876 



WAR WARBURTON. 



juries; and the power uf the sword alone remained 

 to decide their quarrels. (See Middle Ages, and 

 Fcuddi System.') Their example was followed by 

 their sub vassals, and the countries of Europe were 

 perpetually ravaged with internal hostilities. In 

 England alone, of all feudal countries, this scourge 

 was little felt ; and, though it cannot be said that 

 the practice of private wars was unknown under 

 the Norman kings, yet the right of waging these 

 feuds was never recognised : their occurrence was 

 denounced, and sometimes punished, as an offence 

 Hgainst the king's peace, that is, against the supreme 

 authority of the crown. (See Hallam's Middle 

 Ages, vol. ii, chap. 8.) By the feudal customs of 

 the continent, the right of private war was extended 

 to all persons of noble quality, or, in other words, 

 to all possessors of fiefs or knightly tenure. But 

 they must be equal, in the scale of infeudation, 

 with their adversaries; nor did every civil cause of 

 offence justify an appeal to arms, but such deadly 

 injuries only as are usually deemed capital crimes 

 in modern jurisprudence, or such outrageous insults 

 as no knight might endure. When the war was 

 once begun, it might legally be espoused by the 

 relations of both parties ; and it was even incum- 

 bent on them, in some cases, to give aid in the 

 quarrel, under pain of forfeiting the claims and in- 

 heritance of kindred. Still more were the vassals 

 of each combatant involved in the contest, since, 

 by the very essence of the feudal obligations, they 

 were bound to defend and assist their lords. The 

 means by which this pernicious custom was finally 

 abrogated, were various. The most remarkable 

 was the truce of God, by which men were forbid- 

 den to assail their adversaries during any of the 

 holy festivals, and also during the interval between 

 every Wednesday evening and Monday morning, as 

 embracing those days of the week which had been 

 sanctified by the passion and resurrection of the 

 Redeemer. At first, the truce of God, extending 

 from France, was adopted throughout Europe; but, 

 notwithstanding the anxiety of the church, and re- 

 peated decrees of popes and councils, its provisions 

 appear to have been little regarded. The interpo- 

 sition of royal authority was necessary to restrain, 

 and finally to extinguish, these bloody feuds ; and 

 the first step towards the accomplishment of this 

 object dates from the ordinance of Louis IX., for- 

 bidding, under penalty of treason, the commence- 

 ment of any private war until forty days after the 

 commission of the act in which the quarrel had 

 originated. The opportunities of accommodation 

 between the parties, given by this edict, which was 

 known under the name of the king's peace, or royal 

 truce, appear to have contributed essentially to 

 diminish the number of private wars in France; 

 and the endeavours of St Louis, being followed up 

 by Philip the Fair, and successfully completed by 

 Charles VI. and Louis XL, led, soon after the mid- 

 dle of the fifteenth century, to the total abolition 

 of the practice in that country. In Germany, truces 

 of this kind (called landfriede, peace of the land) 

 were repeatedly declared for a certain period, dur- 

 ing which private war was illegal. But the cir- 

 cumstance that Germany always continued to be 

 divided among a great number of petty but inde- 

 pendent sovereign princes, retarded the accomplish- 

 ment of the efforts of the clergy and the emperors 

 to effect the entire abolition of the practice. In 

 1486, a landfriede of ten years, the longest that had 

 ever been established, was proclaimed ; and it was 

 soon followed by the perpetual peace (ewiger land- 



friede'), entirely forbidding private war. See Cham- 

 ber, Imperial, and German Empire. 



WAR, NORTHERN. See Northern War. 



WAR OF 181215. See Russian-Genium 

 War. 



WAR OF THIRTY YEARS. See Thirty 

 Years' War. 



WAR, PEASANTS' OR RURAL. See Peasant'.-- 

 War. 



WARBECK, Pi. UK i\; an individual who played 

 a singular part in the reign of Henry VII., giving 

 himself out as the second son of Edward IV. who 

 was supposed to have been murdered, in the Tower, 

 by Richard III. It is difficult, at this distance of 

 time, to decide upon his pretensions ; but his ill 

 success has set him down with posterity as an im- 

 postor. He was first heard of at the court of the 

 duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., about 

 the year 1490, when all were struck with his re- 

 semblance to that prince. Some authors have as- 

 serted that he was the natural son of Edward. 

 Supported by the duchess of Burgundy in his pre- 

 tensions, Warbeck at length (1496) ventured to 

 make a descent upon England ; but, being worsted 

 in the attempt, he retired to Scotland, where he 

 was well received by the king, who gave him the 

 hand of Catharine Gordon, a young lady akin to the 

 royal family. The Scotch king was, however, 

 soon after prevailed upon to abandon his cause; and 

 Warbeck landed in Cornwall, where he was pro- 

 claimed king by the name of Richard IV. But, 

 while yet at the head of 10,000 men, he suddenly 

 deserted his followers, on the approach of Henry, 

 and took refuge in the sanctuary of Beaulieu. Hav- 

 ing finally surrendered himself into the hands of the 

 king, he was obliged to read a confession of his 

 imposture, while standing in the stocks, and then 

 thrown into the Tower (1499). Here he met 

 with Edward Plantagenet, earl of Warwick, son of 

 the duke of Clarence, and rightful heir to the 

 crown, who had been a prisoner there for fifteen 

 years. The unhappy boy listened with eagerness to 

 the projects, suggested by Warbeck, for their de- 

 liverance, and they were both charged with a con- 

 spiracy to set themselves free, by seducing some of 

 the guards and destroying the rest. Warbeck 

 seems to have been excited, by the king, to inveigle 

 Warwick into acts which would give a pretence 

 for effecting his death. Bacon dark?y hints, that 

 Ferdinand of Spain was unwilling to assent to the 

 marriage between his daughter, the unfortunate 

 Catharine, and Arthur, prince of Wales, while the 

 earl of Warwick lived. However this may be, 

 Warbeck was convicted of treason, and hanged at 

 Tyburn (1499); and Warwick was likewise con- 

 victed of high treason, by a jury of peers, and put 

 to death for an offence which his faculties did not 

 enable him to comprehend. Rey (JEssais Historiques 

 et Critiques sur Richard III., Paris, 1818) main- 

 tains that Warbeck was the son and lawful heir 

 of Edward IV. 



WARBURTON, WILLIAM, a celebrated prelate 

 of the English church, born at Newark-upon- Trent, 

 in Nottinghamshire, in 1698, was the second son 

 of an attorney, and, after being educated at school, 

 was, in 1714, articled to an attorney at East Mark- 

 ham, in his native county. After completing a 

 clerkship of five years, he was admitted in one of 

 the courts at Westminster, and, returning to New- 

 ark, he engaged in legal practice. Not finding the 

 profession adapted to his taste or talents, he relin- 

 quished it, and, in 1723, took deacon's orders in the 



