correspondence lasted the whole year; towards the close of it York was recalled to England, on the pretext, though his five years' term had in fact expired, that his presence was wanted in a coming parliament. No parliament, however, assembled until 10 Feb. 1447, when he was present at the opening of parliament at Bury. On 25 May he attended the council at Westminster Palace at which Suffolk was exonerated from blame for the cession of Anjou and Maine. Meanwhile he received several grants from the crown. On 18 Oct. 1446 the castle and lordship of Hadleigh in Essex were conferred upon him (Patent Roll, 25 Hen. VI, pt. ii. m. 8); and on the 26th he had a life grant of the abbey and town of Waltham. On 25 Feb. 1447 he had a grant of the manor of Great Wratting in Suffolk, of which Duke Humphrey had died owner just two days before, on the ground that it was his own ancient inheritance (ib. m. 37). On 14 July he was appointed steward and justice itinerant of all the royal forests south of Trent.
On 29 Sept. 1447 he was ‘retained’ in the king's service as his lieutenant in Ireland for ten years. His formal appointment, however, was only dated 9 Dec. (Patent, 26 Hen. VI, pt. ii. m. 3). Ireland was a convenient place of banishment. York delayed his departure for more than a year and a half. Before going he insisted, among other things, that during his tenure of office he should receive all the king's revenues there without giving any account of them, and that he should further have out of England four thousand marks for the first year, of which 2,000l. should be paid in advance, and for the other nine years 2,000l. a year. At length he landed at Howth on 6 July 1449, and his arrival was hailed with enthusiasm. The chieftains came in ‘and gave him as many beeves for the use of his kitchen as it pleased him to demand’ (Annals of the Four Masters, iv. 965; cf. Cott. MS. Titus B. xi. 21). He afterwards made a successful expedition into O'Byrne's country, compelling that chieftain to swear allegiance and promise to learn English.
On 16 Oct. he opened a parliament at Dublin at which some important acts were passed. On 24 April 1450 he held another at Drogheda, in which further useful measures were passed. On 15 June he wrote to his brother-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury, that MacGeoghegan, one of the Irish chiefs who had submitted, with three or four others and a number of English rebels, had again revolted and burned his town of Rathmore in Meath. He urged that the king's payment should be hastened to enable him to quell these disturbances, otherwise he could not keep the land in subjection, and would be obliged to come over and live in England on his ‘poor livelihood.’ But the home government, troubled at that very time with Cade's rebellion, was in no condition to send him money.
York was at Trim as late as 26 Aug. (Some Notices of the Castle, &c., of Trim, by R. Butler, dean of Clonmacnoise, p. 79, 3rd edit. 1854), but immediately afterwards crossed to Wales and landed at Beaumaris, in spite of orders to prevent his being even revictualled. He was denounced as a traitor responsible for recent disturbances, and gangs of men were set to waylay him in Cheshire and on the way to London. He gathered his retainers on the Welsh marches, and wrote to friends in England to meet him on the way. William Tresham [q. v.], speaker of the last parliament, who set out to join him in Northamptonshire, was waylaid and murdered, and Sir Thomas Hoo, who met with him in approaching St. Albans, was attacked by a body of western men. He, however, continued his progress, accompanied by four thousand armed men, till he came to the royal presence, and at the last ‘beat down the spears and walls’ in the king's chamber before he could secure an audience. When he saw the king he simply petitioned for justice and impartial execution of the laws, complaining of the attempts made to seize him. Henry excused the measures taken against him, but acknowledged that he had acted like a true subject, and said that he would not have wished him opposed. He also agreed to appoint a new council, in which York should be included. The duke about the same time seized two members of the old council, Lord Dudley and the abbot of St. Peter's, Gloucester, together with the keeper of the king's bench, and sent them prisoners to his own castle of Ludlow (Stow, Chronicle, p. 392). Edmund Beaufort, second duke of Somerset [q. v.], a brother of the incompetent general who had been associated with York in France, meanwhile had come over from that country, where he had held command since 1448 with disastrous results to English predominance. York, in view of a parliament which had been summoned to meet on 6 Nov., arranged with his wife's nephew, the Duke of Norfolk, at Bury, on 16 Oct., who should be knights of the shire for Norfolk. In parliament, where the chief lords had armed men in attendance, disputes between York and Somerset ran high, and on 1 Dec. the latter was arrested. His house and those of other court favourites were robbed, but one of the rioters was beheaded in Cheapside, and York, riding through the city, proclaimed that summary
