John Payne (bishop of Meath)

[3] In 1487, a priest named Richard Simon (or Symonds) appeared in Ireland with a young boy called Lambert Simnel, who, due to their striking physical resemblance, he passed off as Edward IV's nephew Edward, Earl of Warwick, whose claim to the English throne, as heir of the House of York, was considerably stronger than that of Henry VII, founder of the new Tudor dynasty.

[1] The traditionally Yorkist nobility of the Pale, headed by Gerald Fitzgerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, agreed to recognise Simnel as King, in the hope of weakening English rule in Ireland and strengthening their own power.

Henry VII, who showed surprising clemency to the surviving rebels, including Simnel (who became a servant in the royal kitchen), readily granted it, although he had previously asked the Pope to excommunicate him.

[2] Payne worked closely with Sir Richard Edgcumbe, the English official sent by Henry to treat with the rebels, and helped to persuade Kildare to come to terms with him.

[1] During the later attempt in 1495 to put another pretender, Perkin Warbeck, on the throne, Payne prudently remained passive, although he was required afterwards to enter a bond for good behaviour, which suggests that his loyalty to the Tudor dynasty was still questioned.

[1] In 1489, Payne participated in a provincial council at Armagh, which attempted to settle a long-standing dispute between two rival claimants to the office of Bishop of Kilmore.