Do you remember those two princes in the Tower of London? No one knew what happened to them but, if they were alive, then they
would have a claim to be King. Well, a guy called Richard Simon, a priest, was teaching a boy called Lambert Simnel and he thought he noticed a resemblance between
Lambert and one of the two princes who had disappeared. Then Mr Simon had a new idea and said this boy was actually the Earl of Warwick, who was the son of Edward
IV’s brother, who had also been imprisoned in the tower. Simon spread a rumour that Warwick had escaped, he got a bit of support from some Yorkists and then popped
over to Ireland where Lambert was crowned King Edward VI. Some people think that these Yorkists were going to rebel anyway and just used poor little Lambert as an
excuse.
With a bit more support they put together an army, landed on Piel Island, near Barrow in Cumbria in 1487 and lost immediately. Mr Simon escaped execution
because he was a priest but was imprisoned for life and Henry VII took pity on little Lambert and gave him a job in the royal kitchen as a spit-turner. He would have
to stand next to a massive hot fire and turn the handle which rotated the piece of meat that was on the spit over the fire.
Later on Lambert became a falconer, looking after falcons, which are large hunting birds. There is a possibility that he married and had a son called
Richard Simnel. Bit of coincidence here because a Richard Simnel was the canon of St Osyth Priory during the reign of Henry VIII. This is St Osyth Priory today and
it is just down the road from where I live; well about 5 miles down the road and round a few corners and across a roundabout. History is all around us.