Timeline

1464

Secret (and ?bigamous) marriage of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.

1469

Marriage of George and Isabel, Duke and Duchess of Clarence.

1470

2 November, birth of Edward, Prince of Wales (Edward V).

1473

17 August, birth of Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York and Norfolk.

1474/75

25 February, birth of Edward of Clarence, Earl of Warwick.

1476

22 December, death of Isabel, Duchess of Clarence.

1476/7

?Birth of Lambert (?or perhaps John), ?son of Thomas Simnel of ?Oxford. The widowed Duke of Clarence made plans to smuggle his son and heir, Edward, Earl of Warwick – aged about 2 – to either Ireland or Flanders, and replace him with a substitute child.

1477/8

18 February, execution of George, Duke of Clarence;

?Edward, Earl of Warwick, aged about 3, was placed under the guardianship of the Marquess of Dorset, then aged about 25, married to his second wife, Cecily, and probably resident at the Tower of London.

1480

?Edward, Earl of Warwick, was given a selection of new leather footwear by Edward IV, just before the summer visit to England of his aunt, Margaret, whom the young earl may have met. He was then aged 5.

1483

Death of Edward IV. Richard III assumed guardianship of Edward V (aged 12½, and Richard of Shrewsbury, approaching 10 years of age), and placed these two ‘princes’ at the Tower of London (whence they may later have been abducted by the Duke of Buckingham). Richard III also assumed guardianship of ?Edward, Earl of Warwick (aged 8) and placed him at Sheriff Hutton Castle together with other royal children. Richard gave ?Edward, Earl of Warwick appointments, so presumably the child did not then show any signs of learning difficulties.

1485

Henry VII took control of ?Edward, Earl of Warwick, then aged 10, and placed him initially under the guardianship of his own mother, Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Stanley. Later Henry accommodated him at the Tower of London.

1486

The ‘son of Clarence’ (then aged 11), was with his aunt Margaret of York in Flanders.

1487

The ‘son of Clarence’ (aged 12), or Lambert (?John) Simnel (?aged 10), was crowned king in Dublin.

?Edward, Earl of Warwick, was brought out of the Tower of London by Henry VII and displayed at St Paul’s Cathedral in the hope that people would recognise him.

The ‘son of Clarence’ (aged 12), or Lambert (?John) Simnel (?aged 10), was captured at the Battle of Stoke and either subsequently employed by Henry VII, or shipped to the Continent by Edmund de la Pole.

1489

Henry VII entertained Irish lords in England and showed them Lambert Simnel (then aged 12?), their alleged former ‘Dublin King’. All but one of the Irish Lords failed to recognise him.

1499

?Edward, Earl of Warwick, then aged 24 (and possibly intellectually impaired) was executed by Henry VII for allegedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London with Perkin Warbeck. His body and head were buried at Bisham Priory.

1525

Issue of robes to Lambert Simnel (then aged about 48?) for the funeral of Sir Thomas Lovell,1 courtier and counsellor of Henry VII.

?

Some time after 1525 (and possibly after 1534) Lambert Simnel died.

CPR

Calendar of Patent Rolls

ODNB

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

PROME 

Parliament Rolls of Medieval England