Was Perkin Warbeck a 'Sham' Duke, or the Real Thing?

So to set the scene, Johannes Guttenberg had invented the printing press at this time and had already printed the first Bible. Typical jobs during this period would have been things like blacksmiths, Stonemason's, minstrels, weavers, farmers, and tax collector. Must insert something here that I loved at. One of the most popular jobs in like fourteen eighty was a tax collector. Listen, you have to finding saw that. I know.

I'm not I'm not surprised, but I was pleased to see that it popped up on the list because it seems true. Yes, Uh, common foods that people would be eating include a lot of grain, based foods like bread, porridge, and beer, and for most people men and women alike, tunics were the main fashion statement. It was pretty utilitarian. They were usually made of hemp or coarse wool or linen.

Ladies of a certain class though, and pretty much the class that we're gonna be talking about, we're wearing gowns with kind of a low waist and a high neckline, made a very thick and rich material, often brocaded with gold. And this is around the time Leonardo da Vinci was

painting The Last Supper. This is also the time when Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who you might know better as Richard three, and his brother Edward the Fourth, who was King of England at the time, we're both alive, and they were both very hungry for power, specifically Richard. Richard wanted to be a king, and power and murder are plentiful in his story. But we need to talk about him and a few other royals before we can talk about our

impostor so. King Edward the Fourth death was sudden and unexpected. He was just forty one years old at the time, and while no one knows for certain what that cause of death was, the leading theory is that it was from complications of pneumonia. When Edward died, it was not his brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who ascended to the throne. The king had several children, including two sons, Edward, Prince

of Wales and Richard, Duke of York. It was Edward the Fourth's eldest son, the Prince of Wales, who was declared king in fourteen eight three. At this point he was only about twelve or thirteen years old, and his brother Richard, Duke of York, was named his air presumptive. Let's talk about air presumptive and what exactly that means. So an air presumptive is the person first in line to inherit a title such as king, but they can be displaced by a more eligible air such as say

the birth of a son. The title is not guaranteed like it would be if you were named air apparent. A modern example of an heir apparent is Charles, Prince of Wales, as the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth. The second Prince Charles will without a doubt ascend to the British throne, and Prince William, who is Charles's eldest son will follow his father, and it's just locked in air apparent.

On May ninete, Edward, Prince of Wales was relocated into the Tower of London, which was traditionally where a monarch would live prior to their coronation. It kind of functioned like a palace slash fortress slash prison, which I think is how a lot of people know it as the prison part. We'll talk about some of that. And to Edward, things seem to be moving along smoothly towards his ascension

to the throne. About a month later in June, his brother Richard, Duke of York, joined him at the tower, but just before the big event was supposed to take place, his uncle and guardian, Duke of Gloucester, delayed the coronation, and he delayed it indefinitely. So keep in mind here though, that the Duke of Gloucester is uncle Richard Edward. The five did rain, though it was very brief. It was just from April nine to June, only seventy eight days.

He was never actually crowned, and his reign was mostly dominated by the influence of his throne hungry uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, there's a fundamental problem with the setup, where like the power hungry person might be in charge of the actual person in power, and usually who is a child. Right, So Uncle Richard not exactly what you might categorize as paternal, not even the kind of uncle you might enjoy spending some time with once a year

during the holidays. He was the opposite. He kind of had this role in shorthand versions of the story as the evil uncle, which is kind of earned. He forced parliament to declare King Edward the fifth and his brother Richard, Duke of York, as born out of wedlock. The argument here was that the marriage between Edward the fourth and Elizabeth Woodbill, their mother, was invalid due to Edward the fourth pre contract pre contracts. I feel like I'm kind

of explaining all these little things today. If your Maria in cycling had today, Yes, if there was an existing promise of marriage, and in this case, Richard was suggesting that the promise was not made to Elizabeth, then the pre contract rule would legally void any future marriages. So in making the royal marriage void, it made the boys

illegitimate airs and they weren't in line for anything. So in this strategic power play, Richard, Duke of Gloucester see used to the throne and became King Richard the Third, So not coincidentally, this is also the same time when Edward the fourth sons we're never seen again. They disappear from the record, And as we mentioned, the boys stayed at a luxury area of the Tower of London before Edward,

Prince of Wales's coronation. But remember also a prison uh and execution by beheading there, including that of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry the eighth, was not particularly uncommon. So we're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsor. But when we come back, we'll talk about Richard, Duke of York. Welcome back to Criminalia for anyone who's not a big fan of this time and maybe knows about it already. We're going to start by talking a bit about the princes in the Tower.

So the story of the two princes in the Tower is actually pretty unsettling. Richard, Duke of York and his brother Edward, Prince of Wales mysteriously disappeared after having been seen taken to the heavily guarded Tower of London. No one saw Edward or Richard again, so, imagining the worst, many hoped that the boys had been smuggled out of the tower and whisked away to safety and away from the king, because who wouldn't want to hope that, But

no one was actually whisked away to safety. Richard, Duke of Gloucester became King Richard the third and four three, and very quickly after Richard, Duke of York and Edward the Fifth had disappeared completely because Richard the Third was feared, uh, everybody knew he was not somebody to mess with, so nobody dared to ask him what had become of the boys, whether or not Edward and Richard were or were not killed in that tower. His historians do agree that Richard

the third did order the murder of his nephews. Technology, though during this time, wasn't at all like what's available today, So even if he suspected or knew that Richard had killed or ordered the murder of his nephews, it was going to be difficult to prove. There was really no way to work with forensic evidence, and that meant there was no way to conclusively identify anybody, whether it was a royal body or a not royal body, including the

two skeletons that were later found in the tower. Famously, William Shakespeare wrote a play about Richard the Third, and in it he portrayed him as a villain and the most evil and controversial king imaginable. The play, aptly called Richard the Third, is widely considered to be actually a factual telling of the authentic story of the tyrant king who was killed in battle. Specifically, this was the battle that ended the War of the Roses, So super fast

refresh about the War of the Roses? Were the Roses is bloody civil wars thought over who was going to rule England that was between the House of York and the House of Lancaster. The War of the Roses lasted decades between fourteen fifty five and four five. So King Richard the Third of the House of York was the last English king to die on the battlefield, and as he was such an unpopular King of England, there were

many people who believed that he deserved his faith. On August eighty five, at the Battle of boss Worth, Richard the Third was killed at age thirty two by Henry the Seventh of the House of Lancaster. That event marked both the end of the York dynasty, which had ruled for more than three hundred years, and the beginning of the Tutor period. The Tutors rose to power as a direct result of Henry the seventh victory for the House of Lancaster and his subsequent marriage to Elizabeth of York.

That marriage, you could tell a York and a Lancaster joined these two houses. The Tutor period lasted for eighteen years. So Richard, Duke of York, as you'll remember from before our break that we took, was the second son of King Edward the fourth and one of the two princes in the tower. And you may have heard of him by the name of Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, probably just Richard. We're going to call him Richard, Duke of York because that is the title that he seemed

to use the most. Plus there are multiple Richards in this story, so that's the way that we can help keep track of. Wow, Richard third evil uncle, Richard Duke of York, little kid nephew, and it was probably murdered by it, right, I mean, if Edward was twelve or thirteen, you know, I mean, these are kids. These are kids, Uncle, uncle Richard, please remember that. So um. At this point in the story, it's assumed that Richard, Duke of York and his brother Edward, Prince of Wales had been executed

by order of their uncle Richard in three. But a man pretending to be Richard, Duke of York now enters this story. Yeah, you've noticed. We haven't gotten to the impostor yet, but it's time. We're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and when we get back we will meet that impostor. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's now meet a man named Perkin Warbeck. Upon Richard the third death in five, that man, Perkin Warbeck,

saw an opportunity. Since there was no firm evidence as to the fate of either of the princes in the tower, what should stop him? Perkin decided from claiming one of their identities. So he did just that, and he laid claim to the throne of the first Tutor King of England, Henry the seventh, because why not. During his masquarade, Perkin claimed to be Richard Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the second

son of King Edward the fourth. He claimed he was one of the princes in the tower and confirmed that Edward, Prince of Wales, his brother, had indeed died in the Tower of London. He though, was spared from death because of how young he'd been, and he kept a story going. He said, then he was smuggled into Europe, where he'd been living under cover all these years. There's a lot about Warbeck that we're never gonna know, because of course this is hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and some

details have been lost through the centuries. Here's what we do know. He was born as Pierre shon d Warbeck, who went by Perkin Warbeck, and was the son of Johanda Warbeck also known as John Warbeck, and Catherine de Faroh in Tournai in fourteen seventy four. Turn I was at the time located in France. Today, of course, borders have shifted a bit and Tournai is now part of Belgium,

very near the French border. Perkin grew up in Antwerp and was working a series of domestic jobs until he was hired by a silk merchant named Pierre may Know. May Know brought Prkin to Cork, Ireland, probably around four one ish, when people saw Richard modeling may No silks and other works. It was rumored that he was actually a son born out of wedlock to the late George, Duke of Clarence. Or and this one'll get you, perhaps even King Richard the Third. So Richard, Duke of York

stood out, and he stood out as perhaps royalty. So Perkin initially called himself the Earl of Warwick, but there was actually already another person impersonating the Earl of Warwick. Back off, this is my corner. Such were the times Lambert Simmel was trying to claim the throne of England by pretending to be Edward, Earl of Warwick, nephew of

Richard the third. Lambert, who was only ten years old, was it was presumed, being used by adults seeking to re establish the House of York's claim to the throne. But there can only be one fake Earl of Warwick, so Perkin shifted instead to claiming that he was the Duke of York. Perkin is like the Highlander of Monsters. Very soon after this, Perkin began using the new identity full time, adopting it during his time in Ireland in November.

The first we hear of Perkin officially claiming to be the son of King Edward the Fourth, though, is when he announced himself as Richard, Duke of York and the younger of the two Princes of the Tower at the Court of Burgundy. He also began his campaign to take the English throne. So around this time Perkin decided it was time to up his game and get people in powerful places to identify him as Richard, Duke of York.

That would you know, bolster his entire little plan here, and considering there was a Larry Simil, he needed to do this before other royal impersonators got there. First. Invited to Paris, shortly after his visit to Ireland, the would be Richard was recognized as Duke of York by King Charles the Eight. That was big. Important people in general, though, were taken in by Perkin as Richard, Duke of York,

and it wasn't just the King of France. In May fourteen ninety four, Maximilian the First, the Holy Roman Emperor, recognized Warbeck as the rightful King of England. By February four, Sir William Stanley, the Lord Chamberlain was found guilty of treason and executed for his support of Perkin Warbeck. One of the most influential supporters of the fake Richard, Duke of York, though, was Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy.

Margaret was the real aunt of the real Richard, but she believed the disappearance slash reappearance story that he gave. She gave him the title of the White Rose of England, the symbol of the House of York, and she referred to him as her nephew. With all of this acceptance that he just Perkin was feeling pretty successful with his new identity, and there were even many aristocrats promising to aid him in his effort to recover the throne and

his inheritance. The news about the Duke of York being alive and found in Flanders didn't reach England until free and they believed it was really him because the Duchess of Burgundy herself identified and acknowledged him as so a lot of high ranking men became very interested in this Richard has returned story, including nobleman named things such as Lord Fitzwater and Sir Simon Montfort, who were actual people with wonderful monikers and other lords and sirs who openly

liked him and really just considered him to be Richard, Duke of York. There were also the people, including Sir Robert Clifford and William Barley, who openly referred to Perkin instead, not as the Duke of York, but as the sham Duke. I really like that. Um. So we do need a little bit more context, though, to help understand why powerful royals would back this man and buy into this ruse.

There were so many unsettled battles over power and control in Europe at this time, and even for people who maybe didn't believe that Perkin was royal, it was in their interest to to destabilize the English government and possibly install a monarch who was loyal to them all in

one go. There are historians who believe that both Charles the eighth of France and Margaret of Burgundy were using Perkin actually to undermine Henry the seventh and the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian's recognition of Perkin Warbeck as King Richard the Fourth could have been devastating if the Emperor had been more powerful and able to leverage his influence a little more effectively. Yeah, if any of these people who backed him had had just a little more yeah, we

might be living in a very different history. But throughout all of these mack nations, Henry the seventh was doing his own work to ensure that this pretender did not gain the support that would have been needed to unseat him. The King of England was carefully and quietly through a Spye network, gathering intelligence and assessing the threat level, as well as identifying people who were not loyal to him.

In several cases, acts of attainder were passed in Parliament naming specific people as guilty of conspiracy against the king. This legislation essentially bypassed at trial. It's sort of just legally declared a person guilty, and it opened the door for punishment, often execution, without all of that pain in the neck legal rambling. Henry the seventh, you may surmise, was not messing around with this faux Duke of York situation.

Perkin made a number of tries at taking the throne, but he never actually amassed enough power to do it. He tried to land intent to march on London in summer four, but the whole thing was really just a poorly planned mess. Warbeck abandoned some of his supporters to while he fled to Ireland, which is never a good look for a would be leader. Similar scenarios played out on subsequent attempts, as Perkin gained supporters and then lost

them through blunders and just an overall lack of leadership abilities. Yeah, it was like, we're with you, We're with you. What you left more? Yeah? Now, after several failed attempts to secure the throne, Perkins thought sanctuary at an abbey in Hampshire before surrendering to Henry's men. When he was taken

into custody, Perkin did confess his true identity. He also confessed that he had a wife, Lady Catherine Gordon, who he had married in March of that was also under the ruse because her family had approved of that marriage based on the identity he was claiming at the time of Richard, Duke of York. Surprise. So he spent six years pretending to be Richard, Duke of York, and now it had come to an end. Perkin confessed to being an impostor, but because he wasn't a British subject, he

couldn't be tried for treason. Initially, Henry the seventh was fairly lenient with warback. He gave his approval for the pretender to stay at court. He was pushed like a hawk though that he was still able to live at court, So that's you know what I mean, that's not too bad. But then he tried to escape Perkin. It was after that attempt in four nine when he was put in the stocks and then sent to the Tower of London.

He was later executed, but that punishment actually was not for imitating a Yorkist royal, right, that was for participating in a plot to overthrow King Henry the seventh, and for conspiring to escape the tower where he had been held for his crimes. Uh, don't don't run away from a comfy house. Arrest is the lesson. Maybe. He was hanged on November twenty three, and upon his death, his wife, Lady Catherine, was under strict orders of the king to be kept at the palace, and there she became Lady

in waiting for the Queen Elizabeth of York. So, Holly, let's move onto mocktails. Who was your inspiration from this? For what she made for us today? Well? So there were a couple of things that I took into account here. I was trying to think at things that were very commonly imbibed during this time. He'll always see that thing of like everybody drank alcohol all the time because the water was dirty. That's that's not entirely accurate. But people

find alcohol because it's good, right. So one of the things that was very common was cider, and so I was thinking something appily as a base might be fun. And then, of course, because I'm predictable, as I'll get out, he was nicknamed the white Rose. At one point, I was like, well, we had to get some rose flavor involved. I was just gonna say, when you said that you were predictable, I'm like, hire comes the rose paddles. Yes, you're coming the roses. There are numerous reasons do you

use the roses here? Or so delicious um, although the rose flavor does not drive the bus in this instance, so hold on because there's other stuff. So I'm calling this the Rosy Pretender. It starts with five ounces of apple juice, and unless you really love very very sweet things, go with the lowest sugar option you can find here, because this does get very sweet in a hurry. The next thing you're gonna add, and I would put this in a shaker, is one ounce of tart cherry concentrate.

This is not hard to find. I literally found it at my local grocery store. It's in the juice aile and then an ounce of rose syrup. And you're gonna shake this like the Dickens, because you really want everything to incorporate and for it to get just a little bit frothy. And then that's it poured over a ton of ice, because the ice as it melts will also help dilute that sweetness a little bit. And in the shaking, when you're shaking it with ice, that will also help

dilute that sweetness. It's very bright and delicious, so um. This is a very good one for summer sipping. You can just pop your straw right in there. If you want to mess around with things, you could put some bitters in here and do something very interesting. I think some people that would want to drink a mocktail don't want to touch a bitter, but there are some very

good cherry bitters. It would be lovely. You could also toss an angi stir in here and just get a different flavor profile that kind of deepens the whole thing for my drinkers in the crowd. If you want to make this into an alcoholic version, um, I think to retain those flavors, you really want to go with a neutral spirit, which means, you know, vodka essentially, because otherwise things are going to play with those berry and rose

flavors together. What happens when you sip it is, even though it's all been incorporated, the flavors hit you kind of in a row. So you get apple heart upfront with that cherry flavor, and then the roses kind of like at the end goes hello, I'm roses, um, and it's very very yummy. My rose petals talk to me as well, Like is that not how flavors reveal themselves to you? Hello, I'm hello, I hugging you with deliciousness. Yours are very friendly. Mine are very friendly because I

love to taste things. Um. And you know, you kind of can't go wrong with these three. But like I said, it is a very sweet drink if you are doing it with the apple juice that has like regular sugar levels. Even Cutch I did one with UM, even a pretty reduced sugar level. It was like less sugar and even that I was like, well, that's very sweet. So find your hippie apple juice that has very little sugar in it. And that's really where you want to go with this.

Tell me the name of it again. It's called the rosy Pretender. The rosy pretender. Huh. Everything should taste like roses. It just makes life better. I'm sure there are people who do not concur, but that is fine. Here's the thing. This is one of those things too that's easy to mess with. I would stick with that tart cherry concentrate because it really kind of defines the flavor. But outside of that, you could do some really interesting experimenting with

different syrup flavors. You could even throw like an orga in there and give it an almond flavor, which would also be very interesting. It won't be a rosy pretender anymore, but um, it'll be something else. You could definitely do. Like any of the tart fruits, like a tart apple syrup in there would be great. You could do you like a mango, might do something very interesting. As I always say, substitute stuff out and experiment. Find something super

yummy for you. It should always be playful and fun. That's the whole point. It should be right. It isn't that you're supposed to be living your life. That's how I live my life. Thank you again for spending another another podcast with us, listening to us prattle on about histories, strange and unusual people. We will be right back here once again next week with another impostor and more. Hopefully you may beverages. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land

Audio in partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,