Suddenly, a young man came to Ireland and pretended to be this Earl of Warwick.  He deceived a good many of the Irish, and the Mayor of Dublin actually took him to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where he was crowned as King Edward the Sixth:  and then he was carried to the banquet upon an Irish chieftain’s back.  He came to England with some Irish followers, and some German soldiers hired by the duchess; and a few, but not many, English joined him.  Henry met him at a village called Stoke, near Newark, and all his Germans and Irish were killed, and he himself made prisoner.  Then he confessed that he was really a baker’s son named Lambert Simnel; and, as he turned out to be a poor weak lad, whom designing people had made to do just what they pleased, the king took him into his kitchen as a scullion; and, as he behaved well there, afterwards set him to look after the falcons, that people used to keep to go out with to catch partridges and herons.

But after this, a young man appeared under the protection of the Duchess of Burgundy, who said he was no other than the poor little Duke of York, Richard, who had escaped from the Tower when his brother was murdered.  Englishmen, who came from Flanders, said that he was a clever, cowardly lad of the name of Peter (or Perkin) Warbeck, the son of a townsman of Tournay; but the duchess persuaded King James IV. of Scotland to believe him a real royal Plantagenet.  He went to Edinburgh, married a beautiful lady, cousin to the king, and James led him into England at the head of an army to put forward his claim.  But nobody would join him, and the Scots did not care about him; so James sent him away to Ireland, whence he went to Cornwall.  However, he soon found fighting was of no use, and fled away to the New Forest, where he was taken prisoner.  He was set in the stocks, and there made to confess that he was really Perkin Warbeck and no duke, and then he was shut up in the Tower.  But there he made friends with the real Earl of Warwick, and persuaded him into a plan for escape; but this was found out, and Henry, thinking that he should never have any peace or safety whilst either of them was alive, caused Perkin to be hanged, and poor innocent Edward of Warwick to be beheaded.

It was thought that this cruel deed was done because Henry found that foreign kings did not think him safe upon the throne while one Plantagenet was left alive, and would not give their children in marriage to his sons and daughters.  He was very anxious to make grand marriages for his children, and make peace with Scotland by a wedding between King James and his eldest daughter, Margaret.  For his eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, he obtained Katharine, the daughter of the King of Aragon and Queen of Castille, and she was brought to England while both were mere children.  Prince Arthur died when only eighteen years old; and King Henry then said that they had been both such children that they could not be considered really married,