The fall of the Duke of Somerset extinguished the male branch of the house of Beaufort.

Margaret was a prisoner; and with the murder of her son after his surrender on the field and the mysterious death of Henry the Sixth in the Tower which followed the king's return to the capital the direct line of Lancaster passed away.
[Sidenote: Charles and the Empire] Edward was at last master of his realm.

No noble was likely to measure swords with the conqueror of the Nevilles.

The one rival who could revive the Lancastrian claims, the last heir of the house of Beaufort, Henry Tudor, was a boy and an exile.

The king was free to display his genius for war on nobler fields than those of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and for a while his temper and the passion of his people alike drove him to the strife with France.