A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

  drink his health, and to make the noisy and thirsty demonstrations

  all over again. And the big chieftain in Dublin began to look out

  for another coronation, and another young King to be carried home

  on his back.

  Now, King Henry being then on bad terms with France, the French

  King, Charles the Eighth, saw that, by pretending to believe in the

  handsome young man, he could trouble his enemy sorely. So, he

  invited him over to the French Court, and appointed him a bodyguard,

  and treated him in all respects as if he really were the

  Duke of York. Peace, however, being soon concluded between the two

  Kings, the pretended Duke was turned adrift, and wandered for

  protection to the Duchess of Burgundy. She, after feigning to

  inquire into the reality of his claims, declared him to be the very

  picture of her dear departed brother; gave him a body-guard at her

  Court, of thirty halberdiers; and called him by the sounding name

  of the White Rose of England.

  The leading members of the White Rose party in England sent over an

  agent, named Sir Robert Clifford, to ascertain whether the White

  Rose's claims were good: the King also sent over his agents to

  inquire into the Rose's history. The White Roses declared the

  young man to be really the Duke of York; the King declared him to

  be PERKIN WARBECK, the son of a merchant of the city of Tournay,

  who had acquired his knowledge of England, its language and

  manners, from the English merchants who traded in Flanders; it was

  also stated by the Royal agents that he had been in the service of

  Lady Brompton, the wife of an exiled English nobleman, and that the

  Duchess of Burgundy had caused him to be trained and taught,

  expressly for this deception. The King then required the Archduke

  Philip - who was the sovereign of Burgundy - to banish this new

  Pretender, or to deliver him up; but, as the Archduke replied that

  he could not control the Duchess in her own land, the King, in

  revenge, took the market of English cloth away from Antwerp, and

  prevented all commercial intercourse between the two countries.

  He also, by arts and bribes, prevailed on Sir Robert Clifford to

  betray his employers; and he denouncing several famous English

  noblemen as being secretly the friends of Perkin Warbeck, the King

  had three of the foremost executed at once. Whether he pardoned

  Page 145

  Dickens, Charles - A Child's History of England

  the remainder because they were poor, I do not know; but it is only

  too probable that he refused to pardon one famous nobleman against

  whom the same Clifford soon afterwards informed separately, because

  he was rich. This was no other than Sir William Stanley, who had

  saved the King's life at the battle of Bosworth Field. It is very

  doubtful whether his treason amounted to much more than his having

  said, that if he were sure the young man was the Duke of York, he

  would not take arms against him. Whatever he had done he admitted,

  like an honourable spirit; and he lost his head for it, and the

  covetous King gained all his wealth.

  Perkin Warbeck kept quiet for three years; but, as the Flemings

  began to complain heavily of the loss of their trade by the

  stoppage of the Antwerp market on his account, and as it was not

  unlikely that they might even go so far as to take his life, or

  give him up, he found it necessary to do something. Accordingly he

  made a desperate sally, and landed, with only a few hundred men, on

  the coast of Deal. But he was soon glad to get back to the place

  from whence he came; for the country people rose against his

  followers, killed a great many, and took a hundred and fifty

  prisoners: who were all driven to London, tied together with

  ropes, like a team of cattle. Every one of them was hanged on some

  part or other of the sea-shore; in order, that if any more men

  should come over with Perkin Warbeck, they might see the bodies as

  a warning before they landed.

  Then the wary King, by making a treaty of commerce with the

  Flemings, drove Perkin Warbeck out of that country; and, by

  completely gaining over the Irish to his side, deprived him of that

  asylum too. He wandered away to Scotland, and told his story at

  that Court. King James the Fourth of Scotland, who was no friend

  to King Henry, and had no reason to be (for King Henry had bribed

  his Scotch lords to betray him more than once; but had never

  succeeded in his plots), gave him a great reception, called him his

  cousin, and gave him in marriage the Lady Catherine Gordon, a

  beautiful and charming creature related to the royal house of

  Stuart.

  Alarmed by this successful reappearance of the Pretender, the King

  still undermined, and bought, and bribed, and kept his doings and

  Perkin Warbeck's story in the dark, when he might, one would

  imagine, have rendered the matter clear to all England. But, for

  all this bribing of the Scotch lords at the Scotch King's Court, he

  could not procure the Pretender to be delivered up to him. James,

  though not very particular in many respects, would not betray him;

  and the ever-busy Duchess of Burgundy so provided him with arms,

  and good soldiers, and with money besides, that he had soon a

  little army of fifteen hundred men of various nations. With these,

  and aided by the Scottish King in person, he crossed the border

  into England, and made a proclamation to the people, in which he

  called the King 'Henry Tudor;' offered large rewards to any who

  should take or distress him; and announced himself as King Richard

  the Fourth come to receive the homage of his faithful subjects.

  His faithful subjects, however, cared nothing for him, and hated

  his faithful troops: who, being of different nations, quarrelled

  also among themselves. Worse than this, if worse were possible,

  they began to plunder the country; upon which the White Rose said,

  that he would rather lose his rights, than gain them through the

  miseries of the English people. The Scottish King made a jest of

  his scruples; but they and their whole force went back again

  without fighting a battle.

  The worst consequence of this attempt was, that a rising took place

  among the people of Cornwall, who considered themselves too heavily

  Page 146

  Dickens, Charles - A Child's History of England

  taxed to meet the charges of the expected war. Stimulated by

  Flammock, a lawyer, and Joseph, a blacksmith, and joined by Lord

  Audley and some other country gentlemen, they marched on all the

  way to Deptford Bridge, where they fought a battle with the King's

  army. They were defeated - though the Cornish men fought with

  great bravery - and the lord was beheaded, and the lawyer and the

  blacksmith were hanged, drawn, and quartered. The rest were

  pardoned. The King, who believed every man to be as avaricious as

  himself, and thought that money could settle anything, allowed them

  to make bargains for their liberty with the soldiers who had taken

  them.

  Perkin Warbeck, doomed to wander up
and down, and never to find

  rest anywhere - a sad fate: almost a sufficient punishment for an

  imposture, which he seems in time to have half believed himself -

  lost his Scottish refuge through a truce being made between the two

  Kings; and found himself, once more, without a country before him

  in which he could lay his head. But James (always honourable and

  true to him, alike when he melted down his plate, and even the

  great gold chain he had been used to wear, to pay soldiers in his

  cause; and now, when that cause was lost and hopeless) did not

  conclude the treaty, until he had safely departed out of the

  Scottish dominions. He, and his beautiful wife, who was faithful

  to him under all reverses, and left her state and home to follow

  his poor fortunes, were put aboard ship with everything necessary

  for their comfort and protection, and sailed for Ireland.

  But, the Irish people had had enough of counterfeit Earls of

  Warwick and Dukes of York, for one while; and would give the White

  Rose no aid. So, the White Rose - encircled by thorns indeed -

  resolved to go with his beautiful wife to Cornwall as a forlorn

  resource, and see what might be made of the Cornish men, who had

  risen so valiantly a little while before, and who had fought so

  bravely at Deptford Bridge.

  To Whitsand Bay, in Cornwall, accordingly, came Perkin Warbeck and

  his wife; and the lovely lady he shut up for safety in the Castle

  of St. Michael's Mount, and then marched into Devonshire at the

  head of three thousand Cornishmen. These were increased to six

  thousand by the time of his arrival in Exeter; but, there the

  people made a stout resistance, and he went on to Taunton, where he

  came in sight of the King's army. The stout Cornish men, although

  they were few in number, and badly armed, were so bold, that they

  never thought of retreating; but bravely looked forward to a battle

  on the morrow. Unhappily for them, the man who was possessed of so

  many engaging qualities, and who attracted so many people to his

  side when he had nothing else with which to tempt them, was not as

  brave as they. In the night, when the two armies lay opposite to

  each other, he mounted a swift horse and fled. When morning

  dawned, the poor confiding Cornish men, discovering that they had

  no leader, surrendered to the King's power. Some of them were

  hanged, and the rest were pardoned and went miserably home.

  Before the King pursued Perkin Warbeck to the sanctuary of Beaulieu

  in the New Forest, where it was soon known that he had taken

  refuge, he sent a body of horsemen to St. Michael's Mount, to seize

  his wife. She was soon taken and brought as a captive before the

  King. But she was so beautiful, and so good, and so devoted to the

  man in whom she believed, that the King regarded her with

  compassion, treated her with great respect, and placed her at

  Court, near the Queen's person. And many years after Perkin

  Warbeck was no more, and when his strange story had become like a

  nursery tale, SHE was called the White Rose, by the people, in

  remembrance of her beauty.

  Page 147

  Dickens, Charles - A Child's History of England

  The sanctuary at Beaulieu was soon surrounded by the King's men;

  and the King, pursuing his usual dark, artful ways, sent pretended

  friends to Perkin Warbeck to persuade him to come out and surrender

  himself. This he soon did; the King having taken a good look at

  the man of whom he had heard so much - from behind a screen -

  directed him to be well mounted, and to ride behind him at a little

  distance, guarded, but not bound in any way. So they entered

  London with the King's favourite show - a procession; and some of

  the people hooted as the Pretender rode slowly through the streets

  to the Tower; but the greater part were quiet, and very curious to

  see him. From the Tower, he was taken to the Palace at

  Westminster, and there lodged like a gentleman, though closely

  watched. He was examined every now and then as to his imposture;

  but the King was so secret in all he did, that even then he gave it

  a consequence, which it cannot be supposed to have in itself

  deserved.

  At last Perkin Warbeck ran away, and took refuge in another

  sanctuary near Richmond in Surrey. From this he was again

  persuaded to deliver himself up; and, being conveyed to London, he

  stood in the stocks for a whole day, outside Westminster Hall, and

  there read a paper purporting to be his full confession, and

  relating his history as the King's agents had originally described

  it. He was then shut up in the Tower again, in the company of the

  Earl of Warwick, who had now been there for fourteen years: ever

  since his removal out of Yorkshire, except when the King had had

  him at Court, and had shown him to the people, to prove the

  imposture of the Baker's boy. It is but too probable, when we

  consider the crafty character of Henry the Seventh, that these two

  were brought together for a cruel purpose. A plot was soon

  discovered between them and the keepers, to murder the Governor,

  get possession of the keys, and proclaim Perkin Warbeck as King

  Richard the Fourth. That there was some such plot, is likely; that

  they were tempted into it, is at least as likely; that the

  unfortunate Earl of Warwick - last male of the Plantagenet line -

  was too unused to the world, and too ignorant and simple to know

  much about it, whatever it was, is perfectly certain; and that it

  was the King's interest to get rid of him, is no less so. He was

  beheaded on Tower Hill, and Perkin Warbeck was hanged at Tyburn.

  Such was the end of the pretended Duke of York, whose shadowy

  history was made more shadowy - and ever will be - by the mystery

  and craft of the King. If he had turned his great natural

  advantages to a more honest account, he might have lived a happy

  and respected life, even in those days. But he died upon a gallows

  at Tyburn, leaving the Scottish lady, who had loved him so well,

  kindly protected at the Queen's Court. After some time she forgot

  her old loves and troubles, as many people do with Time's merciful

  assistance, and married a Welsh gentleman. Her second husband, SIR

  MATTHEW CRADOC, more honest and more happy than her first, lies

  beside her in a tomb in the old church of Swansea.

  The ill-blood between France and England in this reign, arose out

  of the continued plotting of the Duchess of Burgundy, and disputes

  respecting the affairs of Brittany. The King feigned to be very

  patriotic, indignant, and warlike; but he always contrived so as

  never to make war in reality, and always to make money. His

  taxation of the people, on pretence of war with France, involved,

  at one time, a very dangerous insurrection, headed by Sir John

  Egremont, and a common man called John a Chambre. But it was

  subdued by the royal forces, under the command of the Earl of

  Surrey. The knighted John escaped to the Duchess of Burgundy, who

  was ever ready to receive any one who gave the King trouble; and

  Pag
e 148

  Dickens, Charles - A Child's History of England

  the plain John was hanged at York, in the midst of a number of his

  men, but on a much higher gibbet, as being a greater traitor. Hung

  high or hung low, however, hanging is much the same to the person

  hung.

  Within a year after her marriage, the Queen had given birth to a

  son, who was called Prince Arthur, in remembrance of the old

  British prince of romance and story; and who, when all these events

  had happened, being then in his fifteenth year, was married to

  CATHERINE, the daughter of the Spanish monarch, with great

  rejoicings and bright prospects; but in a very few months he

  sickened and died. As soon as the King had recovered from his

  grief, he thought it a pity that the fortune of the Spanish

  Princess, amounting to two hundred thousand crowns, should go out

  of the family; and therefore arranged that the young widow should

  marry his second son HENRY, then twelve years of age, when he too

  should be fifteen. There were objections to this marriage on the

  part of the clergy; but, as the infallible Pope was gained over,

  and, as he MUST be right, that settled the business for the time.

  The King's eldest daughter was provided for, and a long course of

  disturbance was considered to be set at rest, by her being married

  to the Scottish King.

  And now the Queen died. When the King had got over that grief too,

  his mind once more reverted to his darling money for consolation,

  and he thought of marrying the Dowager Queen of Naples, who was

  immensely rich: but, as it turned out not to be practicable to

  gain the money however practicable it might have been to gain the

  lady, he gave up the idea. He was not so fond of her but that he

  soon proposed to marry the Dowager Duchess of Savoy; and, soon

  afterwards, the widow of the King of Castile, who was raving mad.

  But he made a money-bargain instead, and married neither.

  The Duchess of Burgundy, among the other discontented people to

  whom she had given refuge, had sheltered EDMUND DE LA POLE (younger

  brother of that Earl of Lincoln who was killed at Stoke), now Earl

  of Suffolk. The King had prevailed upon him to return to the

  marriage of Prince Arthur; but, he soon afterwards went away again;

  and then the King, suspecting a conspiracy, resorted to his

  favourite plan of sending him some treacherous friends, and buying