Second Cornish Uprising of 1497

The Second Cornish Uprising is the name given to the Cornish uprising of September 1497 when the pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck landed at Whitesand Bay, near Land's End, on 7 September with just 120 men in two ships. Warbeck had seen the potential of the Cornish uprest in the 1st Cornish Rebellion of 1497 even though the Cornish had been defeated at the Battle of Blackheath on 17 June 1497. Warbeck proclamed that he would put a stop to extortionate taxes levied to help fight a war against Scotland and was warmly welcomed in Cornwall. His wife, Lady Katharine, was left in the safety of St Michael's Mount and when he decided to attack Exeter his supporters declared him ‘Richard IV’ on Bodmin Moor. [ [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5749 Cornwall timeline 1497] ] Most of the Cornish gentry supported Warbeck's cause after their setback previously in June of that year and on 17 September a Cornish army some 6,000 strong entered Exeter before advancing on Taunton. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=UfCvxdhNLHIC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=pretender+warbeck+cornish&source=web&ots=xYVASI4sIy&sig=04sT-ihdcQaNzheU2LXB_H4QKQM#PPA110,M1 Philip Payton - (1996) "Cornwall", Fowey: Alexander Associates] ]

Henry VII sent his chief general, Giles, Lord Daubeney to attack the Cornish and when Warbeck heard that the King's scouts were at Glastonbury he panicked and deserted his army. Warbeck was captured at Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire were he surrendered. Henry VII reached Taunton on 4 October 1497 were he received the surrender of the remaining Cornish army. The ringleaders were executed and others fined an enormous total of £13,000. 'Richard’ was imprisoned, first, at Taunton, then in London, where he was ‘paraded through the streets on horseback amid much hooting and derision of the citizens’. [ [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/n-s/perkin.html Channel 4 - Perkin Warbeck] ] On 23 November 1499 Warbeck was drawn on a hurdle from the Tower to Tyburn, London, where he read out a ‘confession’ and was hanged. [ [http://homepages.tesco.net/~k.wasley/Warbeck.htm Perkin Warbeck] ] [ [http://www.localhistories.org/bodmin.html Bodmin - Centre of three Cornish uprisings] ]

References