Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/79

Henry VII land as only surviving son of Edward IV. He had been invited from Ireland to the French court just before the war broke out; but by the peace of Etaples Charles was compelled to forbid his remaining in France, and he took refuge in the Low Countries with Margaret, duchess of Burgundy, who received him as her nephew. There he remained for two years, drawing towards him a number of disaffected Yorkists out of England; and Henry in vain requested the council of Philip, archduke of Austria, who, as duke of Burgundy, was the nominal ruler of those parts, to give him up or banish him. The archduke's council replied that they had no power to interfere with Margaret in the lands of her jointure; and Henry, seeing no other means of redress, endeavoured, to the irritation of the London Hanse merchants, to stop the trade between England and Flanders and to set up a mart for English cloth at Calais. He also kept careful watch against conspiracies, and obtained information through spies of the designs formed by the Yorkists, both in England and in the Low Countries. Sir Robert Clifford went into Flanders as a Yorkist, and won the confidence of the intriguers. On his return to England he impeached, among others, Sir William Stanley, as somehow implicated in the plot. Just before, Lord Fitzwalter, Sir Simon Montfort, and a number of the other intriguers in England were suddenly arrested, tried, and condemned for treason. Only four were sent to the block, and Fitzwalter would have been spared but for his attempt to escape. Stanley was beheaded on 14 Feb. 1495.

These arrests and executions disconcerted the Yorkists and delayed Perkin's projected invasion of England till July 1495, when Perkin, with a little fleet supplied to him by Maximilian and Margaret of Burgundy, appeared off Deal and landed some of his followers. But the country people attacked them with hearty goodwill, took many of them prisoners, and drove the rest back to their ships. Perkin then sailed to Ireland. In 1494 Henry had sent thither Sir Edward Poynings and a staff of English officials, who sent prisoner into England Gerald Fitzgerald (d. 1513) [q. v.], the powerful Earl of Kildare, and passed the celebrated Poynings law, by which the whole system of government and legislation was directly brought under the control of the English council. Perkin therefore found little support in Ireland, and sailed to Scotland, where he was well received by James IV. He stayed nearly two years at the Scottish court, and married a high-born Scottish lady. In September 1496 James invaded England along with him in support of his pretensions. But though Warbeck put forth a proclamation as King Richard IV, the expedition proved a brief and insignificant border raid.

In 1496 Henry, after much solicitation, especially on the part of Spain, joined the Holy league for keeping the French out of Italy. Ferdinand and Isabella, anxious for his active co-operation, sought to relieve him from the hostility of Scotland by sending thither an accomplished diplomatist named Don Pedro de Ayala, whose efforts helped much to mitigate old prejudices between England and Scotland and to promote alliance and friendship. Henry himself was entirely disposed towards peace, and was willing to give his eldest daughter Margaret to the Scottish king. Ayala warmly promoted the scheme; but Henry made the surrender of Warbeck, who was still in Scotland, a necessary condition of any peace. At length, in July 1497, James dismissed his guest, who took shipping at Ayr for Ireland. Nevertheless James immediately afterwards made another raid into England and besieged Norham. The place was strongly garrisoned, and England was well prepared for war. In the beginning of the year parliament had granted the king a subsidy for defence against the Scots, and the council had agreed to his raising a loan besides. The Earl of Surrey, at the head of a large army, drove James into Scotland, and at Ayton on 30 Sept. compelled him to agree to a seven years' truce.

The levying of this loan and subsidy had again created discontent. The Cornishmen rose in revolt under Thomas Flammock [q. v.], a lawyer, and Michael Joseph, a blacksmith. James Tuchet, lord Audley [q. v.], led them to Blackheath. The king was taken by surprise, and he had to recall a force that he was sending against the Scots under Giles, lord Daubeney [q. v.], while he himself went westward as far as Woodstock. At Blackheath Lord Daubeney gained a complete victory over the rebels on 17 June 1497. Lord Audley and the two other ringleaders were executed, but the other survivors of the insurgents were pardoned.

About a month later Warbeck landed in Ireland, where, as before, he made little progress. But the lenity shown by the king after Blackheath encouraged disaffection, and the impostor landed in Cornwall in September. He soon found himself at the head of three thousand men, and laid siege to Exeter; but, hearing that troops were coming against him, he took sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. Henry passed on to Exeter, where he was received with joy, and presented his own sword to the mayor in acknowledgment of the city's loyalty. Perkin's wife was taken at St. Michael's Mount, and