In March 1454 York became protector of the realm during Henry VI's insanity and Somerset was arrested, but York's and his supporters' power was circumscribed by the birth of Prince Edward (which ended York's claim to be Henry's heir presumptive), the assertive role of Queen Margaret, and the king's recovery at Christmas 1454, followed by Somerset's reappearance as Henry's chief adviser and the release from prison of Henry Holland, second duke of Exeter, the king's young kinsman who had opposed York's protectorate. They denounced the management of the French war and the loss of Normandy (1449–50), the power that first William de la Pole, first duke of Suffolk, and then Edmund Beaufort, second duke of Somerset, enjoyed at court and in the provinces and Wales, and the way in which York, Richard Neville, fifth earl of Salisbury, and Salisbury's son, Richard Neville, sixteenth earl of Warwick, were sidelined in government and as recipients of royal favour. The loyalty of certain English nobles and gentry, even bishops, to Henry VI was tested during the early 1450s when his cousin, Richard, third duke of York, and his allies criticized the king's counsellors and policies for public and personal reasons.
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