King Henry VII’s strangest threat during his reign comes from Lambert
Simnel.
The Battle of Bosworth was supposed to signal the end of the War of the
Roses and the beginning of strong and stable rule across England. However King Henry
VII’s problem post the Battle of Bosworth is that he still has many rivals.
They feel he has a weak claim to power. In fact all told there are at least 29
others who can legitimately state their claim is better than his by virtue of
their ancestry
A weak man would have collapsed under all the stresses and strains but
according to one contemporary chronicler 'His body was slender but well built
and strong; his height above the average. His appearance was remarkably
attractive and his face was cheerful especially when speaking; his eyes were
small and blue; his teeth few, poor and blackish; his hair was thin and grey;
his complexion pale'.
What makes their threats so potent is that not only do they have the
intent to overthrow but they also have access to large numbers of soldiers who
can ensure they triumph. One major threat for Henry VII comes early on from one
of the ‘Princes in the Tower’. This is significant as they are heirs to the
throne. During the reign of King Richard III they had been restricted to living
in the Tower of London and have mysteriously vanished. Now all of a sudden one
of them reappears. Claiming to be a son of the recent King Edward IV he has far
greater legitimate right to the throne. He also happens to bear a strong
resemblance to the boy so his claim has added plausibility.
Many see the Princes as the rightful claimants to the throne. However
this boy is in fact none other than a ten year old called Lambert Simnel, a
pawn being used by others to reassert the rival House of York’s claim to the
throne over King Henry VII’s House of Tudor. Since Henry VII has only had a
brief period in office his regime is not yet stable enough to stop this threat
in its tracks right away. This allows the situation to rapidly degenerate into
one that threatens his very right to be on the throne.
The instigator who raises all of this commotion is the 28 year old
Richard Symonds, a priest from Oxford. An ambitious man, he secretly pines for
the top ecclesiastical position of the Archbishop of Canterbury. One of his
pupils happens to be Lambert Simnel. Symonds, a Yorkist, first decides to pass
off Simnel as Richard of York, the younger of the two boys but then changes his
mind and passes him off as Edward Plantagenet, the Earl of Warwick. This is another
audacious move as the Earl is also a young boy and had been the heir to King
Richard’s throne when Richard was still alive. To make the story seem more
plausible his supporters say he somehow managed to navigate an escape from the
Tower of London where he had been held under the orders of King Henry VII.
The next step for Symonds is to take Simnel to Ireland where it is hoped
that a Yorkist powerbase can develop and act as a springboard to raise revolt
across England. Here he is joined by the Earl of Lincoln (the closest heir to
King Richard III and a man with his own ambitions to usurp power for himself) and
Viscount Lovel who has earlier fled to Flanders to join his Aunt, Margaret of
Burgundy.
Margaret of Burgundy plays a key role in fermenting trouble for Henry
VII. She is the daughter of King Edward IV and niece of Richard III and so she
readily blames King Henry VII for slaying her brother in 1485 at the Battle of
Bosworth. We know about her reputation as contemporary chroniclers eager
to please the King are vociferous in their condemnation of her. Polydore
Virgil, a Tudor historian writes that Margaret ‘pursued Henry with insatiable
hatred and with fiery wrath never desisted from employing every scheme which
might harm him as a representative of the hostile faction’. Edward Hall goes a
step further and states rather graphically that she is ‘lyke a dogge revertynge
to her olde vomyte’. Famously King Henry VII describes her as a ‘diabolical
duchess’.
It was also here in Ireland that the Lord Lieutenant, the Earl of
Kildare, amongst other nobles proclaim Simnel as King Edward VI at Christ
Church Cathedral, Dublin on 24th May 1487. For de la Pole (the Earl of Lincoln)
this is a chance for himself to assert power as even though he is a supporter
of Richard III his real reason for allegiance is his desire to become a
Protector of England for Edward VI. As the eldest son of Elizabeth (the sister
of Edward IV) by the Duke of Suffolk he has his own claim to the throne. With
power safely in his own hands his hope is to rid himself of the ‘King’ at a
later date and become ruler of all of England for himself.
This development catches Henry VII by surprise as John de la Pole is one
of his councillors at the time when the plot to usurp begins and so this
amounts to a great act of betrayal. Even as late as 2 February 1487 after the
plot has emerged into the open the Earl of Lincoln is still attending council meetings
with the King at Sheen. This act of treachery by such a close advisor helps
explain why Henry is such a suspicious and cautious man. On this occasion he
has the right attitude as events take an even worse turn for Henry VII when
further forces begin to gather against him due to Margaret of York, the Duchess
of Burgundy openly pledging her allegiance to the new ‘King’. Most importantly
she sends a force of 2000 expert German mercenaries to Ireland to join the
existing forces. This small army itself also happens to be commanded by Martin
Schwarz – an able military leader.
A clear sign of the danger Henry VII is in comes from the senior
nobility who now start to waver in their support for him. If his critics and
enemies hope that Henry is all washed up they have under estimated the tactical
astuteness of him and his determination to maintain his grip on power. Indeed
an Italian scholar called Virgil at one time describes him as being ‘shrewd and
prudent so that no one dared to get the better of him through deceit and guile’.
His first step is to march the real Earl of Warwick out of his prison
and parade him through the streets of London. In one swift stroke he manages to
destroy the credentials of Simnel as a genuine nobleman and heir to the throne
of England. Henry then makes a bold rather unconventional decision. He is
unsure how many nobles are conspiring against him and so he decides to make the
conciliatory gesture of pardoning known rebels such as Thomas Broughton. His
hope is to limit the extent of the rebellion by appearing fair and reasonable.
It is a risky strategy but it mainly works.
All that is left now is to tackle the Earl of Lincoln and his army.
Since he has arrived on the 4th June 1487, Lincoln has been seeking support
across Lancashire, the Pennines in the north of England and then toward the
south. However, Lincoln’s campaign now begins to falter. The locals are
suspicious of the Irish soldiers who accompany Lincoln and so they refuse to
rally to his cause. Many are also worn out by civil war that had gone on
between the Yorkists and Lancastrians and seek to avoid trouble.
Finally on June 16th 1487 King Henry VII meets up with
Lincoln just outside of Newark at East Stoke, Nottinghamshire in what became
known as the Battle of Stoke Field. All the measures taken by King Henry
earlier to limit the threat can be seen to have taken effect as he now has the
upper hand. Whilst Lincoln’s army stands at 8,000 his opposite, King Henry has
12,000 men.
Battle commences and lasts for three hours in a closely fought
encounter. At the beginning Henry’s forces disperse a shower of arrows on the
Irish forces that inflicts massive casualties on them. However rather than be decimated
the Irish decide to attack at full speed downhill right into the thick of the
opposing 6,000 troops commanded by John de Vere, the Earl of Oxford. With the
well trained German mercenaries on the side of Lincoln it is a very tight
contest as each side tears into the other seeking any advantage possible. The
fact that Oxford’s men hold firm is crucial as they manage to regroup and make
use of their superior numbers. Lacking armour the Irish are also at a
disadvantage as the skilled longbowmen employed by Henry can decimate the
Yorkist forces with wave after wave of arrows. Eventually the Yorkist forces
are obliged to slowly retreat. They ended up being pushed back beyond their
starting point and then slaughtered at a bottleneck that becomes known as Red
Gutter. The rebels do not lack courage and there is some evidence that rather
than escape some of the German mercenaries alongside their Yorkist commanders
decide to fight to the death. According to the contemporary chronicler, Jean
Molinet the Irish troops end up ‘filled with arrows like hedgehogs’.
By the end of the conflict the rebel leaders Lincoln, Schwarz, Broughton
(who had not accepted his pardon) and the leader of the Irish, Thomas
Geraldine, are dead and the last remaining Yorkist leader, Lord Lovell has
disappeared. In total over half of Lincoln’s force die.
With this decisive victory Henry is now back in a commanding position.
To cement his position as King in the country on 25th of
November his wife, Elizabeth and mother of his heir, is finally crowned Queen.
He has the troublesome priest Richard Symonds arrested and sentenced to life in
a bishop’s prison. What happens to Lambert Simnel though is much more
surprising and again shows how canny Henry is. Rather than execute him and
appear callous he takes a magnaminous approach and he gives him a humiliating
position in the king’s kitchen as a scullion (washer of dishes) and turnspit
(turning a spit beside a fireplace). Henry does this because he recognises that
Lambert is not really to blame for what has happened and is merely a puppet. By
graciously allowing him to live he is not only showing his generous spirit but
also sending out a sign he is so confident he is not worried about allowing a
threat to remain alive.
The story does not end here. In later life Simnel is given the post of
King’s falconer in recognition of how well he has worked. However those nobles
who have opposed Henry fair less well. Twenty eight lose their estates to
Henry. This serves a dual purpose. It sends a clear message that anyone who
betrays the king will be severely dealt with.
Henry goes on to face many more threats during his reign but all who
challenge him end up losing. No matter what they do he is able to out manoeuvre
them and demonstrate what a canny King he really is. If an opportunity arises
to gain his vengeance he takes it. A very good example occurs many years later
when he meets the Earl of Kildare and some other Irish Lords. These are the
same men who had fermented trouble for him in Ireland during the rebellion so
Henry takes the chance to mock them with 'My masters of Ireland, you will
crown apes at length'. Initially the Irish Lords have no idea what he is
talking about so you can imagine their astonishment when it is then explained
to them that the person who has brought them their wine is none other than
their 'new King Lambarte Symenell’ who ‘brought them wine to drink, and drank
to them all'.