On 16 April 1471 there was an attempted Civic Coup in Salisbury.
The turmoil that beset the Lords of the land had localised consequences. In many parts of the country, the trades that exported were closely aligned with one, or other, faction. In this respect, the Earl of Warwick had an advantage over other nobles through his Wardenship of the Cinque Ports and Captaincy of Calais.
For local economies to function most profitably, they needed the export market to be operating well: and this made the increasingly important merchants very aware of the implications of deals with France or Burgundy. In Salisbury, those economic interests had seen two of the most influential merchants, William Swayn and John Halle, become aligned to the Houses of York and Lancaster, respectively.
Salisbury had agreed to raise 40 men for Warwick’s army, in the name of King Henry VI. Swayn had already decided to send men of his retinue to the Yorkist army. The Battle of Barnet changed all of this. It happened before the civil authorities in Salisbury had mustered. This led, on 16 April, to the Civic Authorities discussing the repercussions.
Do they send men to the army of the victorious Edward IV? They eventually opted to raise the 40 men but deploy them in defence of the town.
Whilst the authorities discussed these options, Swayn attempted to wrestle the position of mayors of Salisbury for himself. This would give him local pre-eminence and reflect the national success of the House of York. The initial choice to deploy the 40 men to defend Salisbury may have been made to stop the local power struggle from getting out of hand.