HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII.
which was but a bubble, hut upon letters from the Lady Margaret of Mur<juudy, in whose succours and declaration for the enterprise there seemed to be a more solid foundation, both for reputation ard forces. Neither did the earl refrain the busi ness, for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an idol. But contrariwise, he was more glad it should be the false Plantagenet than the true ; because the false being sure to fall away of himself, and the true to be made sure of by the king, it might open and pave a fair and pre pared way to his own title. With this resolu tion he sailed secretly into Flanders, where was a little before arrived the Lord Lovel, leaving a correspondence here in England with Sir Thomas Broughton, a man of great power and dependencies in Lancashire. For before this time, when the pretended Plantagenet was first received in Ireland, secret messengers had been also sent to the Lady Margaret, advertis ing her what was passed in Ireland; imploring succours in an enterprise, as they said, so pious and just, and that God had so miraculously pros pered the beginning thereof : and making offer that all things should be guided by her will and di rection, as the sovereign partroness and protec tress of the enterprise. Margaret was second sister to King Edward the Fourth, and had been second wife to Charles, surnamed the Hardy, Duke of Burgundy ; by whom having no children of her own, she did with singular care and tender ness intend the education of Philip and Margaret, grandchildren to her former husband ; which won her great love and authority among the Dutch. This princess, having the spirit of a man, and malice of a woman, abounding in treasure by the great ness of her dower and her provident government, and being childless, and without any nearer care, made it her design and enterprise to see the ma jesty royal of England once again replaced in her house ; and had set up King Henry as a mark at whose overthrow all her actions should aim and shoot ; insomuch as all the counsels of his suc ceed ing troubles came chiefly out of that quiver. And she bare such a mortal hatred to the house of Lancaster, and personally to the king, as she was no ways mollified by the conjunction of the house in her niece s marriage, but rather hated her niece, as the means of the king s ascent to the crown, and assurance therein. Wherefore with great violence of affection she embraced this over ture. And upon counsel taken with the Earl of Lincoln, and the Lord Lovel, and some other of the party, it was resolved with all speed, the two lords, assisted with a regiment of two thousand Almains, being choice and veteran bands, under the command of Martin Swart, a valiant and ex perimented captain, should pass over into Ireland to the new king ; hwping, that when the action should have the face of a received and settled regality, with such a second person as the Earl of Lincoln, and the conjunction and reputation of foreign suc cours, the fame of it would embolden and prepare all the party of the confederates and malcontents within the realm of England, to give them assist ance when they should come over there. And for the person of the counterfeit, it was agreed, that if all things succeeded well he should be put down, and the true Plantagenet received ; where in, nevertheless, the Earl of Lincoln had his par ticular hopes. After they were come into Ireland, and that the party took courage, by seeing them selves together in a body, they grew very confi dent of success ; conceiving and discoursing amongst themselves, that they went in upon far better cards to overthrow King Henry, than King Henry had to overthrow King Richard : and that if there were not a sword drawn against them in Ireland, it was a sign the swords in England would be soon sheathed or beaten down. And first, for a bravery upon this accession of power, they crowned their new king in the cathedral church of Dublin ; who formerly had been but proclaimed only ; and then sat in council what should farther be done. At which council, though it were pro pounded by some, that it were the best way to establish themselves first in Ireland, and to make that the seat of the war, and to draw King Henry thither in person, by whose absence they thought there would be great alterations and commo tions in England ; yet because the kingdom there was poor, and they should not be able to keep their army together, nor pay their German soldiers; and for that also the sway of the Irishmen, and gen erally of the men of war, which, as in such cases of popular tumults is usual, did in effect govern their leaders, was eager, and in affection to make their fortunes upon England; it was concluded with all possible speed to transport their forces into Eng land. The king, in the mean time, who at first when he heard what was done in Ireland, though it troubled him, yet thought he should be well enough able to scatter the Irish as a flight of birds, and rattle away this swarm of bees with their king; when he heard afterwards that the Earl of Lincoln was embarked in the action, and that the Lady Margaret was declared for it ; he apprehended the danger in a true degree as it was, and saw plainly that his kingdom must again be put to the stake, and that he must fight for it. And first he did conceive, before he understood of the Earl of Lin coln s sailing into Ireland out ot Flanders, that he should be assailed both upon the east parts of the kingdom of England by some impression from Flanders, and upon the northwest out of Ireland. And therefore having ordered musters to be made in both parts, and having provisionally designed two generals, Jasper, Earl of Bedford, and John, Earl of Oxford, meaning himself also to go in pei- son where the affairs should most require it, and nevertheless not expecting any actual invasion at that time, the winter being far on, he took his
