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. 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.[2]
Full text of the Act, from Davies, John S., An English Chronicle of the Reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI, folios 208-211 (from Googlebooks, retrieved 15 August 2012)
Warwick the Kingmaker, Hicks, Michael; Oxford 1998
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.