Lambert Simnel
In May 1487 a young boy was crowned as King Edward in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The ceremony took place under the supervision of the Irish Viceroy, Gerald, Earl of Kildare, along with John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln (Richard III’s nephew), and Francis, Viscount Lovel.
An Act of Henry VII’s Parliament that November identified the boy as Lambert Simnel, the son of a joiner. Most surviving sources record that his supporters claimed he was Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence, and therefore a nephew of both Edward IV and Richard III. However, a recently published receipt for pikes supplied in Mechelen for German mercenaries supporting the rebellion referred to him as ‘nephew’ of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, ‘son of King Edward, late her brother (may God save his soul), expelled from his dominion’.
While most historians have concluded that he was an imposter (the son of an Oxford joiner or organ maker), John Ashdown-Hill argued that he really was Edward earl of Warwick whereas Philippa Langley has more recently argued that he was actually Edward V as the receipt indicated.
The rebels invaded England with a band of 2,000 German mercenaries where they received additional support in Furness that June. They were beaten by Henry VII‘s army at Stoke in Nottinghamshire on 16 June. Lincoln was killed while Lovel and Kildare fled.
A boy captured on the field and identified as the pretender was put to work in Henry VII’s kitchens and later became a falconer. Other than as the recipient of robes for a funeral in 1525 he does not subsequently seem to occur in surviving royal records.
JLL