Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/97

] the husband of her niece Elizabeth, or the father of a prince in whose veins flowed Yorkist blood. She abhorred the mingling of the blood of York and Tudor, and yearned only to see it thrown down from the throne of England, and that of York, pure and undivided, set up in its place. Such a person was the Earl of Lincoln—such was the real Earl of Warwick. Then why, it may be asked, did she successively set up such puppets as Simnel and Warbeck? They were, undoubtedly, regarded by her and all her party merely as stepping-stones, or stalking-horses, by which to bring a real aspirant to the foot of the throne, when they could have been sacrificed without remorse. Margaret of Burgundy was, at the same time, regarded as a woman of high principle and amiable mind. As the wife of Charles the Rash, she seemed to have caught some of his daring spirit—as the stepmother of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, her kindness to her and her children, Philip and Margaret, had won all hearts. She ruled the provinces which she held as her dower with great ability, and was highly popular all over the Netherlands. To her Lord Lovell had fled, and to her also fled the Earl of Lincoln. To her the Irish party sent emissaries for aid; and she dispatched 2,000 veteran German troops, under a brave and experienced general, Martin Swartz, accompanied by the Earl of Lincoln.

On the 19th of March, 1487, Lord Lincoln, with this strong reinforcement, landed at Dublin, and, no sooner was he introduced to the pretended Earl of Warwick, than he advised that he should be crowned. Lincoln had often seen and conversed with the real Earl of Warwick. He was intimately acquainted with his person, had recently conversed with him in London and at Sheen, for he had not set out for Flanders till after the great council of Henry, where, of course, he had learnt all the royal plans for defeating the plot. Yet, knowing all this, he at once proposed the coronation of Simnel as the true prince. This is sufficient to show us what was the scheme of the party, and that they were only putting forward puppets for ulterior purposes. The impostor was, accordingly, crowned as the true prince by the Bishop of Meath, with a diadem taken from a statue of the Virgin Mary. After the ceremony, in accordance with the Irish fashion, the new king was carried from the church to the castle on the shoulders of a chieftain of the name of Darcy. Writs were immediately issued in his name, convoking a Parliament, in which legal penalties were enacted against the Butlers and the citizens of Waterford, who were old and staunch Lancastrians, and stood out firmly for King Henry.

The moment that Henry Tudor learned the flight of the Earl of Lincoln, he set out on a progress through the counties of Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, in which the chief interest of the earl lay. He was anxious to ascertain the feeling existing there, and to repress any symptoms of revolt. He was courteous to the gentry, and many of them proffered themselves to do him service. Both he and his lieutenant in those parts, the Earl of Oxford, appeared well satisfied with the state of things. As it was supposed, in order to please the people of Norfolk, he went on a pilgrimage to "Our Lady of Walsingham," and sought her aid in his behalf. Thence he proceeded, by Northampton and Coventry, to Kenilworth, at which castle he had placed his queen, his mother, and his son. He was still at Kenilworth when news was brought him that the Earl of Lincoln and Lord Lovell had lauded with the pretended Edward VI., supported by Martin Swartz and his German legion, at the pile of Foudray, an old keep in the southern extremity of Furness. They pitched their tent at Swarthmore, near Ulverstone, where they were soon joined by Sir Thomas Broughton and his tenantry. Being now about 8,000 strong. Lord Lincoln, who was commander-in-chief, marched boldly towards York, expecting to be joined by the discontented of that district. But the Yorkshire people had not only been won over by Henry's late visit and politic proceedings, but they had seen how Lord Lovell had fled before him without a blow. They were greatly impressed with ideas of the superior tact and fortune of Henry, and lay still; and they were the more disposed to this from the invading army consisting of Irish and foreigners.

Disappointed by this, Lord Lincoln considered it only the more necessary to push forward, and strike a blow while the king was unprepared. He therefore marched rapidly down towards the midland counties, and Henry, on his part, set forward to meet him. He issued the strictest orders for the government and conduct of his camp. It was made a capital offence to rob or ravish, to take anything without paying the market price for it, or to arrest or imprison any one without direct orders from head-quarters. Thus Henry protected his subjects at once from the license of the soldiery, and the arbitrary will of the officers, as far as in him lay. Every soldier was to saddle his horse at the first blast of the trumpet, bridle it at the second, and mount at the third. All vagabonds and common women were banished the camp under menace of the stocks or imprisonment. Such a discipline, most unlike that of the past civil wars, was calculated to produce a great effect on the people.

Henry advanced by Coventry and Leicester to Nottingham; Lincoln had already approached Newark. The royal army advancing to oppose the whole force lost its way between Nottingham and Newark, and there was such confusion in consequence, and such rumours of the enemy being upon them, that numbers deserted. But five guides were procured from Ratcliffe-on-Trent, and soon afterwards the vanguard of Henry's army, led by the Earl of Oxford, encountered the forces of Lincoln at Stoke, a village near Newark. The battle lasted for three hours, and was obstinately contested. The veteran Germans, under Swartz, fought till they were exterminated almost to a man. The Irish displayed not the less valour; but, being only armed with darts and skeans—for the English settlers had adopted the arms of the natives—were no match for the royal cavalry. The whole of the troops of the insurgents, expecting no mercy if they were taken, seemed prepared to perish rather than to yield. Four thousand of the insurgents and 2,000 of the king's best troops are said to have fallen in this desperate engagement; but nearly all the leaders of the rebel army, the Earl of Lincoln, Sir Thomas Broughton, the brave Swartz, and the Lords Thomas and Maurice Fitzgerald, having fallen, the victory on Henry's part became complete.

The pretender Lambert Simnel and the priest Simons were captured by Sir Robert Bellingham, one of the king's esquires; but nothing was seen of Lord Lovell.