The Last of the Barons by Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton

On the shadowed Thames, Margaret of Anjou hides in priest's dress, waiting for news that may save or doom the Lancastrian cause. Robert Hilyard brings it: Adam Warner is captured, the secret plans for rebellion have fallen into Hastings's hands, and Edward IV's men are close to discovering Margaret in London. Their urgent exchange becomes a clash of pride and practicality, as Margaret clings to royal defiance while Hilyard warns that rebellion without money, allies, or timing is ruin. At last she yields, agreeing to flee by boat toward secret refuge, her sorrow fixed on Henry VI in the Tower and on the tragedy of a queen undone by politics and passion. Elsewhere, young Marmaduke Nevile moves through Edward IV's glittering court, where wit, luxury, and faction shape the making of England. Edward appears sensual, brilliant, and politically modern, a ruler tied to commerce, trade, and a more tolerant order, yet also vulnerable to intrigue. Suspicion grows around Warwick through letters from Rouen, while councils, merchant deputations, and Rivers's interventions expose a court where diplomacy and profit are inseparable. In the archbishop of York's splendid palace, Marmaduke encounters George Nevile, a coldly brilliant churchman whose cautious counsel countermands Montagu's anger, revealing a world in which power depends as much on restraint and strategy as on blood and arms. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.