The New Murrey and Blue blog

At just 50 acres, Piel Island off Cumbria isn’t very big, as can be seen in the illustration above, and it has a tradition of ‘Kings of Piel’, which title is enjoyed by the landlord of the Ship Inn. He has his coronation too, so it’s all pukka! 😊 “….The title – according to that highly unreliable authority, ancient tradition – derives from a rather more ambitious would-be monarch, who landed at Piel on 4 June 1487….”

And who was this would-be monarch from the House of York? Why, a certain Lambert Simnel, who aspired to the throne of England. Who was he? One of the boys in the Tower? Their cousin the young Earl of Warwick? No one really knows for sure {pingback to 5/6}.

What is known is that the throne he was after was occupied by the Tudor usurper, Henry VII. A rebel Yorkist army was raised, and restitution was sought. As this site this site points out: “…Commanded by the Yorkist lords, the boy king’s force of about 8,000 men – English dissidents, poorly equipped Irish and about 2,000 tough German mercenaries led by a professional soldier, Martin Swart – must have crowded the little island to overflowing….” Gosh, did they really all squeeze ashore? Men, weapons, horses and all?

Whether they did or not, they were subsequently beaten at the Battle of Stoke Field near Newark, and the usurper remained on his stolen throne. Lambert, being just a boy, wasn’t executed, but was instead sent to Henry’s kitchens as a scullery boy. Whether this was kindness on Henry’s part or just the medieval abhorrence/terrible sin of killing children is a matter of debate. Kindness wasn’t usually one of Henry’s strong points, so I imagine he was watching out for his own soul.

Piel Island is proud of its connection with Lambert and this Yorkist rebellion of 1487, and the later Kings of Piel claim descent from Lambert. Now, this ‘ancient tradition’ is rather shaky, because he was a boy. His actual age isn’t known, but it’s reckoned to be around ten….which I fear is rather young to ‘beget’ descendants!

But as the next King of Piel assumes his traditional wooden throne and is anointed with beer, I doubt such considerations will matter in the slightest!

And Lambert? Oh, he lived his full allotted span, rising to the post of falconer, so he didn’t do too badly. At least, that’s if he was indeed an imposter. But if he was the genuine article, then I suppose the only consolation was to have escaped with his life.

Of course, there are other theories about the sons of Edward IV having slipped from the ‘wicked clutches” of their much lied-about Uncle Richard. Not least that Richard himself had them spirited away to safety at the court of their maternal aunt, Margaret of Burgundy. Then again, another strong possibility (also involving Richard III) is that one of them—Edward—was sent to Coldridge in Devon, where he’s commemorated in a church window. But that’s another story.