Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Mankie. Listener Discretion advised Henry Tudor,
Speaker 1: the newly crowned King Henry the seventh, was in a
Speaker 1: very delicate position. King Richard the Third had been killed
Speaker 1: in battle, the Yorks were defeated, and Henry Tudor the
Speaker 1: Victor had married Elizabeth of York to unite the families
Speaker 1: under the banner of the new House of Tudor. He
Speaker 1: was king after the extremely costly and deadly Wars of
Speaker 1: the Roses. Finally it was over, except Henry's claim to
Speaker 1: the throne wasn't all that secure. Historian J. E. Cussin
Speaker 1: frames it well, writing quote, Henry the Seventh claimed the
Speaker 1: crown of England by three titles, dissent, alliance, and conquest.
Speaker 1: Let's work backwards on those three. Shall we conquest? While
Speaker 1: that was inarguable, Henry had defeated Richard the Third at
Speaker 1: the Battle of bosworth Field. But the problem with claiming
Speaker 1: a throne through conquest meant that anyone else could come
Speaker 1: along and beat him, giving them as much of a
Speaker 1: claim as he had in terms of alliance. Number two
Speaker 1: Henry's marriage to Elizabeth of York had been a smart move.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth was the daughter of King Edward the seventh, the
Speaker 1: older sister of the two princes lost in the Tower,
Speaker 1: the princes who were allegedly killed by their uncle, also
Speaker 1: Elizabeth's uncle, Richard the third. But the other title that
Speaker 1: Henry was claiming the Crown of England descent. While that
Speaker 1: was a shaky claim at best, Henry was the illegitimate
Speaker 1: great great grandson of John of Ghent, and it was
Speaker 1: an even weaker claim because it was through the female line.
Speaker 1: But who cares about that? If everyone agreed that he
Speaker 1: was king, he was king, and who was going to
Speaker 1: challenge him? In September of fourteen ninety seven, a man
Speaker 1: was leading an army east from Cornwall toward Taunton. He
Speaker 1: was supported by thousands of troops, mainly cornishmen who were
Speaker 1: upset at King Henry the seventh high taxes and poor treatment,
Speaker 1: and they were throwing their lot behind someone else, someone
Speaker 1: with a much much more legitimate claim to the throne.
Speaker 1: If you believed he was who he said he was,
Speaker 1: history would come to call the man who led that
Speaker 1: army Perkin Warbeck. But Warbeck claimed he had another name,
Speaker 1: a secret name. He wasn't just the son of a
Speaker 1: Belgian bureaucrat. That was all a cover story. Really, he
Speaker 1: had once been a prince, the younger son of King
Speaker 1: Edward the Fourth, locked inside the Tower of London while
Speaker 1: his uncle Richard the third claimed the throne for himself.
Speaker 1: He had seen his older brother Edward killed, but because
Speaker 1: of his youth, the murderers had allowed him to escape. Well,
Speaker 1: he was back and he was here to take the throne.
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck was really Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York,
Speaker 1: the younger of the two princes in the tower, and
Speaker 1: he had six thousand men marching behind him, ready to
Speaker 1: help him take what was rightfully his. I'm Dana Schwartz,
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. The problem with telling the
Speaker 1: story of a man who is known to history as
Speaker 1: a pretender is you'll never know for sure which story
Speaker 1: to tell. There are lies on both sides and no
Speaker 1: actual proof one way or the other. Let's get that
Speaker 1: out of the way before we go any further. Perkin
Speaker 1: Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York. At the time,
Speaker 1: some people believed him in earnest. Some people believed him
Speaker 1: because it was convenient, and some people thought he was
Speaker 1: a phony. Now nowadays, plenty of historical fiction has had
Speaker 1: fun exploring the possibility that Warbeck really was the Duke
Speaker 1: of York, And to that, I say, why not. Historical
Speaker 1: fiction is fun, and that certainly is the most fun
Speaker 1: version of the story. But the unfortunate truth is, there
Speaker 1: really is no proof that he was the lost Prince.
Speaker 1: That said, there is no concrete proof that he wasn't
Speaker 1: the lost Prince. So you're free to hold on to
Speaker 1: your favorite story if you really want. With this one,
Speaker 1: most historians do agree that the real Duke of York,
Speaker 1: the younger son of King Edward the fourth and nephew
Speaker 1: of Richard the third, died around summer fourteen eighty three,
Speaker 1: when he was nine or ten years old. Perkin Warbeck
Speaker 1: claimed he didn't. In fourteen ninety one, he began to
Speaker 1: make his claim public in the Duchy of Burgundy, saying
Speaker 1: that he witnessed his older brother get murdered. But the assailants,
Speaker 1: whoever they were Warbeck never actually specified, were struck by
Speaker 1: how young and innocent he was. They told him to
Speaker 1: run away to continental Europe and keep the secret of
Speaker 1: his true identity for his own safety. But nearly a
Speaker 1: decade later he claims he had been kept safe by
Speaker 1: Yorkist sympathizers, and now he couldn't hide the truth anymore.
Speaker 1: He was a young man by this point. Almost every
Speaker 1: source recounts how handsome he was, how much he resembled
Speaker 1: the former King Edward the fourth, his supposed father, and
Speaker 1: how charismatic he was. On a brief trip to Ireland,
Speaker 1: prominent Yorkists declared that he was in fact the son
Speaker 1: of King Edward the fourth. Those irishmen began writing letters
Speaker 1: to French nobles, and so Warbeck, with his brand new pedigree,
Speaker 1: set out for Europe to find some international allies. There
Speaker 1: was something about Warbeck that convinced people. He was handsome, yes,
Speaker 1: but also courtly, well acquainted with the habits and the
Speaker 1: practices of the York family. He spoke several languages, he
Speaker 1: was charming. Surely this couldn't be a common nobody. Charles
Speaker 1: the eighth of France kept Perkin in France until Henry,
Speaker 1: back in England, loudly reminded his French counterpart that they
Speaker 1: had signed a treaty not to shelter English rebels to
Speaker 1: drive home the point England laid siege on a French city.
Speaker 1: Maxim Million the First, the Holy Roman Emperor, invited Warbeck
Speaker 1: to attend the funeral of Frederick the Third, his father,
Speaker 1: the previous Holy Roman Emperor. It was there that Warbeck
Speaker 1: was officially recognized as the rightful King of England Richard
Speaker 1: the Fourth. But by far Warbeck's greatest ally and supporter
Speaker 1: would be a woman named Margaret of Burgundy. Margaret of
Speaker 1: Burgundy was the widow of the Duke Charles of Burgundy,
Speaker 1: but she was English born. She was the sister of
Speaker 1: the former York kings Edward the fourth and Richard the Third,
Speaker 1: which made the two princes in the tower her nephews.
Speaker 1: Even though she hadn't actually seen the two princes since
Speaker 1: they were babies, she declared that Perkin Warbeck was legitimate.
Speaker 1: She was miraculously reunited with her nephew, thought dead, the
Speaker 1: son of her brother. It was a side from God.
Speaker 1: The Yorks would return to the throne of England, and
Speaker 1: so Margaret began to put forth the money for Perkin
Speaker 1: Warbeck to raise an army. It wasn't purely family loyalty
Speaker 1: on her part. A gesture out of love for a
Speaker 1: nephew thought dead, Warbeck made a deal with Margaret that
Speaker 1: in exchange for the funds and aid she was providing
Speaker 1: when he became king, he would restore her trade licenses,
Speaker 1: pay the remainder of her dowry off, and return her
Speaker 1: manners and castle in England that had been forfeited. The
Speaker 1: stakes were raised now with his international allies, and word
Speaker 1: reached England that this Perkin Warbeck fellow might be for real,
Speaker 1: or at least a real threat. Those nobles who had
Speaker 1: opposed Henry the Seventh in the Wars of the Roses
Speaker 1: now had someone new to rally behind. Henry tried to
Speaker 1: eliminate the domestic treason, gathering up a group of conspirators
Speaker 1: and sentencing them to death. A few were pardoned, but
Speaker 1: some were beheaded. Henry the Seventh would not be taking
Speaker 1: treason lightly, not after he had already dealt with a
Speaker 1: pretender to the throne so recently. Perkin Warbeck wasn't the
Speaker 1: first young man to appear claiming to be a long
Speaker 1: lost member of the York family. In fourteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: three years before Perkin Warbeck began claiming to be a
Speaker 1: lost prince, there was a young boy named Lambert Simnel
Speaker 1: who challenged Henry the Seventh for the rightful claim to
Speaker 1: the throne. According to the story, there was an Oxford
Speaker 1: trained priest named Richard Simmonds who found a young, humble
Speaker 1: boy with an incredible resemblance to the York family. The
Speaker 1: cynical explanation here is that Simmons knew that there were
Speaker 1: many in England who were not happy with Henry the
Speaker 1: seventh victory, and the York loyalists needed a rightful heir
Speaker 1: to rally behind. Simmons didn't claim that Lambert Simnol was
Speaker 1: one of the two princes who disappeared in the tower. Instead,
Speaker 1: they said that he was Edward Plantagenet, their cousin. Apologies
Speaker 1: for the family tree here. I know the Wars of
Speaker 1: the Roses is famously complicated, but it's not super important.
Speaker 1: So if I lose you here, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: But Richard the Third and Edward the Fourth had another brother,
Speaker 1: George Plantagenet, who actually sided against them in the Wars
Speaker 1: of the Roses, siding with his father in law. Then,
Speaker 1: when Edward the Fourth won and became king, he had
Speaker 1: his brother executed for treason, according to the legend, drowned
Speaker 1: in a butt of malmsey wine. But this trader brother George,
Speaker 1: had had a son, Edward Plantagenet. But you know, years forward,
Speaker 1: when Richard the third was claiming that he was the
Speaker 1: rightful king, this young boy Edward got passed over because
Speaker 1: of his father's treason, which invalidated his claim. When Henry
Speaker 1: the seventh defeated Richard the third and he became king,
Speaker 1: he put little ten year old Edward in the Tower
Speaker 1: of London for safekeeping because he realized sure his dad
Speaker 1: was a trader, which made his claim a little nebulous,
Speaker 1: but he still was a threat, especially considering how nebulous
Speaker 1: Henry the Seventh's own claim was. Anyway, there was a
Speaker 1: rumor going around that Edward Plantagenet, the young boy, escaped
Speaker 1: from the tower, and the Yorkists were eager for an
Speaker 1: excuse to try to overthrow Henry Tudor, and they declared
Speaker 1: that this boy, Lambert Simnel, was him Edward Plantagenet, and
Speaker 1: he was the rightful king. Of course, as soon as
Speaker 1: Henry heard about that, he gets the real Edward out
Speaker 1: of the tower, who never escaped, and paraded him through
Speaker 1: the streets, but that did nothing to stop the rebellion
Speaker 1: because one news traveled slowly in the fifteenth century. Two
Speaker 1: they just claimed that Henry got a random impostor, and
Speaker 1: three the Yorkists didn't really care if Lambert Simnel was
Speaker 1: real or not. They just wanted to challenge Henry the Seventh,
Speaker 1: and they did. Simnel's army of Flemish and Irish soldiers
Speaker 1: challenged the Tutor army at the Battle of stoke Field
Speaker 1: and they were defeated, but not without a rousing fight.
Speaker 1: Some historians actually claim it's this battle that is the
Speaker 1: end of the Wars of the Roses Simmons. The mastermind
Speaker 1: behind this whole scheme was a priest, so he got
Speaker 1: jail for life instead of execution, and Lambert Simnel, who
Speaker 1: was really just a kid who had been used as
Speaker 1: a pawn, is actually pardoned by King Henry. But back
Speaker 1: to Perkin Warbeck, funded by Margaret of Burgundy, his maybe
Speaker 1: aunt and maybe someone who just wants to take Henry
Speaker 1: the Seventh down, Warbeck arrives on the southeast coast of
Speaker 1: England at deal. The King's army is there in full force,
Speaker 1: and Perkin doesn't even get off his boat before he
Speaker 1: realizes he made a terrible mistake and should try to
Speaker 1: take England through Scotland. King James the fourth of Scotland
Speaker 1: is more than happy to have him. It's while he's
Speaker 1: in Scotland that Perkin Warbeck marries the daughter of a
Speaker 1: minor Scottish noble, a woman named Lady Catherine Gordon. It
Speaker 1: seems it was a love match, but some take the
Speaker 1: arrangement as proof that no one actually thought that Warbeck
Speaker 1: was a lost prince, or he wouldn't have had such
Speaker 1: a lowly marriage. I mean, it was a fine marriage,
Speaker 1: but not the type of match one would have made
Speaker 1: if you were actually the son of a king and
Speaker 1: the rightful King of England. Warbeck stayed in Scotland for
Speaker 1: two years, and he was actually an incredibly valuable political pawn,
Speaker 1: if nothing else. The ambassador from France actually offered the
Speaker 1: King of Scotland money to send warback back to France,
Speaker 1: but James the fourth was ready to fight against England
Speaker 1: and he wanted Perkin Warbeck by his side to help
Speaker 1: rally Yorkist support. Unfortunately, they didn't get far about four
Speaker 1: miles into England. The support that they had hoped would
Speaker 1: rally for Perkin Warbeck in Northumberland didn't, and when the
Speaker 1: English army started coming up from Newcastle, Perkin and the
Speaker 1: King of Scotland realized that they were cooked. James of
Speaker 1: Scotland recognized that he had bet on the wrong horse,
Speaker 1: and so while he frantically tried to make a peace
Speaker 1: treaty with England, he ditched Warbeck as fast as he could.
Speaker 1: James got Warbeck passage to Waterford after Warbeck was forced
Speaker 1: to pawn a horse for cash. The name of the ship,
Speaker 1: fittingly enough for one claiming a birthright that may not
Speaker 1: have been his, was the Cuckoo. Cuckoo chicks are notorious
Speaker 1: for hiding themselves in another family's nest, and so nursing
Speaker 1: the defeat from his attack with Scotland, and nursing the
Speaker 1: speed with which James wanted to get rid of him,
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck rode away on the Cuckoo. Warbeck was practically
Speaker 1: chased by English loyal ships to Ireland. There's a possibly
Speaker 1: apocryphal story where a Spanish ship allied with England shouted
Speaker 1: to the captain of the Cuckoo telling them to surrender
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck for a reward of one thousand marks. I've
Speaker 1: never heard of that man, the captain shouted back. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck was crouched inside a vat of wine. Warbeck's
Speaker 1: support and his numbers were dwindled, but he hadn't lost faith.
Speaker 1: He hadn't given up. His last rebellion would be his largest.
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck would finally make his stand. There had already
Speaker 1: been a rebellion in Cornwall just a few months before
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck arrived. It had been unsuccessful, but Warbeck was
Speaker 1: hoping to capitalize on the Cornish discontent with the king.
Speaker 1: In front of a crowd of cornishmen and women, he
Speaker 1: promised that he would put an end to the outrageous
Speaker 1: taxes that King Henry the seventh had levied in order
Speaker 1: to fund his war against Scotland, ironically a war which
Speaker 1: just weeks before, Warbeck himself had been fighting alongside of
Speaker 1: on the side of Scotland. His words were effective, and
Speaker 1: atop a craig on what is now Bodman Moore, Perkin
Speaker 1: Warbeck was crowned King Richard the Fourth. Six thousand men
Speaker 1: were behind him. All of the failed uprisings against Henry
Speaker 1: Tudor had led to this moment, the moment that all
Speaker 1: of the Yorkist sympathizers and all of the people who
Speaker 1: hated Henry had found their champion. Unfortunately for everyone, Perkin
Speaker 1: Warbeck wasn't quite as brave as his men might have hoped.
Speaker 1: Almost as soon as he got word that the King's
Speaker 1: scouts were nearby and that the King would be fighting
Speaker 1: with the full force of his army, Warbeck panicked and ran.
Speaker 1: In the middle of the night. He gathered sixty horsemen
Speaker 1: and fled from battle. He raced to Bailou Abbey to
Speaker 1: try to get sanctuary, but they were soon surrounded. Perkin
Speaker 1: Warbeck was captured and his six year run as the
Speaker 1: missing Prince was over. While London citizens shout and hooted
Speaker 1: at him in the street, Warbeck was led on horseback
Speaker 1: to the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned for
Speaker 1: the first or, if you believe he was actually Richard
Speaker 1: of Shrewsbury, the second time. During interrogation, Perkin Warbeck gave
Speaker 1: his true life story a full confession or I suppose,
Speaker 1: depending on your perspective, and invented story to appease the tutors.
Speaker 1: Given under duress. Warbeck was born to a comptroller in Belgium,
Speaker 1: and he learned Dutch when he was ten and got
Speaker 1: a job with a local cloth merchant in Antwerp. He
Speaker 1: learned English when a Breton merchant brought him to Ireland
Speaker 1: when he was about seventeen, and it was there that
Speaker 1: he first got the idea or inspiration that he would
Speaker 1: impersonate a Prince Cork, Ireland was filled with Yorkists, and
Speaker 1: when they saw Perkin Warbeck, a handsome young boy wearing
Speaker 1: the fine silk clothes of his merchant master, probably just
Speaker 1: advertising his master's skill, they declared that he must be
Speaker 1: the missing Prince. That's when Perkin Warbeck says he began
Speaker 1: making the claim in earnest aim, which became easier when
Speaker 1: he made his way to Burgundy and made the acquaintance
Speaker 1: of Margaret of York. He also met a man named
Speaker 1: Edward Brampton, who had been King Edward the Fourth's godson.
Speaker 1: It's plausible that the two of them, Margaret and Edward Brampton,
Speaker 1: could have taught Warbeck the details of Richard of Shrewsbury's
Speaker 1: childhood and details of the York family dynamics. This is
Speaker 1: the scene in the movie version where they're teaching him
Speaker 1: how to be a prince and comport himself with courtly
Speaker 1: manners for someone who had just marched with an army
Speaker 1: to try to usurp the King of England. As soon
Speaker 1: as Warbeck confessed that he was an impostor all along,
Speaker 1: Henry the seventh treated him with almost shocking grace. Warbeck
Speaker 1: is brought to court, and even though he is kept
Speaker 1: under guard, he's brought along to royal banquets. It seemed
Speaker 1: that Henry was trying to keep his enemies close, and
Speaker 1: as long as Warbeck was continuing to openly and loudly
Speaker 1: declare that he was an impostor, then he Henry was
Speaker 1: content to keep Warbeck around as something of a peculiarity.
Speaker 1: But then Warbeck tried to escape again, and when Henry
Speaker 1: recaptured him, he's less merciful. The King put Warbeck in
Speaker 1: stocks on a scaffold in front of Westminster Hall and
Speaker 1: forced him to loudly declare his confession that he was
Speaker 1: an impostor in front of a crowd of people. He
Speaker 1: would be in the stocks for five or six hours.
Speaker 1: Henry made sure that the whole story was written down,
Speaker 1: and that it was printed and spread widely so that
Speaker 1: everyone would know exactly who Perkin Warbeck said he was.
Speaker 1: He confessed there would be no more descent in Perkin
Speaker 1: Warbeck's name. In fact, the name Perkin Warbeck would become
Speaker 1: so synonymous with pretender to the Throne that one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty years after Warbeck's death, anti Jacobite propaganda would
Speaker 1: refer to the Bonnie Prince Charlie, a claimant to the throne,
Speaker 1: also called the young pretender as Perkin. After Warbeck's public
Speaker 1: metaphorical flogging, he was sent back to the Tower of
Speaker 1: London to chambers alongside Edward Plantagenet, the real Edward Plantagenet,
Speaker 1: the one that Lambert Seminole that young boy a long
Speaker 1: time ago, had impersonated. Warbeck may have been a cowardly soldier,
Speaker 1: but when it came to his freedom, he was willing
Speaker 1: to risk it all. We don't know the exact details
Speaker 1: of how involved he was, who spoke to who about what,
Speaker 1: but together Perkin Warbeck was planning an escape with Edward
Speaker 1: Plantagenet to put Edward Plantagenet on the throne. The plan
Speaker 1: was a little silly. The idea was that they would
Speaker 1: blow up the Tower of London, and they never made
Speaker 1: it out, and at this point the king had no
Speaker 1: mercy left and no patience for any one who might
Speaker 1: be a threat to his throne. Both men were hanged
Speaker 1: in fourteen ninety nine Edward Plantagenet, who had been a
Speaker 1: genuine royal, the nephew of two Kings of England, and
Speaker 1: Perkin Warbeck. Perkin Warbeck, once celebrated as the son of
Speaker 1: a king, once called a king himself, was buried in
Speaker 1: an unmarked grave. Some maintained that Warbeck actually was Richard,
Speaker 1: Duke of York. Another theory that some positive was that
Speaker 1: Warbeck was one of King Edward the Fourth's illegitimate children
Speaker 1: from a period of debauchery in the Low Countries. This
Speaker 1: is one of those historical situations that will never have
Speaker 1: a real resolution one way or another. You can't prove
Speaker 1: a negative. A king is a king because he says
Speaker 1: he is, and when he has the strongest army behind him,
Speaker 1: people have to believe him. Perkin Warbeck was temporarily a king,
Speaker 1: and it led him to the end of a noose.
Speaker 1: Warbeck's wife, Catherine, the Scottish noble, would fare much better.
Speaker 1: She would live another thirty eight years and would remain
Speaker 1: a prominent member of the Tudor court for the rest
Speaker 1: of her life. And another slight happy note to end
Speaker 1: the story on do you recall that other impostor, the
Speaker 1: child Lambert Simnel, who had been so young when Irish
Speaker 1: forces rose up behind him and declared that he was
Speaker 1: Edward Plantagenet. After King Henry the seventh pardoned him, his
Speaker 1: life actually wouldn't be that bad. He went on to
Speaker 1: become a scullion in the Palace and eventually the Royal Falconer.
Speaker 1: That's the story of Perkin Warbeck. But keep listening after
Speaker 1: a brief sponsor break to hear a little bit about
Speaker 1: how Warbeck's execution connects with one of our favorite tutor queens.
Speaker 1: It must have been a genuine relief for Henry the
Speaker 1: Seventh to have a reason to hang both Perkin Warbeck
Speaker 1: and the real Edward Plantagenet. Henry was trying to marry
Speaker 1: his eldest son, Arthur, to a Spanish Princess, Katherine of Aragon,
Speaker 1: and in order for her parents to agree to the match,
Speaker 1: they wanted to be certain that he wouldn't be usurped,
Speaker 1: so Henry had to convince Spain that he was the
Speaker 1: legitimate king of England, beyond all doubt and beyond all threats.
Speaker 1: Eliminating those threats through execution was a helpful step. Catherine
Speaker 1: of Aragon knew that the hanging was distantly a result
Speaker 1: of pressure that her parents were putting on England on
Speaker 1: her behalf, and she felt incredibly guilty about it. A
Speaker 1: Lady in waiting, Jane Dormer, would write in her memoir
Speaker 1: that Catherine would feel responsible for the death of the
Speaker 1: innocent Edward Plantagenet, and Catherine would experience tragedies later in
Speaker 1: her life. There would be the young death of her
Speaker 1: husband Arthur, the sort of no man's land that Henry
Speaker 1: the Seventh kept her in after the death of her husband,
Speaker 1: her inability to bear male children for Arthur's brother, her
Speaker 1: next husband, King Henry the Eighth, Henry the Eighth's affair
Speaker 1: with Anne Boleyn, Katherine's banishment, plenty of tragedies, and Catherine,
Speaker 1: at least according to this Lady in Waiting, would think
Speaker 1: that it was punishment for that death that she inadvertently caused.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Speaker 1: Danish Swartz. Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: hannah's Wick, Miura Hayward, Courtney Sunder, and Laurie Goodman. The
Speaker 1: show is produced by rema Il Kayali, with supervising producer
Speaker 1: Josh Thayne and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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