Perkin

by Ann Wroe

  Louis XI’s nose: Philippe de Commines, Mémoires, ed. Mlle du Pont (Paris, 1847), vol. 3, Preuves, no. xxxiv, p. 340.

  Richmond’s perceptions: CSPM, pp. 323, 330. Bacon’s: Henry VII, p. 192.

  The discoloured eye: For medical opinions, see the correspondence between Marie Morris and Dr Peter Watson in The Ricardian Bulletin (June 1994, p. 30, Sept. 1994, p. 43). Thanks to Bill Hampton for alerting me to this. I am also grateful for the opinion of Dr Mohammed El-Ashry of Moorfields Hospital.

  Judging by eyes: The Kalendar & Compost of Shepherds, from Guy Marchant’s original of 1493, ed. G. C. Heseltine (1930), p. 154; Secreta, pp. 230, 232–3. Guillaume Deguileville, Le pélérinage de la vie humaine, ed. J. J. Sturzinger (Roxburghe Club, 1893), p. xliv.

  Political significance of mismatched eyes: See the Bishop of Lincoln’s sermon in John Gough Nichols, Grants, etc, from the Crown during the Reign of Edward V, Camden Society (1854), pp. liv–lv.

  ‘bonet on side’: William Dunbar, ‘The Dance of the Sevin Deidly Synnis’, ls 16–17.

  Images in mirrors: David Hockney, Secret Knowledge (2001), p. 72 and passim.

  Counterfeits in Thee glass: Brant, Ship of Fools, p. 58.

  Caxton/counterfeit: Caxton’s Eneydos of 1490, ed. W. T. Cully & F. J. Furnivall, EETS Extra Series lvii (1890), pp. 49, 110.

  Counterfeit Countenance: Skelton, ‘Magnificence’, esp. ls 410–44. Barnyard shit: ‘Against a Comely Coystrone’, l. 10.

  ‘so counterfeit a majesty’: Hall, Chronicle, p. 462.

  ‘his right clearness’: Vices & Virtues, p. 80; Deguileville, Pélérinage, pp. vi, ix–x, 20.

  St Bernard on the soul: The Tretyse of Love, ed. John H. Fisher, EETS Original Series, 223, 1951 (for 1945), p. 8.

  ‘For of the body’: Deguileville, Pélérinage, p. xxvii.

  ‘dear darling’: Hall, Chronicle, p. 486.

  Pressure of time: Stonor Letters & Papers, ed. C. L. Kingsford, 2 vols, Camden Society 3rd Series, 30 (1919), passim; The Chronicles of the White Rose of York (1845), p. 208; Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, The Romance of the Rose (Roman de la rose), tr. Frances Horgan (Oxford, 1994), p. 8. Almost every Paston letter is also written ‘in haste’.

  1 Into adventure

  Richard Plantagenet’s story: See his letter to Isabella of Aug. 25th 1493, BL MS Egerton 616/3; Frederick Madden, ‘Documents relating to Perkin Warbeck, with Remarks on his History’, Archaeologia, vol. 27 (1838), App. II, pp. 199–200.

  Repeating the story: AH, p. 65.

  Piers Osbeck’s confession: LC, pp. 219–22; GC, pp. 284–6; Hall, Chronicle, pp. 488–9. All quotations in this work are from the London Chronicle.

  Setubal testimonies: See Appendix. See also PI, vol. 4, pp. 526–9. This full transcription of the Spanish State Papers is used in preference to Bergenroth’s CSPS, though both are usually cited. Many thanks to C. S. L. Davies for alerting me to the Spanish version, and to the Setubal testimonies in particular.

  impelled him to wander: AH, p. 63. ‘land-loper’: Bacon, Henry VII, p. 133.

  Mandeville/ Wanderlust: The Voiage and Travayle of Syr John Maundeville Knight . . . ed. Jules Bramont (1928), pp. 142–3.

  galées vagans: Chastellain, ‘Le Temple de Bocace’, Oeuvres, vol. 7, p. 92.

  Depressed Bruges: The Cely Papers: Selections from Correspondence and Memoranda of the Cely Family, Merchants of the Staple, 1475–88, ed. H. E. Madden, Royal Historical Society III, 1 (1900), p. 171.

  Richmond’s voyage: James Gairdner, Memorials of Henry VII, Rolls Series 10 (1858), pp. 328–33.

  André/ Brampton: Ibid., pp. 65, 72 (‘a Jew called Edward’).

  ‘alias of Portingale’: CPR HVII, vol. 1, p. 274.

  Brampton’s career: Cecil Roth, Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History (Philadelphia, 1962), pp. 69–81; Marques de São Paio, ‘A Portuguese Adventurer in the Wars of the Roses’, tr. (in the Barton Library of the Richard III Society) from the Anãis da Academia Portuguesa da Historia, 2nd series, vol. 6 (Lisbon, 1955), pp. 4–8.

  Brampton’s manors: CPR EIV/EV/RIII, p. 416.

  ‘services unspecified’: Ibid., p. 366; CCR EIV/EV/RIII, pp. 312, 320. £100 a year: Ibid., p. 370; CPR EIV/EV/RIII, p. 481.

  Facilitator in Lisbon: Gairdner, Memorials, pp. 364–5.

  Back in grace: CPR HVII, vol. 1, p. 274.

  Pero Vaz’s family: Rui de Pina, Crónica de el-Rei D. João II, ed. Alberto Martins de Carvalho (Coimbra, 1950), p. 88 and n. xix (pp. 291–2).

  da Cunhas jousting: Gairdner, Memorials, pp. 346, 349.

  Master Alvaro: TheVoyages of Cadamosto, ed. R. Crone, Hakluyt Society, 2nd Series, lxxx (1937), p. 141.

  ‘sardines’: Elaine Sanceau, The Perfect Prince: A Life of João II (Porto, 1959), p. 274.

  Bisagudo/ Visagudo: Garcia de Resende, Crónica de D. João II e Miscêlanea, ed. Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão (Lisbon, 1973), p. 354.

  Pero Vaz’s poem: ‘Vylancete de Pero Vaz’ in Garcia de Resende, Cancioneiro Geral, f. 200f . Many thanks to Adelino Soares de Mello for his translation. ‘How to succeed’: Ibid., f. 19f–20b. Nam posso vyuer comyguo: Ibid., ff. 109e, 211f.

  The many-branched tree: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, pp. 238–40.

  Roundness of the world: Kalendar of Shepherds, p. 119. Fly on the apple: William Caxton’s The Mirror of the World, EETS Extra Series cx (1913), pp. 51–3.

  Leone’s tale: Le Historie della Vita e dei Fatti di Cristoforo Colombo, per D. Fernando Colombo suo figlio, ed. Ronaldo Caddeo (Milan, 1930), pp. 68–9.

  Canarians’ sightings: Washington Irving, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, vol. 1 (1828), pp. 47–8.

  Men ‘with very big faces’: Fernando Columbo, p. 67. Pieces of wood, hollow canes: Ibid., p. 66 and n.

  Columbus’s jottings: Ymago Mundi de Pierre d’Ailly [avec] notes marginales de Christophe Colomb, ed. Edmond Buron, 3 vols (Paris, 1930), passim, esp. pp. 167–9, 207, 235.

  Behaim’s globe: Ian Arthurson, The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy (Stroud, 1994), p. 38; E. G. Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, his life and his globe (1908), passim. Exact replicas of this globe are made by Greaves & Thomas of Richmond, Surrey.

  Behaim/Maximilian: Sanceau, Perfect Prince, pp. 380–1.

  ‘1,200 bridges’: Mandeville, Voiage, pp. 162–3. The beast in the fruit: Ibid., p. 192.

  The Great White King: Sanceau, Perfect Prince, pp. 218, 225.

  Aeneas in the Underworld: Eneydos, p. 120. Disbelieving in marvels: Mirror of the World, pp. 50–1, 105.

  ‘no other country but Spain’: Gairdner, Memorials, p. 255. ‘no other world but England’: A Relation, or rather a true account, of the Island of England . . ., tr. Charlotte Augusta Sneyd, Camden Society 37 (1847), p. 35.

  Azerbaijan: Mandeville, Voiage, p. 189.

  Columbus’s southern breast: Ymago Mundi, pp. 167, 459–61. His deceptions: The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, being the Journals of his First and Third, and the letters covering his first and last voyages, tr. & ed. Cecil Jane (1930) pp. 139–46, passim; CSPS, p. 44.

  Tournai’s Egyptians: Amaury de la Grange, ‘Extraits analytiques des registres des Consaux de la ville de Tournai, 1431–1476’, Mémoires de la Société Historique et Littéraire de Tournai, vol. 23 (Tournai, 1893), pp. 2, 97; H. Vandenbroeck, Extraits analytiques des anciens registres de la ville de Tournai, 1385–1422 (Tournai, 1861), vol. 1, pp. 236–8; vol. 2, pp. 376–7.

  The elephant:Voyages of Cadamosto, pp. 72–3.

  Dr Münzer’s report: [in Latin] ‘Itinerarium hispanicum Hieronymi Monetarii, 1494–1495’, ed. Ludwig Pfandl, Revue Hispanique, vol. 48 (New York and Paris, 1920), pp. 50, 83–4, 87. [In Latin and Portuguese] Basílio de Vasconcelos, ‘Itinerário do Dr Jerónimo Münzer’, part 1, O Instituto, vol. 80, no 5 (Coimbra, 1930); part 2, ibid., vol. 83, no. 2 (1932), pp. 546, 554–6, 562. Many thanks to Adelino Soares de Mello for his labours in finding this.

  Approaches to the Great Khan: Mandeville, Voiage, pp. 196–7.

&nb
sp; Prester John: Voyages of Cadamosto, pp. 126–8; Mandeville, Voiage, pp. 195–8, 212–15. His diplomacy: P. E. Russell, Henry the Navigator: A Life (2000), pp. 125–6.

  Bemoy’s story: Voyagesof Cadamosto, pp. 128–30; Resende, Crónica, pp. 112–18; Rui de Pina, Crónica, pp. 90–1, 93–6.

  Notions of the Senegal: Voyages of Cadamosto, pp. 138–9.

  Pero Vaz’s expedition: Ibid., p. 141; Resende, Crónica, pp. 116–18; Rui de Pina, Crónica, pp. 95–6.

  Route to the Senegal: Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de situ orbis, tr. & ed. George H. T. Kimble, Hakluyt Society, 2nd Series, no. 79 (1937), pp. 68–82.

  Congo explorers: Ravenstein, Behaim, pp. 22–3.

  worm-eaten ships: Münzer, Itinerário, part 2, p. 155. Cloth putrefying: Ibid., p. 157.

  Sun-hat and gloves: Resende, Crónica, p. 267.

  Ferdinand and Isabella’s recommendation: CSPS, p. 92; PI, vol. 4, p. 522. For the afterthought, see AGS Patronato Real, leg. 52 f.

  Resende/ de Sousa: Crónica, pp. 42, 248. De Sousa at Tordesillas: Geronymo Zurita, Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Catholico, vol. 5 (Saragossa, 1610), ff. 35v–37r. In England: Rui de Pina, Crónica, p. 22.

  The Rainha: Münzer, Itinerário, part 1, pp. 552, 558–9.

  Rich Germans: Münzer, ibid., part 1, p. 564.

  ‘like an English child’: Sanceau, Perfect Prince, p. 172.

  De Sousa and his nephew: Resende, Cancioneiro, ff. 159e, 160e.

  Sumptuary laws: Rui de Pina, Crónica, pp. 72–3, 116–17; Sanceau, Perfect Prince, pp. 278, 321–2.

  De Sousa as play-maker: Resende, Cancioneiro, f. 36b; Crónica, p. 187.

  Woodville in Lisbon: Rui de Pina, Crónica, pp. 70–1; Sanceau, Perfect Prince, pp. 296–7. Brampton/ Woodville: Nichols, Grants of Edward V, pp. 105, 107.

  Henry’s payment to him: PRO E 405/76, mem. 2v. To the Scotsman: PRO E 404/80/80. Payments for other trips to Portugal: E 404/80/71, 80; Rev. William Campbell, Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII, 2 vols (1877), vol. 2, pp. 44, 346.

  Visits of Portuguese messengers and ambassadors: PRO E 404/80/73, 80, 333, 345; E 405/78, mem. 23r.

  Richmond’s August trip: PRO E 404/80/37. His later one: James Gairdner, Memorials of Henry VII, Rolls Series 10 (1858), pp. 328, 356–64.

  Carlisle Herald: PRO E 36/130, mem. 46v.

  De Sousa at Beja: Gairdner, Memorials, pp. 360–1.

  Behaim as emissary: Ravenstein, Behaim, pp. 43–5 and App. x, p. 113.

  Fogaça’s questions: Resende, Cancioneiro, f. 89d.

  Branca Rosa: Resende, Miscêlanea, p. 354.

  The dream ships: Rui de Pina, Crónica, pp. 128–9; A. H. de Oliveira Marques, Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages, tr. S. S. Wyatt (Madison, 1971), pp. 264–5. Thanks to Ian Arthurson for alerting me to this work.

  Letters to Desmond and Kildare: Bacon, Henry VII, p. 137; Sir James Ware, The Antiquities and History of Ireland (1654, printed 1705), p. 22.

  The elder Duke of York in Ireland: See D. B. Quinn in A New History of Ireland II, Medieval Ireland, 1169–1534, ed. Art Cosgrave, pp. 564–6; Agnes Conway, Henry VII’s Relations with Scotland and Ireland, 1485–1498 (Cambridge, 1932), pp. 133–4.

  Meno’s business: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 84.

  French version of the confession: CC 111, f. 188r, v.

  ‘gala clothes’: A Journal of the first Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499, ed. E. G. Ravenstein, Hakluyt Society (1898), p. 5.

  Lancelot’s quest: Thomas Malory, Morte Darthur (Oxford, 1996), p. 371. White hart and hounds: Ibid, pp. 54–5. Arthur’s first adventure: Ibid., pp. 6–12.

  Green and red cloth: e.g. PRO E 404/81/3, warrant of December 8th 1491; Conway, Relations, pp. 51, 244.

  Silk in the royal wardrobe: Nicholas Harris Nicolas, Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York and Wardrobe Accounts of Edward the Fourth (1830), passim.

  Tristan in Cornwall: Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan, tr. A. T. Hatto (Harmondsworth, 1967), esp. pp. 71, 74–7, 82–3, 97.

  The false Baldwin: L’Abbé A. J. Namèche, Cours d’Histoire Nationale, part 1, vol. 2 (Louvain, 1853), pp. 429–34.

  2 Imagined princes

  Imagination: See esp. Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola, On the Imagination (1500), tr. & ed. Harry Caplan. Cornell Studies in English, xvi (Yale, 1930), esp. pp. 31–3, 51. Spiders’ webs: Secreta, p. 98.

  Richard’s birthday: Cora Scofield, The Life and Reign of Edward IV, 2 vols (1923), vol. 2, p. 60 and n.

  The cradle: John Leland, De Rebus Britannicis Collectanea, 6 vols (1774), vol. 4, p. 183; Kay Stanisland, ‘Royal Entry into the World’, in England in the Fifteenth Century, Proceedings of the Harlaxton Symposium, 1986, ed. Daniel Williams (1987), p. 310.

  The nurse: Nicolas, Privy Purse, p. 75.

  Baptism: Leland, Collectanea, vol. 4, pp. 180–1; Stanisland, ‘Royal Entry’, pp. 302–4.

  John Giles: CPR EIV/EV/RIII, p. 592; CCR EIV/EV/RIII, p. 1.

  Richard’s rooms and servants: Scofield, Edward IV, vol. 2, p. 204; Gairdner, Richard III, p. 341; Michael Hicks, ‘The Changing Role of the Wydevilles in Yorkist Politics to 1483’, in Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England, ed. Charles Ross (Gloucester, 1979), p. 79.

  Firewood: The Household of Edward IV: The Black Book and Ordinance of 1478, ed. A. R. Myers (Manchester, 1959), pp. 223 and 268n.

  Edward IV’s rules: Letters of the Kings of England, ed. James Orchard Halliwell Philips, 2 vols (1846), vol. 1, pp. 136–43.

  Arms and flowers: BL MS Royal 14 E 1, 14 E VI, 14 E II (5), etc.; Janet Backhouse, ‘Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as collectors of illuminated manuscripts’, in England in the Fifteenth Century (Harlaxton), p. 39.

  ‘most skilful’: John Rous, Historia regum Angliae, ed. T. Hearne (Oxford, 1745), p. 212; see also Dominic Mancini, The Usurpation of Richard III, tr. C. A. J. Armstrong (1936), p. 115.

  ‘most sweet and beautiful children’: Ingulph’s Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland, tr. & ed. Henry T. Riley (1908), p. 482.

  Princely exercises: Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474: Cassoles, tr. Ferron, tr. & printed Caxton, British Chess Magazine Classic Reprints (1968), p. 33; Mancini, Usurpation, p. 85.

  Edward IV to his father: EH, pp. 8–9 (1454).

  The two sons: Secreta, pp. 99–100. Edward’s copy: Scofield, Edward IV, vol. 2, p. 453.

  ‘glory gliding away’: Campbell, Materials, vol. 2, p. 58.

  Richard’s investiture: EH, pp. 242–3; CCR EIV, p. 9. Earl Marshal: CPR EIV/EV/RIII, pp. 75, 358. Lieutenant of Ireland: Ibid., p. 153 (and see p. 118).

  Witnessing acts: Ibid., pp. 108, 230.

  Garter regalia: Nicolas, Privy Purse, pp. 136, 161.

  Extra titles: CPR EIV/EV/RIII, p. 15; CCR EIV, mem. 1071; PRO C53/197, mem. 11.

  Pre-contracting children: Thomas Rymer, Foedera, conventiones, literae . . . & acta publica inter reges Angliae et alios . . . , 20 vols (1704–32), vol. 12, pp. 110, 128–9, 147. ‘nubile years’: Ibid., pp. 142–5.

  ‘high and mighty’: Rot. Parl., vol. 6, pp. 168–70.

  Marriage jousts: BL MS Harley 69, ff. 1r–2r. The marriage itself: W. H. Black, The Wedding of Anne Mowbray and Richard Duke of York (Roxburghe Club, 1840), pp. 27–40.

  Henry, Duke of York: L&P, vol. 1, pp. 392–3; The Paston Letters, 1422–1509, ed. James Gairdner, 6 vols (1904), vol. 6, no. 1058.

  ‘heirs of his body’: Rot. Parl., vol. 6, p. 206.

  A prayer of the primer: Horae Eboracenses, The Prymer or Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary . . . with other devotions, ed. Canon Wordsworth, Surtees Society, vol. 132 (1920 for 1919), p. 73. Henry VII said he had recited this prayer from childhood: The Will of Henry VII, printed by T. Payne (1775), p. 2.

  Anne Mowbray’s death: Scofield, Edward IV, vol. 2, pp. 322–3. Lands passing to Richard: Rot. Parl., vol. 6, p. 206.

  Richard’s frailty: Thomas More, The History of King Richard the Third (with Grafton’s continuation), ed. S. W. Singer
(1821), pp. 51–2, 53. Another twelve years: CPR EIV/EV/RIII, p. 210.

  The little lieutenant: Nicolas, Privy Purse, pp. 155, 156, 160.

  Edward’s doctors: Myers, Household, p. 76. His illness: Scofield, Edward IV, vol. 2, p. 365; Commines, Mémoires, book 6, ch. viii; Mancini, Usurpation, pp. 71–3.

  Edward’s burial: L&P, vol. 1, pp. 3–10. The coat of mail: Scofield, Edward IV, vol. 2, pp. 367–8n.

  Edward’s will: EH, p. 371. See also, on plans for Richard, Mancini, Usurpation, p. 73.

  Russell’s speech: Nichols, Grants of Edward V, p. xlvi.

  Coronation date: Croyland, p. 486; Mancini, Usurpation, n. 70.

  Preparations for robes: Gairdner, Richard III, pp. 101–2; Doctor Milles, ‘Observations on the Wardrobe Accounts for 1483’, Archaeologia, vol. 1 (1779), p. 368.

  Edward’s letters: Rymer, Foedera, vol. 12, pp. 185–6.

  Richard’s role: Mancini, Usurpation, p. 109; Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 4, pp. 401–2.

  Elizabeth’s panic, Richard’s extraction: More, Richard III, pp. 30, 50–63.

  The Howards’ barges: Mancini, Usurpation, p. 150 and n. 72. Thames covered with boats: More, Richard III, p. 31.

  ‘thousands’ of armed men: Letter of Simon Stallworth to Sir William Stonor, EH, pp. 16–17; Stonor Letters, pp. 159–60. For the sense of panic, see also the note in Cely Papers, no. 114 (pp. 132–3).

  ‘merry’: Stonor Letters, p. 160.

  Edward’s misery: Mancini, Usurpation, pp. 113–15; More, Richard III, p. 130; Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 4, pp. 401–3.

  ‘shooting and playing’: GC, p. 209.

  Yorkist bows and arrows: ‘Narratives of the arrival of Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de la Gruthuyse, in England, and of his Creation as Earl of Winchester, in 1472’. Letter from Frederick Madden to Hudson Gurney in Archaeologia, vol. xxvi (1836), p. 278.

  Dr Shaw’s sermon: Gairdner, Richard III, p. 79.

  Arguments enshrined in law: Rot. Parl., vol. 6, pp. 240–2. For a discussion of Dr Shaw’s arguments, see R. H. Hemholz, ‘The Sons of Edward IV: A canonical assessment of the claim that they were illegitimate’, in Richard III: Loyalty, Lordship and Law, ed. P. W. Hammond (1986), pp. 91–103; Scofield, Edward IV, vol. 2, pp. 212–13.