ABSTRACT
The family connections of John de la Pole, second duke of Suffolk, son of Henry VI’s chief adviser in the 1440s, brother-in-law of Edward IV and father of Richard III’s heir designate, would have entitled him to political prominence. Towards the end of the 1450s, when there was a temporary resurgence by the court group, the duchess may well have felt that she had miscalculated. It is hard to be sure about Suffolk’s relations with the court, and indeed they may have varied at different times, with changes in the dominant group round the king and with modifications in Suffolk’s own opinions. During the struggles between Edward IV and Warwick between 1469 and 1471, Suffolk seems to have gone with the tide. In the middle of the 1460s the struggle between Suffolk and the Pastons broke out into open violence. It is difficult to discover the character of Suffolk from the surviving evidence.
