But it is more likely, as suggested by Richard Chandler (Life of Waynflete, 1811), that it was some Yorkist attack on him in progress in the papal court, to meet which he appointed next day 19 proctors to act for him.
Morton no doubt impressed Lancastrian traditions upon Henry VII., but he cannot be credited with any great originality as a statesman, and Henry's policy was as much Yorkist as Lancastrian.
Offices and lands came to John Howard by reason of that fellowship. Henry VI., when restored, summoned him to parliament in 1470 as Lord Howard, a summons which may have been meant to lure him to London into Warwick's power, but he proclaimed the Yorkist sovereign on his return and fought at Barnet and Tewkesbury.
During the Wars of the Roses the town was loyal to Henry VI., and several of the Yorkist leaders were executed here after the battle of Wakefield.
In 1486, the year following the accession of Henry VII., rumours were disseminated by the adherents of the Yorkist dynasty that the two sons of Edward IV., who had been murdered in the Tower of London, were still alive.