A report had been spread, and received with great avidity, that Richard, Duke of York, second son to Edward the Fourth, had secretly escaped from confinement, saved himself from the cruelty of his uncle, and lay concealed somewhere in England. Taking advantage of that rumour, Simon had at first instructed his pupil to assume that name; but hearing afterwards that Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, was reported to have made his escape from the Tower, he changed the plan of his imposture, that Simnel might personate that unfortunate prince.
From his being better informed of circumstances relating to the royal family, particularly of the Earl of Warwick’s adventures, than he could be supposed to have learned from one of Simon’s condition, it was conjectured that persons of higher rank, partisans of the House of York, had laid the plan of the conspiracy, and had conveyed proper instructions to the actors.
The first scene opened in Ireland, a country zealously attached to the House of York. No sooner did Simnel present himself to Thomas Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, and claim his protection as the unfortunate Warwick, than the credulous nobleman, not suspecting so bold an imposture, paid him great attention, and consulted some persons of rank on a matter so extraordinary.
These parties were more sanguine in belief than even himself; and in proportion to the circulation of the story, it became the object of greater enthusiasm and credulity, till the people of Dublin with one consent, tendered their allegiance to Simnel as the true Plantagenet.
Simnel was lodged in the castle of Dublin, and was crowned with a diadem taken from the statue of the Virgin, and publicly proclaimed king by the appellation of Edward the Sixth.
In order to prove the imposture of Simnel, Henry the Seventh ordered that Warwick should be taken from the Tower, led in procession through the streets of London, conducted to St. Paul’s, and exposed to the view of the whole people. This expedient put a stop to the credulity of the English; but in Ireland the people still persisted in their revolt, and even retorted on the king the reproach of propagating an imposture, and of having shown to the populace a counterfeit Warwick.
Simnel landed in England, and opposed the king in battle; but his faction having been routed, he was soon reduced to his original insignificance. He was pardoned by the king, was made a scullion to the royal kitchen, and was subsequently raised to the rank of a falconer.
Notwithstanding the failure of Lambert Simnel, a second attempt was, six years afterwards, made to disturb the government; it introduced one of the most mysterious personages recorded in English history.
The Duchess of Burgundy, it seems, full of resentment at Henry the Seventh, propagated a report that her nephew, Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, had escaped from the Tower. To personate the duke, a youth, named Perkin Warbeck, was discovered, fit for her purpose. He is asserted to have been the son of one Osbeck or Warbeck, a renegado Jew of Tournay. This Jew had been to London in the reign of Edward the Fourth, and during his stay his wife brought him a son: being in favour at court, he prevailed with the king to stand godfather to his son, though it was hinted that there was, in reality, a much nearer connexion between the king and the youth; and by this, people accounted for the resemblance which was afterwards remarked between young Perkin and that monarch.