218 AN ENGLISH ARMY IN FRANCE. [1492. procured several laws to be passed which gave encouragement to the prosecution of a war, which had become a national object. But, having got the money, and encouraged many knights and nobles in raising men, he still delayed any active measures of apparent hostility through the spring, summer, and autumn of 1492. At length, in October, he landed at Calais with a wellappointed army, and invested Boulogne with twenty-five thousand infantry and sixteen hundred cavalry. The old military spirit of England was again predominant. But, for three months previous to this costly parade, the wily Foot-Soldier of the time of Henry VII. king had been negotiating a peace with Charles of France; and it appears in There was another 1492.] A HURRIED PEACE; AND ITS MOTIVES. 219 on their dissembling and rapacious sovereign, "who did but traffic in that war to make his return in money."* Henry, however, had a motive for pacification, which was even more imperative than his avarice. Charles of France had a guest at his court, who, if the king of England were really to become an enemy in earnest, might be let loose to work more damage to the house of Tudor than any failure in open warfare. One who called himself Richard, duke of York, was in France acknowledged as the rightful heir to the English throne, and surrounded with a guard of honour and other demonstrations of confidence and respect. When Henry had concluded the pacification, the French king commanded this Richard to leave his dominions. The peace was welcome to both kings, says Bacon: "to Henry, for that it filled his coffers, and that he foresaw, at that time, a storm of inward troubles coming upon him, which presently after broke forth." These "inward troubles form the subject of one of the most curious and controverted passages of English history,-the story commonly known as that of Perkin Warbeck. The story would not be worth relating in detail if we were to accept the dogmatic assertion that "the legitimacy of Perkin Warbeck is a mere freak of paradoxical ingenuity." We shall endeavour to put together a brief narrative of this remarkable claim to the crown, as far as possible from authentic materials; not resting wholly on the common supposition that the two sons of Edward IV. were murdered, or confidently arguing that the younger escaped, and re-appeared to demand his inheritance; but rather accepting the more safe conclusion of Mr. Hallam, that "a very strong conviction either way is not readily attainable." + • Bacon. "Edinburgh Review," June, 1826, p. 2. "Middle Ages," chap. viii. part iii. A young man received at Cork as the second son of Edward IV.-Ex-parte accounts of Perkin Warbeck-Letter from "Richard Plantagenet" to Isabella, queen of Spain-Henry requires the surrender of Richard from the duke of Austria-Arrests and executions in England-Sir William Stanley impeached by Clifford, whom Henry had bribed-Arrests in Ireland-Statute regarding allegiance to a king de facto-Richard, so-called, in Scotland-Correspondence of Bothwell-Difficulties of an imposture-Invasion by the Scots-The Cornish insurrection-Captivity of the adventurer-Alleged treason of the earl of Warwick-Warwick and his fellow-prisoner executed. Ir was about the beginning of 1492, when king Henry was busied in making a great show of preparation for war with France, that a small merchant-vessel from Lisbon entered the Cove of Cork, and landed a young man who was amongst the passengers. Bacon has described him as of fine countenance and shape; "but more than that, he had such a crafty and bewitching fashion, both to move pity and to induce belief, as was like a kind of fascination or enchantment to those that saw him or heard him." The rumour went through Cork that he was the second son of Edward IV.; and the citizens, encouraged by John Water, who had been their mayor, became enthusiastic in his behalf. The earl of Desmond, who had been devotedly attached to the house of York, declared in favour of this supposed representative of that house; and the earl of Kildare offered him some assistance. Bacon says that "he wrote his letters unto the earls of Desmond and Kildare to come in to his aid, and be of his party, the originals of which letters are yet extant." But the young man remained only a short time in Ireland; and then passed over to France, as we have before indicated.* After the peace of Estaples, he left the court of Charles VIII., and proceeded to Flanders, where he claimed the protection of Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, the sister of Edward IV. To this princess, whom the friends of Henry called Juno, because they believed she was to him the cause of every mischief, as Juno was *See ante, p. 219. 1492.] EX-PARTE ACCOUNTS OF PERKIN WARBECK. 221 to Eneas, is assigned by all the chroniclers the scheme of raising up an impostor, and preparing him for his part before his appearance in Ireland. Hall says, "she kept him a certain space with her privily, and him with such diligence instructed, both of the secrets and common affairs of the realm of England, and of the lineage, descent, and order of the house of York, that he, like a good scholar not forgetting his lesson, could tell all that was taught him promptly.' ."* Bacon is more minute, stating that the duchess described to him, whom "she kept by her a great while, but with extreme secrecy," whatever related to the person of Richard, duke of York; and made him have an accurate impression of the features and manners of Edward, and his queen, their family, and all those who would have been about the princes in their childhood. To these statements it has been objected that the duchess of Burgundy was married out of England seven years before Richard of York was born, and having never returned was little capable of entering into minute circumstances connected with the English court. But the "Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV." show that this sister of Edward was in England for six weeks, in 1480, and thus could have acquired the intimate knowledge with which she formed her apt scholar. The circumstances which the chroniclers relate of the life of this young man, before his alleged instruction at the court of the duchess of Burgundy, are in many respectsinconsistent with what is certain in his subsequent career, especially when they attempt any great exactness. Hall's notice of his early years, in its vague generalisation, is less suspicious. He says that this youth, "travelling many countries, could speak English and many other languages, and from the baseness of his birth was known to none almost; and, only for the gain of his living, from his childhood, was of necessity compelled to seek and frequent divers realms and regions." When the young man's adherents had been sacrificed to the vengeance of Henry, and he was reduced to the condition of a degraded captive, he is related to have "read openly his own confession written with his own hand." § Bacon calls this document, which he says was printed and dispersed abroad, "an extract" of such parts of the confession "as were fit to be divulged;" and he truly describes it as a laboured tale of particulars of Perkin's father, and mother, and grandsire, and grandmother, and uncles, and cousins, and from what places he travelled up and down." In this "confession" there is not a word of the duchess of Burgundy; and the whole period of the young man's life, from his birth "in the town of Tournay in Flanders" to his coming from Portugal to Cork, is attempted to be accounted for, by relating his various services under Flemish, Portuguese, and Breton masters, especially his service for a whole year with a knight that dwelt in Lisbon, "which said knight had but one eye." This narrative might readily excite Bacon's contempt, however strong his conviction of the so-called Perkin being an impostor, were it only for the absurd statement that when the young man landed in Cork, the people of the town, because he was arrayed in some of his master's fine silken clothes, laid hold of him; and maintained, first, that he was the son of the duke of Clarence; next, that he Chronicle, 7th year of Henry VII. +"Historic Doubts." Sir N. H. Nicolas. § This confession is given by Hall, as "the very copy." Fabyan and Polydore Vergil offer no account of such a document. 222 LETTER TO ISABELLA, QUEEN OF SPAIN. [1493. was the illegitimate son of Richard III.; and lastly, called him duke of York, "and so against my will made me to learn English, and taught me what I should do and say." This confession sets out with declaring that his father's name was John Osbeck, who was comptroller of the town of Tournay. King Henry, in instructions which he gave, in 1494, to a herald employed as his confidential envoy, says, "It is notorious that the said garçon is of no consanguinity or kin to the late king Edward, but is a native of the town of Tournay, and son of a boatman who is named Warbec; as the king is certainly assured, as well by those who are acquainted with his life and habits, as by some others his companions, who are at present with the king; and others still are beyond the sea, who have been brought up with him in their youth."* Bernard André, the poet-laureat of Henry VII., states in his MS. life of his patron, that Perkin, when a boy, was servant in England to a Jew named Edward, who was baptised, and adopted as godson by Edward IV., and was on terms of intimacy with the king and his family."+ Speed, mistranslating André's words, makes Perkin the son of the Jew, instead of the servant; and Bacon amplifies the error, and transforms John Osbeck into the convert Jew, who, having a handsome wife, it might be surmised why the licentious king "should become gossip in so mean a house." Hume adds, "people thence accounted for that resemblance which was afterwards remarked between young Perkin and that monarch." The surmise of Bacon, grounded upon the error of Speed, is clenched into the positive assertion of Hume as to a popular belief for which there is not the slightest ground. We may now turn from the ex-parte statements which represent the young adventurer as of low birth and mean education, to an undoubted document in which he sets forth his own history. It is a Latin letter written to Isabella, queen of Spain, wife of king Ferdinand, and is dated from Dendermonde, August 25, 1493.† This letter is so interesting, that we take the freedom of re-publishing that portion of it which relates the early history of him who subscribes himself, "Richard Plantagenet, second son of Edward formerly king, duke of York, &c." "Most serene and most excellent Princess, my most honoured Lady and Cousin, I commend me entirely to your Majesty. Whereas the prince of Wales, eldest son of Edward formerly king of England, of pious memory, my dearest lord and father, was miserably put to death, and I myself, then nearly nine years of age, was also delivered to a certain lord to be killed, it pleased the Divine Clemency that that lord, having compassion on my innocence, preserved me alive and in safety; first, however, causing me to swear on the holy sacrament, that to no one should I disclose my name, origin, or family, until a certain number of years had passed. He sent me therefore abroad, with two persons, who should watch over and take charge of me; and thus I, an orphan, bereaved of my royal father and brother, an exile from my kingdom, and deprived of country, inheritance and fortune, a fugitive in the midst of extreme perils, led my miserable life in fear, and weeping, and grief, and for From the very valuable collection of "Documents relating to Perkin Warbeck," published by Sir Frederic Madden in "Archæologia," vol. xxvii. p. 165. + Ibid., p. 163. This most curious letter, first published by Sir Frederic Madden, is in the British Museum. The paper in the "Archæologia" gives a copy of the original, as well as a translation. |