Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders

After defeating Richard III at Bosworth in 1485, Henry VII possessed the crown but not yet an uncontested dynasty. Nathen Amin examines the conspiracies, rumours and Yorkist networks that challenged the first Tudor king, concentrating on Lambert Simnel, Perkin Warbeck and the imprisoned Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick. Rather than treating the early reign as a settled aftermath to the Wars of the Roses, the book shows a monarchy repeatedly forced to defend its legitimacy.

The narrative follows Simnel’s coronation in Dublin and the rebellion destroyed at Stoke Field in 1487, then the longer Warbeck conspiracy, which drew support from Margaret of Burgundy, James IV of Scotland and other European courts. Warwick’s position as a genuine Yorkist prince provides a different kind of threat, ending with his execution in 1499. Amin uses the three cases to explore rebellion, intelligence, propaganda, diplomacy and the insecurity that shaped Henry VII’s government.