Stability

• What is a pretender?

  Someone who claims to have a position or title they do not rightfully have
• Credibility of Lambert Simnel's claim to the throne

  • claimed to be Earl of Warwick - leading Yorkist claimant to the throne
• Foreign support for Simnel

  • Margaret of Burgundy, outraged by usurpation of brother Richard III & by Henry's removal of a number of her trading rights, raised 2,000 mercenaries under command of Martin Schwartz
  • Ireland's Yorkist sympathies led many of leading Irish magnates to welcome & accept Simnel as Earl of Warwick
  • Earl of Kildare crowned him King
• Domestic support for Simnel

  • Earl of Lincoln, Richard III's official heir, fled from Henry to join Simnel
  • had support of Viscount Lovell
• Henry's action against Simnel

  • paraded Earl of Warwick through streets of London in attempt to prove Simnel was an imposter
  • summoned Great Council - acted against conspirators
  • raised 12,000 men to fight Lincoln's men and won Battle of Stoke 1487
  • punished Simnel & supporters - 28 nobles attainted & Simnel became turnspit in King's kitchen (fairly lenient - suggest not big threat)
• Date of Lambert Simnel as a pretender 


  1486-7
• Date of Perkin Warbeck as pretender

  1490-97 - longevity demonstrates high level of threat
• Credibility of Warbeck's claim

  • claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, younger of Edward IV's sons
  • Henry couldn't produce the real Duke or his remains (death never proven) so some believed he was who he claimed to be
• Foreign support for Warbeck 


  • France 1492 - Charles VIII received him as a prince
  • 1943 Margaret of Burgundy tutored him in ways of the Yorkist court
  • 1943 HRE - promised if he died before becoming King his claim would fall to Maximilian
  • 1945 welcomed in Scotland by James IV
• Domestic support for Warbeck

  • Lord Fitzwalter (Henry's steward) & Sir William Stanley (Lord Chamberlain) were executed for offering support in 1495 - trusted servants of king, disloyalty & proximity to king led to a heightened fear of assassination
  • pro-Yorkist sympathies from men inc Sir Robert Clifford
  • supported by 6,000 men in Cornwall (however invasion failed after facing Eng army & led to his arrests so support not that significant)
• Warbeck's failures 


  • 3 failed invasions of England: 1495 landed in Kent, 1496 invades from Scotland, 1497 landed in Cornwall
  • failed to gain support in Ireland - most lords refused to give him their backing
• Henry's action against Warbeck

  • 1497 Truce of Ayton - removed Scottish support for Warbeck
  • 1493 trade ban on Burgundy due to support for Warbeck & then 1496 Intercursus Magnus after Burg dropped support
  • used spy networks to root out conspirators - uncovered & executed William Stanley 1495
  • used Poynings in Ireland to drive out Warbeck in 1495
  • sent army to Cornwall in 1497
  • Warbeck moved to Tower of London 1498 and executed (alongside Earl of Warwick) when said to be involved in an escape attempt
• Earl of Suffolk's claim to the throne

  • resentful noble with a Yorkist claim to the throne
  • killed a man man and fled to Burgundy. Returned but started calling himself the White Rose.
• Foreign support for Earl of Suffolk, Edmund de la Pole

  • Margaret of Burgundy (until death 1503)
  • Philip the Fair (Philip I of Castile, son of Maximilian)
  • Maximilian - provided refugee when he fled Eng in 1501
• Domestic support for Earl of Suffolk, Edmund de la Pole 


  • de la Pole family
  • some Yorkish allies
• Years of Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk threat

  1499-1506
• Henry's action against Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk


  • 1506 after Archduke Philip shipwrecked, H seized opportunity to negotiate Treaty of Windsor, terms made up of deal made w Philip to return Earl of Suffolk in return for £138,000
  • 1501 Arrests his supporters e.g. Sir William Courtney & William de la Pole using spy network
  • honouring deal with Archduke Philip, the Earl of Suffolk not executed by Henry VII, but was executed in 1513 by Henry VIII
• How much of a threat was Simnel?

  • 8/10
  • significant support
  • rebellion forced henry to take decisive action - forced to raise army
• How much of a threat was Warbeck? 


  • 6/10
  • significant legitimacy
  • longevity
  • had support from some foreign powers but also failed to get support in places such as Ireland
  • henry successfully dealt w him
• How much of a threat was Edmund de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk?

  • 4/10
  • lack of widespread domestic (undermined by spy network) & foreign backing
  • Henry's countermeasures were effective - swift & decisive (diplomatic negotiations, imprisonment, spy network)
• Yorkshire Tax Uprising date

  1489
• Cause of Yorkshire tax uprising

  • protest at collection of subsidy for Brittany crisis (FP purposes)
  • Yorkshiremen felt Britanny not their concern
  • new tax additional burden in a poor area
• Events of Yorkshire tax uprising - evidence of threat

  • Earl of Northumberland (tax collector) placed in charge of leading commission to decide on subsidies collection in north - was confronted by rebels & killed
  • Northumberland left a son who was still a child & could not help govern the region - showed King's control of the North was insecure
  • more general 'rising' followed - showing widespread unrest in north
• Henry's action against Yorkshire tax uprising 1489

  • Henry sent army of 8,000 but some leaders fled to Margaret of Burgundy
  • rebels dispersed but Henry forced to give them a royal pardon - no further taxes collected
  • Henry unable to raise funds to protect Brittany fully
• Threat level of Yorkshire Tax uprising 1489

  5/10
• Cornish Uprising date 


  1497
• Cornish Uprising cause 


  raising of subsidy for 'irrelevant' war vs Scotland
• Domestic support for Cornshing rising 1497

  • Lord Audley (minor noble)
  • some 25 gentlemen from the Southwest
• Events of Cornish uprising 1497 


  • army of 15,000 (2x royal army BUT much less well trained) marched from Cornwall to London
  • threatened to release Earl of Warwick from tower & restore a Yorkish King
  • rising happened while Warbeck still a threat
• Henry's action against Cornish rising 1497


  • marched south w army of 20,000+
  • 2,000 rebels killed at Blackheath just outside London
  • leaders captured & executed & Henry fined others involved raising £15,000
  • though Cornwall remained unhappy
• Threat level of cornish rising 1497


  7/10