Execution of Perkin Warbeck: Pretender or one of the Princes in the Tower?

 Execution of Perkin Warbeck: Pretender or one of the Princes in the Tower?

On 23rd November 1499 Perkin Warbeck was hanged at Tyburn. Perkin Warbeck had claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Richard was one of the two Princes in the Tower, placed there in the summer of 1483 together with his older brother Edward. The princes were sons of Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville. As is very well known their uncle, Richard of Gloucester, succeeded in having himself declared king and the two princes, then aged twelve and nine respectively, disappeared.

Rumours concerning the fate of the princes started quite soon after their disappearance with many believing that they had been murdered. Their uncle, Richard III, was defeated at the Battle of Bosworth in August 1485, after which Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, took the throne as Henry VII. He married the princes elder sister, Elizabeth of York then aged almost twenty, in January 1486.

Henry VII faced various challenges and rebellions in the early years of his reign, as he struggled to establish himself as king; the claims of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck to be Yorkist heirs were among the most important as had they been successful that could have had serious implications for the new Tudor dynasty. Lambert claimed to be Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence and a nephew of both Edward IV and Richard III. The Lambert Simnel rebellion failed in 1487, Lambert himself was pardoned by Henry VII who presumably thought that the ten-year-old boy was a pawn, and he was subsequently given a job in the royal kitchens and lived until approximately 1525.

When a young man arrived in Cork, Ireland, in December 1491, he was initially thought to be Edward, Earl of Warwick but soon the claim was being made that he was actually Richard, Duke of York, one of the two princes in the Tower. Had Richard been still alive he would have been eighteen years old at that time. Cork, like much of Ireland, still remained loyal or at least sympathetic to the Yorkist cause and the Pretender received support there. The following year, 1492, he arrived in Burgundy where Margaret, the dowager Duchess accepted him as her nephew. Margaret was a sister of both Edward IV and Richard III and therefore would have been the aunt of Richard of Shrewsbury. Whether Margaret really believed that he was Richard of York or persuaded herself that he was cannot be known at this stage.

The supposed Richard received a great deal of support, at least initially, not only from Margaret of Burgundy but from Charles VIII of France and James IV of Scotland, who even arranged a marriage between the pretender and Lady Katherine Gordon, daughter the 2nd Earl of Huntly; another supporter, for a time anyway, was Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. How much any of those people actually believed that this was indeed Richard of Shrewsbury is debatable as all had their own reasons for their support. In England residual support for the Yorkist cause still lingered but the continuing uncertainty over the fate of Edward IV’s sons may have been another factor.

In September 1497 the Pretender landed in Cornwall and though he was at first enthusiastically received this soon fizzled out; by October he had been brought before Henry. He confessed to being an imposter, named Pierrechon de Werbecque, born around 1474, son of Jehan de Werbecque a merchant from Tournai (modern Belgium) and Katherine de Faro. By June 1498, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. The following year he became implicated in a plot involving Edward, Earl of Warwick (who was lodged close to him in the Tower) and others to escape with the hope of overthrowing Henry VII. 

Perkin Warbeck's trial took place on 16th November 1499 in the Palace of Westminster and he was condemned to death. On 23rd November 1499, after one final confession that he was not Richard of Shrewsbury, Perkin Warbeck was hanged at Tyburn and was buried in the Church of Austin Friars in the City of London*. 

Others involved in the plot were also executed, the most high profile being Edward, Earl of Warwick, on 28th November.

Perkin’s wife, Lady Katherine Gordon, survived him and became a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth of York, she had a further three marriages, though all after the death of Henry VII, and died in 1537.

Aside from showing that the Tudor dynasty was somewhat shaky, at least in its early years, the most interesting aspect of this case to me is the question whether the Pretender was or was not the real Richard of Shrewsbury. The fact that so many people, including important European rulers, were prepared to apparently accept that he was Richard does not really prove anything as they all had their own particular reasons not to support Henry VII, or at least a desire to embarrass the English king. Even the fact that the Pretender admitted to being an imposter when questioned does not prove a great deal either as he may have been questioned under duress. There is also the further difficulty that people who take on other identities, especially from a young age, can become confused about who they really are, but that is the sort of issue that interests modern psychologists and would not have been understood or sympathised with in the late 15th century.

A further question concerns the attitude of Elizabeth of York. By 1491 when Perkin had landed in Cork and the first claims that he was the real Richard of Shrewsbury had been made, Elizabeth had been married to Henry VII for five years, was Queen of England and had three children of her own, Arthur, Prince of Wales, born in 1486, Margaret in 1489 and Henry (the future Henry VIII) in June 1491. What would she feel about the sudden appearance of a brother, whom she had not seen since 1483, and whom she may have known only slightly? If the Pretender really had been her brother, then he would have threatened not only her husband’s throne and her own position as Queen but also the future of her children. Would she really have been prepared to offer support to Perkin, even if he were her brother, and risk putting so much in jeopardy? It seems likely that just as Margaret of Burgundy may have persuaded herself that Perkin was her nephew so Elizabeth would have the opposite motivation; even if she had a tiny suspicion that he could have been her brother, she may have been able to persuade herself that he was not.

The truth of Perkin Warbeck will probably never be known with one hundred percent certainty; one way would be if a body were found that could be identified as his with DNA results proving he was a genetic Plantagenet. But as Perkin's body appears to be lost the possibility of carrying out DNA tests is not an option. However, even if that were to be the case a great many people are likely to have had Plantagenet blood and it would not prove that such a body was Richard. In fact, it has been suggested that Perkin might have been an illegitimate son of Edward IV or even of one of his brothers (George, Duke of Clarence & Richard III). Another way would be if the bones that were found in the Tower of London in 1674 were finally definitively identified. It has been rumoured, though not confirmed, that King Charles may be prepared to allow DNA testing on the bones. If they are indeed those of Edward V and Richard, then that would solve the mystery of Perkin Warbeck. It would finally prove that Perkin Warbeck was Perkin Warbeck and not Richard of Shrewsbury. 

* This church, orignally built in the 13th-century now known as the Dutch Church, given to Protestant refugees in 1550. It was destroyed in an air raid in 1940 and was rebuilt in 1950-56. What became of Perkin Warbeck's burial site it not known and it is presumed lost. 

Background:

History of the life and reign of Richard the Third, to which is added the story of Perkin Warbeck : from original documents by James Gairdner, Cambridge University Press, 1898.

Ian Arthurson: The Perkin Warbeck Conspiracy 1491-1499. The History Press, Stroud, 2009.

Ann Wroe: Perkin, A Story of Deception. Vintage, London, 2004.

Robert Shepherd : Westminster, A Biography: . Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2012.

E.F. Jacobs: The Oxford History of Fifteenth Century England. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1985.

Gunn, S. J. "Warbeck, Perkin [Pierrechon de Werbecque; alias Richard Plantagenet, duke of York] (c. 1474–1499), impostor and claimant to the English throne." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 20 Nov. 2023. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-28669.