CELEBRATED
CLAIMANTS
FROM
PERKIN WARBECK TO ARTHUR ORTON.
SECOND EDITION.
London:
CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY.
1874.
PREFACE.
This book is intended much less to gratify a temporary curiosity thanto fill an empty page in our literature. In our own and in othercountries Claimants have been by no means rare. Wandering heirs togreat possessions have not unfrequently concealed themselves for manyyears until their friends have forgotten them, and have suddenly andinopportunely reappeared to demand restitution of their rights; andunscrupulous rogues have very often advanced pretensions to titles andestates which did not appertain to them, in the hope that they wouldbe able to deceive the rightful possessors and the legal tribunals.When such cases have occurred they have created more or lessexcitement in proportion to the magnitude of the claim, the audacityof the imposture, or the romance which has surrounded them. But the [IV]interest which they have aroused has been evanescent, and the onlyrecords which remain of the vast majority are buried in ponderouslegal tomes, which are rarely seen, and are still more rarely read, bynon-professional men. The compiler of the present collection hasendeavoured to disinter the most noteworthy claims which have beenmade either to honours or property, at home or abroad, and, while hehas passed over those which present few remarkable features, hasspared no research to render his work as perfect as possible, and tosupply a reliable history of those which are entitled to rank ascauses célèbres. The book must speak for itself. It is put forwardin the hope that, while it may serve to amuse the hasty reader in aleisure hour, it may also be deemed worthy of a modest resting-placein the libraries of those who like to watch the march of events, andwho have the prudent habit, when information is found, of preserving anote of it.
CONTENTS
- PAGE
- JACK CADE—THE PRETENDED MORTIMER, 9
- LAMBERT SIMNEL—THE FALSE EARL OF WARWICK, 11
- PERKIN WARBECK—THE SHAM DUKE OF YORK,14
- DON SEBASTIAN—THE LOST KING OF PORTUGAL, 23
- JEMELJAN PUGATSCHEFF—THE SHAM PETER III., 32
- OTREFIEF—THE SHAM PRINCE DIMITRI,38
- PADRE OTTOMANO—THE SUPPOSED HEIR OF SULTAN IBRAHIM, 42
- MOHAMMED BEY—THE COUNTERFEIT VISCOUNT DE CIGALA, 45
- THE SELF-STYLED PRINCE OF MODENA, 50
- JOSEPH—THE FALSE COUNT SOLAR, ...