t of Edward's marriage broke out, the haughty Earl, deeming himself
affronted, both by being employed in this fruitless negotiation and by
being kept a stranger to the King's intentions, who had owed everything
to his friendship, immediately returned to England, inflamed with rage
and indignation. The influence of passion over so young a man as Edward
might have served as an excuse for his imprudent conduct had he deigned
to acknowledge his error or had pleaded his weakness as an apology; but
his faulty shame or pride prevented him from so much as mentioning the
matter to Warwick; and that nobleman was allowed to depart the court,
full of the same ill-humor and discontent which he had brought to it.

Every incident now tended to widen the breach between the King and this
powerful subject. The Queen, who lost not her influence by marriage, was
equally solicitous to draw every grace and favor to her own friends and
kindred and to exclude those of the Earl, whom she regarded as her mortal
enemy.

The Earl of Warwick could not suffer with patience the least diminution
of that credit which he had long enjoyed, and which he thought he had
merited by such important services. Edward also, jealous of that power
which had supported him, was well pleased to raise up rivals to the
Earl of Warwick; and he justified, by this political view, his extreme
partiality to the Queen's kindred. But the nobility of England, envying
the sudden growth of the Woodevilles, was more inclined to take part with
Warwick's discontent.

An extensive and dangerous combination was insensibly formed against
Edward and his ministry. While this cloud was gathering at home, Edward
endeavored to secure himself against his factious nobility by entering
into foreign alliances. But whatever ambitious schemes the King might
have built on these alliances, they were soon frustrated by intestine
commotions, which engrossed all his attention. These disorders probably
arose not immediately from the intrigues of the Earl of Warwick, but from
accident, aided by the turbulent spirit of the age, by the general humor
of discontent which that popular nobleman had instilled into the nation,
and perhaps by some remains of attachment to the house of Lancaster. The
hospital of St. Leonard's, near York, had received, from an ancient
grant of King Athelstane, a right of levying a thrave of corn upon every
ploughland in the county. The country people complained that the revenue