1474-Approx Born Tournia Flanders, now in Belgium. Possibly a bastard of Edward IV.
Impostor and pretender to the throne of England. he was vain, foolish, and incompetent, used by Henry VII's Yorkist enemies in England and on the Continent in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty.
1491-Warbeck went to Ireland where Yorkists persuaded him to impersonate Richard the young Duke of York, presumed murdered with his brother King Edward V in 1483 in the Tower of London.
Assured of Irish support, he went to the continent to gather forces for an invasion of England. In the Netherlands the dowager duchess Margaret sister of Edward IV, coached him on his impostors role, and he was supported at one time or the other by France, by Maximilian I of Austria (Holy Roman emperor), King James IV of Scotland, and by powerful men in England.
1495/96- There were two feeble, abortive invasions of England in these years.
Warbeck became some what isolated by these failures which forced him to sail for Scotland.
1497- No longer welcome in Scotland, and having heard of the Cornish Uprising (Earlier 1497) sailed to Ireland to raise an army. Not only did the Irish fail to join him, but in the July he heard news of the defeat of the Cornish at Blackheath, but he had no options left but to go on. He landed at Whitsand Bay near Lands End Cornwall on the 7th September. He was rapturously received.
Leaving his young wife (Cousin to the Scottish King) at St Michael's Mount or St Buryan (historians differ), he set out across Cornwall. The Cornish were clearly not subdued and flocked to his banners- One showing a boy leaping out of the mouth of a wolf and the other a boy escaping from a tomb. The major rebels that numbered more than 6,000 men were later identified by the government as over one third coming from the Penwith and Kerrier hundreds.
At Bodmin he proclaimed himself Richard 1V. After which crossing the Tamar at Launceston just three months after Joseph and Flamank lead the earlier rising. The force marched on Exeter. The city had been reinforced by the greater gentry under the Earl of Devon, yet the Cornishmen, without any guns or siege engines, broke down the eastern gate and fought their way into the narrow streets. Here, however they were met by the Earl and his men, who after desperate fighting , succeeded in driving them back outside the walls. The next day the rebels made another assault but were repulsed by the defenders guns, and the dispirited rabble, depleted by desertion, struggled on to Taunton.
September 21st By now the Kings forces under Daubeney were approaching Taunton, and there the courage of the wretched Warbeck failed him. After a show of preparing for battle, he slipped away from his army and fled with a few companions to take sanctuary at Beaulieu Hampshire.
The Cornishmen were as infuriated as they were bewildered by the flight of their leader, whom they would of gladly torn to pieces had they caught him, and it was unfortunate for the provost of Glasney that he should have fallen into their hands at this critical moment. He was one of the most conscientious collectors of the kings taxes, and there in the market place at Taunton they "slew him piteously, in such a wise that he was dismembered and cut in many sundry pieces".
When Henry arrived the remaining rebels surrendered, holding up their hands and asking for mercy.
Henry had also , anticipated Warbecks escape, his men followed him to Beaulieu. Where he was offered a pardon, to which he surrendered, but he was promptly surrounded captured and taken to the King at Taunton. The King was in no hurry the rebels now under his control, and he proceeded to Exeter where he stayed a month "to order the parts of Cornwall". this he did thoroughly after his fashion, Commissioners were sent west and in each parish somebody, often the parson, was made responsible for raising the fine levied as the price of the rebellion, and altogether Henry managed to squeeze more than £600 out of the county, an enormous sum for such an impoverished region. it left the Cornish "Stunned and penniless". For Henry the collection of money was sweeter than the squandering of blood and most of the rebels were pardoned , only a few leaders were executed. Warbeck was spared after confessing that he was not Richard son of Edward IV, but Perkin, son of a poor boatman from Tournai, his wife was brought from Cornwall with all honour and sent to join the Queens household.
After spending a week at the abbey of Newenham, he returned to London where he was released into light arrest.
1498-After a bungled escape, he was sent to the Tower of London.
1499-Hanged London November 23rd.