Edward initially ruled with Warwick's support, but the two later fell out over foreign policy and the king's choice to marry Elizabeth Woodville.

After a failed plot to crown Edward's brother, George, Duke of Clarence, Warwick instead restored Henry VI to the throne.

A protracted battle over parts of the inheritance ensued, particularly with Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, who had married a daughter from Richard Beauchamp's first marriage.

[15] In June 1453, Somerset was granted custody of the lordship of Glamorgan—part of the Despenser heritage held by Warwick until then—and open conflict broke out between the two men.

The continental town of Calais, conquered from France in 1347, was not only of vital strategic importance, it also held what was England's largest standing army.

[34] Developing a solid military reputation and with good international connections, he then brought a part of his garrison to England, where he met up with his father and York in the autumn of 1459.

[35] In September 1459 Warwick crossed over to England and made his way north to Ludlow to meet up with York and Salisbury, the latter fresh from his victory over Lancastrians at the Battle of Blore Heath.

[36] At nearby Ludford Bridge their forces were scattered by the king's army, partly because of the defection of Warwick's Calais contingent under the command of Andrew Trollope.

The Act of Accord of 25 October 1460 stated that while Henry VI was allowed to stay on the throne for the remainder of his life, his son Edward, Prince of Wales, was to be disinherited.

[51] He then joined forces with Prince Edward of York, the new Yorkist claimant to the crown, who had just won an important victory at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross.

[55] The unusually bloody battle resulted in a complete victory for the Yorkist forces, and the death of many important men on the opposing side, such as Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Andrew Trollope.

[62] Edward confirmed Warwick's position as Captain of Calais, and made him High Admiral of England and Steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, along with several other offices.

[63] His brothers also benefited: John Neville, Lord Montagu, was made Warden of the East March in 1463, and the next year created Earl of Northumberland.

[67] At this point, Warwick felt secure enough to travel south; in February he buried the remains of his father and brother at Bisham Priory, and in March he attended parliament at Westminster.

[69] Warwick returned to the north and rescued Norham in July, but the Lancastrians were left in possession of Northumberland, and the government decided on a diplomatic approach instead.

Separate truces were negotiated with Scotland and France by late 1463, which allowed Warwick to retake the Northumbrian castles held by the Lancastrian rebels in the spring of 1464.

[73] For Edward the marriage may very well have been a love match, but in the long run, he sought to build the Woodville family into a powerhouse independent of Warwick's influence.

[81] This set up an internal conflict within the English court, which was not alleviated by the fact that Edward had signed a secret treaty in October with Burgundy, while Warwick was forced to carry on sham negotiations with the French.

[84] In the autumn of 1467, there were rumours that Warwick was now sympathetic to the Lancastrian cause, but even though he refused to come to court to answer the charges, the king accepted his denial in writing.

[88] Part of Warwick's plan was winning over King Edward's younger brother, George Plantagenet, possibly with the prospect of installing him on the throne.

[89] A modus vivendi had been achieved between Warwick and the king for some months, but the restoration of Henry Percy to Montagu's earldom of Northumberland prevented any chance of full reconciliation.

[99] Edward, however, discovered the plot when Robert, Lord Welles, was routed at Losecote Field in Rutland in March 1470, and gave away the plan.

Louis XI declared war on Burgundy, and Charles the Bold responded by granting an expeditionary force to Edward IV, in order to reclaim his throne.

[123] The other perspective can be found in Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy: a man driven by pride and egotism, who created and deposed kings at will.

The Enlightenment, or Whig historians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, decried anyone who impeded the development towards a centralised, constitutional monarchy, the way Warwick did in his struggles with Edward.

[125] David Hume called Warwick "the greatest, as well as the last, of those mighty barons who formerly overawed the crown, and rendered the people incapable of any regular system of civil government.

"[129] Paul Murray Kendall's popular biography from 1957 took a sympathetic view of Warwick but concluded that he had ultimately fallen victim to his own overreaching ambition.

[130] More recent historians, such as Michael Hicks and A. J. Pollard, have tried to see Warwick in light of the standards of his own age, rather than holding him up to contemporary constitutional ideals.

[133] On the other hand, while Warwick could not easily suffer his treatment by the king, it was equally impossible for Edward to accept the earl's presence on the political scene.

As long as Warwick remained as powerful and influential as he was, Edward could not fully assert his royal authority, and eventual confrontation became inevitable.