Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/80

Henry VII Henry caused her to be well treated and sent to his queen. The adventurer himself, being assured of his life, surrendered and made a full confession of his imposture at London. Henry appointed commissioners to impose fines on all who had in any way aided the rebellion. Perkin made a foolish attempt at escape, and was sent to the Tower. But a new pretender, Ralph Wilford, soon after personated the Earl of Warwick, and was hanged in February 1499. And, whether it were owing to these repeated Yorkist conspiracies or to some darker thoughts of his own, it was remarked soon after that Henry had come to look twenty years older within a fortnight. A few months later it was found that Warbeck had been tampering with his gaolers, and had been able to send messages to Warwick and draw him into a plot for the liberation of both of them from the Tower. Hereupon Perkin was hanged at Tyburn on 23 Nov. Warwick, too, was tried for treason and beheaded [see ], a tyrannical act done under the mere semblance of law. Warwick's imprisonment all along had been unjust. But with his death the male line of the house of York was extinct, and Henry had less to fear from the rival faction.

Henry had built for himself, or paid the prior of Sheen to build for him, a sumptuous residence on the Thames, named Sheen Palace, which soon after its completion was, on 21 Dec. 1497, burnt almost to the ground. It was soon rebuilt with greater magnificence than before, and Henry then called it Richmond, after the title which he had borne before he was king; by this name the place has been known ever since.

In the spring of 1498 the king was at Canterbury when a heretical priest suffered at the stake. By the king's exhortation he was induced to recant before his death, ‘whereof,’ says an old chronicler, ‘his Grace got great honor’ (Cott. MS. Vitell. A. xvi. f. 172; Excerpta Historica, p. 117).

The seven years' truce with Scotland was nearly undone a year after it was concluded by an affray which took place at Norham in 1498, owing to the imprudence of some Scottish gentlemen who were taken for spies. James demanded redress, and was not easily pacified by the most conciliatory answers; but he willingly received as ambassador Richard Foxe, bishop of Durham, who convinced him of Henry's real anxiety for peace, and undertook to promote anew the project of his marriage with Henry's daughter Margaret. In July 1499 the truce was superseded by a treaty of peace to last so long as either James or Henry should live, and for one year after the survivor's death. On 11 Sept. following Foxe succeeded in negotiating the marriage.

In 1500, while a plague was raging in different parts of England, Henry went over to Calais, where, after some messages had passed between him and the Archduke Philip, they had a personal interview just outside the town, and agreed to confirm old treaties and remove restrictions on commerce between England and the Low Countries. Two cross marriages were also arranged between their children, neither of which came to effect, though one was still in treaty for some years after Henry's death. This was the year of jubilee at Rome, in which indulgences were given to all who visited the holy see. But the pope likewise sent to England a commissioner named Jasper Pons to dispense the same favours to those who were willing to compound for the journey by a payment. The sums thus collected were to be applied to a crusade against the Turks, who were a serious danger to Italy, and Henry was even asked by the pope to join the expedition in person. He made a curious reply, excusing himself by the remoteness of England from Turkey; but he ultimately gave the nuncio 4,000l., after corresponding with Ferdinand of Spain as to the best means of preventing his holiness from misapplying the money.

In October 1501 came to England Catherine of Arragon [q. v.], daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, whose marriage with the king's eldest son, Arthur, had been for many years a subject of negotiation. It took place at St. Paul's on 14 Nov., and the young couple were after a time sent down to the borders of Wales, where, on 2 April following, the bridegroom died. Next year (11 Feb. 1503) Henry also lost his queen in childbed; but in June following he conducted his daughter Margaret from Richmond to his mother's residence, Collyweston in Northamptonshire, on her way to Scotland, where she was married to James IV on 8 Aug.

In July 1499 Henry had been disquieted by the flight of Edmund de la Pole, earl of Suffolk [q. v.], to Calais. After Warwick, Suffolk was the lineal heir to the pretensions of the house of York, and his elder brother, the Earl of Lincoln, had fought for Lambert Simnel. Edmund, however, had done good service at Blackheath, and had been treated with favour; but in 1498 he was arraigned for homicide in the king's bench, having killed a man in a passion, and, though he received the king's pardon, he seems to have remained disaffected. The king, when sending Sir Richard Guildford and Richard Hatton to the archduke, instructed them to see Suffolk on their way, and they induced him to return to Eng-