April 9th 1471: Messages to London
A ‘fleet of foot’ messenger receiving his message
Messages from both parties signalled their imminent arrival in London. The ‘Arrivall’ reports on them:
……. and returning again to the King’s progress in his journey towards London, telling how that he came upon [Dunstable] the Tuesday, the ix. day of April, from whence he sent comfortable messages to the Queen to Westminster, and to his true Lords, servants, and lovers, being at London; whereupon, by the most covert means that they could, [they] advised and practised how that he might be received and welcomed at his said city of London.
The Earl of Warwick, knowing this his [Edward’s] journeying and approaching to London, sent his letters to them of the city, willing and charging them to resist him, and let the receiving of him and of his. He wrote also to his brother, the Archbishop of Yorke, desiring him to put him in the uttermost devowr [duty] he could, to provoke the city against him, and keep him out, for two or three days ; promising that he would not fail to come with great puissance [power] on the behalf, trusting utterly to distress and destroy him and his, as to the same he had, by his other writings, encharged the mayor, and the aldermen, and the commons of the city.’
In the absence of facts, rumours abound. Without the benefit of good communications, Edward was trying to discover the lie of the land. He would have been apprehensive about the Duke of Somerset, who had not gone north from London to join Warwick, and he’d want to know which of his supporters who had been lying low in London would come to join him. There were a lot of unknowns to make allowance for in his plans.
No-one kept a record of Warwick’s progress to the south, but he was likely to have been in the vicinity of Daventry on 9th. None of the news he was receiving was good. That evening, news reached him from London that Somerset and Devonshire had abandoned the city and gone to meet Queen Margaret. This meant that he was relying on the City’s Council and his brother the Archbishop to stand against Edward. It could not have filled him with confidence.