In his earliest Parliament, that of 1461, he renewed the statutes against giving of liveries, and though this enactment proved as fruitless as its predecessors to reduce the households of the baronage it marked Edward's resolve to adhere to the invariable policy of the Crown in striving for their reduction.

But efforts like these, though they indicated the young king's policy, could produce little effect so long as the mightiest of the barons overawed the throne.

Yet even a king as bold as Edward might well have shrunk from a struggle with Warwick.

The Earl was all-powerful in the state; the military resources of the realm were in his hands.

As Captain of Calais he was master of the one disciplined force at the disposal of the Crown, and as admiral he controlled the royal fleet.