Celebrated Claimants from Perkin Warbeck to Arthur Orton

In Short

This comprehensive nineteenth-century historical survey collects the world's most dramatic cases of disputed identity, fraud, and legal ambition. Moving through centuries of European and imperial history, the narrative chronicles the rise and fall of famous impostors—from medieval royal pretenders like Jack Cade and Perkin Warbeck to nineteenth-century legal fraudsters like John Lindsay Crawfurd, Tom Provis, and Arthur Orton, the notorious Tichborne claimant. The author draws these accounts out of forgotten judicial archives to illustrate human credulity and the lengths to which rogues will go for status. The work endures as a fascinating study of criminal audacity and public delusion.

The Story

The book opens in the political turmoil of the late Middle Ages, where pretenders target the crowns of England, Portugal, and Russia. Rebel leaders like Jack Cade take royal names to stir rebellion, while conspirators train figureheads like Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck to impersonate missing princes. In Spain, a bold actor named Gabriel de Spinosa attempts to pass himself off as the fallen King Don Sebastian of Portugal with the help of a compromised royal monk, only to end on the gallows after an indiscreet jewels sale exposes the plot. Imposture spans empires: bogus Ottoman princes like Mohammed Bey fabricate wildly entertaining memoirs claiming imperial Turkish lineage and miraculous conversions to win favor with European monarchs, while sham Tsars like Pugatscheff and Otrefief destabilize the Russian empire.

As the centuries progress, imposture shifts from political coups to legal battles over aristocratic land and peerages. In rural France, domestic drama takes center stage when Arnold du Tilh steps into the life and bed of the long-absent Martin Guerre, living peacefully with Guerre’s wife Bertrande for three years before she files a sensational accusation in court. In England, hidden pregnancies and disputed births spark decades of litigation, such as the Banbury peerage dispute surrounding the late-in-life sons of the elderly Earl of Banbury. Meanwhile, political upheavals like the French Revolution unleash a wave of fake royal heirs. Dozens of pretenders emerge claiming to be the young Dauphin, Louis XVII, who supposedly escaped the Temple prison. Adventurers like Jean-François Hervagault, the self-styled Baron de Richemont, and the American Indian missionary Eleazar Williams build massive, fanatical followings, using forged documents, secret supporters, and absurd romantic tales to solicit funds from gullible noblemen and royalists.

The final section examines the Victorian era’s most exhausting courtroom battles. Wealthy families find their lineages attacked by forged documents and suborned testimony. In the Crawfurd peerage case, a pretender attempts to steal an earldom using altered family papers, only to be betrayed by his own paid forgers. The book culminates in the gargantuan Tichborne trial, where Arthur Orton, a butcher’s son from Wapping, steps forward to claim the vast estates of the long-lost Sir Roger Tichborne. Exploiting the desperate grief of Sir Roger’s mother, Orton rallies thousands of true believers and holds out through endless judicial proceedings. Even after gross contradictions, fabricated documents, and vicious character assassinations shatter his defense, Orton’s followers stubbornly insist on his legitimacy, proving that public delusion often survives clear legal truth.

How It Unfolds

The royal pretenders launch their plots Frustrated nobles and opportunistic clerics recruit ambitious impostors to impersonate missing heirs to European thrones. Figures like Gabriel de Spinosa act out elaborate royal identities, funded by credulous allies until minor blunders reveal their deceit to government authorities.

Domestic impostors claim missing lives In quiet villages, long absences allow clever rogues to assume the identities of missing husbands and landowners. Arnold du Tilh successfully assumes the identity of Martin Guerre, living seamlessly in the man's household until his wife finally seeks legal restitution for the deception.

Revolution generates fake royal heirs The chaotic execution of Louis XVI and the tragic imprisonment of his young son spark widespread rumors that the boy survived. Impostors like Jean-François Hervagault and Naündorff travel Europe and America, building cultish followings of royalists willing to fund their fraudulent claims.

Forgers target aristocratic estates Landed estates and noble peerages become targets for ambitious claimants who manufacture evidence to subvert legitimate inheritance. John Lindsay Crawfurd hires corrupt scribes to alter genuine historical documents, only for his plot to collapse when he refuses to pay his accomplices.

The grand courtroom climax unfolds The text culminates in the mid-nineteenth century with massive public trials that pit cold forensic evidence against widespread public obsession. Arthur Orton’s attempt to claim the Tichborne baronetcy exposes the depths of human credulity as thousands stubbornly defend a proven rogue against overwhelming judicial proof.

The People

• Gabriel de Spinosa wants to successfully impersonate the missing King Don Sebastian of Portugal to gain wealth and power. Hindered by his own indiscretion and a slip-up while trying to sell stolen gems, he ends up executed on the gallows.
• Miguel dos Santos wants to place his chosen candidate on the Lusitanian throne by orchestrating a royal rebellion from behind the scenes. Hindered by Spinosa's reckless behavior, he is arrested, tortured, and executed alongside his co-conspirator.
• Mohammed Bey wants to gain European royal favor and financial patronage by passing as a converted Turkish prince named John Michel de Cigala. Hindered by the outlandish improbability of his tales, he nevertheless secures audience with royalty before vanishing into history.
• Bertrande de Rols wants a stable domestic life and legal vindication after living with an impostor who took her missing husband's place. Hindered by years of deception and initial village acceptance of the fraud, she ultimately takes the fake Martin Guerre to court.
• Jean-François Hervagault wants recognition and luxury as the surviving Dauphin of France, Louis XVII. Hindered by the French police and Napoleon Bonaparte’s firm crackdowns, he ends his days transferred between prisons and solitary confinement.
• Arthur Orton wants the immense wealth, estates, and title of the missing Sir Roger Tichborne. Hindered by exposed lies, forged papers, and overwhelming legal evidence, he ends up convicted of perjury and imprisoned, though his devoted followers continue to deny his guilt.

In Its Own Voice

"Wandering heirs to great possessions have not unfrequently concealed themselves for many years until their friends have forgotten them, and have suddenly and inopportune reappeared to demand restitution of their rights."

The author explains in the preface why these strange legal disputes capture public curiosity across generations.

"The monk, Dos Santos, who was confessor to the nunnery of Madrigal, introduced this person to one of the nuns, Donna Anna of Austria, a niece of King Philip, and informed her that he was the unfortunate King of Portugal."

The narrative reveals the bold manipulation used to convince high-born victims that a common rogue was a lost monarch.

"If the man now in prison is Sir Roger Tichborne, then trial by jury, the selection of our judges, and the whole basis of our legal system... must be radically wrong, and right is wrong also."

The writer reflects on the absurd tenacity of public belief during the famous Tichborne impersonation trial.

What It's Really About

The book examines the human desire to believe extraordinary stories over mundane facts. Beneath the courtroom drama lies a sharp exploration of how easy it is to manipulate public sympathy, especially when grief or political nostalgia is involved. Impostors succeed not because their claims are airtight, but because their victims crave the narrative they sell: a lost prince returned, a grieving mother reunited with her son, or a rightful heir restored to his birthright. The author shows that courtrooms, for all their rigid procedures, are constantly forced to defend objective reality against mass hysteria and calculated forgery. The work ultimately asks why crowds willingly cling to obvious lies long after an impostor's guilt has been decisively proven.

Why Read It Today

This volume appeals to lovers of true crime, legal history, and micro-histories of historical hoaxes. Reading it feels like flipping through the compiled dossiers of an obsessive nineteenth-century legal archivist. The writing is lucid, measured, and dryly humorous, allowing the sheer audacity of these historical frauds to take center stage.

The reader must navigate period prose, archaic legal terms like "inquisition of escheators," and the occasionally tedious details of long-forgotten British peerage disputes. The narrative also reflects nineteenth-century biases, treating public gullibility with sharp contempt and dismissing alternative theories with firm Victorian moralism.

Yet what stays with you is the startling modern resonance of these stories. In an era dominated by fake identities, identity theft, and viral misinformation, watching nineteenth-century crowds cheer on obvious swindlers like Arthur Orton feels uncomfortably familiar. The book stands as a entertaining, clear-eyed reminder that the appetite for a good lie has always outstripped the patient search for the truth.