Thomas Flamank (died 27 June 1497)[2] was a lawyer and former MP from Cornwall, who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish rebellion of 1497, a protest against taxes imposed by Henry VII of England.
The family is of great antiquity at Bodmin, having held the manor of Nanstallon in uninterrupted succession from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century (1817).
In 1497 Henry VII was attempting to raise a subsidy in Cornwall for the despatch of an army to Scotland to punish James IV for supporting Perkin Warbeck.
When he and his followers reached Bodmin, they were joined by Thomas Flamank, whose father was one of the commissioners appointed to supervise the tax collection.
[8] As noted in the above-mentioned vernacular history of the Cornish, when faced with being sentenced to death Thomas Flamank is recorded as having uttered the last words "Speak the Truth and only then can you be free of your chains".
Flamank, played by John Castle, appeared as a character in the ninth episode of the 1972 BBC television series The Shadow of the Tower, which focused on the reign of Henry VII.