Edward IV. disgusted the Earl of Warwick by espousing Elizabeth, widow of Sir John Grey, of Groby, and the Yorkshire rising, known as the Thrave of St. Leonard, followed. The defeat and death of the royal captains, the Earls of Devon and Pembroke, was succeeded by Edward’s confinement in Middleham Castle, and his escape to the Continent, when Warwick restored King Henry to the throne. On the 14th March, 1471, Edward landed at Ravenser Spurn and defeated Warwick at the battle of Barnet, when the king-maker and his brother Montacute were slain. On the day of Barnet, Queen Margaret, her son and his bride, landed at Weymouth, and the battle of Tewkesbury was fought on the 4th May, when Prince Edward was slain, and Queen Margaret captured. Edward was now firmly fixed upon the throne, and in 1478 he requited the numerous treacheries of his brother Clarence by procuring his condemnation on a charge of high treason. Clarence perished in the Tower, either being drowned in a butt of wine, or permitted to drink himself to death. On the 9th of April, 1483, Edward IV. departed this life, leaving two sons, Edward and Richard. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, promptly appeared upon the scene, seized Lord Rivers, the Queen’s brother, and Lord Grey, her son, and sent them to Pontefract, where they were executed. Procuring possession of the persons of his nephews, he caused them to be murdered, and usurped the throne. Nemesis followed him; he lost his only son, and was defeated and slain at Bosworth Field by Henry Tudor, who espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and was crowned under the title of Henry VII. Richard had proclaimed John De-la-Pole, Earl of Lincoln, heir presumptive to the throne, but this unfortunate nobleman was slain at the Battle of Stoke, ostensibly fighting in the cause of the Pretender, Lambert Simnel. The wars of the Roses were now ended, and Henry concluded the series of diabolical tragedies by obtaining the condemnation and execution of the Earl of Warwick, Clarence’s son, and the lineal heir to the throne. He was judicially murdered on the 24th November, 1499.

Henry’s love of gold led to a revolt in Yorkshire, A.D. 1489, when the people, furious against the imposition of a tax, murdered the Earl of Northumberland, and took up arms; to be defeated and severely punished.

Henry VIII. succeeded to the throne, and by the suppression of the monasteries roused the indignation of the Yorkshire people, who made an armed remonstrance, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace. But for the moderation of the people, Henry’s throne might have been overturned, and His Majesty requited their loyalty by wholesale executions, and by hanging Sir Robert Constable over the Beverley gate at Hull, and executing Robert Aske at York. Another of the leaders, Lord Darcy, was executed on Tower Hill.

The reign of Edward VI. witnessed a tumultuary outbreak at Seamer, consequent upon changes that had been made in the forms of religious worship. It was promptly put down by troops from York, and the ringleaders were executed.

During the reign of Queen Mary there was some little excitement in Yorkshire, consequent upon Sir Thomas Wyat’s insurrection, when Thomas, son of Lord Stafford, seized Scarborough Castle, and paid with his life for the daring exploit.

The nation was sorely disturbed by the complications resulting from the lust and religion of Henry VIII., when Elizabeth ascended the throne, and Her Majesty’s interference with the affairs of Scotland, and her imprisonment of Mary Stuart, added to the difficulties of the position.

The Northern Rising, headed by Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, occurred in November, 1569, and was promptly suppressed, and followed by the customary severities.

Fortunately royal lines die out, and with Elizabeth the Tudors ceased; but only to entail upon the nation the wars and revolutions resulting from the follies of the Stuarts.