ENGLAND. 



647 





Pretensions 

 ol Pcrkin 

 VVarbeck. 



Is avowed 

 by the Ou- 

 ohess of 

 Burgundy, 



Andbe- 

 frii nded by 

 many of the 



ll no- 



kility. 



Firkin Tt- 

 tira into 

 Scotland, 



failure of Simncl's imposture, propagated a report that 

 her nephew, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, had 

 escaped from the Tower when his brother was murdered ; 

 and procured a youth of proper parts to personate the 

 prince. Perkin Osbec or Warbeck, the son of a Flemish 

 Jew, after having been carefully instructed in the cha- 

 racter which he was intended to assume, landed in Ire- 

 land about the commencement of hostilities with France, 

 and, under the name of Richard Plantagenet, collected a 

 number of partizans in that country. But, being joined 

 by few persons of rank, he accepted an invitation from 

 the King of France, where he was entertained with all 

 the honours due to his supposed quality, and where he 

 succeeded in attaching a number of English gentlemen 

 to his interest. Dismissed from Paris when peace was 

 concluded with Henry, he proceeded to the court of the 

 Duchess of Burgundy, who pretended for some time to 

 treat him as an impostor, but at last avowed her full 

 conviction of his being the son of her brother F.dward, 

 :md the legitimate heir of the English crown. Perkin, 

 by his prudent conversation anil princely deportment, 

 ably supported the fiction of his royal descent ; and the 

 English became daily more and more prepossessed in 

 his favour. Many of the nobles, disgusted with Henry's 

 government, which tended to weaken their influence, 

 and some even of his former favourites, who had been 

 most instrumental in raising him to the throne, moved 

 by credulity or ambition, and probably conceiving that 

 their services had not been sufficiently rewarded, medi- 

 tated a revolt in favour of his enemy. A regular con- 

 spiracy was formed against his authority ; a correspond- 

 ence settled between the malcontents in England and 

 the pretender's friends in Flanders ; and the whole na- 

 tion, interested in the event, was held in a state of won- 

 der and suspence as to the issue of the contest. Henry, 

 well informed of all particulars, and conducting himself 

 with his wonted caution and resolution, was actively em- 

 ployed in counteracting the projects of the conspirators. 

 He first took measures to undeceive the people, by as- 

 certaining that the Duke of York was really dead, and 

 by inflicting punishments on those who were convicted 

 of having been his murderers. He next exerted all his 

 talents of policy and penetration, to detect the proofs of 

 Warbeck's imposture ; and, by a skilful employment of 

 spies and bribes, he .succeeded in developing his whole 

 history, designs, and adherents. He immediately pub- 

 lished to the nation the pedigree and adventures of the 

 pretended Duke of York; and when his pinjocts were 

 properly matured, proceeded to inflict punishment upon 

 the principal conspirators. Several men of note were 

 publicly executed, others detained in custody, many par- 

 doned ; and, it has been remarked as a commendable 

 feature of Henry's lenity and discrimination in prose- 

 cuting conspirators, that, if any one appeared to have been 

 actuated by conscientious adherence to principle, or by 

 affection towards the house of York, he generally expe- 

 rienced the king's clemency ; but if he had indicated a 

 restless love of change, or a turbulent opposition to the 

 laws by which he was governed, he was then treated with 

 greater severity. 



Perkin, having made an unsuccessful attempt to land 

 on the coast of Kent, proceeded to Ireland ; and being 

 there also frustrated in his hopes of support, he bent his 

 course to Scotland. To James IV. who then governed 

 that kingdom, he had been previously recommended by 

 the French monarch, who was dissatisfied with Henry 



on account of his having juined the confederacy against History, 

 his attempts upon Italy. This recommendation procu- 

 red him a favourable reception from the King of Scot- 

 land ; and his own insinuating address so far imposed 

 upon that youthful and unsuspecting prince, that, in the 

 full belief of his royal birth, he gave him in marriage tire 

 daughter of the Earl of Huntley, who was nearly rela- 

 ted to himself, and who was one of the most accomplish- 

 ed ladies of her time. He next entered England at the 

 head of a powerful army in support of his pretensions to 

 the throne, but his story had now become stale, even in 

 the view of the populace; and the presence of the Scots 

 aroused the English rather to repel, than to join the in- 

 vaders. A second inroad in his favour was attended 

 with no better success ; and, upon the conclusion of a 

 treaty of peace between the two nations, he was obliged 

 to leave Scotland, and to seek a new protector. His in- 

 terests in Flanders had been completely overthrown, and 

 his access to that country in a great measure barred, by 

 a treaty of commerce with England. Consulting with 

 his followers, Herne, Skelton, and Astley, three bank- 

 rupt tradesmen, he determined, under the name of Ri- 

 chard IV. to try the affections of the inhabitants of Corn- 

 wall, who had recently risen against the levying of a tax> 

 and whose mutinous disposition, notwithstanding the le- 

 nity of Henry, still subsisted in a degree which seemed 

 to promise him a ready adherence. On his first appear- 

 ance at Bodmin, he was joined by 3000 of the populace, 

 and immediately laid siege to the city of Exeter. Henry, 

 upon receiving information of his proceedings, prepared 

 with alacrity to meet him in the field ; and was seconded 

 with the utmost unanimity by the principal nobility and 

 gentry of the kingdom. Perkin, upon hearing of his 

 approach, though his followers now amounted to 7000, 

 lost all hopes of success, and secretly withdrew to the 

 sanctuary at Beaulieu. His wife, Lady Catharine Gor- 

 don, falling into the hands of the conqueror, was treated 

 with the greatest generosity, and placed, with a suitable 

 pension, in a reputable station near the person of the 

 <]ueen. Perkin being persuaded, upon the promise of Perkin ta- 

 pardon, to surrender himself into the hands of the king, ken prison. 

 was conducted through the streets of London, and com- CTl 

 mined to custody in the Tower. But, impatient of con- 

 finement, he soon made his escape, and, finding it im- 

 practicable to leave the kingdom, fled to the monastery of 

 Thyne. The prior gave him up to the king, after having 

 again secured his pardon, and he was himself prevailed 

 upon to publish a confession of his imposture. Commit- 

 ted once more to the Tower, he soon renewed his at- 

 tempts to regain his liberty, and contrived to engage iu 

 lot the young Earl of Warwick, who was confined 

 in the same prison. Their designs being detected, they 

 were both condemned and put to death. The impostor And *ru- 

 had rendered himself unworthy of mercy ; but the exe- 'cd along 

 cution of the last male of the line of Plantagenet, who yoJJJ, th g arl 

 had been a prisoner from his childhood, and who had fWar-' 

 merely attempted to escape from oppression, occasioned wick. 

 the greatest discontent among the people, and must be 

 regarded as the darkest blemish in the reign of Hen 



ry- 



The authority of Henry being now securely establish- 

 ed, and his icputation for vigour and sagacity spread 

 over all Europe, his amity and alliance was courted 

 with every demonstration of respect by the most power- 

 ful foreign princes. The Princess Margaret, his eldest 

 daughter, was contracted to James the Fourth of ScoV- 



