VI. He is acknowledg ed in France, HISTORY OF ENGLAND. CHAP. accepted an invitation from the ministers of Charles VIII., to visit France, and place himself under the protection of that monarch. He was received by the king as the real duke of York, and the rightful heir to the English throne. For his greater security a guard of honour was allotted to him under the command of the lord of Concressault:63 and the English exiles and outlaws, to the number of one hundred, offered him their services by their agent sir George Nevil. Henry was perplexed and alarmed. He hastened to sign the peace with the French monarch; and Charles instantly ordered the adventurer to quit his dominions. This order betrays the real object of the countenance which had been given to his pretensions : perhaps it may explain why he made his appearance at that particular period. and by the dutchess of Burgundy. Leaving France he solicited the protection of Margaret, the dowager dutchess of Burgundy, who received him with joy, appointed him a guard of thirty halberdiers, and gave him the surname of "The white rose of England." Her conduct revived the alarm of the king, and the hopes of his enemies. Could the aunt, it was asked, be deceived as to the identity of 63 Of a Scotch family of the name of Monipeny. If I understand rightly a letter of Ramsay lord Bothwell, Concressault told him, that he and the admiral of France had made many inquiries respecting the birth of the adventurer, but to no purpose. See the letter in Pinkerton's Scotland, ii. 438. 64 Hall, 30, 31. VI. her nephew? Or would so virtuous a princess CHAP. countenance an impostor? Henry spared neither pains nor expense to unravel the mystery. His agents were distributed through the towns and villages of Flanders, and valuable rewards were offered for the slightest information. The Yorkists were equally active. Their secret agent sir Robert Clifford, was permitted to see "the "white rose," and to hear from the pretender and his aunt the history of his adventures. He assured his employers in England that the claim of the new duke of York was indisputable : while the royal emissaries reported, that his real name was Perkin Warbeck: that he was born of respectable parents in the city of Tournay; that he had frequented the company of the English merchants in Flanders; and had some time before sailed from Middleburgh to Lisbon in the service of lady Brompton, the wife of one of the outlaws.65 seeks to of War 1493. With this clue Henry was satisfied, and im- Henry mediately dispatched sir Edward Poynings, and obtain Dr. Warham, as his ambassadors to the arch- possession duke Philip, the sovereign of Burgundy. Their beck. ostensible object was to renew the treaties between England and the Netherlands: but their secret instructions commissioned them to demand the surrender, or, if that could not be obtained, the expulsion of Warbeck. The minis July 13. CHAP. His de signs are betrayed. 1494. ters of the archduke were divided, some maintaining the identity, others the imposture of the pretender. An answer was ultimately returned, that Philip, through friendship for the king, would abstain from affording aid to his enemy, but that he could not control the dutchess, who was absolute mistress within the lands of her dower. Henry, to manifest his displeasure, withdrew the mart of English cloth from Antwerp to Calais, and strictly prohibited all intercourse between the two countries.66 Clifford, and Barley his associate, had gone to Flanders, as the envoys of the Yorkists: their fidelity was soon corrupted by the promises and presents of Henry; and the moment they had wormed themselves into the confidence of the adventurer, they betrayed to the king all his secrets, with the names of his partizans. On the same day the lord Fitz-water, sir Simon Mountford, sir Thomas Thwaites, Robert Ratcliffe, William Dawbeney, Thomas Cressemer, Thomas Atwood, and several clergymen, were apprehended on the charge of high treason. Their correspondence with the friends of the pretender in Flanders was considered a sufficient proof of their guilt; and all received judgment of death. Mountford, Thwaites, and Ratcliffe, suffered immediately: lord Fitz-water was imprisoned at Calais, where three years u 66 Rem. xii. 544. Hall, 33. HENRY VII. VI. later he forfeited his life by an unsuccessful CHAP. attempt to escape. The rest were pardoned: but this act of vigour astonished and dismayed the unknown friends of the adventurer, many of whom, conscious of their guilt, and sensible that their associates had been betrayed, fled for security to different sanctuaries.67 There remained, however, one, who, while he flattered himself that he possessed a high place in the royal favour, had been secretly marked out for destruction. After the festivities of Christmas, Henry repaired with his court to the Tower. Clifford arrived from Flanders, was introduced to the king in council, and on his knees obtained a full pardon. Being exhorted to prove his repentance by discovering what he knew of the conspiracy, he accused the lord chamberlain, sir William Stanley. The king started with affected horror, and refused to give credit to the charge. To sir William he was indebted both for his crown and his life. At the battle of Bosworth, when he was on the point of sinking under the pressure of the enemy, that nobleman had rescued him from danger, and had secured to him the victory. But Clifford repeated the accusation with greater boldness, and Henry, out of apparent tenderness for his friend, desired sir William to confine himself to his apartment in the square tower, and to reserve his defence till his examination on the following morning. Whether it arose from con 37 Rot. Parl. vi, 503, 504. Hall, 34. His particuted. sans exe 1495. Jan. 7. VI. 66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. sciousness of guilt, or from confidence in his past services, the prisoner confessed the truth of the charge; on that confession he was arraigned and condemned at Westminster: and after a decent interval suffered the punishment Feb. 15. of decapitation. His death gave rise to contradictory reports. By some it was said that he had supplied the pretender with money: by others, that when he was solicited to declare for him, he had replied: "Were I sure that he "was the son of Edward, I would never fight against him: but the indictment states that "he had consented to the employment of Clif"ford, and had engaged to receive and aid all "such persons as Clifford should send to him "with a private sign."68 This at least is probable, that unless he had been really entangled in the conspiracy, Henry would never have proceeded to the execution of a nobleman, to whom he was under so many obligations: but the king's avarice provoked a suspicion that the enormous wealth of the prisoner was the chief obstacle to his pardon. By his death, plate and money to the value of forty thousand pounds, with lands to the amount of three thousand pounds a-year, devolved to the crown.69 Submis sion of the Irish. In the mean time, as the natives of Ireland had long been warmly attached to the rival 08 Polyd, Virg. 593. Howell, State Trials, iii. 366. André says that he not only sent money to the pretender, but illum tutari et in regnum adducere promissorat. MS. Dom. A. xviii. -Rot. Parl. vi. 504. Fab. 530. Hall, 35. Bacon, 76-78. Speed, ex MS. Bern, Andreæ, 974. |