Act of Accord

United Kingdom legislation

Dates
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Citation	39 Hen. 6
Territorial extent	England
Royal assent	25 October 1460
Commencement	7 October 1460
Text of statute as originally enacted

The Act of Accord was an Act of the Parliament of England which was passed on 25 October 1460,^[1] three weeks after Richard of York had entered the Council Chamber and laid his hand on the empty throne. Under the Act, King Henry VI of England was to retain the crown for life but York and his heirs were to succeed him, excluding Henry's son, Edward of Westminster.^[2] Henry was forced to agree to the Act.

Far from ending the Wars of the Roses, it split the kingdom further, as it was unacceptable to the queen, Margaret of Anjou, who saw her son disinherited, while retaining a large body of Lancastrian supporters. In the immediate aftermath, the Lancastrians defeated and killed York in December 1460 (even though the Act had made it high treason to kill him), but they were in turn defeated in spring 1461 by York's son Edward, who then became king.^[3]

In the same parliament (on 31 October), York was made Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall and Lord Protector of England.^[4]

Notes

^ Britain Express: The Act of Accord
^ "Act of Accord, 1460 - The Wars of the Roses". 23 October 2023. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
^ Wagner, John A., Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses, (ABC-CLIO, 2001), 1.
^ Cokayne, and others, The Complete Peerage, volume XII/2, page 908.

Monarchs	Henry VI Edward IV Edward V Richard III Henry VII
Lancaster Tudor	Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of England⁴ Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset John Beaumont, Viscount Beaumont Henry Beaufort, Duke of Somerset James Butler, Earl of Ormond John Butler, Earl of Ormond John Clifford, Baron Clifford John Courtenay, Earl of Devon Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter John Neville, Baron Neville² John Neville, Marquess of Montagu³ Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick³ Thomas Neville, Bastard of Fauconberg³ Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland Thomas Ros, Baron Ros Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham⁴ Humphrey Stafford, Duke of Buckingham Thomas Stanley, Earl of Derby George Stanley, Baron Strange William Stanley⁴ George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury Andrew Trollope James Tuchet, Baron Audley Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke⁵ Margaret Beaufort Owen Tudor Edward Woodville, Lord Scales
York	Anne Neville, Queen of England John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln Thomas FitzGerald, Earl of Desmond William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke William Hastings, Baron Hastings John Howard, Duke of Norfolk Francis Lovell, Viscount Lovell John Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk Richard Neville, Earl of Salisbury Sir Thomas Neville William Neville, Earl of Kent Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Rutland George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence¹ Humphrey Stafford, Earl of Devon Margaret of York Richard of York

Battles

See also

Act of Accord
Buckingham's rebellion
Issue of Edward III of England
Loveday (1458)
Bonville–Courtenay feud
Percy–Neville feud
Readeption of Henry VI
Stafford and Lovell rebellion
Perkin Warbeck
- Battle of Deal
- Second Cornish uprising of 1497

¹ Briefly joined the Lancastrians. ² Briefly joined the Yorkists. ³ Defected from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian cause. ⁴ Initially a Yorkist who later supported the Tudor claim. ⁵ Initially a Lancastrian who later supported the Tudor claim.