Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/299

 when the expedition actually sailed in July 1495 he was sanguine that the young man would obtain possession of England, and soon after turn his arms against France. As a matter of fact, Warbeck's little fleet appeared off Deal and landed a small body of men on 3 July, but his adherents were attacked by the country people with hearty good will, and 150 of them were slain and eighty taken prisoners. After this disastrous loss the adventurer sailed to Ireland and laid siege to Waterford, but after eleven days was compelled to withdraw, one of his vessels being captured by the loyal citizens.

He then sailed to Scotland, where James IV received him at Stirling in November, and gave him in marriage his own cousin, Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly. Measures were planned for invading England, and Warbeck wrote as Duke of York to the Earl of Desmond in Ireland to send forces into Scotland in his aid (, Antiquities of Ireland, ed. 1664, pp. 33, 46). In September 1496 an ambassador of the French king offered James a hundred thousand crowns to send him to France. That same month, after much preparation, James made a raid into Northumberland on his account, but returned in three days. For, though the Pretender had issued a proclamation as king, no Englishmen joined him; the Scots were not to be withheld from practising the barbarities of border warfare, and Warbeck, it is said, only excited ridicule by entreating James to spare those whom he called his subjects. He remained in Scotland till July 1497, when he embarked with his wife, and apparently more than one child whom he already had by her, at Ayr, in a Breton merchant vessel, whose captain was under engagement to land him in England for some new attempt. The renowned seamen Andrew and Robert Barton accompanied him in their own vessels. The rebels in Cornwall had invited him to land in those parts; but he first visited Cork on 26 July, and remained in Ireland more than a month. This time, however, he got no support in that country either from Kildare or Desmond, the former being now lord-deputy, and the loyal citizens of Waterford not only wrote to inform the king of his designs, but fitted out vessels at their own cost which nearly captured him at sea in crossing to Cornwall. He and a small company made the crossing in three ships, and the one in which he himself was, a Biscayan, was actually boarded. The commander of the boarding party showed the king's letters offering two thousand nobles for his surrender, which was only right, he said, considering the alliance between England and Spain. But the captain denied all knowledge of his being on board, though he was actually hidden in a cask, and the ship was allowed to proceed on its voyage.

He landed at Whitesand Bay in Cornwall, proclaimed himself Richard IV, as he had done in Northumberland, and at Bodmin found himself at the head of a body reckoned at three thousand men, which more than doubled as he went on. He laid siege to Exeter, but on the approach of the Earl of Devonshire and other gentlemen of the county withdrew to Taunton. Learning that Lord Daubeney was at Glastonbury in full march against him, he stole away from Taunton at midnight (21 Sept.) with sixty horsemen, whom apparently he soon left behind, and rode on himself with three companions to Beaulieu in Hampshire, where they took sanctuary. Two companies of horse presently surrounded the place, and Perkin and his two friends surrendered to the king's mercy. He was brought back to Taunton, where the king himself had now arrived, on 5 Oct., and, having been promised his life, made a full confession of his imposture. His followers had everywhere submitted. Henry went on to Exeter and despatched horsemen to St. Michael's Mount, where Warbeck had left his wife, to bring her to him; after seeing her, and making her husband confess his imposture once more in her presence, Henry sent her with an escort to his queen, assuring her of his desire to treat her like a sister.

The country being now pacified, the king went up to London, taking with him Perkin, who was paraded through the streets (28 Nov.) as an object of derision, and lodged in the Tower. Soon afterwards, however, he was released and kept in the king's court, with no restraint upon his liberty except that he was carefully watched. In 1498, however, on 9 June, he made an attempt to escape, but he got no further than the monastery of Syon, and surrendered once more on pardon. On Friday, 15 June, he was placed in the stocks on a scaffolding reared on barrels at Westminster Hall, and on Monday following underwent similar treatment in Cheapside, where he repeated his confession, and after five hours' exposure was conveyed to the Tower. The whole story of his imposture, written and read by himself, was printed by the king's command.

Next year (1499) he made an attempt to corrupt his keepers, who with a show of yielding brought him into communication with other prisoners, and among them with the unhappy Earl of Warwick, the only real