“A 16th-century portrait of Perkin Warbeck (circa 1474-1499), a pretender to the English throne claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. Credits: Wikipedia Commons.”

Perkin Warbeck remains an enigma. Without any ultimate proof of his true identity, I can’t take one side or the other, because I’m really not sure. But I do lean toward believing he really was Richard of Shrewsbury, the younger of the “Princes in the Tower”.

This article—https://tinyurl.com/y8c95suy—is all about him, but in a few places there’s a glimmer of finger-pointing at Richard III. Not really out-and-out accusations, just vague hints, e.g. about Richard III having locked his nephews away, never to be seen again. The inference being that he’d thrown away the key.

There’s also Warbeck’s own statement that Richard had killed his older brother but allowed Warbeck himself to live because of his youth and innocence. If Richard was indeed the original wicked uncle, to my mind it would be daft for him to kill one nephew but leave the other to live. Any evil usurper wanting to be rid of a threat would dispose of both boys. Why on earth leave the other to cause mayhem in the future? As Perkin did for Henry VII. Mind you, the Tudor tyrant richly deserved to have his life made miserable by a guilty conscience that had him glancing over his shoulder until the day he turned up his toes..

But on the whole the article is fair. For instance it states that Parliament decided Edward IV’s marriage was illegal and then invited Richard to take the throne.

It’s well worth a read. I won’t go into more detail here, because it’s better to simply cast an eye over it yourselves.

be viscountessw


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3 responses to “A reasonable potted history of Perkin Warbeck….”

  1. Christine Kutlar-kreutz Avatar
    Christine Kutlar-kreutz

    Naja, gut, aber da schon wieder einige Tatsachen geschrieben werden, über die man streiten kann, so wurde die geheime Eheschließung von Edward IV bereits 1464 bekannt gegeben, damit er Bona von Savoyen nicht heiraten “muß”, Elisabeth Woodville war auch keine “Bürgerliche”, das spukt seit Monaten durchs Internet, es war auch nicht Ralph Shaa, der die geheime Eheschließung bekannt gemacht hat, sondern den Status der “Prinzen” als Bastarde, und warum sollen sie in eine “prekäre” Situation gekommen sein, wenn sie Bastarde gewesen sind? Fragen über Fragen!

    Es wird dabei gerne übersehen, dass beide Brüder Richards Schutz gegen Tudor gewesen sind. Und er wäre ziemlich blöd gewesen, sie zu beseitigen, um Tudor den Weg freizumachen! Außerdem hätte er ohne Probleme entweder Buckingham oder Margarete Beaufort beschuldigen können, im Auftrag Tudors gehandelt zu haben! Andersrum genauso. Richard wäre während der Buckingham Rebellion erledigt gewesen, oder Tudor hätte keinen Zeh auf die Insel setzen können!

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  2. I believe that Perkin Warbeck said that ‘his uncle’ killed his older brother. Could that not have been his Uncle Buckingham, his mother’s brother in law?

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    1. I’ve never heard that. I believe he referred to a ‘Lord’.

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