Book of Houth 72 The Ricardian Bulletin September 2022 I n the Book of Howth there is an account of a meeting held at Greenwich between Henry VII and the lords of Ireland. They are said to have discussed the situation in that country at length. No details are given, other than the fact that Henry quipped ‘my masters of Ireland, you will crown apes at length’ – a reference to their coronation of a pretender in Dublin in 1487. Afterwards, the lords took part in a procession, during which they were paired with various English noblemen. We are told that the companion of Nicholas St Lawrence, the fourth Lord of Howth, was extremely nervous, scarcely able to speak. He feared that some butchery would be done that day until he noticed that the axe carried at the head of the procession was turned away. Being asked why he was so afraid, Howth’s companion said that his father and grandfather had been beheaded. Howth counselled him to serve God, fear his prince and obey his laws, then this would not happen to him. Later at dinner, the lords of Ireland were served a cup of wine by their former protégé Lambert Simnel. They didn’t recognise him at first, but on being told who he was, they refused to accept the cup, telling him to go to the Devil; but Howth ‘being a merry gentleman’ accepted it for the wine’s sake and his own, stating that their servitor was only ‘a poor innocent’. The account ends Henry VII’s meeting with the lords of Ireland of 1494 at Greenwich brought them face-to-face with Lambert Simnel and Edward Plantagenet in a case study in Tudor power, writes Randolph Jones pretenders the lords of Ireland and the two Henry VII