XXV. 1495. into the confederacy; but was not put to any ex- CHA P. pence or trouble in consequence of his engagements. The King of France, terrified by so powerful a combination, retired from Naples with the greater part of his army, and returned to France. The forces which he left in his new conquest were, partly by the revolt of the inhabitants, partly by the invasion of the Spaniards, soon after subdued; and the whole kingdom of Naples suddenly returned to its allegiance under Ferdinand, son to Alphonso, who had been suddenly expelled by the irruption of the French. Ferdinand died soon after; and left his uncle Frederic in full possession of the throne. СНАР. 1495. CHAP. XXVI. Perkin retires to Scotland.-Insurrection in the West. -Battle of Blackheath.-Truce with Scotland.Perkin taken Prisoner. - Perkin executed.-The Earl of Warwic executed.- Marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Arragon.- His Death.Marriage of the Princess Margaret with the King of Scotland.-Oppressions of the People.-A Parliament.- - Arrival of the King of Castile. - Intrigues of the Earl of Suffolk.-Sickness of the King. -His Death- and Character. His Laws. A FTER Perkin was repulsed from the coast of Kent, he retired into Flanders; but as he found it impossible to procure subsistence for himself and his followers while he remained in tranquillity, he soon after made an attempt upon Ireland, which had always appeared forward to join every invader of Henry's authority. But Poynings had now put the affairs of that island into so good a posture, that Perkin met with little success; and being tired of the savage life which he was obliged to lead while skulking among the wild Irish, he bent his course towards Scotland, and presented himself to James IV., who then governed that kingdom. He had been previously recommended to this Prince by the King of France, who was disgusted at Henry for entering into the general league against him; and this recommendation was even seconded by Maximilian, who, though one of the confederates, was also displeased with the King on account of his prohibiting in England all commerce with the Low Countries. The counte nance f tires to Scotland. nance given to Perkin by these Princes, procured CHA P. him a favourable reception with the King of Scot- XXVI. land, who assured him, that whatever he were, he 1495, never should repent putting himself in his hands: Perkin reThe insinuating address and plausible behaviour of the youth himself seem to have gained him credit and authority. James, whom years had not yet taught distrust or caution, was seduced to believe the story of Perkin's birth and adventures; and he carried his confidence so far as to give him in marriage the Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntley, and related to himself; a young lady, too, eminent for virtue as well as beauty. THERE subsisted at that time a great jealousy between the courts of England and Scotland; and James was probably the more forward on that account to adopt any fiction which he thought might reduce his enemy to distress or difficulty. He suddenly resolved to make an inroad into England, attended by some of the borderers; and he carried Perkin along with him, in hopes that the appearance of the pretended Prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties. Perkin himself dispersed a manifesto, in which he set forth his own story, and craved the assistance of all his subjects in expelling the usurper, whose tyranny and maladministration, whose depression of the nobility by the elevation of mean persons, whose oppression of the people by multiplied impositions and vexations, had justly, he said, rendered him odious to all men. But Perkin's pretensions, attended with repeated disappointments, were now become stale in the eyes even of the populace; and the hostile dispositions which subsisted between the kingdoms rendered a Prince, supported by the Scots, but an unwelcome: present to the English nation. The ravages also: committed by the borderers, accustomed to licence f Bacon, p. 615. Polyd. Virg. p. 596, 597. and 1496. 1496. CHA P. and disorder, struck a terror into all men; and XXVI. made the people prepare rather for repelling the invaders than for joining them. Perkin, that he might support his pretensions to royal birth, feigned great compassion for the misery of his plundered subjects; and publicly remonstrated with his ally against the depredations exercised by the Scottish. army: But James told him, that he doubted his concern was employed only in behalf of an enemy, and that he was anxious to preserve what never should belong to him. That Prince now began to perceive that his attempt would be fruitless; and hearing of an army which was on its march to attack him, he thought proper to retreat into his own country. 1497. THE King discovered little anxiety to procure either reparation or vengeance for this insult committed on him by the Scottish nation: His chief concern was to draw advantage from it, by the pretence which it might afford him to levy impositions on his own subjects. He summoned a Parliament, to whom he made bitter complaints against the irruption of the Scots, the absurd imposture countenanced by that nation, the cruel devastations committed in the northern counties, and the multiplied insults thus offered both to the King and the kingdom of England. The Parliament made the expected return to this discourse, by granting a subsidy to the amount of 120,000 pounds, together with two fifteenths. After making this grant, they were dismissed. THE Vote of Parliament for imposing the tax was. without much difficulty procured by the authority of Henry; but he found it not so easy to levy the money upon his subjects. The people, who were acquainted with the immense treasures which he had amassed, could ill brook the new impositions H A P. 1497. West. raised on every slight occasion; and it is probable C that the flaw, which was universally known to be in his title, made his reign the more subject to insurrections and rebellions. When the subsidy began Insurrecto be levied in Cornwal, the inhabitants, numerous tion in the and poor, robust and courageous, murmured against a tax occasioned by a sudden inroad of the Scots, from which they esteemed themselves entirely secure, and which had usually been repelled by the force of the northern counties. Their ill-humour was farther excited by one Michael Joseph, a farrier of Bodmin, a notable prating fellow, who, by thrusting himself forward on every occasion, and being loudest in every complaint against the government, had acquired an authority among those rude people. Thomas Flammoc, too, a lawyer, who had become the oracle of the neighbourhood, encouraged the sedition, by informing them that the tax, though imposed by Parliament, was entirely illegal; that the northern nobility were bound by their tenures, to defend the nation against the Scots; and that if these new impositions were tamely submitted to, the avarice of Henry and of his ministers would soon render the burthen intolerable to the nation. The Cornish, he said, must deliver to the King a petition, seconded by such a force as would give it authority; and, in order to procure the concurrence of the rest of the kingdom, care must be taken, by their orderly deportment, to shew that they had nothing in view but the public good, and the redress of all those grievances under which the people had so long laboured. ENCOURAGED by these speeches, the multitude flocked together, and armed themselves with axes, bills, bows, and such weapons as country people are usually possessed of. Flammoc and Joseph were chosen their leaders. They soon conducted the Cornish through the county of Devon, and reached that of Somerset. At Taunton the rebels killed, |