If we may believe the concurring testimony of contemporary authors, six millions of persons assumed the cross, which was the badge that distinguished such as devoted themselves to this holy warfare. All Europe, says the Princess Anna Comnena, torn up from the foundation, seemed ready to precipitate itself in one united body upon Asia. Nor did the fumes of this enthusiastic zeal evaporate at once: the frenzy was as lasting as it was extravagant. During two centuries Europe seems to have had no object but to recover, or keep possession, of the Holy Land, and through that period vast armies continued to march thither.
As Constantinople was the place of rendezvous for all the armies of the crusaders, this brought together the people of the East and West as to one great interview; and several authors, witnesses of this singular congress of people, formerly strangers, describe with simplicity and candour the impression which that new spectacle made upon their own minds.
The first efforts of valour, animated by enthusiasm, were irresistible; part of the Lesser Asia, all Syria, and Palestine, were wrested from the infidels; the banner of the cross was displayed on Mount Sion; Constantinople, the capital of the Christian empire in the East, was afterwards seized by a body of those adventurers who had taken arms against the Mahometans; and an Earl of Flanders and his descendants kept possession of the imperial throne during half a century. But, though the first impression of the crusaders was so unexpected that they made their conquests with comparative ease, they found infinite difficulty in preserving them. Establishments so distant from Europe, surrounded by warlike nations animated with fanatical zeal scarcely inferior to that of the crusaders themselves, were perpetually in danger of being overturned. Before the expiration of the thirteenth century the Christians were driven out of all their Asiatic possessions, in acquiring of which incredible numbers of men had perished, and immense sums of money had been wasted. The only common enterprise in which the European nations ever engaged, and which they all undertook with equal ardour, remains a singular monument of human folly.
CHAPTER V.
ROYAL IMPOSTORS.
Pretenders to Royalty numerous—Contest between the Houses of York and Lancaster gives rise to various Pretenders—Insurrection of Jack Cade—He is killed—Lambert Simnel is tutored to personate the Earl of Warwick—He is crowned at Dublin—He is taken Prisoner, pardoned, and made Scullion in the Royal Kitchen—Perkin Warbeck pretends to be the murdered Duke of York—He is countenanced by the King of France—He is acknowledged by the Duchess of Burgundy—Perkin lands in Scotland, and is aided by King James—He is married to Lady Catherine Gordon—He invades England, but fails—His Death—Pretenders in Portugal—Gabriel de Spinosa—He is hanged—The Son of a Tiler pretends to be Sebastian—He is sent to the Galleys—Gonçalo Alvarez succeeds him—He is executed—An Individual of talents assumes the Character of Sebastian—His extraordinary Behaviour in his Examinations—He is given up to the Spaniards—His Sufferings and dignified Deportment—His Fate not known—Pretenders in Russia—The first false Demetrius—He obtains the Throne, but is driven from it by Insurrection, and is slain—Other Impostors assume the same Name—Revolt of Pugatscheff—Pretenders in France—Hervegault and Bruneau assume the Character of the deceased Louis XVI.
The seductions presented by a throne, and some circumstances which seemed to give a chance of success, have, in various ages and countries, stimulated individuals to personate the descendants of sovereigns, and, in some instances, deceased sovereigns themselves. To mention all of them, even briefly, within the narrow limits of a chapter, would be impossible; and, therefore, passing over the false Smerdis, the Alexanders, and others of ancient times, we will select a few specimens from modern history.
During the reigns of Henry the Sixth and Seventh, infinite carnage and misery were caused by the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster. That contest also gave rise to several remarkable impostures on the part of the Yorkists. The Duke of York, in the time of Henry the Sixth, animated one Jack Cade, a native of Ireland, to personate Mortimer, and, in consequence of this, a formidable insurrection actually burst out in Kent during the Whitsuntide week. On the first mention of the popular name of Mortimer, the common people of that county, to the number of twenty thousand, flocked to Cade’s standard. He marshalled the vast multitude that followed him, and marched to Blackheath, and, shortly after, to London. Having served in the French wars, he was enabled to encamp them with some military skill. He presented two petitions to the king, in the name of the people; and his demands, not in themselves unreasonable, were supported even by some of the king’s friends. In spite of his attempts to maintain discipline, some of his followers pillaged a few houses in London, and thus alarmed the city, which at first had favoured him. The citizens consequently rose against him, and a sharp conflict ensued, which terminated to his disadvantage. A pardon being offered to his men, they accepted it, and immediately dispersed. He himself took horse, and fled towards Lewes, in Sussex; but he was overtaken, and discovered in a garden, by an esquire, named Alexander Iden, who slew him after a desperate combat.
The discontentment of the Yorkists against the House of Lancaster showed itself more remarkably during the reign of Henry the Seventh, whose increasing unpopularity, about the year 1486, induced the opposite party to attempt some singular impostures, and set up pretenders to the crown.
The first fictitious prince was introduced to the world, by one Richard Simon, a priest, possessed of subtlety and enterprise. The youth was in reality one Lambert Simnel, the son of a baker; endowed with understanding above his years, and address above his condition, he seemed well fitted to personate a prince of royal extraction.