sist him in the exercise of it: he made it a
condition of his acceptance, that the other lords who were appointed to
be of his council, should also accept of the trust, and should exercise
it; and he required, that all the powers of his office should be
specified and defined by act of parliament. This moderation of Richard
was certainly very unusual and very amiable; yet was it attended with
bad consequences in the present juncture; and by giving time to the
animosities of faction to rise and ferment, it proved the source of all
those furious wars and commotions which ensued.

The enemies of the duke of York soon found it in their power to make
advantage of his excessive caution. Henry being so far recovered from
his distemper, as to carry the appearance of exercising the royal power,
they moved him to resume his authority, to annul the protectorship
of the duke to release Somerset from the Tower,[*] and to commit the
administration into the hands of that nobleman.

{1455.} Richard, sensible of the dangers which might attend his former
acceptance of the parliamentary commission, should he submit to the
annulling of it, levied an army; but still without advancing any
pretensions to the crown. He complained only of the king's ministers,
and demanded a reformation of the government. A battle was fought at St.
Albans, in which the Yorkists were superior, and, without suffering any
material loss, slew about five thousand of their enemies; among whom
were the duke of Somerset, the earl of Northumberland, the earl of
Stafford, eldest son of the duke of Buckingham, Lord Clifford, and many
other persons of distinction.[**] The king himself fell into the hands
of the duke of York, who treated him with great respect and tenderness:
he was only obliged (which he regarded as no hardship) to commit the
whole authority of the crown into the hands of his rival.

* Rymer, vol. xi. p. 361. Holing, p. 642. Grafton, p. 626.

** Stowe, p. 309. Holing, p. 643.

This was the first blood spilt in that fatal quarrel which was not
finished in less than a course of thirty years, which was signalized by
twelve pitched battles, which opened a scene of extraordinary fierceness
and cruelty, is computed to have cost the lives of eighty princes of the
blood, and almost entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of England.
The strong attachments, which, at that time, men of the same kindred
bore to each other, and the vindictive spirit, wh