That the aldermen and the better class of citizens favoured Edward, is shown by the ease with which he effected an entry into the city when he returned to England in the spring of the following year (1471). The gates, we are told, were opened to him by Urswyk, the Recorder, and certain aldermen (their names are not mentioned), who took advantage of the inhabitants being at dinner to let in Edward.(930) Two days later, having recruited his forces, Edward marched out of the city, with Henry in his train, to meet Warwick. He encountered him on Easter Day (14 April) at Barnet, and totally defeated him, both the earl and his brother being left dead on the field. By this time Margaret had landed with a fresh army; but a crushing defeat inflicted upon her at Tewkesbury (4 May) left Edward once more master of the kingdom.
For a short time the city lay in some peril whilst Edward was engaged with Warwick and Margaret. The men of Kent again became troublesome. They affected not to believe that Warwick had actually fallen at Barnet. Under the leadership of Thomas Fauconberg or Falconbridge, generally spoken of as the "bastard," being a natural son of William Nevill, first Lord Fauconberg, Earl of Kent, they marched to London, with the intention of releasing Henry from confinement and placing him again on the throne. Fauconberg, who had been made a freeman of the City in 1454,(931) assumed the title of captain of King Henry's people in Kent, and on the 8th May wrote from Sittingbourne to inform the inhabitants of the city that he had undertaken the cause of Henry against the "usurper" Edward, and to ask to be allowed to pass through the city with his followers, whom he promised to hold in restraint and prevent doing any mischief. He had written to the mayor and aldermen to the same effect, and had desired to have a reply sent to him at Blackheath by a certain day and hour. To this letter the mayor and aldermen sent an answer on the following day, to the effect that when Edward left the city, after the battle of Barnet, to follow the movements of Margaret and endeavour to bring about an action before she could completely rally her forces, he had charged them on their allegiance to hold the city of London for him, and for none other. For that reason they dared not, neither would they, suffer him to pass through the city. They hesitated to accept his assurance as to the peaceable behaviour of his followers, judging from past experience. As for the statement he had caused to be published, that he held a commission as captain of the Navy of England and men of war by sea and land under the Earl of Warwick, whom he still supposed to be alive, they assured him that the earl was dead, and that his corpse, as well as the corpse of Montague, the earl's brother, had been exposed to view for two days in St. Paul's. They gave him the names of some of the chief men who had fallen at Tewkesbury, obtained, they assured him, not from hearsay but from eye-witnesses--special war correspondents, whom the City had despatched for the express purpose of reporting on the state of the field, and they concluded by exhorting him to do as they themselves had done, and to acknowledge Edward IV as the rightful king. They would even plead for royal favour on his behalf, but as to letting him and his host pass through the city, that was out of the question.(932) Having despatched this answer to Fauconberg, the civic fathers at once set to work to fortify the river's bank from Castle Baynard to the Tower, where lay the rebels' fleet. On Sunday, the 12th May, the Kentish men tried to force London Bridge and set fire to some beer-houses near Saint Katherine's Hospital. The attack was renewed on the following Tuesday, whilst portions of the rebel force, amounting it was said to 5,000 persons, were told off to try and force the gates of Aldgate and Bishopsgate. There, however, they were repulsed, and nearly 300 of them met their death, either in actual fight or in their endeavours to get on board their boats at Blackwall. Urswyk, the city's Recorder, as well as Robert Basset, alderman of Aldgate Ward, showed conspicuous valour in the fight which took place in that quarter.(933) The city was never again troubled by Fauconberg. After much wandering he was taken prisoner at Southampton, and thence conveyed to Middleham, in Yorkshire, where he was beheaded. His head was afterwards sent to London and set up on London Bridge, "looking into Kentward."(934)