was aware of the plots and treacheries of his powerful neighbour. He knew that persons had even been hired to carry him off a prisoner; and if darker suspicions lurked in his mind, they may be forgiven to a brave spirit like his, which looked with equal disdain on perfidious capture and secret assassination. When Perkin came, therefore, he was received as an instrument of revenge, if not as a victim to the same mean conspirator as himself. The noble manners of the young man completed the interest which his romantic story excited, and in a short time he was married to the Lady Catherine Gordon, a daughter of the Earl of Huntley, and cousin of the king. An expedition into England failed because the zeal of the northern families in favour of the pretender was exceeded by their hatred of his Scotch auxiliaries, of whom James himself was in command. Perkin begged his allies to re-cross the Border, and was profoundly moved with the sufferings their lawlessness had inflicted on his people. Henry, as he had bought off the Duchess of Burgundy with a treaty for the admission of Flemish cloth, now bought off James with the hand of his daughter Margaret Tudor. Too young still to be more than the affianced bride, Margaret formed the link that in course of time bound the two kingdoms in one; for you will find that her great-grandson came to the English throne in the person of James I., and put an end to the rivalries and hostility which robbed each of the nations of half its strength. § 11. A rebellion of the men of Cornwall encouraged Perkin, who had to leave the court of the proposed son-in-law of his enemy, to try his fortune in the west of England. Landing at Whitsand Bay, he advanced into Devonshire, gathering friends and followers on his way. He was repulsed at Exeter, which he had tried to take by storm, and finally found himself confronted by the king's army at Taunton. There was no chance for the ragged array that Cornwall had sent forth. They had no arms, and were scantily clothed, and offered an easy prey to the well-led troops which Henry A.D. 1499.] PERKIN WARBECK EXECUTED. 419 pushed against them, reserving his favourite station in the rear. Perkin, prince or impostor, had military skill enough to see the impossibility of success, but not chivalry enough to throw his life away on so desperate a cast. He rode off at night, and never drew bit till he was in the sanctuary of Beaulieu, in the New Forest; and there he heard, in a short time, that Henry had sent off in hot haste to seize his wife, the Lady Catherine, at St. Michael's Mount, where he had left her; and that, moved by her tears and beauty, or more likely, to keep her constantly in guard, he had sent her to the queen, who received her with the greatest favour. § 12. The absurd secrecy in which Henry thought it policy to involve all his acts, made people believe there was some foundation for Perkin's claim; for though he was frequently examined, very little was communicated to the public. He was allowed in the meantime to reside in the precinct of the court, and was even treated with a show of respect. From this free custody he escaped, and on being retaken was forced to read a confession of his imposture, and then was committed to the Tower, where, by a strange or designed coincidence, the real Earl of Warwick was confined. The prisoners, for what reason we are left to guess, were allowed to meet. Perkin gained the prince's affection by the winning spell of his manners and appearance, and so softened the keepers appointed to guard him, that they offered to aid his escape. On this, and some other evidence of a design between the two to regain their liberty together, Perkin was at last tried, and of course condemned. He was executed at Tyburn, having read again a confession of his imposture, and men were divided in their opinions more from the contradictory nature of some of the proofs Henry brought to substantiate his statement than from the likelihood of the young man's tale. We have tried to give the facts as they occurred, and it must always remain as one of the mysterious incidents by which every now and then the prosaic monotony of history is relieved. § 13. Henry, safe at last from domestic treason, looked abroad to strengthen his dynasty by marriage. He received Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, as the wife of Arthur Prince of Wales, his eldest son, and was shocked by a demand, made in six months after the ceremony, for the repayment of the princess's portion, as the youthful husband had unfortunately died. It was not Henry's habit to repay anything, and he preferred to offer his surviving son, Henry, though ouly in his thirteenth year, as husband to his brother's widow. By this expedient he not only avoided the return of the crowns already received, but obtained instant payment of the remaining amount of the stipulated sum. § 14. At this time one of the wickedest men who ever lived was the successor of St. Peter, under the name of Pope Alexander VI. There was therefore no difficulty in bribing him to abrogate any of the laws either of God or man, and a dispensation was procured for the marriage. Margaret of England also was sent down to Scotland as the bride of James IV., and made her entrance in state into the capital of her kingdom, riding on the same horse with her husband. She was at this time fourteen years of age, and though eldest daughter of the richest king in Christendom, enriched her royal spouse with a fortune of only thirty thousand nobles, to be paid in three instalments. Receiving many Spanish crowns, and disbursing few English nobles, was so lucrative a traffic, that Henry, on the death of his wife, was anxious to enter into it on his own account. And in order to make up a purse for the expenses of his wooing, commenced a system of extortion and injustice, which rendered all men's estates unsafe. Two infamous informers, of the names of Empsom and Dudley, made inquiry into titles, and found flaws in the strongest of conveyances. Taxes were enforced with rigour, and the old game of confiscation or fine carried on. § 15. An abortive display of enmity to the king, made by the 4.D. 1504-1509.] HENRY'S EXTORTIONATE DEMANDS. 421 Duke of Suffolk, who was nearest prince of the blood, enabled Henry to enrich himself still more. The duke fled to the unfailing sanctuary of Henry's foes-the court of his late wife's aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy-and his friends were arrested, pillaged, and imprisoned as if they had already been guilty of rebellion. But a greater windfall was at hand. A ship put into Weymouth from stress of weather, and when Henry ascertained that fortune had thrown into his power the Archduke Philip and his wife, Joanna Queen of Castile, he resolved to make the most of the event. He sent down a stately retinue to bring the royal guests to Windsor; he closeted himself with Philip, and forced that involuntary negotiator to agree to many things which only the fear of violence could have extorted. First, he was to surrender the Duke of Suffolk, who was under his protection in Flanders. "Think what disgrace it will be," he said, "to surrender a suppliant like that." "I'll take all the disgrace," replied Henry; "so we will say no more about it." Next he was to give him the hand of his sister, Margaret of Savoy, a widow of enormous wealth, and to add from himself a portion of 300,000 crowns; and lastly, he was to affiance his son Charles, heir of all his kingdoms, to his daughter Mary Tudor-about whose portion he maintained a judicious silence. When the unwilling guest had agreed to all these demands, Henry rewarded his ductility by making him Knight of the Garter. The royal couple were detained in England till the unhappy Suffolk was brought over from Flanders; and when Henry had no more demands to make, they were allowed to depart, and must have had a strange idea of the honesty and generosity of their English host. § 16. None of the arrangements, however, came to fulfilment. Margaret of Savoy was left in the lurch by Henry; for when Philip, the young and handsome husband of Joanna, died, he immediately proposed for the disconsolate widow himself. A Queen of Castile, in possession, with Arragon in reversion, was better than a dowager of Savoy. Joanna, however, went mad, and the Duchess resented his fickleness, and kept her riches unshared. Yet even in this defeat he contrived to make money. He forced Ferdinand, Joanna's father, to pay another hundred thousand crowns as the portion of Catherine, or he would not allow her marriage with his son Henry to go on. Thus grasping at riches wherever they were to be found-sparing of blood where it would be unprofitably shed, but trampling on liberty as an enemy to kings-summoning no parliament-and continuing his dark, doubtful, and deceitful policy to the close-the hand of this destroyer of chivalry, of freedom, of public honour and private independence, relaxed its hold of an oppressive and humiliating sceptre, and he died amid the contempt and hatred of the nation he had enslaved. With a bound of renewed hope, the people turned to his successor; for already there was no place from which alleviation could be expected except the throne, which had arrogated to itself all the powers of the State. A.D. LANDMARKS OF CHRONOLOGY. 1485. Accession of Henry VII. York, the eldest daughter of 1486-7. Lambert Simnel personates Edward, Earl of Warwick, 1487. The court of Star Chamber in A.D. panies Perkin Warbeck in an invasion of England. 1497. Perkin invades Exeter at the head of a Cornish force, but is captured, and brought to London. 1499. He makes his escape, but is captured, and eventually executed along with the Earlof Warwick. 1501-3. Marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Arragon. On the death of Arthur, Catherine is married to Henry, Prince of Wales. 1504. The Princess Margaret, King Henry's eldest daughter, married to James IV., King of Scotland, whence sprang the Stuart dynasty of England. 1507. Extortions of Henry through his emissaries Empsom and Dudley. 1509. Death of Henry VII. |