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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ. Queens of England. Vol.1.

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FRANCIS LANCELOTT, ESQ.
Queens of England. Vol.1.
page 337



vìnce received him with joy, as the real Duke of York, and the rightful heir to the English throne, and gave him a guard suitable to that dignity. The English, ever ready to revolt, gave credit to this new imposture. Those who were tbe King's former favourites, and had contributed to place him on the throne, took the lead in the conspiracy, and were joined by all who, from a love of novelty, the goadings of poverty, or a blind attachment to their leaders, were anxious for a change. Whilst the King's enemies were thus combining to involve the kingdom in civil war, he himself was no less intent upon preventing the threatened danger. He endeavoured to undeceive the people, first, by making it evident that the Duke of York was really dead, and by punishing his murderers ; and, next, by ascertaining the parentage and personal history of the pretender. The last of these projects was not easily accomplished. But Henry, at length, won over Sir Robert Clifford, who was then accompanying the pretender in Flanders, and had been entrusted with his and the Duchess's secrets. Clifford, after informing the King with the designs of the conspirators, presented him with a list of their names. At the head of this list stood Lord Stanley, who, on being arrested, confessed his guilt, and suffered the punishment of decapitation. In this emergency, the pretender sailed from Flanders, with a tew hundred adherents, and whilst Henry, accompanied by Elizabeth, was on a visit to his mother, at Latham, in Lancashire, made a descent in the neighbourhood of Deal ; but, being driven back by the inhabitants, he sailed to Ireland. The Irish, however, would not rise in his cause, nor did fortune seem to smile upon him till he entered Scotland, when the young Scotch King, James the Fourth, received him with favour, acknowledged the justice of his pretensions, and shortly afterwards gave him in marriage Katherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, and second cousin to Henry the Seventh, one of the most beautiful and accomplished women of her lime. The Scotch King, believing that, upon Perkin's first appearance in England, all the Yorkists would rise in his favour, crossed the border with powerful forces, and proclaimed the young adventurer wherever he went ; but, to bis disappointment, no one would second his claims, and Perkin was compelled to retreat back to Edinburgh, where he remained till about the month of September, 1497, when he departed from Edinburgh, with four ships, and about one hundred and thirty companions. Perkin had now for five years continued to alarm the King and fill the mind of the Queen with gloomy forebodings. France, Flanders, Ireland, and Scotland had acknowledged him as lawful heir to the throne of England, and he had made some bold attempts to second his pretensions. The time at length arrived when he was to act in England tbe part he had so successfully performed elsewhere. Some months previously, there had been an insurrection in Cornwall. When the taxes granted by Parliament for the defence of the northern marches were levied upon the men of Cornwall, they refused to pay them; and as every insurrection was now followed with a project of dethroning the King, they marched with one Flammock, a lawyer, Michael Joseph, a farrier, and Lord Audley, at their head, directly to London, and encamped at Blackbeath, where the King's forces attacked them, killed two thousand of them on the spot, and forced the rest to surrender at discretion. Lord Audley and the ringleaders were executed ; but the rest, to the number of four thousand, were pardoned, and permitted to return homo again in safety. This lenity, however, was not appreciated by the rude men of Cornwall, They attributed it to fear, and, upon returning home, persuaded their friends that the whole country was ready to take up arms in vindication of their quarrel. It was now, therefore, determined to send for Perkin Warbeck, who was then in Ireland, to act as their leader. Perkin accepted the invitation, and taking ! upon himself the title of Richard the I Fourth, published a proclamation against


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