Read Online The House of Tudor by Alison Plowden - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alison Plowden
Ads: Link
mother’s brother-in-law.
Stanley’s somewhat inadequate motive for dabbling in treachery seems to have arisen largely out of resentment that he had not been given a peerage, and he also seems to have had some idea that the King would not dare to proceed against him. But although it undoubtedly came as a very unpleasant shock to find a traitor so close to home, once he was satisfied of Stanley’s guilt, Henry never hesitated and Sir William was tried and executed in February 1495.
After this, the English end of the conspiracy (and there is no doubt that an active and dangerous Yorkist cell had existed) began to disintegrate. Perkin attracted no more native support of any consequence and, indeed, the rest of his story is soon told. Early in July he turned up off the coast of Kent with a small fleet and a few hundred assorted followers - ‘human dregs’ according to Polydore Vergil, but Margaret of Burgundy’s resources were not inexhaustible. Perkin seems to have lacked the courage to go on shore, but some of his supporters did and were decimated by loyal Kentish men. He went on - poor wretch, he had little choice but to go on - and in November appeared in Scotland. Here he was welcomed by James IV, a brash young man looking for an opportunity to make a stir in the world and not at all reluctant to annoy his more powerful neighbour. James took Perkin up, recognized him as Richard Plantagenet and even provided him with a wife. Lady Catherine Gordon, a distant kinswoman of his own. The Scottish king organized some Border raids for the pretender’s benefit, but even the normally turbulent North showed not the slightest interest in his cause. Perkin stayed on in Scotland, half pensioner and half prisoner, for another two years, until James got tired of him and sent him packing. He ended his active career in the West Country, attempting to take advantage of some local disaffection in Cornwall, but he was now a lonely and discredited figure and although he managed to gather quite a large force, his followers had no armour, no artillery and few weapons and were cut to pieces assaulting Exeter. Perkin himself escaped, but was finally captured near Beaulieu early in October 1497.
Just enough doubt remains about Perkin Warbeck’s origins to give him a faint aura of romantic mystery. Some people have felt that he would never have received so much royal recognition unless he was actually of royal blood, and have wondered if perhaps he might have been Richard Plantagenet back from the dead. It is possible that he was an illegitimate son of Margaret of Burgundy (this suggestion was current at the time), but it is much more likely that Perkin was, as he said in his confession, the son of respectable parents, John Osbeck and Catherine de Faro his wife, both convert Jews domiciled in Tournai.
He survived for another two years as Henry’s prisoner and when his end came in November 1499 he took the Earl of Warwick with him. In Francis Bacon’s vivid phrase, ‘it was ordained that this winding-ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the true tree itself. There had been another abortive attempt to impersonate Warwick at the beginning of the year, and Henry seems at last to have come to the conclusion that there would be no real security for himself or his children as long as the last Plantagenet in the direct male line remained alive. There is some evidence that Perkin was deliberately used as bait to trap Warwick into joining a plan for an escape to Flanders. Certainly, no sooner had this plot been hatched than it was conveniently ‘discovered’ and the conspirators brought to trial. Perkin, who was hanged on 23 November, probably got no more than he deserved but there was universal sympathy for poor young Warwick, beheaded five days later on Tower Hill, and little pretence that he had died for any other crime than that of being a Plantagenet, ‘a race often dipped in their own blood’.
The first Henry Tudor, despite his reputation,
Stanley’s somewhat inadequate motive for dabbling in treachery seems to have arisen largely out of resentment that he had not been given a peerage, and he also seems to have had some idea that the King would not dare to proceed against him. But although it undoubtedly came as a very unpleasant shock to find a traitor so close to home, once he was satisfied of Stanley’s guilt, Henry never hesitated and Sir William was tried and executed in February 1495.
After this, the English end of the conspiracy (and there is no doubt that an active and dangerous Yorkist cell had existed) began to disintegrate. Perkin attracted no more native support of any consequence and, indeed, the rest of his story is soon told. Early in July he turned up off the coast of Kent with a small fleet and a few hundred assorted followers - ‘human dregs’ according to Polydore Vergil, but Margaret of Burgundy’s resources were not inexhaustible. Perkin seems to have lacked the courage to go on shore, but some of his supporters did and were decimated by loyal Kentish men. He went on - poor wretch, he had little choice but to go on - and in November appeared in Scotland. Here he was welcomed by James IV, a brash young man looking for an opportunity to make a stir in the world and not at all reluctant to annoy his more powerful neighbour. James took Perkin up, recognized him as Richard Plantagenet and even provided him with a wife. Lady Catherine Gordon, a distant kinswoman of his own. The Scottish king organized some Border raids for the pretender’s benefit, but even the normally turbulent North showed not the slightest interest in his cause. Perkin stayed on in Scotland, half pensioner and half prisoner, for another two years, until James got tired of him and sent him packing. He ended his active career in the West Country, attempting to take advantage of some local disaffection in Cornwall, but he was now a lonely and discredited figure and although he managed to gather quite a large force, his followers had no armour, no artillery and few weapons and were cut to pieces assaulting Exeter. Perkin himself escaped, but was finally captured near Beaulieu early in October 1497.
Just enough doubt remains about Perkin Warbeck’s origins to give him a faint aura of romantic mystery. Some people have felt that he would never have received so much royal recognition unless he was actually of royal blood, and have wondered if perhaps he might have been Richard Plantagenet back from the dead. It is possible that he was an illegitimate son of Margaret of Burgundy (this suggestion was current at the time), but it is much more likely that Perkin was, as he said in his confession, the son of respectable parents, John Osbeck and Catherine de Faro his wife, both convert Jews domiciled in Tournai.
He survived for another two years as Henry’s prisoner and when his end came in November 1499 he took the Earl of Warwick with him. In Francis Bacon’s vivid phrase, ‘it was ordained that this winding-ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the true tree itself. There had been another abortive attempt to impersonate Warwick at the beginning of the year, and Henry seems at last to have come to the conclusion that there would be no real security for himself or his children as long as the last Plantagenet in the direct male line remained alive. There is some evidence that Perkin was deliberately used as bait to trap Warwick into joining a plan for an escape to Flanders. Certainly, no sooner had this plot been hatched than it was conveniently ‘discovered’ and the conspirators brought to trial. Perkin, who was hanged on 23 November, probably got no more than he deserved but there was universal sympathy for poor young Warwick, beheaded five days later on Tower Hill, and little pretence that he had died for any other crime than that of being a Plantagenet, ‘a race often dipped in their own blood’.
The first Henry Tudor, despite his reputation,
Similar Books
