Coincidently with the marriage of Clarence and Isabel on French soil, the young Edward and Isabel’s sister were betrothed.  Richard of Gloucester was thus definitely estranged from Warwick’s cause.  And secret agencies were set afoot to undermine the loyalty of the weak Clarence to the cause which he had espoused.

At first, however, Warwick’s plans prospered.  He returned to England, forced Edward to fly the country in his turn, and restored Henry VI. to the throne.  So far, Clarence and Isabel accompanied him; while Margaret and her son, with Lady Warwick and the Lady Anne, remained at Amboise.

Then the very elements seemed to war against the Lancastrians.  The restoration came about in October 1470.  Margaret was due in London in November, but for nearly six months the state of the Channel was such that she was unable to cross it.

Warwick sickened of his self-imposed task.  The whole burden of government rested upon the shoulders of the great earl, great where deeds of valour were to be done, but weak in the niceties of administration.

The nobles, no less than the people, had expected miracles.  The king-maker, on his return, gave them but justice.  Such was the earl’s position when Edward, with a small following, landed at Ravenspur.  A treacherous message, sent to Warwick’s brother Montagu by Clarence, caused Montagu to allow the invader to march southwards unmolested.  This had so great an effect on public feeling that when Edward reached the Midlands, he had not a mere handful of supporters at his back, but an army of large dimensions.  Then the wavering Clarence went over to his brother, and it fell to the lot of the earl sorrowfully to dispatch Isabel to the camp of his enemy.

But Warwick’s cup of bitterness was not yet full.  The Tower was surrendered to Edward’s friends, and on the following day Edward himself entered the capital, to be received by the traders with tumultuous cheers.

Raw, cold, and dismal dawned the morning of the fateful 14th of March, 1471, when Margaret at last reached English soil, and Edward’s forces met those of Warwick on the memorable field of Barnet.  All was not yet lost to the cause of the Red Rose.  But a fog settled down over the land to complete, as it were, the disadvantages caused by the prolonged storms at sea.  At a critical period of the battle the silver stars on the banners of one of the Lancastrians, the Earl of Oxford, being mistaken for the silver suns of Edward’s cognisance, two important sections of Warwick’s army fell upon one another.  Friend was slaughtering friend ere the error was detected.  While all was yet in doubt, confusion, and dismay, rushed full into the centre Edward himself, with his knights and riders; and his tossing banners added to the general incertitude and panic.

Warwick and his brother gained the shelter of a neighbouring wood, where a trusty band of the earl’s northern archers had been stationed.  Here they made their last stand, Warwick destroying his charger to signify to his men that to them and to them alone he entrusted his fortunes and his life.