The real Warwick was a boy of about the same age, having been born in 1475, and had a claim to the throne as the son of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, King Edward IV's executed brother.

Simnel was paraded through the streets, carried on the shoulders of "the tallest man of the time", an individual called D'Arcy of Platten (this was evidently Sir William Darcy, an ally of Kildare, who is known to have been exceptionally tall).

[3] When Henry heard about what was going on, he arranged for the real Earl of Warwick to be taken from the tower and paraded through London, presumably to disprove the rumours of his death or escape.

Lord Kildare collected an army of Irish soldiers under the command of his younger brother, Thomas FitzGerald of Laccagh.

John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln, formerly the designated successor of his uncle the late King Richard III, joined the conspiracy against Henry VII.

Margaret collected 2,000 Flemish mercenaries and shipped them to Ireland under the command of Martin Schwartz, a noted military leader of the time.

On 5 June 1487 Simnel's army—mainly Flemish and Irish troops—landed on Piel Island in the Furness area of Lancashire and were joined by some English supporters.

Thanks to existing plans to invade Ireland he was able to react speedily to the invasion and had begun mustering troops as early as February.

A lack of English support led Simnel's army to change their plans, deciding their only chance of success was one swift and decisive battle.

[5] He seems to have married, as he is probably the father of Richard Simnel, a canon of St Osyth's Priory in Essex during the reign of Henry VIII.

[11] The 2017 children's book The Player King, by Avi, offers a fictionalized first-person account of the key period of Simnel's life.