Henry also made direct diplomatic approaches to the Archduke Philip (he became Archduke when his father became Emperor). In the summer of 1493 a high powered English embassy arrived in Burgundy with instructions to inform Philip that he was harbouring an impostor.78 Poynings and William Warham, who headed the embassy, were very careful not to cast any blame on Philip himself, but they confronted and accused the Dowager. Warham, later to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, told Margaret that she had produced ‘two great babes not as normal but fully grown and long in the womb’, an especially unpleasant remark to be addressed to a barren woman. Not surprisingly ‘these tauntes and jestes did anger and trouble the lady Margaret’.
Molinet records that the English heralds so overstepped the bounds of polite diplomacy that the Archduke threatened them with prison. But, discreet as ever, Molinet limited his description of the encounter to a spirited dialogue between the heralds and the Dowager who objected to the ambassadors’ failure to bow to her nephew. According to the chronicler, one of the English ambassadors offered to take any representative that the Dowager cared to name and to show him the chapel where the real Richard of York was buried. At this point the Pretender intervened to express his amazement at the report of his burial and promised not to forget the herald’s words when he became king.
The prominence of the Dowager at the reception of the English embassy illustrates the ducal advisors’ concern to minimise the official Burgundian responsibility for the activity against Henry. The Archduke even assured the envoys that he was powerless to intervene since the Dowager had full authority within her own lands. This was patently untrue since in all the dower settlements the full sovereignty of the duchy of Burgundy was preserved.79 Henry recognised the naivety of the Archduke’s excuse and responded with vigour. He unleashed an economic war against Burgundy. From 1493 to 1496 there were mutual trade boycotts, English merchants were encouraged to leave Antwerp for Calais and in consequence, the pressure on Philip to abandon the Pretender grew rapidly among both the merchant community and the ducal councillors. There were no attacks on the Dowager but rather complaints against Maximilian, who was still suspected of influencing his son’s policies.
In spite of the growing economic distress, the Archduke continued to support schemes for a Yorkist invasion of England. A mercenary army of about 1,500 men was collected under the leadership of Roderigue de Lalaing, the bastard son of a famous Hainault family well-known to Margaret ever since Simon de Lalaing had welcomed Margaret to Sluis in 1468. Like Martin Schwartz, Roderigue de Lalaing was one of Maximilian’s trusted captains. He had distinguish himself at the battle of Utrecht80 but, unlike Schwartz, he came from the ranks of the Burgundian aristocracy. He had taken part in the tournament which celebrated Philip’s entry into the Order of the Golden Fleece. Also unlike Schwartz, he would survive his Yorkist adventure, later fighting for another of Maximilian’s allies, the Sforza Duke of Milan and he would have dealings with Maximilian’s later Yorkist protégés. Once more it is evident that Maximilian was backing the venture.
If Maximilian and Philip provided the facilities for collecting together the necessary men and ships, the Dowager again acted as banker. Margaret at this time had received the full restoration, with reparations, of all her lands which had been seized during the ‘Great Rebellion’. Her French dower had been returned to her and in addition, Maximilian made over some of the revenues and lordships confiscated from those who had supported Bruges and Ghent.81 In these circumstances she would have had little problem in raising the funds for the modest expeditionary force.
A series of contracts were drawn up at Antwerp by the lawyer Adrien van der Blickt and witnessed by Clifford and Barley. These record the arrangements for a loan between Margaret and her nephew.82 There were six protocols in all, signed between 10 and 23 December 1494. They settled all the matters still outstanding between the Dowager and the crown of England. When Richard became King he would pay over to his ‘very dear and very beloved aunt Margarete of England’ the 81,666 crowns still owing on her dowry. He would repay all the expenses Margaret had incurred on behalf of Lovel and Lincoln, as well as the 8,000 crowns she had lent him for his own venture. In addition he would restore her English licences and give her the manor of Hunsdon and the town and castle of Scarborough.
Even while these articles were being signed and sealed at Antwerp, the Archduke Philip was coming under increasing pressure to abandon the policies which were so injurious to Burgundian trade. There was a crescendo of protest from the mercantile community especially in Flanders, Brabant and Holland. As early as February 1495 the ducal council was urging Philip to withdraw his support from the English Pretender and to make a new economic treaty with Henry.
Henry was using his negotiations with the Holy League to exert diplomatic pressure on Maximilian. Both Venice and Spain advised Maximilian to abandon the Pretender in order to bring Henry into the alliance against France. But the Emperor, as Maximilian now was, boasted to the Venetian ambassador that he had ‘his kinsman Richard of York in his pocket’ and that when Richard was made the King of England he could be counted on to invade France in support of the League.83 The Emperor was quite open in his support of his Richard. He even delayed an imperial diet because he was too busy organising the invasion of England and after the expedition had left Vlissingen, he remained in close contact with the venture. It was surely Margaret who kept him well informed. News was sent on from Malines to Worms in July 1495 to assure the Emperor that all was going well. Maximilian appeared to be supremely confident of Richard’s success.
Henry Tudor avoided confronting either Maximilian or Philip. He allocated the blame firmly to Margaret who was, he claimed, leading both Maximilian and Philip astray in the support of yet another ‘feigned lad’.84 Those within England who had been tempted to believe in the Pretender were arrested, and the trial and execution of Sir William Stanley in February 1495 served as a frightening example to the waverers.85 If one so close to the throne could fall for making contact with the rebels then lesser men would draw back. The English agents had done their work well and depositions such as that given by Bernard de Vignôlles from Rouen show how far reaching and comprehensive the royal investigation was. The success of Henry’s preventative measures both in Ireland and England was shown in the total failure of the attempts by the Pretender and his army to make a landing either in Kent or Ireland during the summer of 1495.
By the spring of 1495 a fleet of about fourteen ships stood ready at Vlissingen to embark on the great enterprise. It left Zeeland in late June and attempted a landing at Sandwich in July.86 Driven away from there they went on to Deal, where they succeeded in putting some of their force ashore. Henry was away in the north, so the invaders had at least chosen the right place at the right time, but there was no local support and indeed they met vigorous opposition to their landing. According to Molinet, the Yorkist standard was raised in three villages, a very modest claim. Those who had landed were rounded up and taken for trial. About 160 men were taken prisoner, including Dutchmen, Germans and Burgundians. The Spanish ambassador reported that two Spaniards were among them. Margaret had evidently recruited from the international market of mercenaries who thronged the Low Countries. The rest of the expedition took to their ships and sailed off for Ireland. Here again they were disappointed by the lack of support. They besieged Waterford for eleven days, but were finally forced to withdraw with the loss of one of their ships.
Driven from England and Ireland, Richard took refuge in Scotland where he was welcomed at the court of the young King James IV. Correspondence between Malines and Scotland had eased the way for this friendly reception.87 King James was almost the same age as the Pretender and like Philip before him he seems to have enjoyed the company of Richard of York, who remained at the Scots court for more than two years. Special taxes were raised to keep him and to provide him with an allowance of £1,200 a year. He was offered a bride of the royal house, the Lady Catherine Gordon, a cousin
of the King, and they were married at Stirling Castle. King James was not merely being self-indulgent in his treatment of the Pretender. Intent on recovering Berwick he saw him as a useful weapon in his diplomatic war with England. However he was neither willing nor able to commit a large force to invade England on behalf of his client.
The presence of the Pretender at James’ court made Scotland a target for European diplomacy. Both France and the Holy League wooed the young King, who appeared to relish the attention. The French sent the Lord of Concressault, a French noble of Scottish extraction, who had served the Pretender in France88 and Sir George Neville was bribed by both sides to use his influence. King Charles VIII offered to mediate between Henry and James and he tried to purchase the Pretender for a sum of 100,000 crowns. France was not the only country trying to get hold of the young man. The Earl of Buchan and Lord Ramsay also wanted to kidnap him with the intention of selling him to Henry. On Henry’s instructions, Lord Ramsay showed Concressault a paper, supposedly from the French King, claiming that the Pretender was the son of a barber and his parents would soon be sent over to England. Apparently Concressault remained unimpressed.
By 1496 Henry had plenty of identities for the Pretender. Apart from the French barber’s son and the Tournai Warbeck, he had been offered an Iberian identification. Ferdinand of Aragon promised to send:
declarations of many persons who knew him [the Pretender] amongst whom is a Portuguese knight in the name of Ruy De Sosa … he is well acquainted with the whole matter … having been the Portuguese ambassador in England he knew the duke of York very well and had seen him there; two years later he saw this other person in Portugal … and his parents are in Portugal and are our subjects.89
The ease with which aliases could be provided must cast some doubts on the complicated alias which Henry eventually provided for the young man.
While Richard remained at the Scottish court, Lalaing returned to Burgundy and came back with a very small reinforcement of ‘twa little ships and 60 alemans’.90 This reinforcement may have been Margaret’s last military effort on her nephew’s behalf, although troops described as ‘alemans’ could equally well have come from Germany and thus from Maximilian. The young man was embarrassed by Margaret’s rejection. One of Henry’s spies, James Ramsay, reported Lalaing’s arrival at the Scottish court and the conversation which took place between Lalaing and the Pretender:
then cam Perkin to him and he salut him and askit how his Ant did and he said ‘well’ and he inquirit gyf he had ony letters fra hir ti him and he sad he durst bring nan, bot he had to ye king.
There is also a ring of truth in the speech written by Hall for Warbeck, when he was trying to account to King James for the Dowager’s failure to back him any further:
mine awne aunte the Lady Margaret … which as joyfully receaved and welcommed me as yf I had come out of hell into heaven, the only type and garland of her noble stirpe and linage … but for as muche as she being only dowager … and having nothing but her dowre propre unto herself was not of powre to keep me with men and munimentes of warre.91
Margaret was indeed no longer able to help her nephew in any way, because as soon as the Yorkist expedition left Zeeland, Philip withdrew his support from the whole venture. The ducal council had succeeded in making the Archduke understand that his security from another Flemish rebellion was dependant upon the rapid termination of the trade war with England. Negotiations began after the failure of Warbeck in Kent and by February 1496 the commercial treaty known as the Intercursus Magnus had been agreed.92 This was a comprehensive treaty and restored harmonious trading relations between the two countries. The Burgundians had decided on the abandonment of Warbeck. Margaret was specifically named in the treaty and she was forbidden to help any of Henry’s enemies. Publicly at least, Margaret observed all the terms of the treaty.
The Pretender was forced to seek help elsewhere and it was at this time that he wrote to Spain requesting Bernard de la Forsse, a knight who had served both Edward IV and Richard III, to come to his aid.93 Sir Bernard’s son Anthony, seems to have been in the Pretender’s army and it was hoped that more mercenaries and knights might be brought in from Spain. Signing his letters from ‘yr frend Rychard off England’ in a bold fluent hand very similar to that of his aunt, the Pretender also wrote to the Earl of Desmond and his friends in Ireland. Little came of these efforts and the Pretender’s only real hope was to receive direct military assistance from Scotland.
Shortly after Lalaing’s return from Flanders, a contract was drawn up between the Pretender, with Sir George Neville acting as the chief adviser, and King James.94 Richard promised to restore Berwick to Scotland and to repay all the money and aid he had received from Scotland by a subsidy of 50,000 marks payable over two years. With this contract in his coffers, the Scottish King brought his forces to Ellam Bridge to be met by the ‘Duke of York’s men’ assembled under a banner of murray and blue embroidered with a large white rose. An army of 1,400 men from many nations crossed the border on 17 September, but for the Scots this was more of a raid than an invasion. After looting and pillaging along the borders, they withdrew and were back in Scotland within four days. The Pretender no doubt realised that raids from Scotland would do his cause no good in England, and he protested to James at the misery and cruelty inflicted on ‘his people’. This drew the sharp retort from James that he was showing a great deal of consideration for people who would have nothing to do with him and ‘this ridiculous mercy and foolish compassion’ was misplaced.95
By the end of 1496 King James was tiring of his attachment to the Pretender. Henry was offering James a good marriage and the Holy League was urging him to abandon Warbeck. However, the young King of Scotland had a strong sense of honour and would not merely reject the Pretender as Charles VIII had done earlier. Moreover there was no longer a haven for Richard at Malines. An opportunity for Scotland to rid itself of Warbeck came in the summer of 1497. There had been a rebellion in Cornwall against Henry’s government and, although it had been put down, the south-west was still seething with discontent. In July the Pretender prepared to try once more to invade England. He still hoped to win support in Ireland so his strategy was unchanged. He would land first in Ireland and after collecting an army, sail on to England to make a landing in the south west. Before he left Scotland, he issued a proclamation declaring his rights and naming Henry as a usurper whose government through ‘caitiffs and villains’ was causing ‘misrule and mischief’ in England. He called on all his subjects to rise to his cause and promised rewards to all those who came out to fight for him. This weak gesture was compounded by the list he issued of all those who had died on his behalf, a list hardly likely to encourage others. Among those named were Sir William Stanley, Humphrey Stafford, Sir Robert Chamberlain and Lord Fitzwalter who had been executed at Calais in 1496.96
Early in July the Pretender and his wife left Ayr with a small fleet. King James promised to support him by diversionary raids in the north, but Catherine’s presence on board with her husband suggests that the Scottish King was saying a final farewell to his protégé. Although James did attack at Norham in late August, by the time the Pretender landed in Cornwall negotiations between James and Henry had begun in earnest.
At least one of the ships in the Pretender’s small fleet appears to have come from Burgundy since it had the Dutch name of the Kekeuit (the Kijkuit or Lookout).97 Was this a secret gift from Margaret or from Maximilian? If so Margaret was being very discreet. Throughout this final attempt there were no other signs that she was still backing the enterprise. Lalaing does not seem to have been present during Warbeck’s final efforts in Ireland and Cornwall.98 He had probably left long before the departure from Scotland, but his contacts with the Yorkist cause did not end in 1497. He was still carrying messages between the Emperor and his Yorkist pretenders as late as 1505, when he was in contact with Edmund, Earl of Suffolk. Although Philip and Margaret had withdrawn their support, Maximilian continued to back
this Richard. As late as October 1497, the Emperor assured the Venetian ambassador that Richard could count on an army of 35,000 men and that he would succeed in seizing the throne of England as he marched up from the west.99
On 20 July the Pretender’s small fleet arrived at Cork where, through the influence of his old friend and supporter John Waters, he could be sure of a welcome. He was joined there by two more ships, probably from France or Brittany, perhaps a contribution from Charles VIII who was hoping to delay Henry’s participation in the Holy League. After a month spent recruiting a large number of Irish soldiery, the expedition sailed for Cornwall, where they landed on 7 September at Whitsand Bay. Three days later Henry heard that the long expected invasion had begun.100
About 3,000 men from the south-west came out under the Duke of York’s banners which carried a graphic account of the Pretender’s cause. One depicted a small boy being rescued from a tomb, a second showed the same child escaping from the jaws of a wolf (or was it a wild boar?) and the third displayed the red lion of England. Encouraged by the support he received among the Cornish, the Pretender sent his wife and her ladies to shelter at St Michael’s Mount, declared himself King Richard IV at Bodmin and marched on to take Exeter. But Exeter, led by the Earl of Devonshire, who was within the city with a large army, shut its gates and prepared for a long siege.
After losing about 400 men in the siege, and more still through desertions, and hearing that Henry was heading into Cornwall at the head of a large army, the Pretender lost his nerve and fled. On the night of 20 September he left ‘the pore comons levyng theym amazed and disconsolat’.101 With a small party of close friends such as John Waters he made his way towards the coast, but with Henry’s men in close pursuit they were forced to take sanctuary at Beaulieu Abbey. With promises that their lives would be spared, they were persuaded to surrender and were taken as prisoners to Taunton, where Warbeck made his famous confession. He was then taken on to Exeter where Henry arrived on 7 October. The Lady Catherine was brought from St Michael’s Mount to hear her husband’s confession, and the tearful young woman was taken into the Queen’s household, complaining that she had been seduced by lies. Catherine Gordon was to live on to make three more marriages and is commemorated on the monument of her second husband, Sir Matthew Craddock, at Swansea.102
Margaret of York: The Diabolical Duchess Page 25