he held consultations with his followers, Herne, Skelton, and Astley, three broken tradesmen; and by their advice, he resolved to try the affections of the Cornish, whose mutinous disposition had been lately manifested, in resisting the levy of a tax imposed for the purpose of repelling the inroad of the Scots. No sooner did he appear at Bodmin, in Cornwall, than the populace, to the number of three thousand, flocked to his standard; and Perkin, elated with this appearance of success, took on him, for the first time, the appellation of Richard the Fourth, king of England. Not to suffer the expectations of his followers to languish, he presented himself before Exeter; and finding that the inhabitants shut their gates against him, he laid siege to the place; but being unprovided with artillery, ammunition, and every thing requisite for the attempt, he made no progress in his undertaking. When Henry was informed that Perkin had landed in England, he expressed great joy at his being so near, and prepared himself with alacrity to attack him. The lords Daubeny and Broke, with sir Rice ap Thomas, hastened forward with a small body of troops to the relief of Exeter, and the king himself prepared to follow with a considerable army. Perkin, informed of these great preparations, immediately raised the siege of Exeter, and retired to Taunton. Though his followers seemed still resolute to maintain his cause, he himself despaired of success, and secretly withdrew to the sanctuary of Beaulieu in the new forests. The Cornish rebels submitted to the king's mercy. Except a few persons of desperate fortunes who were executed, and some others who were severely fined, all the rest were dismissed with impunity. Lady Catharine Gordon, wife to Perkin, fell into the hands of the victor, and was treated with a generosity which does him honour. He soothed her mind with many marks of regard, placed her in a reputable station about the queen, and assigned her a pension, which she enjoyed even under his successor. Perkin being persuaded, under promise of pardon, to deliver himself into the king's hands, was conA. D. ducted, in a species of mock triumph, to London. 1498 His confession of his life and adventures was pub lished; but though his life was granted him, he was still detained in custody. Impatient of confinement, he broke from his keepers, and fled to the sanctuary of Shyne. He was then imprisoned in the tower, where his habits of restless intrigue and enterprise followed him. He insinuated himself into the intimacy of four servants of sir John Digby, lieutenant of the tower; and, by their means, opened a correspondence with the earl of Warwick, who was confined in the same prison. This unfortunate prince, who had, from his earliest youth, been shut up from the commerce of men, and who was ignorant even of the most common affairs of life, had fallen into a fatuity, which made him susceptible of any impression. The continued dread also of the more violent effects of Henry's tyranny, joined to the natural love of liberty, engaged him to embrace a project for his escape, by the murder of the lieutenant; and Perkin offered to conduct the whole enterprise. The conspiracy escaped not the king's vigilance. Perkin, by this new attempt, had rendered himself totally unworthy of mercy; and he was accordingly arraigned, condemned, and soon after hanged at Tyburn, acknowledging his imposture to the last. It happened about that very time that one Wilford, a cordwainer's son, encouraged by the surprising credit given to other impostures, had undertaken to personate the earl of Warwick; and a priest had even ventured from the pulpit to recommend his cause to the people. This incident served Henry as a pretence for his severity towards that prince. He was brought to trial, and accused of forming designs to disturb the government, and raise an insurrection among the people. Warwick confessed the indictment, was condemned, and the sentence was executed upon him. This act of tyranny, the capital blemish of Henry's reign, occasioned great discontent; and though he endeavoured to alleviate the odium of his guilt, by sharing it with his ally, Ferdinand of Arragon, who, he said, had scrupled to give his daughter Catherine in marriage to Arthur, while any male descendant of the house of York remained ;-this only increased the indignation of the people, at seeing a young prince sacrificed to the jealous politics of two subtle tyrants. There was a remarkable similarity of character between these two monarchs: both were full of craft, intrigue, and design; and though a resemblance of this nature be a slender foundation for confidence and amity, such was the situation of Henry and Ferdinand, that no jealousy ever arose between them. The king completed a marriage, which had been projected and negotiated during the course of seven years, between Arthur prince of Wales, and the infanta Catherine, fourth daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella; but this marriage proved in the issue unprosperous. The young prince a few months after sickened and died, much regretted by the nation. Henry, desirous to continue his alliance with Spain, and also unwilling to restore Catherine's dowry, which was two hundred thousand ducats, obliged his second son Henry, whom he created prince of Wales, to be contracted to the infanta, by virtue of a dispensation from the pope. This marriage was, in the event, attended with the most important consequences. In the same year, another marriage was celebrated, which was also in the next age productive of great events; the marriage of Margaret, the king's eldest daughter, with James, king of Scotland. Amidst these prosperous incidents the queen died in child-bed; and the infant did not long survive her. This princess was deservedly a favourite of the nation; and the general affection for her was augmented by the harsh treatment which it was thought she experienced from her consort. A. D. 1503 Uncontrolled by apprehension or opposition of any kind, Henry now gave full scope to his natural propensity; and his avarice, which had ever been the ruling passion of his mind, broke through all restraints. He had found two ministers, Empsom and Dudley, perfectly qualified to second his rapacious and tyrannical inclinations. These instruments of oppression were both lawyers. By their knowledge in law these men were qualified to pervert the forms of justice to the oppression of the innocent; and the formidable authority of the king supported them in all their iniquities. In vain did the people look for protection from the parliament; that assembly was so overawed, that during the greatest rage of Henry's oppression, the commons chose Dudley their speaker, and granted him the subsidies which he demanded. By the arts of accumulation, this monarch so filled his coffers, that he is said to have possessed at one time the sum of one million eight hundred thousand pounds; a treasure almost incredible, if we consider the scarcity of money in those times. |