Elizabeth,
could exert all her influence over her husband's mind unimpeded.
Edward was finally persuaded to promise Margaret's hand to the count,
and the contracts were made; so that, when the earl and the French
embassadors arrived, they found, to their astonishment and dismay,
that a rival and enemy had stepped in during their absence and secured
the prize.

The Earl of Warwick was furious when he learned how he had been
deceived. He had been insulted, he said, and disgraced. Edward made
no attempt to pacify him; indeed, any attempt that he could have made
would probably have been fruitless. The earl withdrew from the court,
went off to one of his castles, and shut himself up there in great
displeasure.

The quarrel now began to assume a very serious air. Edward suspected
that the earl was forming plots and conspiracies against him. He
feared that he was secretly designing to take measures for restoring
the Lancastrian line to the throne. He was alarmed for his personal
safety. He expelled all Warwick's family and friends from the court,
and, whenever he went out in public, he took care to be always
attended by a strong body-guard, as if he thought there was danger of
an attempt upon his life.

At length one of the earl's brothers, the youngest of the family, who
was at that time Archbishop of York, interposed to effect a
reconciliation. We have not space here to give a full account of the
negotiations; but the result was, a sort of temporary peace was made,
by which the earl again returned to court, and was restored apparently
to his former position. But there was no cordial good-will between him
and the king. Edward dreaded the earl's power, and hated the stern
severity of his character, while the earl, by the commanding influence
which he exerted in the realm, was continually thwarting both Edward
and Elizabeth in their plans.

Edward and Elizabeth had now been married some time, but they had no
son, and, of course, no heir, for daughters in those days did not
inherit the English crown. Of course, Clarence, Edward's second
brother, was the next heir. This increased the jealousy which the two
brothers felt toward each other, and tended very much to drive
Clarence away from Edward, and to increase the intimacy between
Clarence and Warwick. At length, in 1468, it was announced that a
marriage was in contemplation between Clarence and Isabella, the Earl
of Warwick's oldest daughter. Edward and Queen Elizabeth wer