Overview

This book probes the mysteries surrounding Simnel, raises new questions about his identity and charts the history of the rebellion ending at the battle of Stoke. Within two years of the battle of Bosworth Henry Tudor had to defend his crown against a formidable challenge mounted on behalf of a ten-year-old boy who had been crowned in Dublin as 'Edward VI'. Though presented as the last surviving Plantagenet prince, the youth is generally known to history as Lambert Simnel. This book unravels the tangled web of dynastic politics and rivalries in Yorkist England, seeking a context for the bizarre events of 1487. It considers the political instability and the miasma of intrigue associated with the reign of Richard III and the first years of Henry VII. It seeks to probe the mysteries surrounding Lambert Simnel, raising questions about his identity, and attempts to trace the roots and ramifications of the movement centring on him. Above all, it charts the progress of the conspiracy and rebellion, from the raising of troops in the Netherlands and Ireland to the dramatic 'coronation' at Dublin, from the invasion of northern England through to the final, bloody encounter outside the village of East Stoke, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, the last occasion when an English king personally took to the field against a rival. The author concludes with a convincing argument that the resolution of the crisis of 1487 marked an important stage in the development of early Tudor polity.

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9781803995939

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Michael Bennett is Emeritus Professor of History, University of Tasmania, and the author of four books and over fifty articles on late medieval England. His most recent book is War Against Smallpox: Edward Jenner and the Spread of Global Vaccination (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

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