In the midst of these discontents, a report was propa gated among the people, that Richard Duke of York, second son of Edward IV. had saved himself from the cruelty of his uncle Richard III. and was somewhere in England. This story was received with great avidity, and suggested to a priest in Oxford, nao.ed Richard Simon, the scheme of raising, upon this ground, a pretender to the crown. Aided and advised, as has been generally supposed, by some persons of higher r‘dik, he fixed upon a youth called Lambert Simnel, about fif teen years of age, who was the son of a baker, but who possessed an understanding and address above his con dition, and whom he instructed to personate the son of Edward, who was now rumoured to be alive. Hearing, however, a new report, that the young Earl of Warwick had made his escape from the Tower, and observing that this was a subject of equally general satisfaction, he chan ged the plan of his imposture, and taught Simnel to re present that unfot tunate prince. Sensible at the same time that the counterfeit could not stand a very close inspection, he carried his pupil to Ireland, as the most proper theatre for opening the scene. In this country, the people were all devoted to the family of York ; and the whole officers of state appointed in the preceding reign, had been improvidently allowed to retain their au thority. Here the pretender experienced the most fa vourable reception from persons of the highest rank, whose example was eagerly followed by the lower orders; and Simnel, having been proclaimed king of Ireland, was lodged with great pomp in the castle of Dublin.
Henry, alarmed by so unexpected a revolution, was at first inclined to face his enemies in person; but suspect ing the conspiracy to have been framed in England, he directed his own exertions to the discovery of its promo ters in that kingdom; while at the same time he did not fail to provide the most rigorous means of suppressing the revolt in Ireland. After frequent consultations with his confidential friends, he commanded the queen•dowa ger to be seized, and closely confined in the nunnery of Bermondesey; but, unwilling to charge so near a relative with treason, he assigned, as the cause of this severe treatment, her having formerly delivered the Princess Elizabeth and her other daughters into the hands of the late king. I 1 e next ordered Warwick to be taken from the Tower, and led through the streets of London in the view of the whole people, directing- at the same time veral persons of rank, who were attached to the house of York, and well acquainted with the person of the young prince, to approach him, and converse with him. This expedient had the effect of exposing the imposture to his subjects in England ; but the people of Ireland still per sisted in their rebellion, and charged the King with hav ing exhibited a counterfeit Warwick. John Earl of Lin coln, nephew of Edward IV. who had previously retired to Flanders, being there joined by Lord Lord, and fur nished by the Duchess of Burgundy with 2000 veteran Germans, under the command of Martin Swart, a brave and experieoced officer, joined the party of Simnel in Ireland. The Irish, encouraged by this reinforcement, and having first crowned the impostor with great solem nity, proceeded to the invasion of England ; and having landed in Lancashire, where they were received by Sir Thomas Broughton, a gentleman of considerable in fluence in that country, they advanced into Yorkshire, in the expectation of being joined by the inhabitants on their march. But the people in general, convinced of
Lambert's imposture, averse to unite with foreign inva ders, and awed by the reputation of Henry, either re mained in tranquillity, or repaired to the royal army. Lincoln, who commanded the rebels, and whose force amounted to 8000 men, perceiving 110 hopes but in vic tory, resolved to bring the matter to a speedy decision. The king, who, upon the news of Simnel's landing, had advanced as far as Coventry, was equally eager for combat. The hostile armies met at Stoke, near Newark in Nottingham ; and, after an obstinate engagement, Henry obtained a complete victory, at the expellee of 2000 of his best troops. Lincoln, Lovel, Broughton, Swart, and most of the rebel leaders, with 4000 of their followers, perished in the field of battle. The impostor Simnel, and his tutor Simon, were taken prisoners. The latter being exempted, as a priest, from the power of the civil law, was committed to close custody for life; and the former, being too contemptible an object for the re sentment of Henry, was made, first a scullion in his kit chen, and afterwards advanced to the office of a falconer. Few of the other delinquents were put to death, but ma ny of them were subjected to heavy fines. The proceed ings against all who were suspected of having favoured the rebels were sufficiently arbitrary and rigorous ; but, on the other hand, the people were gratified, and the principal source of their disaffection removed, by the ceremony of the queen's coronation, which took place on the 25th of November 1487.
Henry, aware of the futility of conquests upon the continent, or, as some authors represent the matter, averse, through motives o•rugality, from all distant ex peditions, found it nevertheless necessary, to gratify the warlike temper of his subjects, and to indulge their an cient animosity towards France, by professing a resolu tion to resist the encroachments which that rival power had recently made upon the province of Brittany. Ha ving summoned a parliament at Westminster, he found no difficulty in persuading them to grant him a consider able subsidy ; but, in those days, money was more easily voted than levied in England. The inhabitants of the more northern counties, who had been always disaffected to Henry's government, and who still smarted from his severities after the overthrow of Simnel, resisted the collection of the tax, and put to death the Earl of Northumberland, while he attempted to enforce obe dience to the laws. Conceiving themselves too deep in guilt to escape, they pt acceded to open rebellion; and, at the instigation of John a Chambre. a seditious fellow of low birth, they chose Sir John Egremotit as their leader, and declared against the king as a tyrant and usurper. As soon as Ilenry recoiled intelligence of this insurrection, he dispatched a body of troops, under the Earl of Surrey, who dispersed the rebels without much difficulty ; and a Chanibre, having been taken prisoner, was executed at York, with twelve of his accomplices. Egremont fled for protection to the Duchess of Burgun dy ; and the greater part of his misguided followers re ceived a pardon.