A demand which at once followed shows the importance of his fall.

Henry the Sixth still remained childless; and Young, a member for Bristol, proposed in the Commons that the Duke of York should be declared heir to the throne.

But the blow was averted by repeated prorogations, and Henry's sympathies were shown by the committal of Young to the Tower, by the release of Somerset, and by his promotion to the captaincy of Calais, the most important military post under the Crown.

The Commons indeed still remained resolute.
When they again met in the summer of 1451 they called for the removal of Somerset and his creatures from the king's presence.

But Henry evaded the demand, and the dissolution of the Houses announced the royal resolve to govern in defiance of the national will.
[Sidenote: Failure of York] The contest between the Houses and the Crown had cost England her last possessions across the Channel.