to swear allegiance. 1452. James II. of Scotland murdered William, earl of Douglas ; defection of the Douglases to England.

1453. Battle of Castillon in France. Death of Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury. Surrender of Bordeaux. Of all the English possessions in France Calais alone was left in their hands.

1453. Birth of Prince Edward, son of Henry VI. Insanity of Henry. The duke of York protector. Imprisonment of Somerset. The recovery of the king in 1454 was followed by the restoration of Somerset to power.

The duke of York, the earls of Salisbury and Warwick, now took up arms against Henry and his advisers.

1455-1485. Wars of the Red Rose of Lancaster and

the White Rose of York (see the genealogical table). 1455. Battle of St. Albans. York victorious. Death of SomerMay 22. set; capture of Henry. A hollow reconciliation (1458) was followed by a new resort to arms. At the battle of Bloreheath (Sept. 23, 1459), the Lancastrians were defeated. The victory was a barren one for York; defection in his army caused him to abandon the contest and retire to Ireland. Flight of Yorkist leaders. York and his party attainted of treason by the Parliament of Coventry.

1460. Landing of the earls of Salisbury, March (afterwards Edward IV.), and Warwick, in England. In the

1460. Battle of Northampton, July 10. the Lancastrians were defeated; capture of Henry; flight of Margaret and her son to Scotland. The duke of York entered London and preferred his claim to the crown. decided that he should succeed Henry.

1460. Battle of Wakefield.

Parliament

Dec. 30. Defeat of York by the queen and Prince Edward: York fell on the field, the earl of Salisbury and the duke of Rutland, son of York, were killed.

1461. Battle of Mortimer's Cross, near Hereford. Defeat of the Feb. 2. Lancastrians by the son of the duke of York, Edward, earl of March (now duke of York).

Feb. 17. Second Battle of St. Albans.

Defeat of the Yorkists under Warwick. Release of Henry. The earl of March, however, came to the rescue, joined the remnants of Warwick's army with his own, and entered London, where he was proclaimed king by acclamation, March 3, 1461.

1461-1485. House of York (branch line of the house of Plantagenet).

1461-1483. Edward IV.

The early part of his reign was disturbed by constant attempts of the Lancastrians to overthrow the new dynasty.

1461, March 27. Battle of Ferry Bridge. Defeat of the Lancastrians.

March 29. Battle of Towton. After a most obstinate fight Edward and Warwick prevailed, and the Lancastrians were totally defeated (said to have lost 28,000 men).

Edward was crowned (June 28), and his brothers, George and Edward, were created dukes (Clarence and Gloucester). In 1462 Margaret obtained assistance from France, and made two attempts to retrieve the Lancastrian cause, but both were unsuccessful. Henry retired to Wales; Margaret to Lorraine. A final uprising of the Lancastrians was crushed at Hedgeley Moor and at Hexham (1464). 1464. Secret marriage of Edward with Elizabeth Grey, daughter of

Richard Woodville, baron Rivers, and widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian. This marriage and the advancement conferred on the family of the new queen much exasperated the earl of Warwick and the other Yorkists. The dissatisfaction of Warwick was increased by the marriage of Edward's sister Margaret with the duke of Burgundy, and he intrigued with the duke of Clarence, giving him his daughter in marriage and promising him the crown. Revolt of William of Rydesdale in 1469. Execution of the queen's father, Earl Rivers. Edward became reconciled with Warwick, but a victory over the insurgents at Stamford (“Loose-coat Field") (1470) so strengthened the king that he proclaimed Warwick and Clarence traitors, and they fled to France. Reconciliation of Warwick and Margaret. 1470. Warwick landed in England, occupied London, and proclaimed Henry (who had been imprisoned since 1465) king. Edward fled to Burgundy, but returning with assistance was well received, and joined by Clarence. Re-imprisonment of Henry.

1471, April 4. Battle of Barnet.

The Lancastrians under Warwick (the king-maker) totally defeated.

May 4. Battle of Tewksbury.

Defeat of Margaret, who was captured; murder of her son Edward. Henry VI. died in the Tower May 22, the day when Edward IV. reëntered London.

1475. Invasion of France by Edward, who, in connivance with the duke of Burgundy, claimed the French crown. Subscriptions supposed to be voluntary (benevolences), without consent of Parliament, now first introduced to raise money for this invasion. The war was ended without a battle by the Peace of Pequigny (1475). Truce for seven years; payment of a large annual sum to England; ransom of Margaret; betrothal of the dauphin to Edward's eldest daughter, Elizabeth."

1478. Trial and condemnation of Clarence for treason. He was executed in the Tower. (Popular report that he was drowned

in a butt of malmsey.)

1480. War with Scotland, which was ended by the Treaty of Fotheringay, wherein Berwick was surrend ›red to the English.

As Louis XI. now refused to consent to the marriage of the dauphin

with Edward's daughter, as arranged at the treaty of Pequigny, Edward resolved on war, but died suddenly, April 9, 1483.

1483. April-June. Edward V.

Richard, duke of Gloucester, regent for the thirteen-year-old king. The king and his brother, duke of York, confined in the Tower. Richard created protector. Execution of Lord Hastings. Gloucester advanced a claim to the crown, based on the asserted invalidity of Edward III.'s marriage with Elizabeth Woodville. The claim being admitted by Parliament, Richard accepted the crown (June 26).

1483-1485. Richard III.

The new king began his reign by a progress in the north. Murder of the two princes in the Tower (Tyrell and Dighton). The Duke of Buckingham (to whose services Richard largely owed the crown), headed an insurrection in favor of Henry, earl of Richmond (great-great-grandson of John of Gaunt). Execution of Buckingham. Return of Richmond to France without landing. 1484. Confirmation of Richard's title by Parliament.

The following table shows the derivation of Buckingham from Edward III. :

In 1485 Richmond made another attempt, landed at Milford Haven, and completely defeated Richard in the

1485. Battle of Bosworth Field, Aug. 22. where Richard was slain.

In 1471 William Caxton, printer, established a press at Westminster; in 1474, he published "The Game and Playe of Chesse," the first book printed in England.

§ 5. SPANISH PENINSULA.

Spain.

The Moors in Spain were, since 1238, confined to the kingdom of Granada, where agriculture, commerce, and industry flourished.

Wars with the Christian kingdoms, occasionally in alliance with Morocco.

1492. Conquest of Granada and union of the kingdom with Castile.

The kingdoms of Castile and Aragon during this period were involved in constant wars, ever renewed and of varying fortune, with the Moors and with one another. In both kingdoms bloody wars of succession and civil wars.

Of the kings of Castile may be mentioned, in the thirteenth century Sancho IV., in the fourteenth Peter the Cruel and Henry the Bastard, the first of whom was aided, in his war with Henry for the throne, by England (victory of the Black Prince at Najara, 1367), the latter by France. Mercenary bands or free companies, under Bertrand du Guescelin. Peter defeated and killed at Montiel in 1369.

Peter III. (1276-1285) of Aragon acquired the crown of Sicily, which he bequeathed to his second son, James, while his eldest son, Alphonso III., succeeded him in Aragon. His successor, Peter IV., curbed the excessive power of the nobility of Aragon. In 1410, after the extinction of the royal family of Catalonia, a Castilian prince, Ferdinand, ascended the throne of Aragon. His grandson, Ferdinand the Catholic (1479-1516), by the marriage which he had made before his elevation to the throne with Isabella, heiress of Castile, laid the foundation for the final union of the two kingdoms.

Portugal.

The legitimate line of Burgundy became extinct (1383), and was succeeded by the illegitimate Burgundian line. Heroic age of Portugal, which now reached its greatest power. Conquests, Ceuta, Tangiers; formation of a Christian kingdom of Algarbe on the northern coast of Africa. Voyages and discoveries (p. 279), under the patronage of the Infant, Henry the Navigator (1394-1460; discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira, 1418-19; Cape Verde, 1445; Azores, 1447; Cape Verde Islands, 1455).

§ 6. THE NORTH AND EAST.

Denmark, Norway Sweden.

Each a united kingdom from the second half of the ninth century on, converted to Christianity about 1000, were united by the Union of Calmar (1397). Margaret, queen of Denmark, daughter of Waldemar IV., married Hako VIII. of Norway, and after the death of Hako succeeded to the throne, at first for her minor son († 1387). The crown of Sweden was transferred to her by the estates of that kingdom. The union lasted (interrupted by Sweden) to 1524.

Russia.

From 862 to 1598, under the house of Rurik, converted by Vladimir the Great 988, soon divided into many principalities, which were in theory subordinate to the Grand Prince of Kiev, but practically were