Anne Neville the country in March 1471 and quickly captured London and the person of Henry VI. The mentally troubled Henry VI was taken by Edward IV as a prisoner to the Battle of Barnet, where Warwick was killed on 14 April 1471. Edward IV then incarcerated Henry VI in the Tower of London. Following the decisive Yorkist victory at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May, Henry was reported to have died of "pure displeasure and melancholy," although "The Great Chronicle of London" reported that Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was responsible for his death. As Constable of England, he probably delivered
England in the Middle Ages nine months and both the English political system and the military situation in France began to unravel. A sequence of bloody civil wars, later termed the Wars of the Roses, finally broke out in 1455, spurred on by an economic crisis and a widespread perception of poor government. Edward IV, leading a faction known as the Yorkists, removed Henry from power in 1461 but by 1469 fighting recommenced as Edward, Henry, and Edward's brother George, backed by leading nobles and powerful French supporters, vied for power. By 1471 Edward was triumphant and most of his rivals were dead. On his