Lambert Simnel as a Greater Threat to the Security of Henry VII than Perkin Warbec

Lambert Simnel as a Greater Threat to the Security of Henry VII than Perkin Warbec

'After Bosworth, Henry's most immediate and perhaps greatest problem

was ensuring that he kept the crown.' from Henry VII by R. Turvey and

C. Steinsberg. This was very true, as throughout Henry's reign he

faced many threats because as King he wasn't established and therefore

vulnerable to challenge. Also there were still Yorkists in power who

wanted to claim the throne back from the usurper King and there was

also strong foreign support for any potential threat towards Henry.

A threat that Henry did face throughout most of his reign was the

threat from Pretenders, and none came as more as threat than of

Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck.

Both pretenders had different claims to the throne, which could

potentially threaten Henry. Lambert Simnel claimed to be the 'Edward,

Earl Of Warwick'. In fact the real Edward (son of George, Duke of

Clarence) was a prisoner in the Tower of London, which Henry proved by

parading the real Edward through the streets of London in order to

prove that Simnel was an impostor/pretender. If Simnel had been the

real Edward, it would have been a very big threat to Henry's throne,

because if the princes in the tower were dead, the real Edwards claim

would be much stronger than of Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York's

combined. However, Simnel on his own didn't pose much of a threat,

because he was actually a 10-year-old boy.

Perkin Warbecks claim to the throne is a more serious threat than of

Lambert Simnel, as Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, the

younger son of Edward IV and as no one was sure what had happened to...

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...ey and C. Steinsberg. This once gain shows how

much of a threat Henry perceived Warbeck to be unlike Simnel, 'the

strawdoll', Warbeck had to be executed in order to end his threat, but

this may also have been due to the pressure from the Spaniards. They

wanted the Tudor dynasty to be secure before they allowed Catherine of

Aragon to marry Prince Arthur.

But how easily Warbeck's foreign powers easily gave up their support

for Warbeck shows to some degree how they were using him, but also how

weak his foreign support was and it is Warbeck's foreign support that

made him threatening. Henry made an alliance in 1492 with France known

as the Treaty of Etaples, which resolved the problem between France

and England. Also in 1497 there was the seven-year true agreed at

Ayton, which stopped Scotland's involvement with Warbeck.