Who was the greater threat to Henry VII's throne, Lambert Simnel or Perkin Warbeck?

Authors Avatar

Who was the greater threat to Henry VII’s throne, Lambert Simnel or Perkin Warbeck?

There were many threats to King Henry VII during his reign but two of the greatest threats to King Henry VIII were from the two pretenders to the throne. The two pretenders, named Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck both had profound affects on Henry’s sense of security about his own place on the throne. The obvious difference between these two characters is one of them was mature and the other was simply a puppet used by higher powers. I therefore think that Perkin Warbeck appeared to be more of a threat for Henry than Simnel not only because of the difference of age but to many other factors in their gain for the crown of England.

Lambert Simnel was a young boy of ten years of age who was mainly used as a pawn by people such as Margaret de Burgundy, John de la pole and Lord Lovell. The fact that he was so young may have made the boy seem to be not much of a threat to Henry at the time. Whereas with a grown man such as Perkin Warbeck, who was firstly “recognised” by his supposed relative Margaret de Burgundy as Richard Duke of York, King Edward’s son, which may have made him appear to be more strategically advanced. He had proceeded to gain support from several powerful European leaders and at the time seriously threatened Henry VII’s stability on the throne. Warbeck, Henry would have seen him to be a more powerful opponent to face due to his knowledge gained through age.

Join now!

The kind of support that Simnel received seemed dangerous for Henry, as he had gained a lot of support from abroad. This could have increase the worry of being attacked from other countries and the risk of possible foreign policy breaches with England. However, Warbeck had more foreign support than Simnel as he had the backing of France, Burgundy, Scotland and the Habsburgs which all together proved to be more of a threat to Henry’s foreign relations than that of Simnel.

Warbeck however added to a considerable amount of problems overseas, and threatened Henry’s aim to form an alliance ...

This is a preview of the whole essay