A. D. .483.

ONE

NE crime ever draws on another; justice will revolt against fraud, and usurpation requires security. As soon, therefore, as Richard was seated upon the throne, he sent the governor of the Tower orders to put the two young princes to death; but this brave man, whose name was Brackenbury, refused to be made the instrument of a tyrant's will; and submissively answered, that he knew not how to embrue his hands in innocent blood. A fit instrument, however, was not long wanting; Sir James Tyrrel readily undertook the office, and Brackenbury was ordered to resign to him the keys for one night. Tyrrel choosing three associates, Slater, Deighton, and Forest, came in the night-time to the door of the chamber where the princes were lodged, and sending in the assassins, he bid them execute their commission, while he himself staid without. They found the young princes in bed, and fallen into a sound sleep: after suffocating them with the bolster and pillows, they shewed their naked bodies to Tyrrel, who ordered them to be buried at the stair-foot, deep in the ground, under a heap of stones.

But while he thus endeavoured to establish his power, he found it threatened in a quarter where he least expected an attack. The duke of Buckingham, who had been instrumental in placing him on the throne, now took disgust at being refused some confiscated lands for which he solicited. He therefore levied a body of men in Wales, and advanced by hasty marches towards Gloucester, where he designed to cross the Severn.

F

Just at that time the river was swoln to such a degree, that the country on both sides was deluged, and even the tops of some hills were covered with water. This inundation continued for ten days; during which Buckingham's army, composed of Welshmen, could neither pass the river, nor find subsistence on their own side; they were therefore obliged to disperse, and return home, notwithstanding all the duke's efforts to prolong their stay. In this helpless situation, the duke, after a short deliberation, took refuge at the house of one Banister, who had been his servant, and who had received repeated obligations from his family; but the wicked seldom find, as they seldom exert, friendship. Banister, unable to resist the temptation of a large reward that was set upon the duke's head, went and betrayed him to the sheriff of Shropshire; who, surrounding the house with armed men, seized the duke, in the habit of a peasant, and conducted him to Salisbury; where he was instantly tried, condemned, and executed, according to the summary method practised in those days.

Amidst the perplexity caused by many disagreeable occurrences, he received information that the earl of Richmond was making preparations to land in England, and assert his claims to the crown. Richard, who knew not in what quarter he might expect the invader, had taken post at Nottingham, in the centre of the kingdom; and had given commissions to several of his creatures to oppose the enemy wherever he should land.

Some time after, however, the earl of Richmond, who was a descendant from John of Gaunt, by the female line, resolved to strike for the crown. He had been long obnoxious to the house of York, and had been obliged to quit the kingdom; but he now knowing how odious the king was, set out from Harfleur, in Normandy, with a retinue of about two thousand persons; and after a voyage of six days arrived at Milfordhaven, in Wales, were he landed without opposition.

Upon news of this descent, Richard, who was possessed of courage and military conduct, his only virtues, instantly resolved to meet his antagonist, and decide their mutual pretensions by a battle. Richmond, on the other hand, being reinforced by Sir Thomas Bourchier, Sir Walter Hungerford, and others, to the number of about six thousand, boldly advanced with the same intention; and in a few days both armies drew near Bosworthfield, where the contest that had now for more than forty years filled the kingdom with civil commotions, and deluged its plains with blood, was determined by the death of Richard, who was slain in battle; while Richmond was saluted king, by the title of Henry the Seventh.

A. D. HE

1485.

HENRY VII.

ENRY'S first care, upon coming to the throne, was to marry the princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward the Fourth; and thus he blended the interests of the houses of York and Lancaster, so that ever after they were incapable of distinction.

A great part of the miseries of his predecessors proceeded from their poverty, which was mostly occasioned by riot and dissipation. Henry saw that money alone could turn the scale of power in his favour; and therefore hoarded up all the confiscations of his enemies with the utmost frugality.

Immediately after his marriage with Elizabeth, he issued a general pardon to all such as chose to accept it; but people were become so turbulent and factious, by a long course of civil war, that no governor could rule them, nor any king please; so that one rebellion seemed extinguished only to give

rise to another.

There lived in Oxford one Richard Simon, a priest, who possessing some subtlety and more rashness, trained up Lambert Simnel, a baker's son, to counterfeit the person of the earl of Warwick, the son of the duke of Clarence, who was smothered in a butt of malmsey. But as the impostor was not calculated to bear a close inspection, it was thought proper to shew him first at a distance; and Ireland was judged the fittest theatre for him to support his assumed character.

In this manner king Simnel, being joined by lord Lovel, and

one or two lords more of the discontented party, resolved to pass over into England; and accordingly landed in Lancashire, from whence he marched to York, expecting the country would rise and join him as he marched along. But in this he was deceived; the people, averse to join a body of German and Irish troops, by whom he was supported, and kept in awe by the king's reputation, remained in tranquillity, or gave all their assistance to the royal cause. The earl of Lincoln, therefore, a disaffected lord, to whom the command of the rebel army was given, finding no hopes but in speedy victory, was determined to bring the contest to a short issue. The opposite armies met at Stoke, in the county of Nottingham, and fought a battle, which was more bloody, and more obstinately disputed, than could have been expected from the inequality of their 'forces. But victor" at length declared in favour of the king, and it proved decisive. Lord Lincoln perished in the field of battle;. lord Lovel was never more heard of, and it is supposed he shared the same fate. Simnel, with his tutor Simon, were taken prisoners; and four thousand of the common men fell in the battle. Simon, being a priest, could not be tried by the civil power, and was only committed to close confinement. Simnel was too contemptible to excite the king's fear or resentment; he was pardoned, and made a scullion in the king's kitchen, whence he was afterwards advanced to the rank of falconer, in which mean employment he died.

A fresh insurrection began in Yorkshire; the people resisting the commissioners who were appointed to levy the taxes, the earl of Northumberland attempted to enforce the king's command; but the populace, being by this taught to believe that he was the adviser of their oppressions, flew to arms, attacked his house, and put him to death. The mutineers did not stop there; but, by the advice of one John Archamber, a seditious fellow of mean birth, they chose Sir John Egremont for their leader, and prepared themselves for a vigorous resistance. The king, upon hearing of this rash proceeding, immediately levied a force, which he put under the earl of Surrey; and this nobleman encountering the rebels, dissipated the tumult, and took their leader, Archamber, prisoner. Archamber was shortly after executed; but Sir John Egremont fled to the court of the duchess of Burgundy, the usual retreat of all who were obnoxious to government in England.

A. D.
D...

1492.

One would have imagined, that, from the ill success of Simnel's imposture, few would be willing to embark in another of a similar kind; however, the old duchess of

Burgundy, rather irritated than discouraged by the failure of her past enterprises, was determined to disturb that government which she could not subvert. She first procured a report to be spread, that the young duke of York, said to have been murdered in the Tower, was still living; and finding the rumour greedily received, she soon produced a young man who assumed his name and character. The person pitched upon to sustain this part was one Osbeck, or Warbeck, the son of a converted Jew, who had been over in England during the reign of Edward IV. where he had this son named Peter, but corrupted, after the Flemish manner, into Peterkin, or Perkin. The duchess of Burgundy found this youth entirely suited to her purposes; and her lessons, instructing him to personate the duke of York, were easily learned and strongly retained by a youth of very quick apprehension. In short, his graceful air, his courtly address, his easy manner, and elegant conversation, were capable of imposing upon all but such as were conscious of the imposture.

The English, ever ready to revolt, gave credit to all these absurdities; while the young man's prudence, conversation, and deportment, served to confirm what their disaffection and credulity had begun.

Among those who secretly abetted the cause of Perkin, were lord Fitzwalter, Sir Simon Mountford, Sir Thomas Thwaits, and Sir Robert Clifford. But the person of the greatest weight, and the most dangerous opposition, was Sir William Stanley, the lord Chamberlain, and brother to the famous lord Stanley, who had contributed to place Henry on the throne. This personage, either moved by a blind credulity, or more probably by a restless ambition, entered into a regular conspiracy against the king; and a correspondence was settled between the malecontents in England and those in Flanders.

While the plot was thus carrying on in all quarters, Henry was not inattentive to the designs of his enemies. He spared neither labour nor expense to detect the falsehood of the pretender to his crown; and was equally assiduous in finding out who were his secret abettors. For this purpose, he dispersed his spies through all Flanders, and brought over, by large bribes, some of these whom he knew to be in the enemy's interest. Among these Sir Robert Clifford was the most remarkable, both for his consequence, and the confidence with which he was trusted. From this person Henry learnt the whole of Perkin's birth and adventures, together with the names of all those who had secretly combined to assist him. The king was pleased