Perkin

by Ann Wroe

  Margaret at Binche: AN CC 8858, ff. 55v, 56r.

  Maximilian to Henry: PI, vol. 5, p. 251 (CSPS, p. 157). His envoys and Philip’s in England, July and August: PRO E 101/414/16, ff. 36r, v, 43v.

  Tournai dela Escaut: La Grange, ‘Extraits’ (see Notes, p. 479), pp. 149, 306; Hennebert, ‘Extraits’ (see Notes, p. 519), p. 284.

  Erasmus on Cambrai: Epistles, nos 50, 53, 151, 153.

  Henry at the Tower: PRO E101/414/16, ff. 36r, v.

  The interview: PI, vol. 5, pp. 297–8 (CSPS, pp. 185–6). ‘Margaret . . . knew everything’: CSPM, p. 329.

  Wanting to drive Margaret out: PI, vol. 4, pp. 465–6 (CSPS, p. 74).

  Margaret’s bad influence: PI, vol. 4, p. 624 (CSPS, p. 124).

  The young nun: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 4, pp. 151–2.

  Cambrai/ de Puebla: PI, vol. 5, p. 302 (CSPS, p. 189).

  Margaret’s letter: PI, vol. 5, pp. 327–8 (CSPS, pp. 196, 198).

  Simulated joy: HRHS, p. 67.

  ‘It doesn’t seem such a bad way’: PI, vol. 5, pp. 333–4.

  ‘peace of mind’: CSPM, p. 348.

  The East Anglian tour: EH, p. 119; PRO E101/141/16, f. 37r.

  Conspiracies in this section: PRO Fifty-third Report, App. II, pp. 30–6; Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records (1842), App. II, pp. 216–18; PRO KB 8, passim.

  Wilford: LC, p. 225; GC, p. 289; AH, p. 117.

  Carre’s dabbling: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 47.

  A hanger: this was the mugger’s weapon of choice: see, e.g., PRO KB 9/392/35, KB 9/1109, etc.

  ‘take and deliver Peter’: see also Rot. Parl., vol. 6, p. 545.

  King’s council: Bayne & Dunham, Select Cases (see Notes, p. 498), p. 32.

  Ward’s sureties: Condon, ‘Kaleidoscope’ (see Notes, p. 492), p. 209; CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 156.

  Audeley: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 392.

  Charles the Bold: Commines, Mémoires, book 5, ch. v.

  Watson’s pardon: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 47.

  ‘convenable . . . lacrymable’: Skelton, ‘Upon a Dead Man’s Head’, preamble.

  Lounde’s arrival ‘noticed’: GC, p. 282; LC, p. 21.

  Margaret’s devotions: AN CC 8859, ff. 43r, 61v.

  ‘Some lords of England’: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 118.

  The Isle of Wight tour: EH, p. 122.

  August outlawries: PRO KB 29/139, mems 50v, 53r. Heron: See also Rot. Parl., vol. 6, pp. 550–1.

  Taylor the younger: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 188 (Aug. 24th 1499).

  Vergil’s doubts: AH, p. 117.

  Henry to Louis XII: BL MS Add. 46455, ff. 136r–137v.

  ‘Aging20 years’: CSPS, p. 239.

  Welsh fortune-teller: Ibid.

  De astrorum vi fatali: MS Selden Supra 77 (Bodleian Library, Oxford), esp. ff. 16r–28v; C. A. J. Armstrong, ‘An Italian Astrologer at the Court of Henry VII’, in England, France and Burgundy, pp. 160–1, 165–6.

  Richard’s bad stars: MS Selden Supra 77, f. 18r, v.

  Parron’s complaint: Anni MD Pronosticon (Bodleian), sig. b, ir.

  Judge Fineux’s statement: Bayne & Dunham, Select Cases, p. 32.

  Legal proceedings and sentences: PRO Third Report, pp. 216, 218; PRO 53rd Report, pp. 30–1, 33, 35; LC, pp. 226–7. No record: This should have appeared in the controlment roll with the others: KB 29/131, rot. 4.

  ‘in the same way as Warwick’: PRO KB 8/22; Grey Friars Chronicle (see Notes, p. 523) p. 182.

  Atwater arrested: BL MS Add. 46455, f. 137r.

  Taylor the elder’s arrest: See p. 70 and n.

  Atwater attainted: CPR HVII, vol. 2 (March 28th 1499). His son pardoned: Ware, Antiquities, p. 40.

  Sentences on the warders: PRO 53rd Report, p. 35. Strangeways appears to have been spared and was pardoned the next year: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 205.

  Ward’s death: Condon, ‘Kaleidoscope’, pp. 209, 210.

  Outlawries: PRO KB 29/131, rot. 4.

  Lounde: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 237. The renewals of his outlawry are crossed out in the controlment roll.

  Warwick’s trial and sentence: PRO KB 8/2, mem. 3v; Plumpton Correspondence, ed. Thomas Stapleton, Camden Society vol. xxix (1839), p. 141. Storage of the records: PRO 53rd Report, p. 15; L. W. Vernon Harcourt, ‘The Baga de Secretis’, EHR, vol. 23 (1908), pp. 525–9.

  His execution: LC, p. 226. ‘great floods’: Grey Friars Chronicle, pp. 182–3. Henry’s payments: EH, p. 123.

  ‘made in blood’: Bacon, Henry VII, p. 204.

  Perkin’s execution: LC, pp. 227–8; GC, p. 291.

  ‘walking the distance’: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 121.

  Mud in the streets: Williams, Eng. Hist. Docs (see Notes, p. 525), p. 189.

  ‘he didn’t look much like him’: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 121.

  Miracles: Knox, TheMiracles of Henry VI, tr. Ronald Knox (Cambridge, 1923), pp. 97, 154.

  Parron’s version of the confession: Anni MD Pronosticon, f. 7v.

  De Puebla/Ayala: Zurita, Historia, vol. 5, p. 170. De Puebla’s reports: CSPS, p. 249.

  sangre real: L&P, vol. 1, pp. 113–14; BL MS Egerton 616/16. Molinet’s theory: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 121.

  ‘if thou wilt learn’: Vices & Virtues (see Notes, p. 477), pp. 70–1.

  Believing in the lie: AH, p. 119; Bacon, Henry VII, p. 139.

  In manus tuas: Skelton, ‘Magnificence’, ls 2044–5; ‘Mankind’, l. 516.

  Villon: ‘Quatrain of Villon doomed to die/Variant’, ls 3–4.

  Epilogue: Absence

  ‘such grace’: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 121.

  Stow’s visit: A Survey of London, reprinted from the text of 1603, ed. C. L. Kingsford, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1908), pp. 178–9.

  Owen Tudor: Eric. N. Simons, The Reign of Edward IV (1966), pp. 51–5.

  Birds pecking: ‘L’Epitaphe Villon’, verse 3.

  The Porte de Marvis: Vandenbroeck, Extraits, vol. 2, p. 142 n.

  ‘hung and dried’: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 121.

  Shooting stars: Mirror of the World (see Notes, p. 479), pp. 122–3.

  astonished the country: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, p. 118.

  The pestilence: Grey Friars Chronicle, p. 183; Wriothesley’s Chronicle, p. 4 (see Notes, p. 523); AH, p. 119 n.

  Henry’s quittance: BL MS Add. 21480, f. 177v.

  ‘The lily-white rose’: Davies, Medieval Lyrics, no. 156.

  De Puebla’s summary: L&P, vol. 1, pp. 113–14; BL MS Egerton 616/16.

  ‘winding ivy’: Bacon, Henry VII, p. 202.

  Henry’s acts of piety: EH, pp. 111, 121, 124.

  Ayala: CSPS, p. 266.

  West Country fines: Arthurson, ‘Rising of 1497’ (see Notes, p. 513), pp. 12–14; L&P, vol. 2, pp. 335–7; Howard, ‘Fines Imposed’ (see Notes, p. 515), passim. Henry’s endorsements: BL MS Royal 14B vii, passim; BL MS Add 21480, f. 175r. ‘most ruthlessly’: AH, p. 109.

  ‘For why ’tis hard’: Ian Arthurson, ‘A Question of Loyalty’, The Ricardian, vol. vii (1987), p. 408.

  Attainders: Rot. Parl., vol. 6, pp. 544–8. Audeley’s pardon: CPR HVII, vol. 2, p. 392.

  Attainders and heirs: Campbell, Materials, vol. 1, p. 459; Lander, Crown and Nobility, pp. 147 and n., 148.

  Exemptions from the general pardon: J. S. Brewer et al., Letters & Papers (see Notes, p. 526), vol. 1, part i, 11, 10.

  Suffolk’s conspiracy: W. E. Hampton, ‘The White Rose under the First Tudors’, part ii, in The Ricardian, vol. vii, no 98 (Sept. 1987), passim. At Henry’s jousts: LC, pp. 201–2. Secret dinner, Hampton, ‘White Rose’, p. 465.

  Neville’s pardons: CPR HVII, vol. 2, pp. 131 (March 23rd 1498), 236 (July 18th 1501), 243 (March 24th 1501). Dorset’s son: Chronicle of Calais (see Notes, p. 492), p. 6; Lander, Crown and Nobility, p. 288.

  Katherine at St Omer: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, pp. 131–2; Chronicle of Calais, pp. 4, 49–51.

  ‘the White Rose’: Lesley in his History of Scotland (1561), p. 67, seems
to have started this story, for which there is no contemporary source.

  Katherine’s clothes: PRO E 101/415/7, nos 26, 81, 133, 166; Dunlop, ‘Masked Comedian’ (see Notes, p. 507), p. 126, n. 8; CDRS, pp. 338, 341, 419–21, 424.

  André’s blanks: HRHS, p. 75.

  At Margaret’s betrothal: Leland, Collectanea, vol. 4, p. 259. Here she was ranked tenth among the ladies.

  Katherine’s servants: PRO E 101/415/3, ff. 3v, 6v, 16r, 21v, 32v, 38r, etc. Dressed in black: Brewer et al., Letters & Papers, vol. 2, part ii (1864), p. 11. At Elizabeth’s funeral: Moorhen, ‘Four Weddings’ (see Notes, p. 508), part ii, The Ricardian, vol. xii, no. 157 (June 2002), pp. 450–1.

  Grant of estates: See Gairdner’s notes in Busch, England under the Tudors (see Notes, p. 500), pp. 440–1. Citizenship: Brewer et al., Letters & Papers, vol. 1, part i, p. 289.

  The false Katherine: Taylor, James IV, p. 118.

  The child in Wales: Lisa Hopkins, John Ford’s Political Theatre (Manchester, 1994), pp. 61–2; Moorhen, ‘Four Weddings’, part i, pp. 413–14. Many thanks to Wendy Moorhen for copies of her source for this: Limbus Patrum Morganiae et Glamorganiae (The Genealogies of Glamorgan), ed. George T. Clark (1886), p. 500.

  Adam Abell’s gossip: Queill of Tyme (see Notes, p. 493), p. 112. Thanks to Wendy Moorhen for a copy of this.

  Henry’s health: David Thomson, ‘Henry VII and the uses of Italy: the Savoy Hospital and Henry VII’s Posterity’, in Harlaxton, Henry VII, p. 107; L&P, vol. 1, pp. 233, 239 and n.

  Quintessentia: The Book of Quinte Essence or the Fifth Being, ed. J. G. Furnivall, EETS 16 (1866), passim.

  Katherine as companion: Dunlop, ‘Masked Comedian’, pp. 126–7.

  ‘playing money’: Anglo, ‘Court Festivals’ (see Notes, p. 491), p. 44.

  ‘Damnable esprite’: Will of Henry VII, p. 30. Devils seizing the soul: Rivers, Cordyal, p. 99.

  ‘Princes killed’: Pollard, Princes (see Notes, p. 484), p. 120; Vergil, Three Books, p. 188; Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 2, pp. 402–3.

  More’s story: Richard III, pp. 126–33.

  Tyrell’s attainder: Hammond & White, ‘Sons of Edward IV’ (see Notes, p. 484), pp. 11–12.

  Nanfan/ Henry/ Tyrell: L&P, vol. 1, p. 235.

  Tyrell’s offices: Campbell, Materials, vol. 1, pp. 270, 301, 460, 503; vol. 2, pp. 251–4.

  ‘[Their] death . . .’: More, Richard III, pp. 126–7, 132.

  James to Guelders: Ibid., vol. 1, pp. xlvii–xlviii.

  James to Anne of Brittany: L&P, vol. 2, pp. 185–7.

  Officers using the name: See, e.g., Privy Seal (see Notes, p. 507), no. 405; ADC, p. 361.

  The new treaty: Ridpath, Border-History, p. 471; Rymer, Foedera, vol. xii, p. 274.

  Cambuskenneth: W. B. Cook, ‘Stirling Castle’, British Archaeological Association, vol. xlv (1889), p. 234. Thanks to Bill Hampton for this reference.

  Maximilian to the Estates: Regesta Imperii XIV, vol. 3, part i (Maximilian, 1499–1501), no. 9018.

  ‘damaged by the favour’: CSPV, pp. 267, 280–2, 371. No contact: Philpot, Maximilian, p. 119.

  Curzon/ Maximilian/ Suffolk: Philpot, Maximilian, pp. 176–83; L&P, vol. i, pp. 134–44, 187, 212–18.

  Maximilian’s doubts: Weisskunig, pp. 218 ns (b), (g), 219 n.

  Zachtlevant: L&P, vol. 1, pp. 264–5. Paying it back: Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, no. 309; TA, p. cxxviii n.

  The deed of sale: Chastel de la Howarderie, ‘Notes’ (see Notes, p. 520), p. 411.

  Nicaise’s will: Ibid., pp. 411–12.

  The Abbot of Flanders’s servant: PRO E101/414/16, f. 4v.

  Candles at Binche: AN CC 8860, f. 60v (5 lb of wax candles burned in 1500, cost 60s. 6d.). Compare 1499 (2 lb, 22s.: CC 8858, f. 67r) and 1501 (3lb, 31s. 6d.: CC 8861, f. 60v).

  Baptism of Philip’s son: Molinet, Chroniques, vol. 5, pp. 94–8.

  The English child: AN CC 7544, 5th register, f. 9v.

  Jehan le Sage: AN CC 8839, f. 39v, 55r (the deleted list of clothes); CC 8840, f. 58r; CC 8841, f. 50v; CC 8842, f. 53v; CC 8843, ff. 62v–63r; CC 8844, ff. 54v–55r; CC 8845, f. 59v; CC8846, f. 53v (last entry, for the accounting period ending Jan. 1486).

  Edward’s jester: Weightman, Margaret of York, p. 47. Edward’s warrants: PRO E 404/76/4, nos 21, 130. The wording of the second is not the usual spying-talk, suggesting a different sort of business.

  The room below the chapel: AN CC 8839, f. 42v; CC 8857, f. 39v; CC 8852, f. 51r.

  Riding the gelding: A.V. Billen, 1,000 Years of Fyfield History (Abingdon, 1955), p. 33.

  Cradock’swill: Rev. John Montgomery Traherne, Historical Notices of Sir Matthew Cradoc kt of Swansea (Llandovery, 1840), pp. 15–23. Jewels: Ibid., p. 16. Thanks to Wendy Moorhen for a copy of this.

  Edward’s fleur-de-lis: Commines, Mémoires, book 4, ch. ix.

  Cradock as constable: CPR HVII, vol. 1, p. 99. His ‘warmth’: Moorhen, ‘Four Weddings’, part ii, p. 470.

  Katherine’s will: PRO probate 11/27, Dingley, Quire 10.

  ‘an obscure man’: Vergil, Three Books, p. 215.

  The turtle dove: Caxton, Mirror of the World, p. 102.

  ‘in all fortunes’: Bacon, Henry VII, p. 193.

  Margaret’s will: ADN B 458, 17.919.

  ‘The Lamentation’: Weightman, Margaret of York, pp. 184–6.

  Leaving the body: Deguileville, Pélérinage, pp. 1–10, 52, 57. ‘Child’s play’: Vices & Virtues, pp. 141–2.

  Less than half an hour: Caxton, Mirror of the World, p. 173.

  ‘He hath left thy livery’: Rivers, Cordyal, p. 42.

  Brightness of heaven: Ibid., pp. 123–5, 128; Kalendar of Shepherds, pp. 59–67; ‘Pearl’, stanzas lxxxiii–xciii; Deguileville, Pélérinage, passim.

  The confrontation: Rivers, Cordyal, pp. 66–8, 75, 137–8.

  Illustrations

  Thanks to the following for their kind permission to allow the reproduction of material:

  1 Pencil sketch of a portrait of ‘Richard, Duke of York’, c.1494: Receuil d’Arras, no. 23 (Mediathèque d’Arras).

  2 Richard, Duke of York, c.1480 (Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral/ Geoffrey Wheeler).

  3 Edward IV, 1472 (Bayerische Staatbibliotek, Munich/ Geoffrey Wheeler). Edward IV,c.1475 (Society of Antiquaries of London).

  4 Margaret of York, c.1470 (Society of Antiquaries of London).

  5 Margaret of York greets the risen Jesus, c.1470 (British Library).

  6 Signature from letter from Richard Plantagenet to Isabella, 1493 (British Library).

  Signature and monogram from Richard’s ‘will’, 1495 (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna).

  Monogram from his proclamation of 1496 (British Library).

  7 Silver gros coin of Richard IV, 1494 and copper ‘Vive Perkin’ jeton, after 1497 (British Library).

  His secret code, 1495 (Archives Départementales du Nord, Lille).

  8 The first page of the draft protocols of December 1494 (Stadsarchief Antwerpen).

  9 Maximilian by Dürer, 1518 (Albertina, Vienna/ Fotomas Index, UK).

  10 James IV, c.1500 (Collection of the Stirlings of Keir).

  11 Letter of Richard of England to Bernard de la Forsa, 1496 (British Library).

  12 The limbless prince, 1497 (British Library).

  13 Henry VII, c.1503 (National Portrait Gallery, London).

  14 Elizabeth of York, c.1500 (National Portrait Gallery, London).

  15 Richard of York’s bad stars:the De astrorum vi fatali, 1499 (Bodleian Library, University of Oxford).

  16 Margaret’s Lamentation, c.1500:The Deposition (detail)(John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles).

  Acknowledgements

  This book has been in the making for many years, since my schooldays, and first thanks are due for kindness very long ago. First of all to my parents, who tolerated my scribbling after lights out and happily made detours to obscure parts of Ireland for ‘colour’ for the novel which, thank God, never saw the light of day. Second, to my history teacher A
ngela Fleming, who encouraged my first faltering researches; to Dr John Coates, who taught me not to believe anything I read about late-fifteenth-century history; to Nobby Russell, yeoman-warder of the Tower; and to the many archivists and librarians who fielded my enquiries, treating me as seriously as they would have done an adult researcher. I’m sorry it has taken so long to produce anything to show for it.

  In the second phase of my research, thanks are due first to my husband and three sons, who put up with a project that made me much more antisocial (and involved more trips far afield) than my previous efforts. I know they are still mystified that settling down to a batch of documents after a day in the office is not work to Mum, but delightful relaxation; but one day they may understand.

  Second thanks must go, as ever, to The Economist, the most tolerant of employers, where flipping from the twenty-first century to the fifteenth is made easy and even, I think, tacitly encouraged. Certain colleagues, too, deserve particular thanks. Vendeline von Bredow was my invaluable liaison with German and Austrian archives, unlocking wonderful troves of information; Michael Reid helped with the Spanish ones, besides shedding welcome light on Dr de Puebla’s more cryptic despatches; and Fiammetta Rocco helped with Italian. Their kindness more than compensated for the prevailing bafflement, and thanks are probably due to all who did not say ‘Wasn’t there another one?’ or ‘What about Wat Tyler?’ What about Wat Tyler, indeed.

  Outside the office I also found extraordinary generosity with documents and time. Everyone has been, I hope, acknowledged in the Notes, but particular thanks should go to Bill Hampton, for tirelessly searching

  his local libraries and archives in the West Country on my behalf; to Peter and Carolyn Hammond, for providing books and answering queries; to Anna von Pezold not only for translating from the German, but for deciphering Maximilian’s scribbles; to the staff of the London Library, for their unstinting help and good humour; to Lord St Levan at St Michael’s Mount for sending all his own notes on the subject, and for his hospitality; and to Wendy Moorhen and Christine Weightman for many e-mails and several enjoyable lunches to share information on those two crucial women, Katherine Gordon and Margaret of York. C. S. L. Davies most generously provided two documents that became the core of the book, the Setubal testimonies and the guide to surviving fifteenth-century evidence in Tournai, and my reappraisal would not have been possible without him.