Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/356

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Warwick, 2nd Earl of—Warwick

time when Richard and Salisbury were defeated and slain at Wakefield. The Lancastrians won a second victory at St Albans on the 17th of February 1461, possibly through lack of generalship on Warwick's part. But in his plans to retrieve the disaster Warwick showed skill and decision. He met Edward of York in Oxfordshire, brought him in triumph to London, had him proclaimed king, and within a month of his defeat at St Albans was marching north in pursuit of the Lancastrians. The good generalship which won the victory of Towton may have been due to Edward rather than to Warwick, but the new king was of the creation of the powerful earl, who now had his reward. For four years the government was centred undisputedly in the hands of Warwick and his friends. The energy of his brother John, Lord Montagu, frustrated the various attempts of the Lancastrians in the north. In another sphere Warwick himself was determining the lines of English policy on the basis of an alliance with France. The power of the Nevilles seemed to be completed by the promotion of George, the third brother, to be archbishop of York. The first check came with the announcement in September 1464 of the king's secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. This was particularly distasteful to Warwick, who had but just pledged Edward to a French match. For the time, however, there was no open breach. The trouble began in 1466, when Edward first made Rivers, the queen's father, treasurer, and afterwards threw obstacles in the way of an intended marriage between Warwick's daughter Isabel and George of Clarence, his own next brother. Still in May 1467 Warwick went again, with the king's assent to conclude a treaty with France. He returned to find that in his absence Edward, under Woodville's influence, had committed himself definitely to the Burgundian alliance. Warwick retired in dudgeon to his estates, and began to plot in secret for his revenge. In the summer of 1469 he went over to Calais, where Isabel and Clarence were married without the king's knowledge. Meantime he had stirred up the rebellion of Robin of Redesdale in Yorkshire; and when Edward was drawn north Warwick invaded England in arms. The king, outmarched and outnumbered, had to yield himself prisoner, whilst Rivers and his son John were executed. Warwick was apparently content with the overthrow of the Woodvilles, and believed that he had secured Edward's submission. In March 1470 a rebellion in Lincolnshire gave Edward an opportunity to gather an army of his own. When the king alleged that he had found proof of Warwick's complicity, the earl, taken by surprise, fled with Clarence to France. There, through the instrumentality of Louis XI., he was with some difficulty reconciled to Margaret of Anjou, and agreed to marry his second daughter to her son. In September Warwick and Clarence, with the Lancastrian lords, landed at Dartmouth. Edward in his turn had to fly oversea, and for six months Warwick ruled England as lieutenant for Henry VI., who was restored from his prison in the Tower to a nominal throne. But the Lancastrian restoration was unwelcome to Clarence, who began to intrigue with his brother. When in March 1471 Edward landed at Ravenspur, Clarence found an opportunity to join him. Warwick was completely outgeneralled, and at Barnet on the 14th of April was defeated and slain.

Warwick has been made famous by Lytton as “The Last of the Barons.” The title suits him as a great feudal lord, who was a good fighter but a poor general, who had more sympathy with the old order than with the new culture. But he was more than this. He had some of the qualities of a strong ruler, and the power to command popularity. He was a skilled diplomatist and an adroit politician. These qualities, with his position as the head of a great family, the chief representative of Beauchamp, Despenser, Montacute and Neville, made him during ten years “the king-maker.”

Warwick's only children were his two daughters. Anne, the younger, was married after his death to Richard of Gloucester, the future Richard III. Their husbands shared his inheritance and quarrelled over its division.

Bibliography.—Warwick of course fills a great place in contemporary authorities, for a note on the chief of them see under Edward IV. For modern authorities see especially C. W. Oman's brilliant but enthusiastic Warwick the King-Maker, Sir James Ramsay's Lancaster and York, and Stubbs's Constitutional History.  (C. L. K.) 

WARWICK, SIR ROBERT RICH, 2nd Earl of (1587—1658), colonial administrator and admiral, was the eldest son of Robert Rich, earl of Warwick (see above) and his wife Penelope Rich (q.v.), and succeeded to the title in 1619. Early interested in colonial ventures, he joined the Bermudas, Guinea, New England and Virginia companies. His enterprises involved him in disputes with the East India Company (1617) and with the Virginia Company, which in 1624 was suppressed through his action. In 1627 he commanded an unsuccessful privateering expedition against the Spaniards. His Puritan connexions and sympathies, while gradually estranging him from the court, promoted his association with the New England colonies. In 1628 he indirectly procured the patent for the Massachusetts colony, and in 1631 he granted the “Saybrook” patent in Connecticut. Compelled the same year to resign the presidency of the New England Company, he continued to manage the Bermudas and Providence Companies, the latter of which, founded in 1630, administered Old Providence on the Mosquito coast. Meanwhile in England Warwick opposed the forced loan of 1626, the payment of ship-money and Laud's church policy, and with his brother the first lord Holland (q.v.) came to be recognized as one of the heads of the Puritans. In March 1642 the Commons, in spite of the king's veto, appointed him admiral of the fleet, and in July he gained the whole navy for the parliament. He raised forces in Norfolk and Essex on the outbreak of the war, and as lord high admiral (1643—1645) he did good service in intercepting the king's ships and relieving threatened ports. In 1643 he was appointed head of a commission for the government of the colonies, which the next year incorporated Providence Plantations, afterwards Rhode Island, and in this capacity he exerted himself to secure religious liberty. Reappointed lord high admiral in May 1648, in the vain hope that his influence with the sailors would win back the nine ships which had revolted to the king, he collected a new fleet and blockaded them at Helvoetsluys. Dismissed from office on the abolition of the House of Lords in 1649, he retired from public life, but was intimately associated with Cromwell, whose daughter Frances married his grandson and heir Robert Rich in 1657. He died on the 19th of April 1658. The suspicions cast by his enemies on his religious sincerity and political fidelity appear to be baseless.

WARWICK, a town of Merivale county, Queensland, Australia, 169 m. by rails. S. W. of Brisbane. Pop. (1901) 3836. It lies on the bank of the river Contadamine, in the heart of one of the best agricultural districts in Queensland, and is perhaps the most attractive inland town in the colony. It is well laid out with many substantial public and private buildings, and has two large parks, besides smaller recreation grounds. The district is famous for its vineyards, and quantities of excellent wine are made; wheat and maize are the principal crops, but tobacco, oats and lucerne are largely grown. Coal is found near the town, as are also marble, good building stone and brick clay.

WARWICK, a municipal and parliamentary borough, and the county town of Warwickshire, England; finely situated on the river Avon, the Warwick & Napton and Birmingham canals, 98 m. N.W. from London. Pop. (1901) 11,889. It is served by the Great Western and the London & North-Western railways. The parliamentary borough was united with that of Leamington in 1885, and returns one member. Leamington lies 2 m. E., and the towns are united by the suburb of New Milverton.

The magnificent castle of the earls of Warwick stands in a commanding and picturesque position on a rocky eminence above the river. Its walls, enclosing a lovely lawn and gardens, are flanked by towers, of which Caesar's tower, 147 ft. high, the Gateway tower and Guy's tower are the chief, dating from the 14th century. The residential portion lies on the river side. Excepting a few traces of earlier work, its appearance is that of princely mansion of the 17th century. There is