Jean Plaidy by The Reluctant Queen: The Story of Anne of York Page B

was my father’s prisoner.
    It was all so bewildering. We were in the dark, groping through it for understanding, and it was not until much later that I learned from Richard what had really happened. Richard spoke of it even then with great resentment.
    The king had been marching northwards to quell the rebellion when news of the defeat at Edgecot reached him; and when the army knew what had happened they deserted in large numbers, with the result that the king found himself alone apart from a few friends—Richard among them.
    They were at Olney when George Neville arrived.
    â€œHe did not come as an archbishop,” said Richard when he told me of this, “but in armor. I was with my brother and I feared what this meant, for I knew that my brother was conspiring with your father and had done so ever since he married your sister Isabel. I had a feeling that George meant Edward no good, for he had always been jealous of him and resentful because Edward was more gifted, and the elder. George Neville was very respectful to the king and asked him if he would join him and his brother in Coventry for the Earl of Warwick was anxious about the king’s safety.
    â€œMy brother said, ‘Why is the earl so concerned for my safety when a short time ago he was fighting against me?’ ‘Never against
you
, my lord,’ said George Neville, ‘but against those who seek to destroy the realm.’ I was so angry that I called out to my brother not to listen to the man. But you know how forgiving Edward is. If he has a fault, it is being too ready to forgive his enemies and to believe the best of them. Edward put his hand on my arm and said lovingly to me, ‘We are in their hands, brother. Just for this while.’ And then he turned to the archbishop and said, ‘I see I am your prisoner. What do you ask of me?’ ‘That you come with me to my brother,’ answered the archbishop. And so we went to the Earl of Warwick.”
    I told Richard how sad I had been when I had heard a garbled version of this. It was heartbreaking for me to think the friendship between our two families was over.
    â€œI was with him,” went on Richard, “at the meeting with Warwick. I think your father was more embarrassed than my brother. The earl impressed on Edward that he wished him no harm and talked of his holding him for his own protection. That was not true. The earl had never forgiven him for marrying the queen. There were many of us who thought that was a mistake. But my brother is impulsive in his affections. He gives love without thought of gain. I suppose the marriage was good for him if not for others. It was her rapacious family that caused all the trouble. Oh, Anne, what mistakes have been made! It is true that your father helped to put Edward on the throne, but Edward is a king who will govern; he will not be led. And your father is a man who wants to rule through the king he has set up. It was doomed to fail.”
    How right he was!
    The king was the most agreeable guest and none would have believed he was with us against his will. The servants vied with each other to receive his attention. I never saw a man so lacking in arrogance and self-importance and yet who could convey such a kingly air.
    My father was in a state of elation at this point. He believed he had won the battle. He had shown the king that he could not reign without him. But after a while the euphoria began to fade. Edward might be pleasure-loving, seeking the easy way of life by refusing to look at unpleasant facts, but that exuberant personality, those kingly smiles, were what charmed the people. They did not want to lose their genial king. This was Edward’s strength. It was nearly ten years since my father had set him on the throne and during that time he had made the people love him. They wanted Edward, and there was unrest throughout the kingdom.
    It was known that the king was somewhere in the north, a captive