Lambert Simnel

Lambert Simnel (* around 1477 ; † around 1534 ) was an impostor who claimed to be the English king. Along with Perkin Warbeck , he was one of two impostors who threatened the reign of Henry VII of England (ruled from 1485 to 1509) in the last decade of the 15th century.

Life

Lambert Simnel was born around 1477. There are, depending on the source, different information about the father: baker, dealer or organ builder. At the age of about ten, Simnel became a student of the priest Roger Simon (or Richard Symonds), who apparently decided to make a king out of the boy. He taught the boy, described as handsome, courtly manners.

Simon actually wanted to present Simnel as Richard of Shrewsbury , the second eldest son of Edward IV and one of the princes in the Tower . However, when he heard the rumor that Edward Plantagenet had died while imprisoned in the Tower of London, he changed his plans. The real Edward was a boy about Simnel's age who was entitled to the throne because he was the son of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence .

Simon spread the rumor that Edward had escaped from the Tower and was under his guard. He got the support of the House of York . He brought Simnel to Ireland, where he introduced him to the Earl of Kildare. The earl wanted to support history, invade England and overthrow King Henry. On May 24, 1487 Simnel was crowned "King Edward VI" in Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin. The Earl of Kildare gathered an army of Irish soldiers under the command of Thomas Geraldine.

On February 2, 1487, Henry VII presented the real Edward in public to prove that he was still imprisoned in the Tower and that the young pretender was a fraud. Heinrich also declared a general amnesty from all charges, including treason against himself, with the condition that the accused be brought to him.

John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln and defeated successor to the previous King Richard III. , followed the conspiracy against the king and fled to Flanders . There he stated that he took part in the escape of the young Earl of Warwick. There he also met Lord Lovell , who had supported the failed uprising of the House of York in 1486. Margaret of Burgundy collected 2000 German mercenaries and shipped them to Ireland. They arrived there on May 5th. Heinrich was informed of this and gathered troops.

Simnel's supporters, mostly consisting of Flemish and Irish troops, landed on Piel Island in the area of ​​the Furness Peninsula in Lancashire on June 5, 1487 and were accompanied by English supporters. All of the local nobles except Thomas Broughton followed them. On June 16, they clashed with Henry's army at the Battle of Stoke and were defeated. The Earl of Kildare was captured and the Earl of Lincoln and Sir Thomas Broughton were killed. Lord Lovell disappeared and it was rumored that he had escaped and had gone into hiding to avoid retaliation. Simon was spared the death penalty because of his priestly status, but was imprisoned for life.

Henry VII forgave young Simnel, perhaps because he was a puppet in adult hands, and gave him a job in the royal kitchen. A few years later, the English king had Simnel entertain Irish guests who had once supported Simnel's ambitions for the royal throne and who were now embarrassed when they saw them again. Simnel later became a royal falconer . He died around 1534.

literature

• Gordon Smith: Lambert Simnel and the King from Dublin ( online version )
• Friedrich Wencker-Wildberg : Uncrowned kings. Attempt of a world history of the adventurer. Das Bergland-Buch, Graz 1934, pp. 211-218