father and brother's exile in Calais. He had still been attainted at the Parliament of Devils in October 1459 and only restored in August the next year. He was not released until June that year, and remained in London during York's return from exile, and his claiming of the throne. On 1 November 1460, York appointed John the king's Chamberlain for a crown-wearing ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral. He stayed in London as word arrived that Lancastrians were gathering an army in the north; York, Salisbury, and John's brother Thomas marched north to confront them. On 30 December 1460, they went down to a crushing defeat outside York's castle at Sandal, at the Battle of Wakefield where York and Thomas were killed, and Salisbury captured and beheaded the next day. John Neville appears to have been Lieutenant of the castle of Calais, whilst Warwick served as its Captain. During the Protector's absence that winter, and after York's and Salisbury's death, alongside his brothers Warwick and George (the Chancellor) Neville was part of the head of government. Elevation to the peerage and war in the north According to Benet's Chronicle, John Neville was elevated to the peerage as Lord Montagu in the January 1461 parliament. It was also at this parliament that he presented a petition, regarding his wife, in which he reiterated that in common law women receive livery of their lands at fourteen years of age, and he requested parliament to reaffirm this. In February he was elected to the Order of the Garter. He was installed on 21 March 1462, when he took his father's choir stall in Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel. By February 1461 Queen Margaret's army was marching south. Warwick and John, with their "frantically raised" army, collected the King and marched north to confront the Queen's army on the Great North Road. The two armies met on 17 February at the Second Battle of St Albans – this time, just outside the town. In the resulting encounter, Warwick was "outflanked and now outmatched," whereas John seems to have kept his army together up until the point the King's person was regained by the Lancastrians. Montagu commanded the left flank of the Yorkist army, which itself was subdivided into a group of archers in the town itself, with the majority posted on Bernards Heath, stretching eastwards towards Warwick's vanguard. This "bloody and bitter encounter" saw