Furthermore, Richard III had appointed Warwick as his successor. Margaret was determined to overthrow Henry VII; she was desperate to see her family return to power. In fact, she did not even want Simnel/”Warwick” to become king, the rebellion was a plot for John de la Pole to be the next king of England, after all, he did have a claim to the throne from his mother.
Lambert Simnel arrived in Ireland and he gained a lot of support, especially from the king of Ireland, eight earl of Kildare who was upset by Henry as he hadn’t accepted Kildare’s position as deputy-lieutenant of Ireland. Thus, Kildare decided to help Simnel by equipping him with Irish troops.
Simnel with his forces landed in England unopposed which reflects Henry’s weakness as none of the nobles tried to stop the invasion. The king’s forces however won the battle of Stoke in 1487 and defeated his opponents even though Simnel’s forces were well-trained. Henry VII showed mercy to Simnel as he didn’t really do anything wrong; he was just being used by the instigators. Simnel was taken into the royal household and worked in the kitchen.
Moreover, the reality of Simnel was obvious, he was an imposter. Henry VII had paraded the real Warwick up and down the towns in London. Although, the Yorkists were claiming Henry’s Warwick was fake, Simnel managed to obtain support from Ireland, the Low Countries, where the widowed Margaret was ruling and from England (the Yorkists). Henry might have been threatened because as a pretender who had no claim to the throne, gained foreign support and went to battle, unexpectedly becoming King, he knew that anyone, like Simnel, could succeed just as he did. In addition, Henry during this time didn’t have any heir to the throne who could fight for the Tudor dynasty if anything happened; this was certainly the only reason why this rebellion was so serious to Henry. Nevertheless, Henry’s forces defeated Simnel’s army but this didn’t end the threat from pretenders as his reign would be plagued by pretenders.
