Edward IV Was Proclaimed King of England

On 4 March 1461, Edward, Duke of York, was proclaimed king in Westminster Hall as Edward IV. The act was raw political theatre: before a select, supportive audience he was ceremonially installed in the marble chair of the King’s Bench and declared King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland. The reigning Henry VI was thereby treated as deposed.

The proclamation came less than ten weeks after Edward’s father, Richard, Duke of York, was killed at the Battle of Wakefield. It rested on the Act of Accord of 1460, which had recognised York’s line as heirs, and on Henry’s perceived failure to honour it.

Edward claimed the crown not by conquest yet, but by inheritance and acclamation.

His grip was far from secure. Weeks later, on 29 March 1461, Edward crushed the Lancastrians at the brutal, snowbound Battle of Towton, often called the bloodiest battle on English soil. Only after that victory was he formally crowned, on 28 June 1461, in Westminster Abbey.