166 The Reign of Queen Margaret

In 1455 it briefly looked as though York had won; but in fact it solved nothing - the king remained the centre of power, and the king was weak. By 1457, he had lost his status as Protector, and the Queen was effectively the new ruler of England. 

166 The Reign of Queen Margaret

 

The Love Day of 1458

By 1458, Queen Margaret had remove the court to Coventry and Kenilworth, centres of Lancastrian power. There she gather around a her and the king a court  to her liking. Salisbury was never invited, York only twice - and then was humiliated. 

But then a French fleet raided and burned Sandwich. Nothing  could demonstrate ho w low England had fallen. The raid coincided with a return of the king's lucidity, and court returned to London. Henry, such as he was a force for anything, was a force for peace. His queen was ruling for the sake of a faction - the Beauforts - and king Henry could see that. 

And so Henry ordered a Love Day. The idea was that all the nobility would walk together, arm in arm, through the streets of London to St Paul's Cathedral. There they would sing and pray together, and all would be well. 

All happened as the King ordered. Young Somerset and Salisbury walk at the front; Warwick and Exeter walked arm in arm, the King walked in the middle and York and Margaret brought up the rear. All it achieved was to through the rivalries into clear and public relief - the Love Day solved nothing, because it could not address the basic problem of the king's weakness. 

 

 

 

Comments

[Keith Bowman]

Donator exists in many dictionaries. It is ugly and about 10,000 times as rare as donor. But it is a word.

[Frank J]

Donation, detonation, imitation, implication:
Donor, detonor, imitor, implicor. Surely, they're all good. As are
Donator, detonator, imitator, implicator.

[Richard Lyle]

"Donor" makes me sound as if I'm giving you a kidney.

[The History of England]

Richard, I'm not proud, I'll take what I can get...