Warbeck, Perkin

Warbeck, Perkin
born 1474?, Tournai, Flanders
died Nov. 23, 1499, London, Eng.

Flemish impostor, pretender to the throne of Henry VII.

The son of a local official in Flanders, while working as a servant in Ireland in 1491, he was misidentified as royalty while dressed in his master's rich silks and was soon persuaded to impersonate Richard, duke of York, who was presumed to have been murdered with his brother in the Tower of London in 1483. Encouraged by several monarchs and other Yorkist enemies in both England and Europe, he gathered forces and supporters on the continent for an invasion. After abortive attempts in 1495 and 1496, he landed in Cornwall in 1497 but was captured and hanged when he tried to escape.

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▪ English pretender
born 1474?, Tournai, Flanders [now in Belgium]
died Nov. 23, 1499, London, Eng.

      impostor and pretender to the throne of the first Tudor king of England, Henry VII. Vain, foolish, and incompetent, he was used by Henry's Yorkist enemies in England and on the European continent in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty.

      The son of a local official in Flanders, Warbeck spent his youth in the service of various employers, ending up in Ireland in 1491. He was in Cork dressed in his master's lavish silk clothes when excited townspeople there decided he must be of royal descent. The Yorkist interest was still strong in Ireland, and his admirers told Warbeck that he was a Yorkist heir to the crown of England, obligingly changing the identification as he denied one name after another. In the end he was persuaded to impersonate Richard, the young duke of York, who was presumed murdered with his brother King Edward V in 1483 in the Tower of London.

      Assured of Irish support, Warbeck went to the continent to gather forces for an invasion of England. In the Netherlands the dowager duchess Margaret, sister of Edward IV, coached him on his impostor's role, and he was supported at one time or another by France, by Maximilian I of Austria (Holy Roman emperor 1493–1519), by King James IV of Scotland (reigned 1488–1513), and by powerful men in England. After two feeble, abortive invasions of England in 1495 and 1496, he landed in Cornwall in 1497. The rebel forces soon numbered more than 6,000 men, but, faced with Henry's troops, Warbeck fled to sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire, where he was captured. Although at first treated leniently, he was hanged after trying to escape from the Tower of London.

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  • Warbeck, Perkin — (1475–1499)    By impersonating a son of EDWARD IV, Perkin Warbeck became the center of a Yorkist conspiracy to overthrow HENRY VII and the house of TUDOR.    Born in the Netherlands, Warbeck took service with a Breton cloth merchant, who used… …   Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses

  • Warbeck,Perkin — War·beck (wôrʹbĕk ), Perkin. 1474? 1499. Flemish pretender to the English throne. Posing as Richard, Duke of York, the murdered son of Edward IV, he landed in Cornwall (1497), proclaimed himself king, and proceeded to London, where he was… …   Universalium

  • Warbeck, Perkin — (¿1474?, Tournai, Flandes–23 nov. 1499, Londres, Inglaterra). Impostor flamenco, pretendiente al trono de Enrique VII. Hijo de un funcionario local en Flandes, mientras trabajaba como criado en Irlanda en 1491 fue confundido como miembro de la… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • WARBECK, PERKIN —    an impostor who affected to be Richard, Duke of York, second son of Edward IV., alleged to have been murdered in the Tower, and laid claim to the crown of England in preference to Henry VII. In an attempt to make good this claim he was taken… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Perkin Warbeck — [Perkin Warbeck] (c. 1474–99) a man who claimed that he should be made the king of England because he was really Richard, Duke of York, brother of ↑Edward V and the younger of the two ↑Princes in the Tower. He was supported against the king at… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Warbeck — Warbeck, Perkin (»Peterchen«), engl. Thronprätendent, geb. wahrscheinlich 1474 in Tournai, wo sein Vater Johann Werbecque (auch Osbeck genannt) als Schiffer und Zollaufseher lebte, begab sich nach einer abenteuerlichen Jugend 1492 nach Irland und …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Warbeck — Warbeck, Perkin, angeblicher Sohn Eduards IV. von England, geb. etwa 1474 in Tournay, Kronprätendent gegen Heinrich VII., landete 1497 in England, nahm den Titel Richard IV. an, ward gefangen, 1499 gehenkt …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Perkin Warbek — Zeitgenössische Darstellung Warbecks Perkin Warbeck (* um 1474; † 23. November 1499) erhob während der Regierungszeit von Heinrich VII. als Richard of Shrewsbury, Sohn von Eduard IV., Ansprüche auf den englischen Thron. Es ist jedoch davon… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Perkin Warbeck (play) — Perkin Warbeck is a Caroline era history play by John Ford. It is generally ranked as one of Ford s three masterpieces, along with Tis Pity She s a Whore and The Broken Heart . T. S. Eliot went so far as to call Perkin Warbeck unquestionably Ford …   Wikipedia

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