victory, determined to bring the matter to a speedy
decision. The hostile armies met at Stoke, in Nottinghamshire, and
after a hardly-contested day, the victory remained with the king.
Lincoln, Broughton, and Schwartz perished on the field of battle, with
four thousand of their followers. As Lord Lovel was never more heard
of, it was supposed that he shared the same fate. Lambert Simnel, with
his tutor the monk Simon, were taken prisoners. The latter, as an
ecclesiastic, escaped the doom he merited, and, not being tried at
law, was only committed to close custody for the rest of his life. As
for Simnel, when he was questioned, he revealed his real parentage;
and being deemed too contemptible to be an object either of
apprehension or resentment, Henry pardoned him, and made him first a
scullion in the royal kitchen, and afterwards promoted him to the
lofty position of a falconer.

PERKIN WARBECK--THE SHAM DUKE OF YORK.

Although Lambert Simnel's enterprise had miscarried, Margaret,
dowager-duchess of Burgundy, did not despair of seeing the crown of
England wrested from the House of Lancaster, and determined at least
to disturb King Henry's government if she could not subvert it. To
this end she sedulously spread abroad a report that Richard, duke of
York, the second son of Edward IV., had escaped the cruelty of his
uncle Richard III., and had been set at liberty by the assassins who
had been sent to despatch him. This rumour, although improbable, was
eagerly received by the people, and they were consequently prepared to
welcome the new pretender whenever he made his appearance.

After some search, the duchess found a stripling whom she thought had
all the qualities requisite to personate the unfortunate prince. This
youth is described as being "of visage beautiful, of countenance
majestical, of wit subtile and crafty; in education pregnant, in
languages skilful; a lad, in short, of a fine shape, bewitching
behaviour, and very audacious." The name of this admirable prodigy was
Peterkin, or Perkin Warbeck, and he was the son of John Warbeck, a
renegade Jew of Tournay. Some writers, and among others Lord Bacon,
suggest that he had certain grounds for his pretensions to royal
descent, and hint that King Edward, in the course of his amorous
adventures, had been intimate with Catherine de Faro, Warbeck's wife;
and Bacon says "it was pretty extraordinary, or at least very
suspicious, that so wanton a prince should be