History of the Life and Reign of Richard the Third; To Which Is Added the Story of Perkin Warbeck (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1898. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE STORY OF PERKIN WARBECK FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. The career of Perkin Warbeck, whatever may be thought of his pretensions, was certainly in itself so extraordinary that it is no wonder it gave rise, even from the first, to a good many strange and inconsistent statements; and it is a misfortune for English history that the student's chief guide hitherto has been a mere summary of the case, written, of course, with great vigour and clearness, but highly coloured and from very imperfect information, by the great Lord Bacon in his History of Henry the Seventh. Lord Bacon, indeed, discredits the pretensions of the adventurer as most other writers do; but he is clearly smitten with the love of the marvellous, and, as we shall see, he considerably misinterprets in some things the scanty records on which he founds his narrative. But he really seems to have made use of all the evidences available at the time he wrote; and as until our own day there was very little more material by which to form a judgment, historians have been generally content to follow his guidance. It is the object of this paper, however, to trace the career of Warbeck from contemporary documents, most of which have been altogether unknown till the present generation. A few words, nevertheless, seem called for at the outset, merely to state the case in a general way, from evidences which have always been available. Perkin Warbeck was executed as an impostor in the reign of Henry VII. He pretended to be the younger of the two young princes, the sons of Edward IV., who are commonly supposed to have been murdered in the Tower in the days of Richard III. That there were some who really entertained such a belief in his day, it would be idle to dispute; but it appears to me that such a belief, if well g...