Simnel, Lambert

b. circa 1477; d. circa 1535

English impostor, son of an Oxford joiner. As a tool in the hands of an Oxford priest, Richard Symonds, he was put forward to impersonate Edward, the young Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence, who was a prisoner in the Tower. Symonds secured the support of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy and other Yorkist leaders for his protégé and Simnel was taken to Ireland where Yorkist sympathies were strong. In 1487 Simnel was crowned Edward VI in Dublin Cathedral. When the conspiracy was discovered by Henry VII, Warwick was shown to the London public, meanwhile an armed force from Ireland, under the command of Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, landed in Lancashire, and marching upon the royal army, attacked it near Stoke-on-Trent (16 June 1487), where the battle took place in which the King's forces were victorious, and Simnel and the priest made prisoners. It is traditionally said that Simnel was then made a scullion in the King's kitchens.

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