The Last White Rose Read Free

just possible – but only just – that the Grand Prior was both murderous and credulous, and that Bernart was telling the truth.
    The second half of Bernart’s deposition was more plausible. He claimed Kendal had been in touch with the group around Warbeck, alleging that when Perkin first arrived in Flanders one of his followers had written several times to My Lord of St John’s. Bernart had seen some, though not all, of the letters. These reported how ‘the Merchant of the Ruby’ (Perkin), having found that he was unable to sell his wares in Flanders for the right price, was going to try and sell them to the King of the Romans (Maximilian) – meaning, explained Bernart, that Perkin had been unable to find enough money or men in Flanders for his invasion of England. The writer of the letters was a sergeant of the Order of St John, Fra’ Guillemin de Novion, who until recently had held a position in the Grand Prior’s household.
    Bernart also said that at a commandery belonging to Fra’ John, Melchbourne in Bedfordshire, livery jackets bearing the Red Rose were stored, but that there were others in the commandery on which White Roses could be sewn. He added that a servant of Guillemin de Novion, called Pietres, had brought letters to the Grand Prior that were written in such a way as to mislead King Henry about where Perkin was going to land. My Lord of St John’s was still receiving messages from Flanders, whose contents he always communicated to Thomas Langton, Bishop of Winchester, John Hussey, Sir Thomas Tyrell and Archdeacon Hussey, even if he did not send them the text.
    Two or three times a year, sometimes just after Christmas, related Bernart, My Lord of St John’s was accustomed to visit Sir Thomas Tyrell’s manor house at Avon Tyrell in Hampshire. On one occasion, when the Grand Prior said he had heard thatthe late King Edward had been there several times in the old days, Sir Thomas replied that he was quite right and that the king had always ‘made good cheer’ – he hoped, please God, that one day King Edward’s son was going to make no less good cheer. The present royal family had been set up with French money, he added, so there was some hope that another, just as good, might soon be put in its place. Both Bernart and Sir John Tonge were present when this conversation took place. He ended by repeating that all the men he named were implicated in the plot to murder King Henry.
    The deposition denouncing the Grand Prior has only survived because it reached Henry. He endorsed it on the back, in his own hand, with the words, ‘ La confession de Bernart de Vignolles ’. Reading the document, he may well have thought that the plot to poison him was a malicious fabrication, but he took the second part seriously enough. Soon after Bernart sent in his deposition, the authorities raided Clerkenwell and seized Kendal’s private correspondence. They kept five letters, all written by him in April 1496, no doubt because three were addressed to men mentioned in the deposition – two to Guillemin de Novion and one to Stefano Maranecho – and because their meaning is curiously unclear, as if by deliberate design. Yet there was nothing positive to incriminate the Grand Prior, and the king was always loath to take action unless he had convincing evidence in his hands. Nor did he arrest any of the men mentioned in the deposition. Even so, in the circumstances it seems significant that on 1 July Henry issued Kendal with a general pardon for all offences committed before 17 June. 5
    While it is improbable that the Grand Prior had ever been the centre of a Yorkist cell, there may be an element of truth in the accusation that he was in contact with Warbeck’s circle at some stage during the young man’s first days in Flanders. 6 If so, like William Stanley, he and his friends were hedging their bets, just in case Perkin really was the son of Edward IV and a Yorkist restoration took place, but had then changed