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ostentatiously small notice of these embarrassing refugees, who were sent to obscure lodgings at Utrecht. But on 12 April news reached the Duke that Edward had won a decisive victory and must henceforward be regarded as undoubted King of England. Philip at once gave orders for the two boys to be treated as royal princes and brought to his glittering court at Bruges. When they arrived, he was flatteringly attentive – the Milanese envoy reported that, ‘The Duke, who is kind in every way, has visited them at their lodgings where he showed the utmost respect.’
    On the bitterly cold Palm Sunday (29 March) of 1461 Edward had engaged the Lancastrian army at Towton, about eight miles from York. He had taken a fortnight to march up from the capital, gathering recruits as he came. Twenty-eight lords (nearly half the peerage) and possibly as many as 50,000 troops took part in the battle. It snowed all day, the flakes blowing uphill with Yorkist arrows into the Lancastrians’ faces. The latter’s arrows fell short, but they charged downhill blindlyand, after several hours of hacking and stabbing, their superior numbers had nearly broken Edward’s army. Then his ally the Duke of Norfolk arrived with fresh troops and the Lancastrians ran. Terrible slaughter ensued. The River Wharfe ran with blood while the snow on the ground was crimson over an area six miles long and half a mile wide. Later the heralds claimed to have counted 28,000 corpses. Among them was that of Rutland’s butcher, Lord Clifford. Every captured nobleman and gentleman was beheaded, including forty-two knights. Margaret escaped to Scotland, taking Henry VI and their son with her.
    Not only had the Lancastrian North perished, but, for the time being, so had the Lancastrian cause. Its surviving magnates hastened to transfer their allegiance to the triumphant House of York, if they were not dispossessed. Richard’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Exeter, one of the richest and haughtiest noblemen in England, was reduced to begging his bread in Flanders – barefoot, and from door to door. (Eventually he was recognized and given a small pension by the Duke of Burgundy.)
    On 28 June Edward IV was finally crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey, with the utmost splendour. That night his nine-year-old brother, together with twenty-seven other young men and boys including George, was created a Knight of the Bath. Having been ritually bathed, they made a vigil in the chapel of St John at the Tower of London which lasted until Matins and Mass at dawn, after which they received the accolade from the King.
    On All Saints Day (1 November) Richard was created Duke of Gloucester, Edward IV girding him with a sword of state and placing a cap of maintenance on his head. It was an ill-omened title – of the only two previous Dukes of Gloucester, the first had been murdered and the second had died in suspicious circumstances. Nevertheless, he had become a mighty prince, brother of an anointed King and second in succession to the throne – George, now Duke of Clarence, being heir presumptive. Was this the beginning of Richard’s ‘execrable desire of sovereignty’?
    1. The stall plate of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as a Knight of the Garter
, c.
1465. It shows his arms, which are France modern and England quarterly with a silver label of three points, each ermine in a canton gules – the crest is a crowned leopard gold on a cap of estate and with a label as in the arms around his neck. St George’s Chapel, Windsor
.

Chapter Two
    ‘OUR BROTHER OF GLOUCESTER’
    ‘
This name of Gloucester is taken for an unhappy and unfortunate style, as the proverb speaks of Sejanus’s horse, whose rider was ever unhorsed and whose possessor was ever brought to misery
.’
    Anon., sixteenth century
    ‘
For Gloster’s Dukedom is too ominous
.’
    Shakespeare,
King Henry VI, Part III
    No doubt the young Duke was treated with the utmost respect, both at Fastolf Place and at his