The restoration of Edward IV in 1471 …

Years: 1472 - 1472

The restoration of Edward IV in 1471 is sometimes seen as marking the end of the Wars of the Roses proper.

Peace is restored for the remainder of Edward's reign.

His youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Edward's lifelong companion and supporter, William Hastings, are generously rewarded for their loyalty, becoming effectively governors of the north and midlands respectively.

The reinstated king also restores his brother Clarence to royal favor.

As his father-in-law had died, Clarence becomes jure uxoris Earl of Warwick, but does not inherit the entire Warwick estate as his younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, marries Anne Neville, the widowed younger sister of Clarence's wife.

Clarence on March 25, 1472, is created 1st Earl of Warwick.

With the deaths of Somerset and his younger brother, the House of Beaufort, who are distant cousins of Henry VI and had a remote claim to succeed him, has been almost exterminated.

Only the female line of Somerset's uncle, the 1st Duke of Somerset, remains, represented by Lady Margaret Beaufort and her son Henry Tudor.

Henry escapes from Wales with Jasper Tudor, his paternal uncle, and remains in exile in Brittany for the remainder of Edward's reign.

The year after the Battle of Tewkesbury however, Lady Margaret marries Lord Stanley, one of King Edward's supporters, who will later turn against Edward's brother Richard of Gloucester when he becomes King as Richard III, and will be instrumental in putting Henry Tudor on the throne.

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