of Yorkist conspiracies and pretenders. Of the two most notable impostors, the first, Lambert Simnel, personated the earl of Warwick, son of the duke of Clarence, a youth of seventeen whom Henry had at his accession taken care to imprison in the Tower. Simnel, who was but a boy, was taken over to Ireland to perform his part, and the farce was wonderfully successful. He was crowned as Edward VI. in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, and received the allegiance of every one—bishops, nobles and judges, alike with others. From Ireland, accompanied by some bands of German mercenaries procured for him in the Low Countries, he invaded England; but the rising was put down at Stoke near Newark in Nottinghamshire, and, Simnel being captured, the king made him a menial of his kitchen.
This movement had been greatly assisted by Margaret, duchess dowager of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., who could not endure to see the House of York supplanted by that of Tudor. The second pretender, Perkin Warbeck, was also much indebted to her support; but he seems to have entered on his career at first without it. And his story, which was more prolonged, had to do with the attitude of many countries towards England. Anxious as Henry was to avoid being involved in foreign wars, it was not many years before he was committed to a war with France, partly by his desire of an alliance with Spain, and partly by the indignation of his own subjects at the way in which the French were undermining the independence of Brittany. Henry gave Brittany defensive aid; but after the duchess Anne had married Charles VIII. of France, he felt bound to fulfil his obligations to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and also to the German king Maximilian, by an invasion of France in 1492. His allies, however, were not equally scrupulous or equally able to fulfil their obligations to him; and after besieging Boulogne for some little time, he received very advantageous offers from the French king and made peace with him.
Now Perkin Warbeck had first appeared in Ireland in 1491, and had somehow been persuaded there to personate Richard, duke of York, the younger of the two princes murdered in the Tower, pretending that he had escaped, though his brother had been killed. Charles VIII., then expecting war with England, called him to France, recognized his pretensions and gave him a retinue; but after the peace he dismissed him. Then Margaret of Burgundy received him as her nephew, and Maximilian, now estranged from Henry, recognized him as king of England. With a fleet given him by Maximilian he attempted to land at Deal, but sailed away to Ireland and, not succeeding very well there either, sailed farther to Scotland, where James IV. received him with open arms, married him to an earl’s daughter and made a brief and futile invasion of England along with him. But in 1497 he thought best to dismiss him, and Perkin, after attempting something again in Ireland, landed in Cornwall with a small body of men.
Already Cornwall had risen in insurrection that year, not liking the taxation imposed for the purpose of repelling the Scotch invasion. A host of the country people, led first by a blacksmith, but afterwards by a nobleman, marched up towards London and were only defeated at Blackheath. But the Cornishmen were quite ready for another revolt, and indeed had invited Perkin to their shores. He had little fight in him, however, and after a futile siege of Exeter and an advance to Taunton he stole away and took sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire. But, being assured of his life, he surrendered, was brought to London, and was only executed two years later, when, being imprisoned near the earl of Warwick in the Tower, he inveigled that simple-minded youth into a project of escape. For this Warwick, too, was tried, condemned and executed—no doubt to deliver Henry from repeated conspiracies in his favour.
Henry had by this time several children, of whom the eldest, Arthur, had been proposed in infancy for a bridegroom to Catherine, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon. The match had always been kept in view, but its completion depended greatly on the assurance Ferdinand and Isabella could feel of Henry’s secure position upon the throne. At last Catherine was brought to England and was married to Prince Arthur at St Paul’s on the 14th of November 1501. The lad was just over fifteen and the co-habitation of the couple was wisely delayed; but he died on the 2nd of April following. Another match was presently proposed for Catherine with the king’s second son, Henry, which only took effect when the latter had become king himself. Meanwhile Henry’s eldest daughter Margaret was married to James IV. of Scotland—a match distinctly intended to promote international peace, and make possible that ultimate union which actually resulted from it. The espousals had taken place at Richmond in 1502, and the marriage was celebrated in Scotland the year after. In the interval between these two events Henry lost his queen, who died on the 11th of February 1503, and during the remainder of his reign he made proposals in various quarters for a second marriage—proposals in which political objects were always the chief consideration; but none of them led to any result. In his latter years he became unpopular from the extortions practised by his two instruments, Empson and Dudley, under the authority of antiquated statutes. From the beginning of his reign he had been accumulating money, mainly for his own security against intrigues and conspiracies, and avarice had grown upon him with success. He died in April 1509, undoubtedly the richest prince in Christendom. He was not a niggard, however, in his expenditure. Before his death he had finished the hospital of the Savoy and made provision for the magnificent chapel at Westminster which bears his name. His money-getting was but part of his statesmanship, and for his statesmanship his country owes him not a little gratitude. He not only terminated a disastrous civil war and brought under control the spirit of ancient feudalism, but with a clear survey of the conditions of foreign powers he secured England in almost uninterrupted peace while he developed her commerce, strengthened her slender navy and built, apparently for the first time, a naval dock at Portsmouth.
In addition to his sons Arthur and Henry, Henry VII. had several daughters, one of whom, Margaret, married James IV., king of Scotland, and another, Mary, became the wife of Louis XII. of France, and afterwards of Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk.
The popular view of Henry VII.’s reign has always been derived from Bacon’s History of that king. This has been edited by J. R. Lumby (Cambridge, 1881). But during the last half century large accessions to our knowledge have been made from foreign and domestic archives, and the sources of Bacon’s work have been more critically examined. For a complete account of those sources the reader may be referred to W. Busch’s England under the Tudors, published in German in 1892 and in an English translation in 1895. Some further information of a special kind will be found in M. Oppenheim’s Naval Accounts and Inventories, published by the Navy Records Society in 1896. See also J. Gairdner’s Henry VII. (1889). (J. Ga.)
HENRY VIII. (1491–1547), king of England and Ireland, the
third child and second son of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of
York, was born on the 28th of June 1491 and, like all the Tudor
sovereigns except Henry VII., at Greenwich. His two brothers,
Prince Arthur and Edmund, duke of Somerset, and two of
his sisters predeceased their father; Henry was the only son,
and Margaret, afterwards queen of Scotland, and Mary, afterwards
queen of France and duchess of Suffolk, were the only
daughters who survived. Henry is said, on authority which
has not been traced farther back than Paolo Sarpi, to have
been destined for the church; but the story is probably a mere
surmise from his theological accomplishments, and from his
earliest years high secular posts such as the viceroyalty of Ireland
were conferred upon the child. He was the first English monarch
to be educated under the influence of the Renaissance, and his
tutors included the poet Skelton; he became an accomplished
scholar, linguist, musician and athlete, and when by the death
of his brother Arthur in 1502 and of his father on the 22nd of
April 1509 Henry VIII. succeeded to the throne, his accession
was hailed with universal acclamation.
He had been betrothed to his brother’s widow Catherine of Aragon, and in spite of the protest which he had been made to register against the marriage, and of the doubts expressed by Julius II. and Archbishop Warham as to its validity, it was
