and the neighbourhood, affembled troops of their A, C. 1498. own accord, in confequence of this intimation; and the king ordered the lord Daubeney to march to the relief of Exeter, declaring that he would follow him in perfon, at the head of a numerous army. Perkin, receiving intelligence of these preparations, raised the fiege, and retired to Taunton, where he declared he would hazard an engagement; but in the night he withdrew with fome of his confidents to the fanctuary of Beaulieu in the New Foreft. Retires to a The lord Daubeney, being informed of his retreat, the New fanctuary in detached three hundred horfe in pursuit of him; Forest. but finding him already houfed, they befet the fanctuary, until they fhould receive further orders. In the mean time the rebels, to the number of fix thoufand, finding themfelves abandoned by their chief, fubmitted to the mercy of the king, who pardoned the whole number, except fome of the ringleaders, whom he reserved to be hanged as an example. He afterwards fent a detachment of cavalry to St. Michael's Mount, to fecure the lady Catherine Gordon, the wife of Perkin, foreseeing that if she was pregnant, the rebellion might be continued to another generation. When that lady was brought into the king's prefence, he was fo ftruck with her beauty and modeft deportment, that he confoled her in very affectionate terms, with promife of protection, fent her under a ftrong guard to attend upon the queen, and beftowed upon her a confiderable penfion, which fhe enjoyed during his life, and many years after his decease. These steps being taken, Henry proceeded to Exeter, and in entering the city prefented his own fword to the mayor, to be carried before that magiftrate as a token of the king's favour and good-will to the citizens, who had behaved with fuch loyalty and valour, in defence of his government. Then he ordered the ringleader of the infurrection to be

X 4

hanged

A. C. 1498. hanged in terrorem; and granted commissions to the lord Darcy and others, to impofe fines upon fuch as were in any fhape concerned in the rebellion. Thefe agents fqueezed the wretched people with the utmoft feverity, and rendered the king's moderation with refpect to their lives, rather a curfe than a bleffing.

Rymer,

Is committed to the Tower,'

The disturbance being thus effectually quelled, Henry called a council to deliberate on the fate of Perkin, who ftill continued invefted in the fanctuary; and after fome debate, it was determined that the king fhould pardon him, on condition of his confeffing and explaining every circumftance of the impofture, which he had fo long maintained. His affairs being altogether defperate, he embraced the king's offers without hesitation, and quitted the fanctuary. Henry being defirous of feeing him, he was brought to court, where the king obferved him from a window, but he would never admit him into his presence. He was afterwards conducted to London, and by Henry's order rode in public through the streets from Westminster to the Tower, and back again, amidst the derifion and infults of the populace, which he bore with the moft dignified refignation. Then he was confined in the Tower, where one of his principal accomplices was executed; and he himself figned a confeffion, which was printed and difperfed through the nation. But this was fo lame, defective, and contradictory, that, inftead of explaining the pretended imposture, it left it more doubtful than before, and induced many people to believe that Perkin Warbeck was really the fon of the fourth Edwardt.

The fucceeding year began with an incident, A. C. 1498, which, tho' it at firft feemed to threaten troublefome confequences, was productive of great fatiffaction to Henry. While the truce fubfifted between England and Scotland, fome Scottish gentlemen happening to be at Norham, were infulted by the garrifon, and a quarrel enfuing, fome of them loft their lives. Complaint of this outrage being made to the English commiffioners, who acted as confervators of the truce, the affair was treated with fuch contempt, that the king of Scotland fent ambassadors into England, to demand immediate fatisfaction. Henry, who carefully avoided all caufes of rupture with James, difowned the violators of the truce, and forthwith appointed envoys, to terminate the difference in an amicable manner. It was in the course of this negotiation, that James propofed a match between himself and Margaret wed with the eldest daughter of Henry, than which nothing Scotland. could be more agreeable to the king of England. After the truce was renewed at Stirling, with the addition of fome new articles, Richard Fox, bishop of Durham, received a commiffion, to fettle the conditions of the marriage, which was actually celebrated in the fequel.

Tho' Henry had by this time triumphed over all his enemies, and the pope had granted a dispensation for the marriage of his fon Arthur with Catherine of Arragon, Ferdinand feemed ftill averfe to this match while Henry's title was liable to the leaft objection. That cautious Spaniard feemed to harbour fome doubts concerning the imposture of Warbeck; and even hinted, that Henry's throne could not be firmly established while any prince of the houfe of York retained alive. The king of England was fo intent upon the Spanish alliance, and fo tired of the fucceffive infurrections by which his reign had been disturbed, that he refolved to facri

fice

A. C. 1499.

Truce re

Rymer.

gil.

Hall.

A. C. 1499. fice the youth called Perkin, as well as Edward earl of Warwick, to his intereft and fafety. Edward, the fon of George duke of Clarence, had fince the death of his uncle Richard been closely confined in the Tower, debarred of the benefit of air, exercife, and converfation; and kept in fuch ignorance, that he could fcarce diftinguish the doPolyd. Vir- meftic animals by name. Perkin Warbeck, who doubtless felt that defire of liberty which is fo natural to the mind of man, and had reason to dread every thing from Henry's difpofition, was permitted to converfe with this haplefs nobleman, as well as with the domeftics of lord Digby, lieutenant of the Tower; and in all probability he was indulged with this permiffion by the connivance of the king, who hoped that his enterprizing genius, and infinuating addrefs, would engage the fimple earl of Warwick in fome project, that would furnish a prewick in the text for taking away their lives under colour of juftice. Perkin fell into the fnare, according to Henry's expectation: he tampered with Warwick, and gained over four fervants of Sir John Digby, who are faid to have undertaken the murder of their mafter, that they might fecure the keys of the Tower, and escape with the two prifoners, to fome part of the kingdom, where a new infurrection might be raised in favour of the pretender.

Perkin

Warbeck tampers with the

earl of War

Tower,

They are both tried

and executed.

That the danger might appear the more imminent and preffing, so as to justify the fteps which Henry intended to take, another difturbance was raised at the fame time in Kent, where a young man called Ralph Wilford, the fon of a cordwainer, perfonated the earl of Warwick, under the conduct and direction of one Patrick, an Auguftine monk, who in public Sermons exhorted the people to take arms in his favour. This friar, who had been used as a tool by the king's emiffaries, was arrefted together with his pupil; and Wilford was hanged without

ceremony,

ceremony, but the tutor obtained his pardon. This A. C. 1499.
was the prelude to the fate of Perkin aud the earl
of Warwick, whose pretended plot being now dif-
covered, Perkin was tried at Weftminster, and be-
ing convicted on the evidence of lord Digby's fer-
vants, was hanged at Tyburn, with John Walter,
mayor of Cork, who had conftantly adhered to his
cause in all the viciffitudes of his fortune. Blewet
and Aftwood, two of Digby's fervants, under-
went the fame fate: but fix other perfons, con-
demned as accomplices in the fame confpiracy,
were pardoned. In a few days after Perkin's exe- Dugdale,
cution, Edward earl of Warwick was tried by his
peers before John earl of Oxford, created high
fteward on that occafion; and being convicted of
high treafon, in confequence of pleading guilty to
the arraignment, was beheaded on Tower-Hill.
The deplorable end of this innocent nobleman, the Bacon,
laft male branch of the Plantagenets, and the fate
of Perkin Warbeck, who, notwithstanding all that
appeared against him, was by the unprejudiced part
of the nation deemed the real fon of king Edward,
filled the whole kingdom with fuch horror and
averfion to the government of Henry, that he was
fain to tranflate the odium upon his ally Ferdinand,
by divulging that prince's fcruples, for the re-
moval of which he had been obliged to deliver
the competitors for his crown into the hands of
juftice.

About this period, the peace of Eftaples between A. C. 1500,
France and England, was approved and ratified by
the states of France affembled at Nantes; and con-
firmed by the authority of the pope, who iffued a
bull, denouncing excommunication upon that prince >
who should violate the treaty. Lewis was the more Rymer.
inclined to live upon good terms with England, as
he formed the defign to make himself master of
Milan, by means of a league with the Venetians.

He

T