1459 the Duke of York, the Earl of Salisbury, and Salisbury’s eldest son, the Earl of Warwick, rose in rebellion against Henry VI but they fled after the Rout of Ludford Bridge. Morton was one of a number of lawyers involved in drawing up the act of attainder against the Yorkist lords passed by the parliament which met in Coventry in November 1459. After the defeat of the Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461, Morton was captured at Cockermouth along with the Earl of Wiltshire. They were brought to Edward IV in Newcastle where Wiltshire was beheaded while Morton was sent to the Tower of London. Morton was included in the act of attainder passed by Edward IV’s first parliament in November 1461 and he lost all the benefices which he had accumulated. However, he escaped and joined Queen Margaret of Anjou in France, being appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal to Henry VI and assisting in the negotiations leading to the Treaty of Tours on 28 June 1462. He accompanied the queen when, with French and Scottish support, she made incursions into Northumberland in 1462 and 1463. After these attempts to restore Henry VI failed, Morton returned to France with the queen and shared the exile of the small Lancastrian court at the Chateau of Koeur near Saint Mihiel-en-Bar in Lorraine. In 1469 he was admitted to study theology at the University of Louvain. Service under Edward IV Following the final defeat of the Lancastrian cause at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471, Morton was granted a pardon by Edward IV and resumed his career in royal service. By 29 September 1471 (Michaelmas) he was appointed as a Master in Chancery and on 16 March 1472 he was granted the office of Master of the Rolls. Besides being the keeper of the rolls of the Chancery, the parchment rolls which formed the official records of the government of England, the Master of the Rolls was by this time a judicial official, second only to the Lord Chancellor in the Court of Chancery. He also acted as the keeper of the Great Seal during a vacancy in the office of Lord Chancellor or during the Lord Chancellor’s temporary absence. In 1474 Morton became in addition Dean of the Arches, the judge presiding in the Court of Arches. He also began once again to