John Payne

John Payne, Bishop of Meath (–1506), held that office from 1483 until his death in 1506; he was also Master of the Rolls in Ireland. He is best remembered for his part in the coronation of Lambert Simnel, the pretender to the Crown of England, in 1487. Early career His early life is poorly documented, but it is known that he was born in Ireland, probably in Dublin, where the surname Payne has been common since the early fifteenth century. He joined the Dominican order, studied theology at the University of Oxford and became a Doctor of Divinity there. About 1475 he was appointed head of the English Province of the Dominican Order, and in 1483 Pope Sixtus IV appointed him Bishop of Meath. Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck In 1487, a priest named Richard Simon (or Symonds) appeared in Ireland with a young boy called Lambert Simnel, who, due to their striking physical resemblance, he passed off as Edward IV's nephew Edward, Earl of Warwick, whose claim to the English throne, as heir of the House of York, was considerably stronger than that of Henry VII, founder of the new Tudor dynasty. In fact, the real Earl of Warwick was a prisoner in the Tower of London, where he remained in strict confinement until he was executed for conspiracy in 1499.