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an idiot, and the country very ill governed. These two circumstances
gave the Duke of York a power he could not otherwise have had.

Whether the Duke knew anything of Jack Cade, or not, he came over from
Ireland while Jack's head was on London Bridge; being secretly advised
that the Queen was setting up his enemy, the Duke of Somerset, against
him. He went to Westminster, at the head of four thousand men, and on
his knees before the King, represented to him the bad state of the
country, and petitioned him to summon a Parliament to consider it. This
the King promised. When the Parliament was summoned, the Duke of York
accused the Duke of Somerset, and the Duke of Somerset accused the Duke
of York; and, both in and out of Parliament, the followers of each party
were full of violence and hatred towards the other. At length the Duke
of York put himself at the head of a large force of his tenants, and, in
arms, demanded the reformation of the Government. Being shut out of
London, he encamped at Dartford, and the royal army encamped at
Blackheath. According as either side triumphed, the Duke of York was
arrested, or the Duke of Somerset was arrested. The trouble ended, for
the moment, in the Duke of York renewing his oath of allegiance, and
going in peace to one of his own castles.

Half a year afterwards the Queen gave birth to a son, who was very ill
received by the people, and not believed to be the son of the King. It
shows the Duke of York to have been a moderate man, unwilling to involve
England in new troubles, that he did not take advantage of the general
discontent at this time, but really acted for the public good. He was
made a member of the cabinet, and the King being now so much worse that
he could not be carried about and shown to the people with any decency,
the duke was made Lord Protector of the kingdom, until the King should
recover, or the Prince should come of age. At the same time the Duke of
Somerset was committed to the Tower. So, now the Duke of Somerset was
down, and the Duke of York was up. By the end of the year, however, the
King recovered his memory and some spark of sense; upon which the Queen
used her power--which recovered with him--to get the Protector disgraced,
and her favourite released. So now the Duke of York was down, and the
Duke of Somerset was up.

These ducal ups and downs gradually separated the whole nation into the
two parties of York and Lancaster, and led to th