CHAP. VI. ed earl of Hitherto the king's enemies had given him little uneasiness: but the birth of his son, which A pretend- threatened to perpetuate the crown in his family, Warwick, urged them to one of the most extraordinary attempts recorded in history. Towards the close of the year, one Richard Simons, a priest of Oxford, landed in Dublin with a boy about eleven years of age, the son of an obscure craftsman. He presented his ward to the lord deputy of Ireland, by the name of Edward Plantagenet earl of Warwick: and implored the protection of that nobleman for a young and innocent prince, who, by escaping from the Tower, had avoided a fate similar to that of his unfortunate cousins, the sons of Edward IV. The boy had been well instructed in the part which he had to perform. His person was handsome: his address had something in it which seemed to bespeak nobility of descent: and he could relate with apparent accuracy his adventures at Sheriffhutton, in the Tower, and during his escape. But why he should be seduced to personate a prince who was still living, and who might any day be confronted with him, is a mystery difficult to unravel. Of the reasons which have been assigned, the least improbable is that "therein " Ibid. 179-184. The ceremony of the christening of Arthur is afterwards described (204-207). I observe that the queen dowager was godmother, and that her daughter Cecily, attended by Anne, another of her daughters, carried the child a proof that the queen's family was at this period in high favour with the CHAP. VI. ceived in which supposes that the framers of the plot designed to place the real Warwick on the throne: but that, sensible how much they should endanger his life, if they were to proclaim him while he was in the Tower, they set up a counterfeit Warwick, and by this contrivance made it the interest of Henry to preserve the true one. Among the English settlers in Ireland the He is repartisans of the house of York had maintained a Ireland. decided ascendency, ever since the administration of duke Richard in the reign of Henry VI. The Butlers alone had dared to unsheath the sword in favour of the Lancastrians: and they had paid by attainders and executions the penalty of their attachment to the interests of the red rose. At the time of the battle of Bosworth the reins of administration were held by the chief of the Yorkists, the earl of Kildare: nor did Henry venture, at the commencement of his reign, to irritate a powerful faction by removing either the lord deputy, or the members of the council. But his jealousy was soon awakened by the reports of his spies: Kildare received a mandate to attend the English court: and his disobedience was excused by a petition from the spiritual and temporal peers, stating in forcible terms the necessity of his presence in Ireland. His conduct on the arrival of Simons was of a nature to confirm Henry's suspicions. He shewed no distrust of the two adventurers: he inquired not how the earl came to be committed CHAP. The king's conduct on the occa sion. 1487. Feb. HISTORY OF ENGLAND. to the charge of an unknown priest only twentyseven years old: he evinced no anxiety to ascertain whether the real Warwick were still in the Tower or not: but he introduced the boy under his assumed name to the nobility of Ireland and the citizens of Dublin; and promised to afford him protection against his enemies, and those of his family. The Butlers, the bishops of Cashel, Tuam, Clogher, and Ossory, and the citizens of Waterford, remained steady in their allegiance the rest of the population, relying on the authority of Kildare, admitted the title of the new Plantagenet without doubt or investigation; and the adventurer was proclaimed by the style of Edward VI., king of England and France, and lord of Ireland. Most assuredly the deputy had been already admitted into the secret. 33 When the intelligence reached Henry he was alarmed, not so much at what had happened, as from his ignorance of what might follow. He assembled a great council of peers and prelates, and by their advice consented to do, what he ought to have done long before. 1. The pardon which he had issued in favour of his opponents, had been not only clogged with restrictions, but frequently violated. He now published a pardon which was full, without exceptions, and extended to every species of treason. 2. He conducted Bacon, 14, 15. Polydor. 570. *Lel. Coll. iv. 209. the real earl of Warwick from the Tower to St. Paul's, that he might be publicly recognised by the citizens; and took him with him to the palace of Shene, where the young prince conversed daily with the noblemen and others who visited the court. This prudent measure satisfied the people of England. They laughed at the impostor in Ireland, while the Irish maintained that theirs was the real, and that the boy at Shene was the pretended Plantagenet. 3. But the next measure created surprise. The reader has witnessed the honourable manner in which the queen dowager lived at court. Suddenly, if we may believe several writers, she was arrested, despoiled of her goods, and committed to the custody of the monks of Bermondsey. The reason assigned for this harsh treatment was, that after having, in the last reign, promised her daughter to Henry, she had delivered her into the hands of the usurper. But the pretext was too improbable to obtain credit. It was suspected that she had been concerned in the present plot.36 Yet where could be her induce 35 Lell. Coll. iv. 209. 36 Bacon, 16, 17. The modern writers who maintain that Richard did not murder his nephews in the Tower, draw an inference in favour of their opinion from the confinement of Elizabeth. It is plain, they contend, that she was in possession of some secret of the highest importance to the government, and are confident that this secret was the existence, at the time, of one or both of her sons. Hence it became necessary to place her under the most rigorous confinement, that she might not reveal it to the partisans of the house of York. Laing, 433. CHAP. VI. .VI. The pre tender is the earl of Lincoln. CHAP. ment? If Henry were dethroned, her daughter must share the fate of her husband. If the real or pretended Warwick should obtain the crown, all her children would of course be disinherited. At every step of this affair we meet with new joined by mysteries. It will be recollected that the earl of Lincoln had been treated by Richard as heir apparent. After the accession of Henry he constantly paid his court to the king, and had been summoned to the last council as one, in whom Henry placed confidence. Yet the moment it was dissolved, he repaired to the court of his aunt, the dutchess of Burgundy, consulted with her and lord Lovell, and receiving an aid of two March 19. thousand veterans under Martin Swartz, an ex May 24 perienced officer, sailed to Ireland, and landed at Dublin. His arrival gave new importance to the cause of the counterfeit Warwick. Though Lincoln had frequently conversed with the real prince at Shene," he advised that the impostor should be crowned: the ceremony of his coronation was performed by the bishop of Meath, with a diadem taken from the statue of the virgin Mary; and the new king was carried, after the Irish manner, from the church to the castle on the shoulders of an English chieftain of the name of Darcy. Writs were even issued in his But all this conjectural reasoning is completely overturned by a fact, which will be mentioned in the course of a few pages. 37 Lell. Coll. iv. 209. |