The Incredible Life of Perkin Warbeck

In 1485, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and became king of England, completely against the odds. But as a usurper, Henry knew that he had a fight on his hands to keep the throne. In 1487, Henry saw off the uprising of Lambert Simnell with victory at the Battle of Stoke. But a more persistent problem would come in the unlikely form of a young man from Tournai. This young man is known to us as Perkin Warbeck. Warbeck claimed he was, in fact, Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the two Princes In The Tower. Perkin was roughly the right age to be passed off as Richard but he had to make his case convincing, For one, he had to learn and rapidly improve his English. Without that, he'd get nowhere.

It was in Ireland that Warbeck's story began to develop as Irish Yorkist supporters began to believe that Warbeck really was one of the sons of Edward IV and that it could be he who reclaimed the crown of England for the House of York. This would be disconcerting news for Henry VII in England as Ireland had strongly supported the uprising of Lambert Simnel, providing him with men for an invading army and Lambert had also been crowned in Dublin, However, not everybody in Ireland was convinced that supporting Perkin was the right course of action, Supporting Simnel's invasion had caused the Irish to lose thousands of its young men in the defeat at Stoke and it seemed unwise to provoke the wrath of the king of England again. But Warbeck's claims did begin to pick up momentum and word began to spread around Europe that one of Princes in The Tower was ready to claim the crown,  From Ireland, Warbeck sailed for France where he was greeted by king Charles VIII. The French, no doubt, happy to, once again, create mischief for England.

Henry did not stand for this however. He declared war on Charles and landed in Calais with a large army. Charles realised quickly that fighting a war over Warbeck was clearly not worth it and he soon came to terms with Henry. Charles agreed to renounce his support of Warbeck and paid Henry a generous sum of money to leave France relatively unharmed which Henry was glad to do,  Now, Warbeck turned to Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. Margaret was the sister of Edward IV and Richard III and therefore was the aunt of the Princes in the Tower. With most of Margaret's immediate family dead and with her having no children, it's possible Warbeck may have seen an opportunity to exploit any vulnerabilities Margaret may have had. Accordingly, Margaret publicly recognised Warbeck as her nephew and added 30 gentlemen to his retinue, all dressed in typical Yorkist fashion,

By 1493, Warbeck's story was becoming larger than life. In that year, he wrote Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, the most powerful rulers in Europe at the time, relaying his tale. Although they were unmoved, Warbeck still had another potential powerful ally. Emperor Maximilian I had been left unimpressed by Henry's peace agreement with Charles VIII and so invited Warbeck to his court where he even attended the funeral of Maximilian's father. In England, King Henry grew steadily more irritable with this nuisance claimant who not only refused to go away but was making something of a name for himself.

By 1495, the king's frustration was only growing as men close to Henry, including his chamberlain, were found guilty of supporting the pretender and therefore. Some were imprisoned, others were executed. What had started out as a seemingly minor matter was now spiralling dangerously out of control for the king, And now Warbeck was ready to make his move. With a small fleet, he sailed for England where royalist supporters and bad weather combined to force Warbeck to sail once again for Ireland in search of reinforcements. In early 1496, Warbeck married a woman named Katherine Gordon, a match which had been arranged by another enemy of Henry, James IV of Scotland. James and Warbeck then launched an invasion of Northern England but James quickly retreated. Henry also came to an agreement with Emperor Maximilian as they formed an alliance against France. This, Henry hoped, deprived Warbeck of his most important potential ally. In August 1497, a peace agreement was reached with James IV and Warbeck finally appeared to be running out of options.

Warbeck rolled the dice one final time. Landing in Cornwall, Warbeck was joined by 3,000 men, many of whom were said to be naked, and attacked Exeter. This failed and Warbeck agreed to meet the king, Henry, a lenient man, showed his usual mercy to Warbeck and allowed him to stay at the royal court. However, after Warbeck made a break for it, once he had been recaptured, his treatment was less kind. He was placed in the stocks for public humiliation before being thrown in the Tower of London, The following year of 1499 he was hanged after, allegedly, plots to free him were uncovered, People can make up their own minds on if they believe Perkin or not. After all, his confessions were made under duress although his final words on the scaffold appear to confirm he was indeed an impostor. But what can' be denied is what an incredible life this young man led.