_Somerset._ Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer,
But dare maintain the party of the truth,
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

_Warwick._ I love no colors; and, without all color
Of base insinuating flattery,
I pluck this white rose with Plantagenet.
--_Shakespeare: I Henry VI._

The Wars of the Roses began with the battle of St. Albans (1455), in
which Somerset was killed. The victory was gained to the Yorkists
chiefly by the help of Warwick. By a sudden sally into the streets of
the town he routed the royal forces, and gained for himself that
character of daring and courage which he maintained to the end. He was
rewarded with the post of Captain of Calais, which he retained
throughout the changes of the parties. In this position he was
practically independent, and scoured the Channel at his pleasure.

In 1458 he attacked some vessels which were under a treaty of peace
with England, and being summoned to London to answer before the king,
was violently attacked by the followers of Somerset and barely escaped
with his life. In 1459 the civil war finally broke out. In the first
campaign the Yorkists failed, owing to their inactivity. The leaders
fled to the coast of Devon, where they hired five men to carry them to
Bristol. As soon as they left land, Warwick, stripped to the doublet,
took the helm, and steered straight for Calais, where he arrived in a
few days. When Somerset, son of the earl slain at St. Albans, came to
claim the keys of the stronghold, he had the mortification to find
Warwick there before him.

Warwick was next in England on June 27, 1460, when he landed at
Sandwich with fifteen hundred men. In four days he was before the
walls of London, having marched in that time a distance of seventy
miles. According to some accounts, the common people so flocked to his
standard, that in those four days his force had swelled to forty
thousand. The city threw open its gates and joyfully welcomed him,
while Henry fled to the north. In the beginning of July the battle of
Northampton was fought. The Yorkists gained a complete victory, and
took Henry prisoner. Before the fight Warwick issued the command to
spare the common people but to slay the nobles, judging the quarrel to
be more especially theirs; and it is significant that throughout the
Wars of the Roses the proportion of