Her mother had been summoned from attendance on the Queen, but at
first there only was returned a message that if the maid was dead she
should be embalmed and sent north to be buried in the family vault,
when her father would be at all charges. Moreover, that the boy
should be called to account for his crime, his father being, as the
Lady of Whitburn caused to be written, an evil-minded minion and
fosterer of the house of Somerset, the very bane of the King and the
enemies of the noble Duke of York and Earl of Warwick.

The story will be clearer if it is understood that the Earl of
Salisbury was Richard Nevil, one of the large family of Nevil of Raby
Castle in Westmoreland, and had obtained his title by marriage with
Alice Montagu, heiress of that earldom. His youngest sister had
married Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who being descended from
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, was considered to have a better right to
the throne than the house of Lancaster, though this had never been
put forward since the earlier years of Henry V.

Salisbury had several sons. The eldest had married Anne Beauchamp,
and was in her right Earl of Warwick, and had estates larger even
than those of his father. He had not, however, as yet come forward,
and the disputes at Court were running high between the friends of
the Duke of Somerset and those of the Duke of York.

The King and Queen both were known to prefer the house of Somerset,
who were the more nearly related to Henry, and the more inclined to
uphold royalty, while York was considered as the champion of the
people. The gentle King and the Beauforts wished for peace with
France; the nation, and with them York, thought this was giving up
honour, land, and plunder, and suspected the Queen, as a Frenchwoman,