Henry was threatened several times during his reign all of varying seriousness. The pretenders fist threatened Henry in 1487, the first being Lambert Simnel.

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        Henry was threatened several times during his reign all of varying seriousness. The pretenders fist threatened Henry in 1487, the first being Lambert Simnel. Henry was still unstable after his usurpation of the throne and due to on going threats security remained an issue for most of his reign. In Ireland, Yorkist influence was still strong for Henry and this was a massive threat to Henry.

        Henry was already concerned about the security of his monarchy due to the Yorkshire rising led by Lovell and the Stamford threats. This however turned out to be less then a formidable threat for Henry only alarming him and highlighting the instability of his crown. It is thought that the lack of serious Yorkist claimants led to the creation of pretenders. Lambert Simnel arrived in Ireland in 1487 claiming to be the Earl of Warwick and quickly gathered widespread support. Ireland was still very sympathetic towards the Yorkists and Kildare Henry’s Lord Deputy, was anxious to hold independence and was more then willing to support Simnel. Kildare betrayed Henry this illustrated how deep Simnel’s threat had become. The threat peaked at Simnel’s coronation in Dublin, at this point Henry must have undoubtedly realised the extent of the threat. Although Simnel’s imposture held little plausibility for a time he gained a shocking amount of support, especially from foreign powers. At this stage Simnel was an acute threat to Henry, he could not estimate with enough precision, what extent of support would be produced for Simnel. Henry acted quickly to meet the military threat and fortunately for Henry, Simnel had failed to gather enough of the required support. He invaded too fast and therefore didn’t gain any support from the north, Simnel and his followers were defeated at the Battle of Stoke. Looking back on Simnel’s threat it is fair to say that a barely credible claimant managed to gather a strong following from disaffected parts of Henry’s kingdom.

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        The second Pretender, Perkin Warbeck first posed as a threat to Henry in 1491, here he claimed to be Richard of York, the youngest son of Edward IV. Warbeck threatened the monarchy for 8 years, at times becoming a key threat for Henry and at others merely insignificant. Warbeck was a constant threat to Henry, unlike Simnel due to his hesitance to become involved in battles. Although at points during the 8 years Warbeck was simply a nuisance in foreign affairs and therefore foreign policy at times he presented a large problem for Henry. Perhaps most surprising was the amount ...

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