[Illustration:  Ireland In the Reign of Henry VII.]

This Lambert Simnel seems to have been a youth of some talent, and to have filled his ugly imposter’s role with as much grace as it admitted of Bacon, in his history of the reign, tells us that “he was a comely youth, not without some extraordinary dignity of grace and aspect.”  The fashion in which he retailed his sufferings, pleaded his youth, and appealed to the proverbial generosity of the Irish people, to protect a hapless prince, robbed of his throne and his birthright, seems to have produced an immense effect.  Kildare, there is reason to suspect, was privy to the plot, but of others there is no reason to think this, and with a single exception—­that of the Earl of Howth—­all the lords of the Pale and many of the bishops, including the Archbishop of Dublin, seem to have welcomed the lad—­he was only fifteen—­with the utmost enthusiasm, an enthusiasm which Henry’s production of the real son of Clarence had no effect at all in diminishing.

Lambert Simnel was conducted in high state to Dublin, and there crowned in the presence of the Earl of Kildare, the chancellor, and other State officers.  The crown used for the purpose was taken off the head of a statue of The Virgin in St. Mary’s Abbey, and—­a quainter piece of ceremonial still—­the youthful monarch was, after the ceremony, hoisted upon the shoulders of the tallest man in Ireland, “Great Darcy of Flatten,” and, in this position, promenaded through the streets of Dublin so as to be seen by the people, after which he was taken back in triumph to the castle.

His triumph was not, however, long-lived.  Emboldened by this preliminary success, his partizans took him across the sea and landed with a considerable force at Fondray, in Lancashire, the principal leaders on this occasion being the Earl of Lincoln, Thomas Fitzgerald, brother to the Earl of Kildare, Lord Lovell, and Martin Schwartz, the commander of the German forces.

The enthusiasm that was expected to break out on their arrival failed however to come off.  “Their snowballs,” as Bacon puts it, “did not gather as they went.”  A battle was fought at Stoke, at which 4,000 of the rebels fell, including Thomas Fitzgerald, the Earl of Lincoln, and the German general Martin Schwartz, while Lambert Simnel with his tutor, Simon the priest, fell into the king’s hands, who spared their lives, and appointed the former to the office of turnspit, an office which he held for a number of years, being eventually promoted to that of falconer, and as guardian of the king’s hawks he lived and died.