Stanley had been successful in “backing the right horse,” and it had made him a wealthy and powerful man yet, like the rest of us, he was not immune from that very human propensity to mess things up. He supported (or was accused of supporting) the case of a man called Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be Richard of Shrewsbury – the younger of the princes who had mysteriously disappeared from the Tower of London at the start of the reign of their uncle Richard III. Had it been true, Perkin would have had a better claim to the throne than Henry VII, but he was treated as a pretender and those who supported him were executed. Stanley pleaded guilty, hoping this would grant him a more lenient sentence, but it was in vain. As the axe fell in late January 1495, Hunsdon returned to the Crown.[1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stanley_(died_1495) accessed 22nd August 2024