CHAPTER EIGHT A PERIOD OF TRANSITION. SUFFOLK'S RISE DURING THE LATE 1430S AND THE COBHAM TRIAL OF 1441 Gloucester's public reckoning with the cardinal before parliament in February 1440 was the swan song of a constellation in English pol­ itics which had prevailed more or less unchanged between 1422 and 1440. Gloucester's attack precipitated Beaufort's retirement from pol­ itics; yet it did not inaugurate the personal rule of Henry VI but merely opened the way to power for a new oligarchic clique that was situated in the court and managed by William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk. In the summer of 1441, Suffolk's nascent regime charged Gloucester's second wife, Eleanor Cobham, with treason. The fol­ lowing account contends that the show trial of his wife and her ensu­ ing imprisonment under the supervision of members of Suffolk's household coterie did not, as has hitherto been assumed, mark the end of Gloucester's public career but initiated a new phase of his life in politics. This re-reading of the events of 1441 aims to pro­ vide the background for a reassessment of Gloucester's political action and cultural patronage during the final years of his life, when the direction of English government lay largely in the hands of Suffolk and his associates. Gloucester's Declaracone so powerfully subverted Beaufort's author­ ity that the cardinal saw himself forced to agree to the winding up of the enfeoffment of the duchy of Lancaster, which had previously been firmly under his control. Moreover, Beaufort had to accept the appointment of Richard, duke of York, instead of one of his own nephews as commander of the English forces in France.1 Still, Gloucester failed to attain his larger aim of bringing an impeach­ ment against Beaufort; once the Declaracone had done its limited dam­ age, it was hushed up and not even included in the official records of the 1440 parliament.2 Negotiations concerning the liberation of Orléans went further ahead; in summer 1440, another public protest 1 GRIFFITHS, p. 459; WOLFFE, p. 153; HARRISS, pp. 312-3. 2 Ibid., p. 309; WATTS, p. 186. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION. SUFFOLK'S RISE 99 by Gloucester met with a strong reprimand from Henry VI, who claimed full responsibility for the project.3 The duke could do no more to demonstrate his opposition than to walk out of the solemn ceremony in Westminster Abbey which finalised Orleans's release in October 1440.4 Gloucester found himself cold-shouldered, because, having for more than fifteen years fixed on Beaufort as the cardinal enemy of Lancastrian interests, he had disregarded the emergence of William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, as a new player on the scene. Established as steward of Henry VFs household after Bedford's return to England in July 1433, Suffolk had, in the following years, doggedly insinu­ ated himself at the centre of power.5 In 1437, he had been appointed to Henry VFs council; in the following five years, Suffolk had fos­ tered close contacts with Beaufort.6 He had established himself as the council's contact with the court, where he increasingly assumed the role of principal confidant to Henry VI. By late 1439, Suffolk had felt sufficiently secure in his role of unique liaison between the king and his government to initiate the dismantling of the power structures that had evolved since 1422 and the shifting of the cen­ tre of policy-making from the council to the court.7 Suffolk had thus gradually attained the position which Gloucester had aimed to cre­ ate for himself by his coup of February 1432 and to which the duke had continued to aspire throughout the 1430s.8 Gloucester's final attack on Beaufort had played into Suffolk's hands, because it had undermined the cardinal's standing in English politics.9 Possibly the earl had even consciously instrumentalised Gloucester's animosity against Beaufort to neutralise the cardinal. Once, however, Gloucester had fulfilled that function, he inevitably became a liability in Suffolk's new order; for, as heir apparent, the duke could neither be excluded from the council nor from the inner circle about the king and there was no guarantee that in the future 3 RYMER, v.i, 76-7; STEVENSON, ii, 451-63; VIGKERS, pp. 264-5, GRIFFITHS, pp. 451-2; WOLFFE, p. 126; HARRISS, pp. 315-7; WATTS, pp. 187-8. 4 VICKERS, pp. 267-8. 5 The following account of Suffolk's rise is indebted to the reconstruction by WATTS, pp. 151-99. See also GRIFFITHS, pp. 278-86; WOLFFE, pp. 87-105, pp. 135-45. 6 WATTS, pp. 161-2. 7 Ibid., pp. 140-45. 8 Ibid, pp. 155-8. 9 Ibid, p. 162, pp. 184-6; HARRISS, pp. 308-9. .