The British Monarch Who Drowned His Brother in a Barrel of Wine
The Yorkist monarch was forced to flee England, while the deposed Lancastrian King Henry VI was released from imprisonment, dusted off, and restored to the throne. Warwick’s triumph was short lived, however: Edward returned to England in 1471, and raised a counter rebellion. At a critical moment, Warwick was betrayed by his son-in-law George, Duke of Clarence, who had a change of heart and defected back to his brother Edward. The two sides met in the Battle of Barnet on April 14th, 1471, in which the Lancastrians were defeated and Warwick was killed. Another and final Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury, May 4th, 1471, confirmed Edward IV’s return to power. The unfortunate Henry VI was deposed once again, and this time he was quietly murdered to eliminate the possibility of another restoration.
To be thorough, Henry VI’s only son, the teenaged Henry of Lancaster, was also killed. As to Edward IV’s wishy-washy brother George, Duke of Clarence, he continued to demonstrate his ingratitude to his elder brother. Understandably, that irked Edward IV, who had made George a duke in the first place, then made him Lord Lieutenant of Ireland at the age of thirteen. That generosity was repaid with multiple conspiracies. When the Duke of Clarence was caught in yet another plot, the exasperated Edward IV finally had enough. He imprisoned his younger brother in the Tower of London, tried him for treason, and personally conducted the prosecution before Parliament. George was convicted, attainted, and sentenced to death. On February 18th, 1478, the Duke of Clarence was executed by wine: he was dunked into a big barrel of Malmsey wine, and forcibly held under until he was drowned.