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.
Speaker 2: King Richard the Third had been killed in battle, the
Speaker 2: Yorks were defeated, and Henry Tudor the Victor had married
Speaker 2: Elizabeth of York to unite the families under the banner
Speaker 2: of the new House of Tudor. He was king after
Speaker 2: the extremely costly and deadly Wars of the Roses. Finally
Speaker 2: it was over, except Henry's claim to the throne wasn't
Speaker 2: all that secure. Historian J. E. Cussen frames it well, writing, quote,
Speaker 2: Henry the Seventh claimed the crown of England by three titles, dissent, alliance,
Speaker 2: and conquest. Let's work backwards on those three, shall we conquest? Well?
Speaker 2: That was inarguable. Henry had defeated Richard the Third at
Speaker 2: the Battle of bosworth Field. But the problem with claiming
Speaker 2: a throne through conquest meant that anyone else could come
Speaker 2: along and beat him, giving them as much of a
Speaker 2: claim as he had. In terms of alliance number two,
Speaker 2: Henry's marriage to Elizabeth of York had been a smart move.
Speaker 2: Elizabeth was the daughter of King Edward the seventh, the
Speaker 2: older sister of the two princes lost in the Tower,
Speaker 2: the princes who were allegedly killed by their uncle, also
Speaker 2: Elizabeth's uncle, Richard the third. But the other title that
Speaker 2: Henry was claiming the crown of England dissent. While that
Speaker 2: was a shaky claim at best, Henry was the illegitimate
Speaker 2: great great grandson of John of Ghent, and it was
Speaker 2: an even weaker claim because it was through the female line.
Speaker 2: But who cares about that? If everyone agreed that he
Speaker 2: was king, he was king, and who was going to
Speaker 2: challenge him? In September fourteen ninety seven, a man was
Speaker 2: leading an army east from Cornwall toward Taunton. He was
Speaker 2: supported by thousands of troops, mainly cornishmen who were upset
Speaker 2: at King Henry the seventh high taxes and poor treatment,
Speaker 2: and they were throwing their lot behind someone else, someone
Speaker 2: with a much much more legitimate claim to the throne.
Speaker 2: If you believed he was who he said he was,
Speaker 2: history would come to call the man who led that
Speaker 2: army Perkin Warbeck. But Warbeck claimed he had another name,
Speaker 2: a secret name. He wasn't just the son of a
Speaker 2: Belgian bureaucrat. That was all a cover story. Really, he
Speaker 2: had once been a prince, the younger son of King
Speaker 2: Edward the Fourth, locked inside the Tower of London while
Speaker 2: his uncle Richard the Third claimed the throne for himself.
Speaker 2: He had seen his older brother Edward killed, but because
Speaker 2: of his youth, the murderers had allowed him to escape. Well,
Speaker 2: he was back and he was here to take the throne.
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck was really Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York,
Speaker 2: the younger of the two princes in the tower, and
Speaker 2: he had six thousand men marching behind him, ready to
Speaker 2: help him take what was rightfully his. I'm Danash Schwartz,
Speaker 2: and this is noble blood. The problem with telling the
Speaker 2: story of a man who is known to history as
Speaker 2: a pretender is you'll never know for sure which story
Speaker 2: to tell. There are lies on both sides, and no
Speaker 2: actual proof one way or the other. Let's get that
Speaker 2: out of the way before we go any further. Perkin
Speaker 2: Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York. At the time.
Speaker 2: Some people believed him in earnest. Some people believed him
Speaker 2: because it was convenient, and some people thought he was
Speaker 2: a phony. Nowadays, plenty of historical fiction has had fun
Speaker 2: exploring the possibility that Warbeck really was the Duke of York,
Speaker 2: and to that, I say, why not. Historical fiction is fun,
Speaker 2: and that certainly is the most fun version of the story.
Speaker 2: But the unfortunate truth is there really is no proof
Speaker 2: that he was the lost Prince. That said, there is
Speaker 2: no concrete proof that he wasn't the lost Prince. So
Speaker 2: you are free to hold on to your favorite story
Speaker 2: if you really want. With this one, most historians do
Speaker 2: agree that the real Duke of York, the younger son
Speaker 2: of King Edward and nephew of Richard the Third, died
Speaker 2: around summer fourteen eighty three, when he was nine or
Speaker 2: ten years old. Perkin Warbeck claimed he didn't. In fourteen
Speaker 2: ninety one, he began to make his claim public in
Speaker 2: the Duchy of Burgundy, saying that he witnessed his older
Speaker 2: brother get murdered. But the assailants, whoever they were Warbeck
Speaker 2: never actually specified, were struck by how young and innocent
Speaker 2: he was. They told him to run away to continental
Speaker 2: Europe and keep the secret of his true identity for
Speaker 2: his own safety. But nearly a decade later he claims
Speaker 2: he had been kept safe by Yorkist sympathizers, and now
Speaker 2: he couldn't hide the truth anymore. He was a young
Speaker 2: man by this point. Almost every source recounts how handsome
Speaker 2: he was, how much he resembled the former King Edward
Speaker 2: the fourth, his supposed father, and how charismatic he was.
Speaker 2: On a brief trip to Ireland, prominent Yorkists declared that
Speaker 2: he was in fact the son of King Edward the fourth.
Speaker 2: Those irishmen began writing letters to French nobles, and so Warbeck,
Speaker 2: with his brand new pedigree, set out for Europe to
Speaker 2: find some international allies. There was something about Warbeck that
Speaker 2: convinced people. He was handsome, yes, but also courtly, well
Speaker 2: acquainted with the habits and the practices of the York family.
Speaker 2: He spoke several languages, He was charming. Surely this couldn't
Speaker 2: be a common nobody. Charles the eighth of France kept
Speaker 2: Perkin in France until Henry, back in England, loudly reminded
Speaker 2: his French counterpart that they had signed a treaty not
Speaker 2: to shelter English rebels. To drive home the point England
Speaker 2: laid siege on a French city, Maxims Million. First, the
Speaker 2: Holy Roman Emperor invited Warbeck to attend the funeral of
Speaker 2: Frederick the Third, his father, the previous Holy Roman Emperor.
Speaker 2: It was there that Warbeck was officially recognized as the
Speaker 2: rightful King of England Richard the fourth. But by far
Speaker 2: Warbeck's greatest ally and supporter would be a woman named
Speaker 2: Margaret of Burgundy. Margaret of Burgundy was the widow of
Speaker 2: the Duke Charles of Burgundy, but she was English born.
Speaker 2: She was the sister of the former York kings, Edward
Speaker 2: the fourth and Richard the Third, which made the two
Speaker 2: princes in the tower her nephews. Even though she hadn't
Speaker 2: actually seen the two princes since they were babies, She
Speaker 2: declared that Perkin Warbeck was legitimate. She was miraculously reunited
Speaker 2: with her nephew, thought dead, the son of her brother.
Speaker 2: It was a from God the Yorks would return to
Speaker 2: the throne of England, and so Margaret began to put
Speaker 2: forth the money for Perkin Warbeck to raise an army.
Speaker 2: It wasn't purely family loyalty on her part, a gesture
Speaker 2: out of love for a nephew thought dead. Warbeck made
Speaker 2: a deal with Margaret that in exchange for the funds
Speaker 2: and aid she was providing when he became king, he
Speaker 2: would restore her trade licenses, pay the remainder of her
Speaker 2: dowry off, and return her manners and castle in England
Speaker 2: that had been forfeited. The stakes were raised now with
Speaker 2: his international allies, and word reached England that this Perkin
Speaker 2: Warbeck fellow might be for real, or at least a
Speaker 2: real threat. Those nobles who had opposed Henry the Seventh
Speaker 2: in the Wars of the Roses now had someone new
Speaker 2: to a rally behind. Henry tried to eliminate the domestic treason,
Speaker 2: gathering up a group of conspirators and sentencing them to death.
Speaker 2: A few were pardoned, but some were beheaded. Henry the
Speaker 2: Seventh would not be taking treason lightly, not after he
Speaker 2: had already dealt with a pretender to the throne so recently.
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck wasn't the first young man to appear claiming
Speaker 2: to be a long lost member of the York family.
Speaker 2: In fourteen eighty seven, three years before Perkin Warbeck began
Speaker 2: claiming to be a lost prince, there was a young
Speaker 2: boy named Lambert Simnel who challenged Henry the seventh for
Speaker 2: the rightful claim to the throne. According to the story,
Speaker 2: there was an Oxford trained priest named Richard Simmons who
Speaker 2: found a young, humble boy with an incredible resemblance to
Speaker 2: the York family. The cynical explanation here is that Symmonds
Speaker 2: knew that there were many in England who were not
Speaker 2: happy with Henry the Seventh's victory, and the York loyalists
Speaker 2: needed a rightful heir to rally behind. Simmonds didn't claim
Speaker 2: that Lambert Symnole was one of the two princes who
Speaker 2: disappeared in the tower. Instead, they said that he was
Speaker 2: Edward Plantagenet, their cousin. Apologies for the family tree here.
Speaker 2: I know the Wars of the Roses is famously complicated,
Speaker 2: but it's not super important. So if I lose you here,
Speaker 2: don't worry about it. But Richard the Third and Edward
Speaker 2: the Fourth had another brother, George Plantagenet, who actually sided
Speaker 2: against them in the Wars of the Roses, siding with
Speaker 2: his father in law. Then, when Edward the Fourth won
Speaker 2: and became king, he had his brother executed for treason.
Speaker 2: According to the legend drowned in a butt of malmsey wine.
Speaker 2: But this trader brother George, had had a son, Edward Plantagenet.
Speaker 2: But you know, years forward, when Richard the third was
Speaker 2: claiming that he was the rightful king, this young boy
Speaker 2: Edward got passed over because of his father's treason, which
Speaker 2: invalidated his claim. When Henry the seventh defeated Richard the
Speaker 2: third and he became king, he put little ten year
Speaker 2: old Edward in the Tower of London for safekeeping because
Speaker 2: he realized sure his dad was a trader, which made
Speaker 2: his claim a little nebulous, but he still was a threat,
Speaker 2: especially considering how nebulous Henry the Seventh's own claim was. Anyway,
Speaker 2: there was a rumor going around that Edward Plantagenet, the
Speaker 2: young boy, escaped from the tower, and the Yorkists were
Speaker 2: eager for an excuse to try to overthrow Henry Tudor,
Speaker 2: and they declared that this boy, Lambert Symnel, was him
Speaker 2: Edward Plantagenet, and he was the rightful king. Of course,
Speaker 2: as soon as Henry heard about that, he gets the
Speaker 2: real Edward out of the tower, who never escaped, and
Speaker 2: paraded him through the streets. But that did nothing to
Speaker 2: stop the rebellion because one news travels slowly in the
Speaker 2: fifteenth century. Two they just claimed that Henry got a
Speaker 2: random impostor, and three the Yorkists didn't really care if
Speaker 2: Lambert Symnole was real or not. They just wanted to
Speaker 2: challenge Henry the Seventh, and they did. Symnel's army of
Speaker 2: Flemish and Irish soldiers challenged the Tudor army at the
Speaker 2: Battle of stoke Field, and they were defeated, but not
Speaker 2: without arousing fight. Some historians actually claim it's this battle
Speaker 2: that is the end of the Wars of the Roses Simmons.
Speaker 2: The mastermind behind this whole scheme was a priest, so
Speaker 2: he got jailed for life instead of execution, and Lambert Simnel,
Speaker 2: who was really just a kid who had been used
Speaker 2: as a pawn, is actually pardoned by King Henry. But
Speaker 2: back to Perkin Warbeck, funded by Margaret of Burgundy, his
Speaker 2: maybe aunt and maybe someone who just wants to take
Speaker 2: Henry the Seventh down, Warbeck arrives on the southeast coast
Speaker 2: of England at deal. The King's army is there in
Speaker 2: full force, and Perkin doesn't even get off his boat
Speaker 2: before he realizes he made a terrible mistake and should
Speaker 2: try to take England through Scotland. King James the fourth
Speaker 2: of Scotland is more than happy to have him. It's
Speaker 2: while he's in Scotland that Perkin Warbeck marries the daughter
Speaker 2: of a minor Scottish noble, a woman named Lady Catherine.
Speaker 2: It seems it was a love match, but some take
Speaker 2: the arrangement as proof that no one actually thought that
Speaker 2: Warbeck was a lost prince, or he wouldn't have had
Speaker 2: such a lowly marriage. I mean, it was a fine marriage,
Speaker 2: but not the type of match one would have made
Speaker 2: if you were actually the son of a king, and
Speaker 2: the rightful King of England. Warbeck stayed in Scotland for
Speaker 2: two years, and he was actually an incredibly valuable political pawn,
Speaker 2: if nothing else. The ambassador from France actually offered the
Speaker 2: King of Scotland money to send warback back to France,
Speaker 2: but James the fourth was ready to fight against England
Speaker 2: and he wanted Perkin Warbeck by his side to help
Speaker 2: rally Yorkist support. Unfortunately, they didn't get far. About four
Speaker 2: miles into England, the support that they had hoped would
Speaker 2: rally for Perkin Warbeck in Northumberland didn't, and when the
Speaker 2: English armies started coming up from Newcastle, Perkin and the
Speaker 2: King of Scotland realized that they were cooked. James of
Speaker 2: Scotland recognized that he had bet on the wrong horse,
Speaker 2: and so while he frantically tried to make a peace
Speaker 2: treaty with England, he ditched Warbeck as fast as he could.
Speaker 2: James got Warbeck passage to Waterford after Warbeck was forced
Speaker 2: to pawn a horse for cash. The name of the ship,
Speaker 2: fittingly enough for one claiming a birthright that may not
Speaker 2: have been his, was the Cuckoo. Cuckoo chicks are notorious
Speaker 2: for hiding themselves in another family's nest, and so nursing
Speaker 2: the defeat from his attack with Scotland, and nursing the
Speaker 2: speed with which James wanted to get rid of him,
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck rode away on the Cuckoo. Warbeck was practically
Speaker 2: chased by English loyal ships to Ireland. There's a possibly
Speaker 2: apocryphal story where a Spanish ship allied with England shouted
Speaker 2: to the captain of the Cuckoo telling them to surrender
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck for a reward of one thousand marks. I've
Speaker 2: never heard of that man, the captain shouted back. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck was crouched inside a vat of wine. Warbeck's
Speaker 2: support and his numbers were dwindled, but he hadn't lost faith.
Speaker 2: He hadn't given up. His last rebellion would be his largest.
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck would finally make his stand. There had already
Speaker 2: been a rebellion in Cornwall just a few months before
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck arrived. It had been unsuccessful, but Warbeck was
Speaker 2: hoping to capitalize on the Cornish discontent with the king.
Speaker 2: In front of a crowd of cornishmen and women, he
Speaker 2: promised that he would put an end to the outrageous
Speaker 2: taxes that King Henry the seventh had levied in order
Speaker 2: to fund his war against Scotland, ironically, a war which
Speaker 2: just weeks before, Warbeck himself had been fighting alongside of
Speaker 2: on the side of Scotland. His words were effective, and
Speaker 2: atop of crag on what is now Bodmin Moore, Perkin
Speaker 2: Warbeck was crowned King Richard the Fourth. Six thousand men
Speaker 2: were behind him. All of the failed uprisings against Henry
Speaker 2: Tudor had led to this moment, The moment that all
Speaker 2: of the Yorkist sympathizers and all of the people who
Speaker 2: hated Henry had found their champion. Unfortunately for everyone, Perkin
Speaker 2: Warbeck wasn't quite as brave as his men might have hoped.
Speaker 2: Almost as soon as he got word that the King's
Speaker 2: scouts were nearby and that the King would be fighting
Speaker 2: with the full force of his army, Warbeck panicked and ran.
Speaker 2: In the middle of the night. He gathered sixty horsemen
Speaker 2: and fled from battle. He raced to Bailieu Abbey to
Speaker 2: try to get sanctuary, but they were soon surrounded. Perkin
Speaker 2: Warbeck was captured and his six year run as the
Speaker 2: missing Prince was over. While London's citizens shout and hooted
Speaker 2: at him in the street, Warbeck was led on horseback
Speaker 2: to the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned for
Speaker 2: the first or, if you believe he was actually Richard
Speaker 2: of Shrewsbury, the second time. During interrogation, Perkin Warbeck gave
Speaker 2: his true life story, a full confession, or I suppose,
Speaker 2: depending on your perspective, an invented story to appease the
Speaker 2: tutors given under duress. Warbeck was born to a comptroller
Speaker 2: in Belgium and He learned Dutch when he was ten
Speaker 2: and got a job with a local cloth merchant in Antwerp.
Speaker 2: He learned English when a Breton merchant brought him to
Speaker 2: Ireland when he was about seventeen, and it was there
Speaker 2: that he first got the idea or inspiration that he
Speaker 2: would impersonate a Prince Cork, Ireland was filled with Yorkists,
Speaker 2: and when they saw Perkin Warbeck, a handsome young boy
Speaker 2: wearing the fine silk clothes of his merchant master, probably
Speaker 2: just advertising his master's skill, they declared that he must
Speaker 2: be the missing Prince. That's when Perkin Warbeck says he
Speaker 2: began making the claim in earnest, which became easier when
Speaker 2: he made his way to Burgundy and made the acquaintance
Speaker 2: of Margaret of York. He also met a man named
Speaker 2: Edward Brampton, who had been King Edward the Fourth's godson.
Speaker 2: It's plausible that the two of them, Margaret and Edward Brampton,
Speaker 2: could have taught Warbeck the details of Richard of Shrewsbury's
Speaker 2: childhood and details of the York family dynamics. This is
Speaker 2: the scene in the movie version where they're teaching him
Speaker 2: how to be a prince and comport himself with courtly
Speaker 2: manners for someone who had just marched with an army
Speaker 2: to try to usurp the King of England. As soon
Speaker 2: as Warback confessed that he was an impostor all along,
Speaker 2: Henry the seventh treated him with almost shocking grace. Warbeck
Speaker 2: is brought to court, and even though he is kept
Speaker 2: under guard, he's brought along to royal banquets. It seemed
Speaker 2: that Henry was trying to keep his enemies close, and
Speaker 2: as long as Warbeck was continuing to openly and loudly
Speaker 2: declare that he was an impostor, then he Henry was
Speaker 2: content to keep Warbick around as something of a peculiarity.
Speaker 2: But then Warbeck tried to escape again, and when Henry
Speaker 2: recaptured him, he's less merciful. The King put Warbeck in
Speaker 2: stocks on a scaffold in front of Westminster Hall and
Speaker 2: forced him to loudly declare his confession that he was
Speaker 2: an impostor in front of a crowd of people. He
Speaker 2: would be in the stocks for five or six hours.
Speaker 2: Henry made sure that the whole story was written down,
Speaker 2: and that it was printed and spread widely so that
Speaker 2: everyone would know exactly who Perkin Warback said he was.
Speaker 2: He confessed there would be no more descent in Perkin
Speaker 2: Warbeck's name. In fact, the name Perkin Warbeck would become
Speaker 2: so synonymous with pretender to the Throne that one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty years after Warbeck's death, anti Jacobite propaganda would
Speaker 2: refer to the Bonnie Prince Charlie, a claimant to the throne,
Speaker 2: also called the young pretender as Perkin. After Warbeck's public
Speaker 2: metaphorical flogging, he was sent back to the Tower of
Speaker 2: London to chambers alongside Edward Plantagenet, the real Edward Plantagenet,
Speaker 2: the one that Lambert Seminal that young boy a long
Speaker 2: time ago, had impersonated. Warbeck may have been a cowardly soldier,
Speaker 2: but when it came to his freedom, he was willing
Speaker 2: to risk it all. We don't know the exact details
Speaker 2: of how involved he was, who spoke to who about what,
Speaker 2: but together Perkin Warbeck was planning an escape with Edward
Speaker 2: Plantagenet to put Edward Plantagenet on the throne. The plan
Speaker 2: was a little silly. The idea was that they would
Speaker 2: blow up the Tower of London, and they never made
Speaker 2: it out and At this point, the king had no
Speaker 2: mercy left and no patience for anyone who might be
Speaker 2: a threat to his throne. Both men were hanged in
Speaker 2: fourteen ninety nine Edward Plantagenet, who had been a genuine royal,
Speaker 2: the nephew of two Kings of England, and Perkin Warbeck.
Speaker 2: Perkin Warbeck, once celebrated as the son of a king,
Speaker 2: once called a king himself, was buried in an unmarked grave.
Speaker 2: Some maintained that Warbeck actually was Richard, Duke of York.
Speaker 2: Another theory that some positive was that Warbeck was one
Speaker 2: of King Edward the Fourth's illegitimate children from a period
Speaker 2: of debauchery in the Low Countries. This is one of
Speaker 2: those historical situations that will never have a real resolution
Speaker 2: one way or another. You can't prove a negative. A
Speaker 2: king is a king because he says he is, and
Speaker 2: when he has the strongest army behind him, people have
Speaker 2: to believe him. Perkin Warbeck was temporarily a king, and
Speaker 2: it led him to the end of a news. Warbeck's wife, Catherine,
Speaker 2: the Scottish noble, would fare much better. She would live
Speaker 2: another thirty eight years and would remain a prominent member
Speaker 2: of the tutor court for the rest of her life,
Speaker 2: and another slight happy note to end the story on.
Speaker 2: Do you recall that other impostor, the child Lambert Symneal,
Speaker 2: who had been so young when Irish forces rose up
Speaker 2: behind him and declared that he was Edward Plantagenet. After
Speaker 2: King Henry the seventh pardoned him, his life actually wouldn't
Speaker 2: be that bad. He went on to become a scullion
Speaker 2: in the Palace and eventually the Royal Falconer. That's the
Speaker 2: story of Perkin Warbeck. But keep listening after a brief
Speaker 2: sponsor break to hear a little bit about how Warbeck's
Speaker 2: execution connects with one of our favorite tutor queens. It
Speaker 2: must have been a genuine relief for Henry the Seventh
Speaker 2: to have a reason to hang both Perkin Warbeck and
Speaker 2: the real Edward Plantagenet. Henry was trying to marry his
Speaker 2: eldest son, Arthur, to a Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon,
Speaker 2: and in order for her parents to agree to the match,
Speaker 2: they wanted to be certain that he wouldn't be usurped,
Speaker 2: so Henry had to convince Spain that he was the
Speaker 2: legitimate King of England Beyond all doubt and beyond all threats.
Speaker 2: Eliminating those threats through execution was a helpful step. Catherine
Speaker 2: of Aragon knew that the hanging was distantly a result
Speaker 2: of pressure that her parents were putting on England on
Speaker 2: her behalf, and she felt incredibly guilty about it. A
Speaker 2: Lady in Waiting, Jane Dormer, would write in her memoir
Speaker 2: that Catherine would feel responsible for the death of the
Speaker 2: innocent Edward Plantagenet, and Catherine would experience tragedies later in
Speaker 2: her life. There would be the young death of her
Speaker 2: husband Arthur, the sort of no man's land that Henry
Speaker 2: the seventh kept her in after the death of her husband,
Speaker 2: her inability to bear male children for Arthur's brother, her
Speaker 2: next husband, King Henry, Henry the Eighth's affair with Anne Boleyn,
Speaker 2: Catherine's banishment, plenty of tragedies, and Catherine, at least according
Speaker 2: to this Lady in Waiting, would think that it was
Speaker 2: punishment for that death that she inadvertently caused. Noble Blood
Speaker 2: is a production of iHeart Radio and Grim and Mild
Speaker 2: from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danashwartz.
Speaker 2: Additional writing and researching done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick,
Speaker 2: Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is
Speaker 2: produced by rima Il Kayali, with supervising producer Josh Thain
Speaker 2: and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.