After taking refuge in Burgundy, Edward returned to defeat Warwick in the Battle of Barnet. By doing this he showed his strength and determination to be king (which instantly helped him to strengthen the monarchy – showing that they had a strong leader). He then went on to exterminate the last of the Lancastrian resistance at the Battle of Tewkesbury when he killed Henry VI son, Edward of Westminster – who was next in line for the throne. By doing this he did not only eliminate the Lancastrian line but gave himself more authority and diminished a lot of threat from the kingdom. This alone strengthened the monarchy as they had finally elected a leader that could fight for his cause.
Another factor that contributed to the strengthening of the monarchy was he cleverly married his family so that he had a strong network of connections. Firstly, his two brothers married Warwick’s daughters (Isabelle and Anne Neville). Even though Warwick was an enemy to Edward the Neville family were very strong and wealthy; by marrying his brothers into the family gave them a strong and powerful link. It was found later that Clarence did plot against Edward, who imprisoned him in the town and was eventually executed – this showed Edwards ruthlessness and that he would not stand for any nonsense. Other aspects that made him powerful was that he had two healthy male sons (an heir and a spare) who were entitled to the throne after him. It guaranteed that Edwards’s bloodline would carry on.
On the other hand, Edward was not entirely good at strengthening the monarchy. It was reported that many outrageous crimes were still committed throughout his reign; John Glyn Steward of Cornwall (to name one of the offenders) committed a lot of crime and managed to get away with it. Edward did put in place means to stop crime but it was not always followed up. This brought a slight shame on the monarchy and undid some of its already built up success.
It has been said that whilst Edward did his best to try and make strong links with the people around him he may have overdone it! In 1465 he has to leave the country because of the threat of being overthrown by Warwick and Clarence. Their power has come about due to Edward and it is SO unsafe that he has to abandon the country – this may have made him look incapable and weak. Upon his return he increase’s Clarence’s (his brother) power by allowing his marriage to Isabelle Neville, meaning that he was marrying into the rival family. Although this did provide links to a very wealthy family, it ended when Clarence plotting against Edward. This finally lead to Clarence being imprisoned and then executed – if Edward had not authorised his marriage to Isabelle it is unlikely to have caused that kind of conflict. Other signs of plotting are mainly due to powerful magnets (over mighty magnets) that go behind his back.
Edward did become solvent eventually but could this have been sooner. In comparison to Henry, Edward was better at managing his money but it is thought that he did not do enough to manage the debt he was left in. On some estates, such as the northern area of Duchy of York the income went down; it dropped around £700 from £7,391 to £6,696. There were other estates where the rent was never updated so never went up for over 50 years. Some other ways in which the income was not as high as it could have been was due to Richard (Edwards’s brother) selling off forest’s, very valuable sources at the time, for an exceptionally low price. Any rise in rent that was made him unpopular with his nobles – who called him greedy and money grabbing! Being disliked by your nobles was something a king did not want to do and this put him in an impossible position.
In the 1470’s Edward decided to invade France because it was the place where Louis XI gave shelter to Lancastrian exiles as well as the loss of English possessions in France. It took Henry three years to raise an army to invade France! Once landing in Calais it became known that he was going to get no help from his allies and therefore did not want to face the fight ahead. France also did not want to fight so and in compromise the two kings signed the English terms of the Treaty of Picquigny (1475). This meant that Louise would pay Edward £15,000 up front and then an extra £10,000 a year. In addition the ‘dauphin’ would marry Edwards first or second daughter and provide her with £60,000 income. A seven-year truce was also issued. Although this may seem like a success for England, it was not what they intentionally went into France for! They did gain a lot of money for this, however, it was not an alliance and the English could not count on the French.
Even though the English and Scottish had made a ‘marriage alliance’ stating that Edward’s daughter – Cecily – and James III son would marry when they reached a marriageable age there was still conflict with Scotland in later years. With reports of truce breaking in 1480 Edward planned to attack by land and sea in 1481. After launching an unsuccessful attack Edward signed an alliance with James brother (Alexander) promising to help him overthrow James and allowing his son to marry Edwards daughter. The ongoing battle did not come to much when Scotland retreated and Edward vowed to come back the following year. This conflict with Scotland did not lead too much success. Although it did scare Scotland off, there was a lack of clear objectives and a large sum of money was spent on the march to Edinburgh.
Overall, Edward did do many things that greatly strengthened the monarchy. He successfully increased his income and eventually became solvent as well as defeating the Lancastrian line making his status more powerful! However, he was greatly compared to Henry VI! This meant that he was always going to look a better king, as Henry was totally incapable of running a country. He had a great figure and stature to be king but on the other hand he made a lot of people over mighty and could have managed his assets in a more effective way. He tried to gain more power by starting wars with France and Scotland, however he never managed to gain what he truly wanted out of the war! He did gain a lot from this but never the true objective! If we examine the evidence looking at the previous failure of Henry then Edward was the perfect king but averaging him taking into account other leaders then he somewhat did a good job at strengthening the monarchy – there was room for improvement!