John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln

Who was John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln?

John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln was a leading figure in the Yorkist aristocracy during the Wars of the Roses. He was de facto heir to the throne under the reign of his uncle Richard III of England, following the attainder that excluded Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick.

After the death of Richard, de la Pole reconciled with the new Tudor regime, but two years later he organised a major Yorkist rebellion. He sought to place Lambert Simnel on the throne, claiming that Simnel was in fact Edward, Earl of Warwick. Whether or not de la Pole intended to take the throne for himself if he were successful is not known, but has been widely suspected by historians. He was defeated and killed at the Battle of Stoke in 1487.