Clarence took the advice, and went over to England, where he made his peace with Edward, the more easily because the king, who was entirely given up to pleasure, treated with contempt the warnings the Duke of Burgundy sent him of the intended invasion by Warwick.  And yet a moment’s serious reflection should have shown him that his position was precarious.  The crushing exactions of the tax gatherers, in order to provide the means for Edward’s lavish expenditure, had already caused very serious insurrections in various parts of the country, and his unpopularity was deep and general.  In one of these risings the royal troops had suffered a crushing defeat.  The Earl Rivers, the father, and Sir John Woodville, one of the brothers, of the queen had, with the Earl of Devon, been captured by the rebels, and the three had been beheaded, and the throne had only been saved by the intervention of Warwick.

Thus, then, Edward had every reason for fearing the result should the Earl appear in arms against him.  He took, however, no measures whatever to prepare for the coming storm, and although the Duke of Burgundy despatched a fleet to blockade Harfleur, where Warwick was fitting out his expedition, and actually sent the name of the port at which the Earl intended to land if his fleet managed to escape from Harfleur, Edward continued carelessly to spend his time in pleasure and dissipation, bestowing his full confidence upon the Archbishop of York and the Marquis of Montague, both brothers of the Earl of Warwick.

The elements favoured his enemies, for early in September the Duke of Burgundy’s Fleet, off Harfleur, was dispersed by a storm, and Warwick, as soon as the gale abated, set sail, and on the 13th landed on the Devonshire coast.  His force was a considerable one, for the French king had furnished him both with money and men; on effecting his landing he found no army assembled to oppose him.  A few hours after his disembarkation, he was joined by Sir Thomas Tresham, who gave him the good news that the whole of the west was ready to rise, and that in a few days all the great landowners would join him with their retainers.  This turned out to be the case, and Warwick, with a great array, marched eastward.  Kent had already risen, and London declared for King Henry.  Warwick, therefore, instead of marching thither, moved towards Lincolnshire, where Edward was with his army, having gone north to repress an insurrection that had broken out there at the instigation of Warwick.

Lord Montague now threw off the mask, and declared for King Henry.  Most of the soldiers followed him, and Edward, finding it hopeless to oppose Warwick’s force, which was now within a short march of him, took ship with a few friends who remained faithful, and sailed for Holland.  Warwick returned to London, where he took King Henry from the dungeon in the Tower, into which he himself had, five years before, thrown him, and proclaimed him king.