[Footnote 99-1: _Cottonian Roll_, ii. 23. _See_ Appendix to this Introduction.]
[Footnote 99-2: _Rolls of Parl._ v. 346. The statement in the Act of Attainder passed against the Duke of York seven years afterwards, that he was 'of no power to withstand' the king on this occasion, is liable to suspicion, but it is confirmed by the testimony of Whethamstede, 348.]
In this crisis the lords who were with the king took counsel together, and determined, if possible, to labour for a compromise.[99-3] An embassy was appointed to go to the Duke of York, and hear what he had to say. It consisted of the wise and good prelate Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, and Bourchier, Bishop of Ely (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, Lord Beauchamp, Lord Sudeley, and some others. The answer made by York was, that no ill was intended against either the king or any of his Council; that the duke and his followers were lovers of the commonweal; but that it was their intention to remove from the king certain evil-disposed persons, through whose means the common people had been grievously oppressed. Of these the Duke of Somerset was declared to be the chief; and, indeed, his unpopularity was such that even those on the king's side would seem to have seconded the Duke of York's demand. After a consultation the king consented that Somerset should be committed to custody until he should make answer to such charges as York would bring against him.[100-1]
[Footnote 99-3: 'The Lords, both spiritual and temporal, took the matter in hand.' _Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles_ (Camden Soc.), 69. So also _Chronicle of London_, 137.]
Nothing more seemed necessary to avert civil war. On a simple pledge given by the king that Somerset should be placed in confinement, and afterwards put on his trial, the Duke of York at once broke up his camp and ordered his men home. He then repaired himself to the king's tent to express his loyalty. [Sidenote: York is entrapped,] But no sooner had he arrived there than he found he was deceived. The king, in violation of his promise, kept the Duke of Somerset attending upon him as his chief adviser, and York was virtually a prisoner. He was sent on to London in advance of the king, in a kind of honourable custody, attended by two bishops, who conducted him to his own residence; but what to do with him when he got there was a difficulty. His enemies feared to send him to the Tower. There were 10,000 men yet remaining in the Welsh Marches, who, on such a rumour, would have come up to London; and it was not very long before they were reported to be all under arms, and actually on the march, with the duke's young son at their head--Edward, Earl of March, boy as he was, not yet quite ten years old.[100-2]