already believed that he had been a prisoner in the Tower of London and had been taken out by the wicked Tudor and placed in a baker’s shop.
So smoothly was everything working out that Richard Simon was certain that God was on his side. The Archbishopric of Canterbury was coming very near.
The King was disturbed. This was the most ridiculous assertion he had ever heard and yet it made him very uneasy. He had no doubt that he could quickly deal with this trouble but it was a warning to him. He was sure that throughout his life he would be beset by such annoyances.
There would always be those who sought to rebel against him for it was invariably so when one was not the direct heir to the throne. He would be the first to admit that he lacked that personal charm, charisma, aura of royalty, whatever it was which Edward the Fourth had had in abundance. Henry the Fifth, Edward the First and Edward the Third had had it. Was it something to do with making war? It might well be. It was more than that. It was the power to make men follow. But whatever it was, he lacked it.
He prided himself on facing facts. He knew that he would be a good king . . . if the country would let him. And after a few years, here was the first rebellion.
It was a foolish assumption. The Duke of Warwick masquerading under the name of Lambert Simnel who was the son of a baker! Ah, not the son of a baker was the rumor. The son of the Duke of Clarence and daughter of the great Earl of Warwick . . . the next in line to the throne.
Nonsense. A boy of eleven or so. Moreover he was in the Tower at this moment . . . a prisoner.
Yet . . . the people who were behind this rebellion alarmed him. There was the Earl of Lincoln whom Richard the Third had named as heir to the throne; there was Margaret of Burgundy, a formidable woman with vast forces at her command; there was Francis Lovell, a former adherent of Richard the Third. Well, how could they say they had the Earl of Warwick when the real one was in the Tower . . . his prisoner?
But rumor knew how to lie. Even though he proved to them that he had the Earl of Warwick in the Tower, even though he showed the boy to the people, there would still be some to say that this Lambert Simnel was the true Earl and that the boy the King was showing to the world was some creature he had set up in his place.
His mother came to him. She knew of his trouble. She had her ear to the ground, as she said, and she was ever watchful.
“You are uneasy about this Lambert Simnel,” she said. “It is the most arrant nonsense. You have young Warwick in the Tower. How can they have the effrontery to say he is with them.”
“It’s true. I must have the young Warwick paraded through the streets.”
“That will settle the matter once and for all.”
“Nay, my dear lady, not so. There was a rumor some time ago that young Warwick had escaped. That will be believed, you will see. It will be said that the boy whom I shall parade through the streets is a substitute. I know it is nonsense . . . but there will be some to believe it. My enemies will make all they can of this.”
“They will not succeed.”
“They must not succeed. Imagine if they did. This baker’s son would be set up as the King . . . oh, only a figurehead of course . . . but Lincoln would be there to govern the country . . . and you can imagine Margaret of Burgundy dictating what should be done. Men like Lovell will support them. No, my lady Mother, it is nonsense. I grant you, and I shall overcome it, but in the meantime I like it not.”
“Who does like these disturbances? I hear it is an unknown priest who has started all this—a certain Richard Simon.”
“It is. But I daresay it is taken out of his hands now. They have dared crown this Lambert Simnel in Dublin.”
“That is impossible.”
“Alas, not so. They have support from Margaret of Burgundy and two thousand German troops with them. The Germans are good fighters.”
“And what do they propose to do?”
“You can imagine. They will land here and we shall have to do battle. I thought the Wars of the Roses were at an end.”
“They are at an end. They must be at an end. You and Elizabeth have joined up York and Lancaster. There shall be no more wars.”
“That is my fervent hope. But we must always be wary of troublemakers like this upstart priest.”
“Richard Simon . . . why he came here once!”
“Came here!”
“Why yes, to see the Dowager Queen.”
Mother and son looked at each other intently.
“So Elizabeth Woodville is concerned in this,” muttered Henry. “The Queen’s mother! It seems incredible.”
“I would believe anything of that woman. You have given her so much but she is quite ungrateful. I am sure she tries to manage everything here in the Queen’s household and because she cannot, will turn the Queen against you.”
“I have no fear that I shall not be able to influence the Queen.”
“Elizabeth is a good creature, I grant you. I have no complaint of her. She will be a docile wife and she admires you and is of course grateful because of what you have brought her. But I have never liked Elizabeth Woodville, an upstart from the beginning. I should like to see her removed from Court.”
“If she is involved in the slightest way with this affair of the baker’s son then she shall most certainly be
