The Outcome

In the days and weeks following Edgcote, various of Edward IV’s chosen advisors were captured and key figures executed or killed. Earl Rivers, the father of the queen, and his son John Woodville were captured and executed. The Earl of Devon was killed in Somerset. The king himself, his forces having melted away at the news of the defeat at Edgcote, was taken and placed under the Earl of Warwick’s ‘protection’ -  effectively imprisoned, first at Warwick and then at Middleham.

The Earl had thus achieved all his objectives, removing the King’s chosen advisors and regaining the reins of power. But the King was not to remain under Warwick's control and within a few months there would further unrest and open warfare, first in the battle of Losecote Field and then in 1471, culminating in the battles at Barnet and Tewkesbury.

 

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