The Last White Rose (12 page)

A letter from King Henry to Talbot shows the strain was beginning to tell on him. While he spoke contemptuously of his rival as a mere ‘boy’, everyone knew that at the same age Edward IV had possessed sufficient leadership to win the terrible battle of Towton, the largest ever fought on English soil. Clearly agitated, Henry angrily referred to the ‘great malice that the Lady Margaret of Burgundy continually beareth unto us’. He also mentioned an impending invasion of England by ‘certain aliens, captains of strange nations’, and asked Talbot to be prepared to bring as many troops as he can – ‘ready to come upon a day’s warning for to do us service of war’.
²³

During July Henry sent two of his ablest negotiators – Sir Edward Poynings and Dr William Warham, the latter Master of the Rolls and a future Archbishop of Canterbury – as ambassadors to Flanders. They lodged a formal protest with the council of Archduke Philip, the Duke of Burgundy, who was still only fifteen, at the help given to Warbeck, Dr Warham making a speech in which he went out of his way to insult Margaret of York. The council blandly insisted, however, that the Burgundian government was powerless to interfere in any way with the Duchess Margaret, who could act as she pleased in the lands of her dowry. It was all too plain that, under pressure from Philip’s father, King Maximilian, and not just from Margaret, the government of Flanders had every intention of aiding Warbeck as much as they possibly could, without actually recognizing him as king of England.

Henry reacted furiously, transferring the Merchant Adventurers’ Staple (the exclusive market for English goods, mainly
cloth) from Antwerp to Calais in September 1493, forbidding Englishmen to do business with Flanders and banishing its citizens from England: Flemings were expelled and had their goods seized. It was as far as he could go without a full-scale war. Flanders retaliated with an embargo on English imports, but Henry strengthened his prohibition. This did serious damage to the Flemish economy, resulting in capitulation in 1496 and the signing of an agreement known as the
Intercursus
Magnus
, which gave special advantages to Englishmen trading in Flanders.

Meanwhile, Warbeck was trying to find international support. In September 1493 he wrote the letter to Queen Isabella already mentioned. When it had no effect, he looked elsewhere. We know from a confidential report about the English Prior of St John,
²⁴
that an unknown correspondent informed the prior in 1493 that, after finding it impossible to sell his wares in Flanders for the price he wanted, the ‘Merchant of the Ruby’ had decided to go to the court of the King of the Romans to see if he could obtain a higher price – which meant that Warbeck had been unable to obtain enough money from Margaret for an invasion. Although keen enough, she had already lost too much in financing the Earl of Lincoln.

He then obtained an introduction to Duke Albrecht of Meissen, Duke of Saxony, the King of the Romans’ brother-in-law and principal lieutenant. In November 1493 Albrecht brought him to the Habsburg court at Vienna, where he attended the funeral of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III on 6 December and was presented to Frederick’s son, the ‘King of the Romans’ and future Emperor Maximilian I. The king welcomed the young man warmly, giving him a place in his father’s funeral cortêge.

Maximilian had been angered by Henry making peace with France, breaking the long-standing alliance between the English and the Burgundians. He felt sure his guest was telling the truth when the young man told him he bore three birthmarks
on his body that were recognizable by anyone who had known the Duke of York as a child – marks that would convince even Henry Tudor. The impecunious king tried to raise money in the Tyrol (the only part of his domains under his direct rule) so that Warbeck could equip an invasion fleet, but the canny Tyrolese refused, saying it seemed to be too risky a venture.

In mid-summer 1494, taking the young man with him, Maximilian went to Flanders where he announced that this was the real king of England. Henry responded by sending the Garter King of Arms to inform Maximilian and Margaret that their protégé was the son of a merchant of Tournai. When the king and the duchess ignored him, Garter marched through the streets of Malines, shouting that his master had proof that the ‘Duke of York’ was an impostor. However, he made little impression since his heralds believed it was just the sort of trick that someone as notoriously wily as Henry would use. Maximilian’s good opinion of the ‘duke’ remained unshaken. With an invasion in mind, he ordered an enquiry into what people in England thought of the White Rose.

Maximilian might be showy, frivolous and unreliable, as well as virtually penniless, yet he was Holy Roman Emperor Elect. If he had little real power, he enjoyed enormous prestige throughout Western Europe as the theoretical Sword Temporal of Christendom. (Missals contained a bidding prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor that was said on Good Friday in all churches in every Christian country.) His recognition of the ‘Duke of York’ as king of England encouraged the Yorkists – and alarmed Henry VII.

Maximilian lost no opportunity of showing the world that he had complete faith in the ‘duke’. At the end of August, he and his son made him ride with them to hear Mass in the cathedral at Malines. In October he was invited to attend when Archduke Philip, who had now come of age, took his oath as Duke of Brabant in Antwerp’s cathedral church. Perkin was installed in the imposing Hôtel des Anglais at Antwerp (until recently the
Staple’s headquarters), escorted everywhere he went by a bodyguard of English gentlemen and twenty archers, who wore the badge of the White Rose of York. A shield bearing the royal arms hung over the door, with an inscription reading, ‘The arms of Richard, Prince of Wales and Duke of York, son and heir of Edward IV, lately by the Grace of God King of England and France, Lord of Ireland.’ This provoked an angry reaction from two Englishmen (possibly agents of Henry) who threw a chamber pot at the shield. They were chased away by a furious crowd, an innocent English bystander being killed during the uproar.

Ignoring the fact that officially he was supposed to be at peace with England, Charles VIII secretly offered to lend the Yorkists a flotilla of ships so that Perkin could invade England from Flanders. Diplomatically feigning ignorance of this offer, Henry sent Richmond King of Arms to Charles in August with a polite letter, in an attempt to dissuade him. After grumbling about the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy having hired Martin Schwartz to wage war on him, Henry wrote that it was notorious that ‘the said boy [
garçon
] was no relation whatever to the late King Edward but a native of Tournai and the son of a boatman [
batellier
]’, as the king had been reliably informed by those who knew the boy as a child, as well as by some of his old friends. The king complained bitterly of Maximilian’s declared purpose of helping him to invade England.
²⁵

On All Saints’ Day (1 November), in angry response to his rival’s use of the title, the king created his younger son Duke of York. This was the future Henry VIII, still only three, who, with twenty other somewhat older aspirants, was dubbed a Knight of the Bath. During a fortnight of splendid celebrations at Westminster Palace, courtiers taking part in the jousts wore the old Yorkist colours of blue and murrey, while their chargers were caparisoned in black velvet sewn with white as well as red roses – it was a declaration to the world that the Tudors were the heirs of the House of York.
²⁶

During his negotiations with Charles VIII in August, King Henry had claimed that England was now in a better and more peaceful condition than at any time in living memory. He was about to learn that his claim was very wide of the mark indeed.

6. Winter 1491–Autumn 1492: One of the Princes in the Tower?

1
. Bacon,
op. cit
., p. 95.

2
. Hall,
op. cit
., p. 462.

3
.
LP Hen VII
,
op. cit
., vol. I, p. 99.

4
.
Rot. Parl.
,
op. cit
., vol. VI, p. 455.

5
.
Rot. Parl.,
op. cit
., vol. VI, p. 454.

6
. Hall,
op. cit
., pp. 488–9.

7
. J.R.O. O’Flanagan,
The Blackwater in Munster
, London, 1844, p. 37.

8
. Bacon,
op. cit
., p. 105.

9
.
LP Hen VII
, Rolls Series, 1861–3, vol. II, pp. 326–7.

10
. A. Conway,
Henry VII’s Relations with Scotland and Ireland
1485–98,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1932, p. 49.

11
. B. André,
De vita atque gestis Henrici Septimi Historia
, in
Memorials
, p. 66.

12
. Hall,
op. cit
., p. 464.

13
. Vergil,
op. cit
., p. 64.

14
.
Ibid.
, p. 66.

15
. Richard Arnold,
Customs of London
, Antwerp, 1504.

16
. Vergil,
op. cit
., p. 64.

17
.
A. Morel Fatio, ‘Marguerite d’York et Perkin Warbeck’, in
Mélanges
d’Histoire offerts à M. Charles
Belmont
, Paris, Félix Alcan, 1913, pp. 411–16.

18
. Bacon,
op. cit
., p. 102.

19
. Vergil,
op. cit
., p. 68.

20
. A. Wroe,
Perkin:
A Story of Deception
, London, Jonathan Cape, 2003.

21
. C. Roth, ‘Perkin Warbeck and his Jewish Master’,
Transactions of
the Jewish
Historical Society of England
, 9 (1922), pp. 143–62.

22
.
Archeologica,
xxvi.

23
. A.F. Pollard,
The Reign of Henry VII from Contemporary Sources
, 3 vols, London, Longmann, Green, & Co., 1913, vol. 1, pp. 93–5.

24
.
LP
Hen VII,
vol. II, p. 321.

25
.
Ibid
., pp. 292–7.

26
.
Ibid
., pp. 388–404.

7