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Archaeologia XIII. Documents Relating to Perkin Warbeck, With Archaeologia http://journals.cambridge.org/ACH Additional services for Archaeologia: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here XIII. Documents relating to Perkin Warbeck, with Remarks on his history; communicated in a Letter to the Right Honorable the Earl of Aberdeen, Pres. S.A., from Sir Frederic Madden, K.H., F.R.S., F.S.A. Frederic Madden Archaeologia / Volume 27 / January 1838, pp 153 ­ 210 DOI: 10.1017/S0261340900012078, Published online: 12 June 2012 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0261340900012078 How to cite this article: Frederic Madden (1838). XIII. Documents relating to Perkin Warbeck, with Remarks on his history; communicated in a Letter to the Right Honorable the Earl of Aberdeen, Pres. S.A., from Sir Frederic Madden, K.H., F.R.S., F.S.A.. Archaeologia, 27, pp 153­210 doi:10.1017/S0261340900012078 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/ACH, IP address: 128.250.144.144 on 12 Mar 2013 153 XIII. Documents relating to Perlcin TVarheck, with Remarks on his history ; communicated in a Letter to the Right Honorable the EARL OF ABERDEEN, Pres. S.A., from Sir FREDERIC MADDEN, KM., F.R.S., F.S.A. Read 6th, 13th, 20th April, 1837. MY LORD, British Museum, 21 st March, 1837. PERHAPS there is no individual, in the whole course of English History, whose character and pretensions have been enveloped in greater mystery, or occasioned more discussion, than those of the person who in the reign of King Henry the Seventh assumed the title of Richard Duke of York, and who is better known under the name of Perkin Warbeck. On both sides of the question—his being really heir, to the Crown, or an artful impostor—have appeared many able writers, and the controversy may yet scarcely be deemed decided. On the former side are the respectable names of Buck, Carte, Wal- pole, Henry (?), Laing, and Bayley ; whilst on the other we have the united voices of all the early historians, and in more recent times, the authorities of Hume, Lingard, Sharon Turner, and Nicolas. It would be very easy, as Dr. Henry justly remarks, for us to adopt either of the two opinions, and support it by plausible arguments, but not so easy to establish its truth in such a man- ner as to leave no doubt on the subject. The advocates for Perkin's claims have derived a great advantage from the absence hitherto of those contempo- rary documents which might substantiate or refute the statements of the Tudor chroniclers, and have continually questioned the authenticity of the narrative, on the ground of its being the invention of the writer, or adopted from mo- tives of political expediency. Any papers therefore which may assist us in forming a clearer judgment of this " mysterious personage," or throw even a VOL. XXVII. X 154 Documents relating to Perhin Warbeck, feeble ray on the obscurity with which the transactions of that period are clouded, appear to me to behighly deserving of attention; and with this view it is that I take the liberty of laying before the Society copies of some original documents, part of which have recently been brought to light, and the remain- der (probably from the difficulty of decyphering them, or from other causes) hitherto unnoticed by all our historians. But before I proceed to the documents themselves, it may not be unadvise- able to notice briefly the amount of the historical evidence on the subject, as it has been handed down to us by the writers of the period ; and in doing this it will be necessary to use a little critical discrimination, to avoid falling into the common error of attributing to one what in reality is only borrowed from another.a The contemporary authorities may be reduced to three, Fabyan, Bernard Andre", and Polydore Vergil. The former of these, in his character of city-chronicler, contents himself with giving us a few scanty notices of Per- kin's attempt, without a word in explanation. Of the second (a native of Thoulose, who held the situation of poet-laureate at the court, and had been charged with the education of Prince Arthur,) we possess a Life of Henry the Seventh, still existing in MS.b dedicated to the King himself. The author in his preface tells us it was undertaken in the year 1500, at which period he had retired from his official charge (probably on the annuity allowed him by the Kingc), and, although afflicted with blindness, • had compiled his account of a This has been done particularly in regard to Perkin's supposed Oration to James the Fourth of Scotland, which Dr. Henry ascribes to Lord Bacon. Walpole and Laing go a step further, and assign it to Grafton. But the fact is, that Grafton copies it literatim from Hall, who translates it from Polydore, therefore it is to the latter alone we are to look for the share of invention displayed in its composition. It is much to be regretted that in the reprints of our Chroniclers, some critical hand had not pointed out how far the later are indebted to the earlier authorities ; for who would quote from Holinshed or Grafton, when the same passage totidem verbis is in Hall ? b MS. Cott. Dom. A. xvm. c In Rymer, vol. xii. p. 317, is the order for an annuity of ten marks to him, dated 2nd Nov. 1486. As late as 1510 is the following entry relative to him in a Household Book of Henry VIII. in the Chapter House : "Jan. 1. Hen. VIII. It'm. to Mast' Bernard the blynde poyete, 100s." See Tanner, Warton's Hist. E.P. vol. ii. p. 232, and Excerpta Historica, p. 109. The Cotton MS. Dom. A. xvm. contains the largest portion of his Annals, from the birth of Henry VII. to the year 1498. Subsequently he appears to have annually presented to the King an outline of the trans- with Remarks on his History. 155 Henry's reign without any other assistance than that of an amanuensis. The work is composed in a rhetorical and subservient style, suitable to the charac- ter and situation of the author, but is in many respects curious ; and as it has been but imperfectly consulted by our historical writers, I shall annex to this paperd a copy of that portion which relates to Perkin, which will preclude the necessity of saying more respecting it here. The third authority, Polydore Vergil, commenced his history, as is well known, in 1505, and com- pleted it in 1517, under the immediate auspices of Henry the Eighth, and it is to him we must look as the source whence the stream of succeeding his- torians chiefly borrowed their materials. Hall follows him minutely, but with some additions of value, particularly the insertion of the Confession Perkin is stated to have read before his death. Grafton merely reprints Hall; and the later writers may be dismissed without notice until we come to honest John Speed, who increased the value of his narrative materially by making use of Andre's MS. work. As to Lord Bacon's history of Henry the Seventh/ it is little more in truth than a repetition of what he found in preceding writers, eked out and embellished in a style accordant with the prevailing taste of his time. Having premised thus much in regard to the authors who are so often cited actions of his reign. Two only of these portions are preserved, namely for the 20th year [Aug. 1504—Aug. 1505], and 23rd year [Aug. 1507—Aug. 1508], MS. Cott. Jul. D. in. and iv. Speed, who first consulted this work, says of it, " in such points as he hath professed to know [it is] not unworthy to be vouched, for there is in him a greate deale of cleaje elocution and defaecated con- ceit, above the ordinary of that age." Hist, of Brit. ed. 1611, fol. 728. d Append. No. 1. of the Documents attached. e Among the Add. MSS. Brit. Mus. No.7084, is a fair copy of Lord Bacon's History, which had been submitted to the perusal of King James ; and f. 2, the following passage occurs after the words '' for the reversall of their atteyndors," which is omitted in the printed editions : " But the Judges left it there, and made no mention whither after such reversall there should need any new election or no, nor whither this sequestering of them from the House were generally upon their disabilitie, or upon an incompetency that they should be Judges and Partyes in their own cause. The point in lawe was whither any disabilitie in their naturall capacitie, could trench to their politicke capacitie, they being but Procurators of the Commonwealth, and Representatives and Fiduciaries of Countyes and Burrowghes, consideringe their Principals stood upright and cleere, and therefore were not to receive prejudice from their personall atteyndors." The whole of this is crossed out with a pen, and in the margin, oppo- site to the words in Italics, Lord Bacon has written in his own hand, " This to be altered, as his Mate told Mr. Mewtus." 156 Documents relating to Perkin Warbech, indiscriminately in modern works, as the pillars of English history since the accession of the house of Tudor, I now propose to consider in chronological order the various documents which my researches have enabled me to collect respecting this " mercuriall," as Lord Bacon terms him, which he afterwards explains by saying that Perkin " was made of quicksilver, which is hard to hold or emprison." The first which I shall produce is an original letter from Perkin Warbeek, addressed to Isabel Queen of Spain, daughter of John II.
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