9. The Second Fall of the Lancastrians and Restoration of the Yorkists
Another and final Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury, May 4, 1471, confirmed Edward IV’s restoration to the throne. The unfortunate Henry VI was deposed once again, and this time he was quietly murdered to eliminate the possibility of further trouble from Lancastrian loyalists. 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, and 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 18, 1478, the 1st Duke of Clarence was executed by getting dunked into a big barrel of Malmsey wine, and forcibly held under until he was drowned. The Plantagenet family feud was not over, however.