House of Lancaster

Is there any way for the Lancasters to not lose power in England without some control measure that would bankrupt the treasury?
 
Henry Beauchamp, 14th Earl and First Duke of Warwick, doesn't die in 1446.

His father had been Governor to the young Henry VI, and the two Henrys had grown up together, remaining friends into adulthood. If that relationship holds, the huge Warwick barony will be on the King's side in any dispute with York. Given that it took the Yorkists years of heavy fighting to win the Crown, even with Warwick as an ally, that should be enough to hold things together until the Prince of Wales grows up.
 
Give Bedford, Clarence or Gloucester a son. If this son is competent and well-liked by Henry VI, he can bolster Henry's regime and maybe put a break on some of Henry's worst excesses, possibly influencing the king's choice of wife and reducing the influence of the disliked parvenu Suffolk and the bastard Beauforts.

Even if none of that happens, and Henry's regime continues more or less as OTL (including the collapse of the English position in France, which was bound to happen eventually), Henry having a male-line Lancastrian cousin means that
a) York will not have gotten used to being heir, which fostered his royal ambitions.
b) Said cousin may be in a better position to seize the regency than York when Henry goes catatonic.
c) If things deteriorate such that Henry needs to be deposed, opposition could rally around his cousin rather than York (who wasn't all that well-liked among his aristocratic peers). If the opposition is successful, Henry will be deposed but the house of Lancaster will remain.
 
c) If things deteriorate such that Henry needs to be deposed, opposition could rally around his cousin rather than York (who wasn't all that well-liked among his aristocratic peers).

This cannot be over-emphasised.

As one of my lecturers - a late medieval specialist - put it "people will work with Richard of York, but nobody likes Richard of York".
 
Not having Henry VI be literally insane would also help, if you prefer that. Although that obviously requires a 1421 POD (with a different egg being fertilized). Likewise if he had sane brothers (which requires Henry V living slightly longer, something that has wider implications), for more or less the same reasons as Henry having Lancastrian cousins running around.

Agree that letting the Beauchamps survive would do a lot (both by avoiding the Nevilles getting so ridiculously powerful from their inheritance and from avoiding the nasty inheritance dispute that helped divide them from their pro-Lancastrian in-laws). But you do still have the issue of a king who is at best incompetent and inconsistent and at worst literally catatonic, which is going to lead to some governance problems eventually (although not necessarily Wars of the Roses level). A stable Lancastrian alternative (either a different Henry VI or a close relative like a sibling or cousin) would help a lot.

An interesting alternative would be to kill off Henry VI after his son is born but before the break with York becomes unavoidable. A regency is nasty and dangerous (especially one that's going to last over a decade and have a claimant to the throne as a logical regent), but still probably better than being shackled to Henry VI.
 
Not having Henry VI be literally insane would also help, if you prefer that. Although that obviously requires a 1421 POD (with a different egg being fertilized). Likewise if he had sane brothers (which requires Henry V living slightly longer, something that has wider implications), for more or less the same reasons as Henry having Lancastrian cousins running around.

Any POD after the Treaty of Troyes is OK, as long as Henry V still dies within the same month of dysentery.
 
An interesting alternative would be to kill off Henry VI after his son is born but before the break with York becomes unavoidable. A regency is nasty and dangerous (especially one that's going to last over a decade and have a claimant to the throne as a logical regent), but still probably better than being shackled to Henry VI.
This would be one for interesting times. If the young Edward has a hint of his father's "melancholia", then the inevitable machinations will increase sevenfold.

Then, of course, I suspect that there'll be even worse whispers surrounding accusations of Edwards father. If Henry dies without ever snapping out of his catatonia, it will be very easy for those with an axe to grind (such as Richard) to cast aspersions on the fidelity of Margaret.
 
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