Edward IV 1461-70, 1471-83

• Edward IV


  King of England from 1461 to 1483, dethroned for six months in 1471, 12th Plantagenet King, first Yorkist King, played an integral part in the Wars of the Roses
• Edward IV usurped the previous sitting King Henry VI when he was just 18 years old
• Edward IV was born

  1442
• Henry VI had been the king for 20 years when Edward IV was born
• Henry VI became King when he was just nine months old
• How Edward IV became king

  1. His father the Duke of York was the heir to the throne

  2. The Duke of York returned to England and started the long process of trying to wrestle control of the king from rival Nobles

  3. The Duke of York raised an Army in 1455 when the future Edward IV was just 13

  4. Edward IV commanded a Yorkist division to victory when he was 18 at the Battle of Northampton

  5. After the Battle of Wakefield, Edward IV launched one final push and defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton in 1461
• Henry VI fell into a catatonic stupor in 1453 after the loss of Gascony
• The Duke of York took over as protector of England when Henry VI fell into a catatonic stupor
• The Battle of St Albans in 1455 marked the start of the Wars of the Roses
• Edward IV was crowned King in 1461 after defeating the Lancastrians
• Edward IV spent the first years of his reign mopping up resistance in the north of England, consolidating his kingdom, and eventually capturing and imprisoning the dethroned Henry VI
• Edward IV announced he was already married to an English woman Elizabeth Woodville


  This shocked and angered the Earl of Warwick who decided to support Edward's brother George the Duke of Clarence in an uprising
• Edward IV was captured at the Battle of Edgecote in 1469 and the country descended into violence
• Warwick and the Duke of Clarence fled to Normandy and brokered a deal with Queen Margaret to overthrow Edward IV and restore Henry VI to the throne
• Edward IV was dethroned again in 1471 but then raised an army on the continent, defeated Warwick at the Battle of Barnet, and chased down Queen Margaret's forces at the Battle of Tewkesbury where Prince Edward was slain
• Edward IV's reign after being restored was spent consolidating his power and nurturing a large family around him, including a successor in his eldest son Edward
• Edward IV died in 1483 at the age of 41 of unspecified causes
• Edward IV assumed his son Edward would be crowned King after his death, but he hadn't reckoned on the actions of his younger brother the Duke of Gloucester