Gairdner J. History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third: To which is Added the Story of Perkin Warbeck from Original Documents

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.

3OO PERKIN WARBECK.

to last till 30 April, 1494, and in the meanwhile, 25 June, 1493,

a peace was made for seven years, which was ratified within a

month after both by Henry and by James. Henry certainly

showed himself most solicitous to keep things right and paid

James an indemnity of 1000 marks, which he accepted in full

satisfaction for all past injuries by sea and land

And so there should have been peace when Warbeck

appeared in Scotland. But even in the spring of that same

year—three months before the adventurer had even sailed

from Flanders—the Scots had threatened to invade the

Northern Counties, and the Earl of Surrey, as Vice Warden

of the West and Middle Marches, was commissioned to array

all defensible men between Trent and Tweed to resist them.

There seems no doubt that James, who had been before that

time in frequent correspondence with the Duchess of Burgundy

and the disaffected Yorkists

, was now acting in concert with

those who fitted out Warbeck's squadron. And just about the

time of the attempt at Deal preparations were already making

in Scotland to help him both with men and money. The

burgh of Aberdeen was taxed to supply one month's pay at

five shillings and fourpence a day, for the support of eight

Englishmen in his service; the burgesses at the same time

petitioning the king ' to remain at hame fra the weir to defend

the toune fra our aul inemyis of Ingland.' Two months later,

on the 9th September, they voted a tax or 'propin' to the king

in consideration of a licence given them ' to remain at hame fra

the passage in Ingland, in fortifieing and supleing of the prince

of Ingland, Richard Duke of York

.' On his arrival, James

determined to receive him at Stirling. The Treasurer's

The authorities for the above statements will be found in Rymer's

Fcsdera,

in Bain's Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland, vol. iv. and

in Letters and Papers, Richard III. and Henry VII.

See Tytler's Hist, of Scotland, 3rd ed. iii. 475 n.

Extracts from the Council Registers of the Burgh of Aberdeen, p. 57.

Published by the Spalding Club.

IN SCOTLAND. 301

accounts of Scotland, preserved in the Register House at

Edinburgh, speak of payments for the carriage of arras work

from Edinburgh to Stirling, in preparation for his reception,

which took place on the 27th of November, 1495. A good

many other items of the royal expenditure on this occasion

invite the attention of the curious. The material of ' a pair

of hose to the prince' of 'risillis blak,' was purchased for

thirty-five shillings

: the lining and 'points' added to it cost

five shillings more; and twenty shillings were paid for ' half

ane elne of purpour dammas to begare the sammyn'—that is

to say, to embellish it with stripes. Equally minute are the

items touching a ' hogtoun' or cassock for the prince ' against

the tourney,' 'a pair of arming hose,' a 'spousing gown,' a

great coat, and various other articles both for his own personal

use and for that of his attendants on the occasion

Shortly after this festivity we find arrangements made for a

meeting between the king and the supposed prince at Perth,

at which the northern lords were summoned to attend; and

messengers were sent to the most distant parts of the kingdom

with letters of ' wapping schawing,'—in other words, to order

the inhabitants to be ready for military service. It must

have been not very long after his arrival that he married the

Scotch king's kinswoman, Katharine Gordon, daughter of the

Earl of Huntley; but the Treasurer's accounts contain no

allusion to that event. From them, however, we gather that

Warbeck was with the king on St Nicolas' day (the 6th of

December), when both made offerings in church; and that

they were together in Edinburgh on Candlemas-day (2nd

February), in 1496. After that, these accounts are silent

about him for a month or two

It must be remembered, of course, that all these sums are in Scotch

money.

Letters,

&=c,

Richard III. and Henry VII. ii. 327-319.

From an entry in the accounts of William

Hatteclyff,

Under-Treasurer

of Ireland, it might almost be surmised that Perkin made another descent

3O2 PERKIN WARBECK.

In spite

of all

this Henry was eager

for

peace

and a

good

understanding with James; insomuch that

on the 5th

May

commissioned

the

bishops

Durham

and

Carlisle

and the

Earl

of Surrey

as his

plenipotentiaries

treat

for the

marriage

his daughter Margaret

to the

Scottish king.

But no

progress

was then made with this negociation.

August

would

seem

made

further attempt, commissioning certain

am-

bassadors

treat with others

to be

named

James.

But

James showed

disposition

treat.

June

he had

sent

Lyon Herald

England, perhaps

to the

offer

marriage,

but

more likely with

provocative message;

and in

June,

July

and

August

men

were busy about ironwork

and

wheels

for the

artillery

It was

quite clear that

he was

bent

war.

Moreover,

would seem that

this time

the

eyes

of all

Europe were fixed upon

him and his

doings. France, Spain,

Maximilian

and

Venice were alike anxious

know what would

come

them,

and

whether Henry

was

really safe within

his

kingdom. They were

all

interested from different points

view,

and

Charles VIII.

and

Ferdinand would each

them

have been glad

to get

Perkin out

James's hands into his own.

Charles

was in

serious anxiety lest Henry should yield,

as he

soon afterwards

did, to the

joint solicitations

of the

Pope,

Spain, Venice

and

Milan

and

join

the

league

keep

him out

of Italy.

he would have been glad

if he

could have induced

James

hand over Perkin

to him and

refrain from giving

on Munster

in the

spring;

but I

suppose

the

notice must

retrospective,

referring

to the

autumn

of 1495. The

entry

question

is in

Easter term,

11 Henry VII.,

for two

horses delivered

to one

John Wyse, which

lost,

' eo quod Perkynnus Warbec

hac

vice applicuit

partibus illis

cum

rebellibus domini Regis.'

Commissio Henrici Septimi regis Angltee ambassiatoribus suis

tractandum

cum

commissionariis Regis Scotiae

treugis

abstinentia

guerrae

Dat. 12

Augusti,

12 Hen. VII.'

Ayloffe's Calendars,

p. 314.

Mr Bain does

not

seem

have found this document.

Letters, &°c, Richard III. and Henry VII., ii. 329, 330.

HIS VALUE AS A PAWN. 303

England needless provocation. Maximilian, on the other hand,

though he, too, had solicited Henry to join the league, declared

that he had no expectation of his doing so until he was entirely

safe against the attempts of ' the duke of York.' Ferdinand

and Isabella of Spain took a somewhat similar view, for in the

previous year Henry himself had asked them how he could be

expected to join it when Maximilian was supporting Perkin.

And now that the young man was in Scotland, they did all in

their power to get James to abandon his cause and make a

firm alliance with England; but they would have been very

glad at the same time to get the pretender into their own

clutches to keep Henry right.

So both France and Spain were alike anxious to check

James's belligerent propensities, and yet Perkin would have

been a prize to either of them as a means of controlling

Henry. But James was preparing for a descent on England

in Perkin's company, and to some observers the crisis really

looked momentous. The Venetian ambassadors in London

reported to the Signory that Henry was in danger of being

driven from his kingdom

. But the Venetians were not noted

for shrewdness. All that came of these preparations seems to

have been a tiny raid in the month of September. On the

10th of that month the Treasurer's accounts of Scotland record

a payment 'for 200 of gold party to the Duke of York's

banner'; on the 14th, a sum of fourteen shillings for the Duke

of York's offering, and a present of ^36 in his purse ' by the

king's command.' On the 21st, 'at Coldstream, when the

Duke of York come hame,' there was a further sum of

^74.

8s., also given to him by the king's command. Between

the last two dates an invasion of England had been pre-

arranged to take place, and it may be presumed did take

place

But the King of England, in fact, was not unprepared.

Brown's Calendar

Venetian State Papers,

i. No. 707.

Letters,

c5«., ii. 330.

3O4 PERKIN WARBECK.

He had in Scotland a spy and a useful instrument in the

person of John Ramsay, Lord Bothwell, who had been a

favourite of James III., and who seems to have cherished a

feeling of secret ill-will to the reigning king, James IV., on

account of his rebellion against his father. We have already

referred to an engagement entered into by him and Sir Thomas

Todd a few years before to capture the Scotch king and his

brother, the Duke of Ross, and deliver them into the King of

England's hands. Although he never succeeded in this, he

seems now to have been on the watch for an opportunity of

seizing Perkin Warbeck; about whom, though he does not

mention his name, he was evidently speaking when he wrote

to Henry VII. as follows:—' Please your Grace, anent the

matter that Master Wyot laid to me, I have been busy about

it, and my lord of Buchan takes upon him the fulfilling of it,

gif it be possible; and thinks best now, in this lang night

within his tent to enterprise the matter: for he has na watch

but the king's appointed to be about him; and they have

ordanit the Englishmen and strangers to be at another quarter

lugit

(lodged) but a few about him

Nor was Bothwell altogether without hopes of decoying the

king's brother into England. 'I passed to St Andrew's,' he

says,

in the same letter, 'and communed with the king's

brother, and gave him the cross-bow,'—evidently a gift from

Henry VII. 'He commends his service humbly to your

Grace, and says he intends to do your Grace service, and

will not, for aught the king can do, come to this host against

your Grace. And now my Lord of Murray passeth over to

him, gif the king comes to this journey, as I doubt not he will,

in contrar his baronry's wills and all his haill peplen, and my

lord will solicit this young prince to come to your Grace

In a second letter, written just a week before the intended

Printed '

lngt'

Ellis,

which is not very intelligible.

Ellis's Letters, First Series, i. 23.

THE SCOTCH INVASION. 305

invasion, Bothwell tells the King of England he had been

urging both the King of Scots and the nobles to abandon

'this feigned boy,' as he calls Perkin, and remain in amity

with England; but that James had made answer he would first

have ' such things concluded as my Lord of Durham came for';

otherwise he and his army would muster at Ellam Kirk, within

ten miles of the border, on the 15th September, with Perkin in

his company. He adds that their forces amounted to 1,400

men of all nations, and would enter England on the 17th of

the month; and that to reimburse the Scotch king his costs,

Perkin had engaged to pay 50,000 marks in two years, and

deliver up Berwick to the Scots. He then relates the

particulars of some embassies received by the King of Scots,

on which we shall have to remark presently, and concludes by

exhorting Henry not to let slip the opportunity of striking a

heavy blow against Scotland. King Edward IV., he reminded

him, never had the perfect love of his people till he made war

on Scotland. The Scotch king had been obliged to coin his

chains and plate for money; and never were people worse

pleased with their king's government than James's subjects

were. With a good fleet the English might now destroy all

the havens and shipping in the country, as all the shipmen and

inhabitants ' passed with the king by land.' Edinburgh Castle

was but poorly provided with artillery; Bothwell had taken

stock of all the guns it contained, and he sent the brief

inventory to the King of England. As for the invasion, he

felt sure that in four or five nights the Scots would be glad to

return home, 'weary for watching and for lack of victuals;' and

he suggested how it would be easy to cut off their retreat

. All

this did he report and advise without a scruple about abusing

confidence or betraying his own king and country!

It may be concluded that BothwelPs anticipations were

tolerably accurate. That the Scots did enter England on the

17th September, and that they were glad to return in a very

Ellis's

Letters,

First

Series,

25-31.

306 PERKIN WARBECK.

few days, seems to be proved by the notice above referred to

in the Treasurer's accounts of Scotland, of ' the Duke of York'

having 'come home' to Coldstream on the 21st. In fact, this

is evidently the date of the raid mentioned by the chroniclers

when James entered England with Perkin in his company.

The latter issued a proclamation as King Richard IV. which

was drawn with considerable art, referring to Henry's exactions

as intolerable grievances and the executions of his own followers

as murders. Of course it was a high-sounding document cor-

responding with the pretensions of him who put it forth ; and

in one passage it amusingly suggests that Henry—-out of the

fear of him, no doubt—was about to quit the kingdom; to

prevent which it offers _^i,ooo for his capture, or houses and

lands to the yearly value of 100 marks

. This proclamation,

however, does not appear to have produced the slightest effect.

The Scotch troops who accompanied Perkin committed great

ravages, burning towns, robbing houses, and killing men and

children; but not having by these means allured any of the

inhabitants to join them, Perkin, it seems, expressed on his

return some compunction for the rough measures they had

adopted, reproached himself with cruelty towards 'his own

natural subjects and vassals,' and entreated the Scotch king

not to afflict them any more. The request was humane, but

does not seem to have been accounted princely. The old

chroniclers make merry over his ' ridiculous mercy and foolish

compassion.' ' James,' they tell us, ' saw which way the wind

blew,' told Perkin that he took a great deal of pains to preserve

the realm of another prince, and twitted him with the fact that

though he called England his country, not a single Englishman

would join him in it

Whether James really saw ' which way the wind blew,' or

still believed in Perkin, it is certain that he never acknowledged

he had been deceived, but continued to speak of the adventurer

See the proclamation in Spedding's

Bacon,

vi. 252-5.

Hall.

THE SCOTCH INVASION. 307

as Duke of York years after he had paid the penalty of his

pretensions on the gallows. It is equally certain that the raid

had destroyed for the present all hope of peace upon the

Borders. A proclamation was issued ,in England shortly after-

wards declaring that the seven years' truce was violated by

this unprovoked invasion. 'The King of Scots of his wilful

headiness,' says this manifesto

, 'and without cause or occasion

given by our said sovereign lord, hath entered in his person

with the power he could make, and with his banner displayed

four miles within this realm.' That was the whole extent of

the invasion, but within that compass the ravages had been

shameful. The Scotch king had ' done great cruelty to man,

woman and child, cast down three or four little towers, besides

brennyngis and other outrageous deeds by him committed.

And as soon as the army of our said sovereign lord began to

avaunce them towards the Scots out of the king's town and

port of Newcastle, which was the 25th day of September last

past, the King of Scots and his whole power returned and

state away into Scotland the self-same day about midnight.'

This is undoubtedly an error; for the Scotch army had returned

some days before the 25th; so that in fact, it would seem, they

were neither encountered nor pursued

. But a state of war

had been renewed between the two countries; and though

nothing effective was done on either side, we find that in

Printed by Mr Bain in his Calendar of Documents relating

Scotland,

vol.

iv. App. I. No. 35, but wrongly attributed by him to the year 1497

instead of 1496.

An old City chronicler describes the affair thus: 'And this yere

(11 Hen. VII.) in the moneth of September the Kyng of Scottes entred iiij

myle withyn this land and brent howsis and caste downe ij smale towers or

pyles,

makyng greate boste and brag. But when he understood of the lord

Nevelles comyng with 4000 men and other of the March party comyng after

to have given hym bataill, at mydnyght after he with his people departed

in such hast that ovir the water of Twede, which in his comyng in to this

land he was ij dayes in conveyng

(sic),

at his retournyng home he was and

all his people sette over in viij owres.' MS. Cott., Vitellius A., xvi. f. 160.

20—2

308 PERKIN WARBECK.

Scotland on the 15 th October £2 were given by James

towards the expense of sending some of Warbeck's English

followers to the sea

; while at Westminster on the 24th of

the same month a great council attended by burgesses and

merchants from all parts of England assured Henry of a grant

of ,£120,000 for defence against the Scots. Indeed the

English king was authorised to borrow upon privy seals a

sum of ^40,000 more; and numerous privy seals exist,

generally dated on the 1st December, in which personal

application is made to rich men throughout the country for

contributions with a view to a punitive invasion of Scotland

Henry, indeed, made very large use of the outbreak as a

justification for obtaining money from his subjects, even before

Parliament met in January and voted him supplies for the

same purpose. For first of all in November he applied to

the City of London for a loan of ^io,ooo, and though the

City only agreed to lend him ^4,000 to be repaid in a year,

it was a valuable precedent for the levying of those further

sums by privy seals, throughout the country, the collection of

which was entrusted to commissioners in the different counties,

just like the forced loans of Richard III.

Such were the effects of the Scotch invasion in England.

As regards Scotland, it was as ill conceived and rash a thing as

could well have been imagined, and the result only showed the

utter incapacity of the Scots to strike an effective blow. The

attempt, in fact, notwithstanding the cruelties with which it was

accompanied—things of continual occurrence in border warfare

—seems to have been quite as contemptible as the affair at

Deal. And Bothwell, as we have seen, knew quite well before-

hand that it could not turn out otherwise; for the invading

force only consisted of 1,400 men, and those of different

Letters, &c, ii. 331.

See the valuable footnote in Spedding's Bacon, vi. 174. Many other

privy seals similar to the three referred to by Spedding exist in the Record

Office.

THE SCOTCH INVASION. 309

nationalities. Other statements of Bothwell, no doubt, may

have been partly coloured by partizanship; but here at least

his estimate of the facts was just. Nor, indeed, however

bitterly he writes about his own sovereign, have we any

positive evidence that he was wrong when he tells us that

there were many of James's subjects even then anxious to

revenge his father's death, that a large portion of the people

stood aloof from the enterprise, and that the king's own brother

was won over to neutrality

It must not be supposed, however, that James had assisted

Warbeck from pure enthusiasm without asking anything in

return for his aid. Just before the invasion, on the 2nd of

September, he called a council of his lords to consider the

terms on which it should be afforded. They proposed to

Perkin that when he had recovered his kingdom he should

restore the seven sheriffdoms*—probably some districts in

Northumberland or about the borders*—deliver up the castle

and town of Berwick, and pay James 100,000 marks in five

years for his expenses. The would-be prince asked a day to

consider it, consulted with Sir George Nevill and others of his

council, and, finally, after a good deal of conference, agreed to

Ellis, First Series, i. 29. The sentence,' There is many of his father's

servants would see a remedy (redress) of the ded (death) of his father yet,'

is curiously misunderstood by the Editor, who explains the Scotch word

'ded' as 'deed' in a footnote.

Ellis (i. 26) prints the word ' Hesdomis' in the MS., and refers in

a footnote to Pinkerton's reading, who had before printed it ' SherifTdomis.'

Having looked at the MS., I find Pinkerton's reading is the correct one.

What Ellis mistook for an initial H is in fact a long / with a mark of

abbreviation through it, standing for ' Ser' or ' Sher;' while the letter

immediately before the d is an /, not a long /.

Or was it seven actual counties? Northumberland, Cumberland,

Westmoreland, Durham, and the three Ridings of Yorkshire, would make

a very nice slice of England; or, if Yorkshire was considered only one

county, the addition of Lancashire and Cheshire would be still finer.

There was no limit, we may well believe, to what Warbeck might have

been expected to give away.