Fb-fb:
Yup, Anne has a point.
They really should have stopped faffing about 5 years ago.
With a character like Anne (who we do not see very much if at all) I wanted to show that there is a certain, and believable, inclination to see what York et al. have been doing as entirely illegitimate. While you certainly have many Lords acting due to self preservation or advancement, there remain a good many that merely see this is acts against the King and Sovereign. While this Parliament was meant to punish, by all known metrics of people of the time (who do not know of Margaret's machinations) these attainders are deserved. Sucks for York. Perhaps you are right about all the faffing about.
I mean... she's not wrong here.
I wonder how many members of this farce of a parliament are opportunists... how will those men react when Margaret inevitably loses? This is... kind of a hard thing to walk back - it's basically harnessing their fates to Margaret forever... or it seems that way, anyway. They may come to regret that.
That being said, Cecily speaks the truth - King Henry is no monarch.
Quite. And I would like to think most are opportunists. I did not go into great detail, but many of these attained lands and titles will go to the very members of this Parliament and of course, the court party.
A Parliament of Devils very much from the Yorkist perspective, I've no doubt there are some in that group who are sure they are 'just' punishing some traitors. Harshly perhaps, but then treason always attracts a harsh punishment. "You come at the King, you best not miss" and all that. I suppose technically Queen as there can't be anyone left who truly believes that Henry is anything but a puppet, even if they have to pretend he actually matters.
That said the Parliament must be very confident in the Queen's victory because they have assuredly made permanent enemies of the Yorkist faction, moreover as they have decided even family are to be guilty they have put markers on their own kin when the tables are turned. I can see why they might think that with York and Warwick fleeing the country, but they are not fleeing to exile, they are heading to places with large garrisons of troops who are loyal to them or at least have reason to dislike Margaret and the court faction.
You make a very good point here that matters in response to some of the below. I'll cover it in more detail there, but there is no doubt that many think they have scored a complete victory, Margaret included. They will be disabused of this notion in near enough time.
How the table has turned! The Richard/Warwick faction depended on their financial resources. Poof, it is gone. Parliament required little prodding. Everybody who has been wronged by or perceive themselves to have been wronged by Richard/Queen C, Warwick or another traitor goes to the front of the line. Everyone who wants a parcel from the spoils fill a spot. Richard joins Rene of Anjou as men with claims and titles but little resources to secure the titles. The young children of Queen C will learn how to rely on others for their support like Rene's children. Every female who has been belittled by Queen C, today is the day that you can start teaching her grace and humility. Not only are the Yorkist family impoverished, but they are hostages against Richard's return. Richard's best use to the Yorkist camp is as a martyr, thus I expect Warwick or someone to dispose of him. How do you follow someone who may sell you out to save his family or if he allows his family to be killed (Fancy will without doubt); do you want someone that cold and power-hungry as your ruler? Kudos to Henry VI and Margaret for surviving. It would have been easy for Richard or his agents to kill Henry before the birth of Prince Edward and now Fancy may kill him as it easier to rule as queen-mother than queen-consort. Fancy was supposed to be a dumb French tart, but has managed to outwit the Great Richard and Queen C.
There is no doubt that this is very bad for Richard (and by extension to his family left in England.) The shame of it, if nothing else. As you suggest, it will be more difficult to get people to follow Richard now if it wasn't already difficult before. And as above, the "winners" are gloating and taking the spoils of war as is rather natural whether right or wrong. However...
The financial spigot is turned off for Richard/York. For every Henry VII, there are a hundred Bonnie Charlies and Renes of Anjou.
Is it though? This is not the modern age where everything exists digitally on a ledger. News will only spread slowly throughout the Nation, moreover the decrees of parliament must then be enforced.
Plenty of time for the Yorkist faction to gather a war chest if they are organised enough, and Warwick and his father surely are that.
York/Warwick do not have bitcoins or Swiss bank accounts. This is the era where landed property and the income/rents that it generates are king. They no longer own property and have access to collect. York/Warwick are not likeable guys. The Yorkists need a new standard-bearer whether this be Edward, Edmund or Richard or even a non-York. Ex-Duke Richard can not attack while his wife and children are human shields that Fancy will happily deploy.
As
@El Pip suggests above, York and his are not going to some wasteland of exile. York goes to Ireland because he still maintains a power base there that remain still very loyal to him (as will be seen in a future scene) and Warwick, Salisbury and Edward are going to Calais where Warwick has spent years building a strong garrison and power. More to that, they can always depend upon "the kindness of strangers" as Blanche DuBois suggested. Let's not forget the years York and Warwick have spent courting the Burgundians (which we'll see in yet another future scene.)
Finally, there remains a disaffected but perhaps very quiet (for now) loyalty remaining in England. Besides the people of London and southeast England (Kent is always a hotbed is seems...are they still like this?) there are also the merchants who do not like Margaret AT ALL! As well, some few Lords remain loyal to York and his even if they dare not speak it. A most curious case is found in the above mentioned Lord Clinton. While attained with York, I do not see him mentioned with either Ireland or Calais during this period. Yet he will show up again. So what was he doing all this time?
The Parliament aside - which is really performing a rather traditional role in such circumstances of throwing attainder at the losers and distributing the spoils among the winners because they quite reasonably think it’s all over - Anne and Cecily both speak with some truth here, of course. This is why the whole thing got to this point and got there so slowly and nastily. If it had been obvious which side had held the right and might all those years during the lead up it would have been fully resolved one way or the other.
The thing I find amazing about it all is that the English roosters have allowed a young French hen to do all the crowing and now rule the roost. Sacre Bleu! They’ll all be crying into their ale some time soon, but for now both the pro-Margaret believers and their fellow travellers are (to torture the paltry poultry metaphor into a timely and appropriate death after having mixed it with ale) using Parliament to count their chickens before they hatch!
Margaret considers herself to be the chef presiding over a well cooked omelette, having broken York’s eggs (so to speak) to make it. But is she now Humpty Dumpty sitting on that wall? And if that over-egging of a metaphor doesn’t warrant a Bill of Attainder from those Devils in Parliament I don’t know what does.
I like how you eggsplain that.
It's a legit question: Are these Lords just fools so easily duped by a young French girl, or is Margaret just that good?
In case anyone curious about the art provided;
Excerpt from the illuminated manuscript for epic poem
Merlin by Robert de Boron, 13. ce.;
illustration by anonymous painter labelled as Maître d'Adélaïde de Savoie, ca. 14.-15. ce;
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Français 96.
Thank you for giving attribution. I am quite terrible with that as far as my header pics are concerned. Usually I just search for something that fits with the scene ahead and this pic was just too good as it perfectly explained the caption of the chapter as Cecily saw it.
It would be funny if the king suddenly suffered one of his attacks and went nuts...
This would indeed be good. Or he just finds out someone is teaching "his" child French and takes the only sensible reaction - going on an utter rampage.
I would love to have Henry going "the French way" crossing a forest and haing a berseker moment... a là Charles VI.
Now, if I really wanted to turn this work on its head this would be a capital idea. I'm not sure how I could take Henry VI from his meek self to the beserker mode that his grandfather Charles VI displayed at times, but it would be a sight to behold. And indeed, could fix many of these problems.
