Thomas Neville had led a force from the Calais garrison against Yorkist held London. Unaware of the battles at Barnet and Tewkesbury, he had intended to wrestle control of the capital on behalf of the Lancastrians.
Neville had made use of the Calais fleet to bombard parts of London over several days, 12-15th May 1471. Land forces had been recruited in Kent and marched in support of the naval contigent.
However, Thomas’ plans to capture the city were thwarted. Firstly by the garrison of the Tower of London who had launched counter attacks against the comparatively ill equipped men of Kent. Furthermore, news was filtering through of the second Lancastrian defeat, at Tewkesbury. With both Lancastrian armies defeated and many of tbeir leaders killed, the hopes of reenforcements for an assault were greatly diminished. This issue was compounded by the imminent return to London of Edward IV.
Faced with a hopeless military and political situation, Thomas Neville abandoned the area. On 18th May 1471 the fleet was moved to Sandwich, with land based forces also ordered to march to the relative safety of the Kentish port.
Men of Essex and Kent, including the Mayor of Canterbury, who had led the uprising faced quick punishment: the leaders were tried and executed. Neville, however, managed to agree a truce in which the Calais ships were surrendered in exchange for a pardon. He was executed in September of 1471 at Middleham.
This page is part of our unit on The Wars of the Roses. Thomas Neville was the nephew of the famous Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick who was known as the Kingmaker.
