Whilst Warwick and Clarence were in France in 1470, they concerted measures with Queen Margaret for effecting another revolution. By September matters were ready for execution. On the 13th Warwick landed in England; and before the end of the month the Kentish men so threatened the City and Westminster, that the newly-elected sheriffs had to be escorted by an armed force in order to be sworn in at the Exchequer, whilst a constant patrol was kept in the streets.(924) On the 1st October it was made known in the city that the king had taken flight. His queen took sanctuary at Westminster, leaving the Tower in the hands of the mayor and aldermen and members of the council of Warwick and Clarence. The unfortunate Henry was quickly removed from the wretched cell in which he had so long been confined to a commodious and handsomely furnished apartment which the queen herself, being _enceinte_ at the time, purposed occupying when she should be brought to bed. A garrison was placed in the Tower by order of the Common Council, sitting, for safety's sake, in the church of St. Stephen, Walbrook. On the 5th October Archbishop Nevill, Warwick's brother, entered the city with a strong force and relieved the civic authorities of the custody of the Tower, and on the following day Warwick himself appeared, accompanied by Clarence and a large following, and removed Henry from the Tower to the Bishop of London's palace.(925) Two days later (9 Oct.) he obtained from the Common Council the sum of £1,000 for the defence of his stronghold, Calais, besides a loan of £100 from the aldermen of the city for his own private use.(926) On the 18th the Earl of Worcester, Edward's constable and minister of his cruelties,(927) was beheaded on Tower Hill, the ground being kept by the Sheriffs of London and a contingent from the several wards.(928)
In November Henry was made to hold a parliament, and Sir Thomas Cooke, the deposed alderman, lost no time in presenting a bill for the restoration of his lands, which had been seized by the queen's father, Lord Rivers. He would probably have been successful had fortune continued to favour King Henry, for, besides being a member of parliament, he was, writes Fabyan (a brother alderman), "a man of great boldnesse in speche, and well spoken and syngulerly wytted and well reasoned."(929) John Stokton had recently been elected mayor, but there is reason for believing that he, like other aldermen, preferred Edward on the throne, licentious and extravagant as he was, to an imbecile like Henry. He fell ill, or, as Fabyan puts it, feigned sickness and took to his bed, and Cooke assumed the duties of the mayoralty. At Edward's restoration Cooke had to seek refuge in France, but he was taken at sea before he could reach the continent. The same fate might have awaited Stokton had he shown himself less cautious at that critical time.