were many causes
which retarded these desperate extremities, and made a long train of
faction, intrigue, and cabal, precede the military operations. By
the gradual progress of arts in England, as well as in other parts
of Europe, the people were now become of some importance; laws were
beginning to be respected by them; and it was requisite, by various
pretences, previously to reconcile their minds to the overthrow of such
an ancient establishment as that of the house of Lancaster, ere their
concurrence could reasonably be expected. The duke of York himself,
the new claimant, was of a moderate and cautious character, an enemy
to violence and disposed to trust rather to time and policy, than
to sanguinary measures, for the success of his pretensions. The very
imbecility itself of Henry tended to keep the factions in suspense, and
make them stand long in awe of each other: it rendered the Lancastrian
party unable to strike any violent blow against their enemies; it
encouraged the Yorkists to hope that, after banishing the king's
ministers, and getting possession of his person, they might gradually
undermine his authority, and be able, without the perilous experiment
of a civil war, to change the succession by parliamentary and legal
authority.

{1451.} The dispositions which appeared in a parliament assembled
soon after the arrival of the duke of York from Ireland, favored these
expectations of his partisans, and both discovered an unusual boldness
in the commons, and were a proof of the general discontents which
prevailed against the administration. The lower house, without any
previous inquiry or examination, without alleging any other ground of
complaint than common fame, ventured to present a petition against the
duke of Somerset, the duchess of Suffolk, the bishop of Chester, Sir
John Sutton, Lord Dudley, and several others of inferior rank; and they
prayed the king to remove them forever from his person and councils, and
to prohibit them from approaching within twelve miles of the court.[*]
This was a violent attack, somewhat arbitrary, and supported but by few
precedents, against the ministry; yet the king durst not openly oppose
it: he replied that, except the lords, he would banish all the others
from court during a year, unless he should have occasion for their
service in suppressing any rebellion. At the same time he rejected a
bill, which had passed both houses, for attainting the late duke of
Suffolk, and w