He then made his way westward to Kingston upon Thames to oppose Edward IV. Edward Woodville, Lord Scales, who held London for Edward, recognized the king's danger, for the Bastard's army was estimated at twenty thousand men, and recruits were stated to be still coming in. Woodville sent word to the Bastard that Edward IV was quitting England, and thus induced him to return to Blackheath. From there Thomas journeyed with six hundred horsemen via Rochester to Sandwich, where he learned that the Lancastrian cause was lost. Edward IV marched on Sandwich and captured thirteen ships with most of the Bastard's immediate followers. Thomas himself escaped to Southampton, where the King took him prisoner. The King was so thankful to the aldermen of London, that he knighted the mayor, the recorder and other aldermen including Sir William Hampton, the following year's Lord Mayor of London.