Uncertain Past of Perkin Warbeck - March ‘93 British Heritage Feature

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The Curious Career and Uncertain Past of Perkin Warbeck

Was Warbeck just another in a long line of pretenders to the throne
of England, or did his appearance in Ireland in 1491 prove the innocence
of Richard III, whom most historians accuse of murdering his nephews,
the Princes in the Tower?

by Bruce Heydt

By the time the sun set on 22nd August, 1485, Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings, lay dead on the grass of Bosworth Field. His brother, King Edward IV, had died, albeit less violently, two years earlier. Within two more years, the new King, Henry Tudor, cemented his hold on the throne by taking an army to Stoke Field and crushing his few remaining Yorkist enemies.

Except, perhaps, for Edward IV’s sons, the legendary Princes in the Tower. Opinions as to their fate still abound. Tudor accounts attributed their disappearance to a ruthless plot by Richard to secure the throne by murder. Later revisionists have made the same charge against Henry.

Support for these theories rests heavily on interpretations of the character of both Kings, and on their opportunity to implement such a crime. Documentary proof of either man’s guilt is unavailable, and as Sir Thomas More later observed: ’some remain yet in doubt whether [the Princes] were . . . destroyed or no . . . all things in those days were so covertly managed, one thing pretended and another meant, that there was nothing so plainly and openly proved but that . . . men had it ever inwardly suspect.’

Among the suspicions that have persisted since More’s day is the possibility that Richard simply had the Princes sent to the Continent as a precaution against the plots of the power-hungry Lancastrians. Having done so, he would naturally become vulnerable to accusations of treachery, because he could not produce the children as proof of his innocence without putting them once again in danger.

While Henry made use of Richard’s supposed guilt to enhance his own support, he himself had difficulty proving they were dead, although by doing so he could have strengthened his own claim to the throne. Henry never produced the bodies that would have been proof of the demise of the Plantagenet line. Nor did he ever officially accuse Richard of this specific murder, but only implied it by declaring that Richard was guilty of ’shedding infants’ blood.’ It seemed almost as if Henry feared the Princes might yet return to haunt him.

Ultimately, one of them did–in name at least. In 1491, a young Flemish merchant named Perkin Warbeck arrived in Cork, Ireland, and declared himself to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger son of Edward IV. Warbeck’s testimony followed an intriguing tradition.

Almost from the moment the Princes disappeared, there had been rumours that Edward, the older of the two, was dead–some said murdered, while others said he died naturally while residing in the Tower–but that Richard was still alive. According to Warbeck’s version of his own past, both he and his brother were to have been murdered. Two men were appointed to carry out the act, but the one responsible for Richard’s death could not bring himself to go through with the crime. Instead, he arranged for Richard to escape to the Continent on the condition that the Duke stay in hiding for several years, thereby protecting his benefactor from punishment.

After Warbeck declared himself to be the Duke of York, he was invited to France by King Charles VIII, who thought the young man might be a valuable pawn in his intrigues against England. Before he found a use for Warbeck, however, Charles signed a treaty with Henry that settled their differences amicably. Among the treaty’s conditions was Henry’s demand that Warbeck leave France. Perkin consequently moved on to the Low Countries, where he joined the Duchess of Burgundy, who was allegedly his aunt.

All the while, Warbeck gained allies. In Flanders he received support from the Archduke of Austria and his father Maximilian, the Holy Roman Emperor, to add to the official recognition already granted by Scotland, Ireland and Denmark.

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