![]() Henry VII therefore ordered him to be led through the streets of London to prove that he really was. Lambert Simnel (the Young Pretender) was really (probably) himself, but cleverly pretended to be the Earl of Warbeck. Two pretenders who now arose were Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, and they succeeded in confusing the issue absolutely by being so similar that some historians suggest they were really the same person. These have usually come in small waves of about two: an Old Pretender and a Young Pretender, their object being to sow dissension in the realm, and if possible to confuse the Royal issue by pretending to be heirs to the throne. ![]() ![]() I remember this passage on ‘the Pretenders’ making me weep with laughter when I was a schoolboy:Įnglish history has always been subject to Waves of Pretenders. There are only two dates in history: 55BC, when the Romans came and 1066, when the Normans did and everything is either a Good Thing or a Bad Thing. Taking as its maxim ‘History is what you can remember’, it tells the story of Britain as if narrated by a tipsy man distantly recalling the history lessons he snoozed through as a boy. ![]() ![]() Written in 1930, it’s the best, well, the funniest book of British history ever written. Since we’re discussing Diary of a Nobody and Three Men in a Boat, it would be remiss not to give a nod to another classic of English comedy, WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman’s 1066 and All That, available for a penny here. ![]()
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