of Boulogne (Chronicle of Calais, p. 2). On 9 Nov. 1494 he was the leading challenger at Westminster in the tournament at the creation of Prince Henry as Duke of York, and was presented on the second day with ‘a ring of gold with a diamond’ as a prize. In 1495, on Michaelmas day, he received the king, who was on his way from Woodstock to Windsor, at his seat at Ewelme (Excerpta Historica, p. 105). The parliament which confirmed his agreement with the king assembled in the following month, and he was one of the lords appointed triers of petitions from Gascony and foreign parts (Rolls of Parl. vi. 458). It was probably in 1496 that he was made a knight of the Garter in the room of Jasper, duke of Bedford, who died in December 1495 (Beltz, Memorials of the Garter, p. clxix). In February 1496 he took part in a ‘disguising’ before the king (Excerpta Historica, p. 107). In the same month he was one of a number of English noblemen who stood sureties to the Archduke Philip for the observance of the new treaties with Burgundy (Rymer, xii. 588, 1st edit.). On 22 June he led a company against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath.
In Michaelmas term, 1498, he was indicted in the king's bench for murder. It appears that he had killed a man in a passion; and though he received the king's pardon, he is said to have resented the fact that he, a prince of royal blood, should have been arraigned for the crime. In April 1499, however, he attended a chapter of the Garter at Windsor (Anstis, Register, ii. 238). But in July, or the very beginning of August, he fled the kingdom, first taking refuge at Guisnes, near Calais, where Sir James Tyrell, captain of the castle, had friendly conferences with him, and afterwards going on to St. Omer. Henry, much alarmed at his departure, issued on 20 Aug. strict orders against persons leaving the kingdom without a license (Letters and Papers, ii. 377; Paston Letters, iii. 173, ed. Gairdner). He also instructed Sir Richard Guildford [q. v.] and Richard Hatton, the former of whom was going on a mission to the archduke, to use all possible persuasions to induce Suffolk to return. Henry's ambassadors persuaded the archduke to order Suffolk out of his dominions; but the captain of St. Omer, who was charged to convey the order, delayed the intimation of it, much to his master's satisfaction. Guildford had instructions to bring Suffolk back by force if persuasion failed. Suffolk wisely preferred to return voluntarily, and was again taken into favour. He was, however, by no means satisfied as to the king's intentions; and the judicial murder of the Earl of Warwick, which happened immediately after, did not reassure him. It seemed as if the house of York were to be extirpated to secure the Tudor throne.
On 5 May 1500, however, he witnessed at Canterbury the king's confirmation of the treaty for the marriage of Prince Arthur with Catherine of Arragon (Rymer, xii. 752, 1st edit.), and six days later he followed the king to Calais to the meeting with the Archduke Philip. He returned to England, but having heard that the Emperor Maximilian, who had an old grudge against Henry VII, would gladly help one of the blood of Edward IV to gain the English throne, he in August 1501 repaired to Maximilian in the Tyrol. The emperor at first gave him no encouragement. After remaining six weeks at Imst, Suffolk received a message, promising him the aid of three to five thousand men for a period of one, two, or three months if necessary. Leaving his steward Killingworth to arrange details with Maximilian, he repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle with letters from the emperor in his favour to the council of that town. After Suffolk's departure Maximilian raised difficulties in performing his promise. But Suffolk was at length informed that Maximilian had persuaded the Count of Hardeck to lend Suffolk twenty thousand gulden. The count was to be repaid double that sum, and his son was to go with Suffolk into England.
On 7 Nov. 1501 Suffolk, Sir Robert Curzon—who seems first to have suggested the project to the emperor—and five other persons were publicly ‘accursed’ at Paul's Cross as traitors. Afterwards on the first Sunday of Lent (13 Feb.) 1502, Suffolk's brother, Lord William de la Pole, with Lord William Courtney, Sir James Tyrell, and other Yorkist friends, were thrown into prison. Of these, Tyrell and Sir John Wyndham suffered as traitors in May following; but the two Lord Williams, whose Yorkist blood and connection were alone suspicious, were only kept in confinement till the accession of Henry VIII. Suffolk himself was outlawed at Ipswich on 26 Dec. 1502.
He was also disappointed in the hope of help from his foreign friends. His remonstrances addressed to the emperor from Aix were in vain, and on 28 July 1502 Maximilian signed a treaty at Augsburg, pledging himself in return for 10,000l. not to succour any English rebels, even though they claimed the dignity of dukes (for Suffolk had resumed his forfeited rank in the peerage) (Rymer, xiii. 9, 22–7, 1st edit.). Nevertheless, Suffolk was suffered to remain at Aix unmolested. But on 12 Feb. 1503 Maximilian took, at
