Princes in the Tower

The Two Princes Edward and Richard in the Tower, 1483 by Sir John Everett Millais, 1878, part of the Royal Holloway picture collection

The Princes in the Tower, Edward V of England (2 November 1470 – 1483?) and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York (17 August 1473 – 1483?), were the only sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville alive at the time of their father's death.

In May of 1483 Edward, arriving in London for his coronation, was accommodated in the Tower of London, then a royal residence. Richard at that point was with his mother in sanctuary, but joined his brother in the Tower in June. Both princes were declared illegitimate by an Act of Parliament of 1483 known as Titulus Regius, and their uncle Richard Duke of Gloucester was crowned as Richard III. There are reports of the two princes being seen playing in the Tower grounds shortly after Richard joined his brother, but there are no recorded sightings of either of them after the summer of 1483. Their fate remains disputed, and many historians presume that they either died or were killed in the Tower. There is no record of a funeral.

In 1674, the skeletons of two children were discovered under the staircase leading to the chapel, during the course of renovations to the White Tower. At that time, these were believed to have been the remains of the two princes. On the orders of Charles II the remains were reburied in Westminster Abbey. In 1933, the grave was opened to see if modern science could cast any light on the issues, but precise identification of the age and gender was not then possible.

Suspects

If the boys were indeed murdered, there are several major suspects for the crime. The evidence is ambiguous, and has led people to various conflicting conclusions.

Richard III had eliminated the princes from the succession. However, his hold on the monarchy was not secure, and the existence of the princes remained a threat as long as they were alive. They themselves were ostensibly not a threat, not withstanding Edward's having been acclaimed King, but could have been used by Richard's enemies as a pretext for rebellion. Rumors of their death were in circulation by late 1483, but Richard never attempted to prove that they were alive by having them seen in public, which strongly suggests that they were dead by then (or at a minimum, not under his control—unlikely, since they would presumably still have been in the Tower). Instead, he remained completely silent on the matter. At the very least, it would have been in his political interest to order an investigation into the disappearance of the princes if they had simply vanished. As the brothers' protector (having obtained them as 'protectorate' from their mother), he appears to have failed to 'protect' them. Many modern historians, including David Starkey, Michael Hicks and Alison Weir, regard him as the most likely culprit.

James Tyrrell was an English knight who fought for the House of York on many occasions. Tyrrell was arrested by Henry VII's forces in 1501 for supporting another Yorkist claimant to the throne. Shortly before his execution, it is said that Tyrrell admitted, under torture, to having murdered the princes at the behest of Richard III.

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, was Richard's right-hand man and sought personal advantage through the new king. Some, notably Paul Murray Kendall, regard Buckingham as the likeliest suspect: his execution, after he had rebelled against Richard in October 1483, might signify that he and the king had fallen out because Buckingham had taken it on himself for whatever reason to dispose of Richard's rival claimants; alternatively, he could have been acting on behalf of Henry Tudor (later to become King Henry VII). On the other hand, if Buckingham were guilty he could equally well have been acting on Richard's orders, with his rebellion coming after he became dissatisfied with Richard's treatment of him. As a descendant of Edward III, through John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, Buckingham may have hoped to accede to the throne himself in due course. Buckingham's guilt depends on the princes having already been dead by October 1483, since he was executed the following month.

Henry VII (Henry Tudor) following his accession, proceeded to find a legal excuse to execute some of the rival claimants to the throne. He married the princes' eldest sister, Elizabeth of York, to reinforce his hold on the throne, but her right to inherit depended on both her brothers being already dead. Realistically, Henry's only opportunity to murder the princes would have been after his accession in 1485. This theory leaves open the question of why the princes were not seen after 1483 and why Richard did not produce them when he was suspected of their murder.

There were subsequently a number of apparent pretenders claiming to be Prince Richard, Duke of York, although there seem to have been none claiming to be Edward V. It has been suggested that this is because Edward V was well known and would have been difficult to impersonate; this would be less true of his younger brother. The best-known Pretender was Perkin Warbeck. The fact that Henry VII did not provide an official public version of the fate of the Princes, despite Warbeck's activities, until the Tyrell confession, has been interpreted as meaning that he was either unaware of the true story or that publishing it would have not been in his interests.

Evidence behind the rumours

King Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul Delaroche. The theme of innocent children awaiting an uncertain fate was a popular one amongst 19th-century painters.

The Croyland Chronicle, Dominic Mancini, and Philippe de Commines all state that the rumour of the princes' death was current in England by the end of 1483. In his summary of the events of 1483, Commines says quite categorically that Richard was responsible for the murder of the princes, but of course Commines had been present at the meeting of the Estates-General of France in January 1484, when the statement was taken at face value. The other two sources do not suggest who was responsible. Only Mancini's account, written in 1483, is truly contemporary, the other two having been written three and seven years later, respectively. The Great Chronicle, compiled 30 years later from the contemporary London municipal records, says the rumour of the princes' death did not start circulating in London until after Easter of 1484. Historians have speculated, on the basis of these contemporary records, that the rumour that the princes had been murdered was deliberately created to be spread in England as an excuse for the October 1483 attempt of Henry Tudor and Buckingham to seize the throne, making Henry and Buckingham other likely suspects. However, if the princes were not already dead by the end of 1483, this of course removes any possibility that Buckingham, who was executed on 2 November 1483, could have murdered them.

The possibility of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) being the culprit is debatable; it is said that after he became king he started the rumors that the missing princes were murdered by Richard. This may have been a plot to make Richard's loyal subjects think badly of Richard. This hints that Henry was the murderer; however, Henry became king in 1485, whereas the Princes went missing in 1483, and the only reason Henry would need kill them is for the same reason that Richard III would needed to have: if they were a grave danger to the throne.

No discussion of this episode would be complete without mention of Sir James Tyrrell, the loyal servant of Richard III who is said to have confessed to the murder of the princes in 1502. Thomas More, a Tudor loyalist (and later Chancellor under Henry VIII), composed his History of King Richard III around the year 1513. He identified Tyrrell as the murderer, acting on Richard's orders, and told the story of Tyrrell's confession, which took place after he had been arrested for treason against Henry VII. The Great Chronicle of London, written around the year 1512, also identified Tyrrell. Polydore Vergil, in his Anglica Historia (circa 1513), specifies that Tyrrell was the murderer, stating that he "rode sorrowfully to London" and committed the deed with reluctance, upon Richard III's orders, and that Richard himself spread the rumors of the princes' death in the belief that it would discourage rebellion.

In his history of King Richard, More said that the princes were smothered to death in their beds by two agents of Tyrell, Miles Forest and John Dighton, and were then buried "at the stayre foote, metely depe in the grounde vnder a great heape of stones", but were later disinterred and buried in a secret place. Curiously, under the same Henry VIII, a documented Miles Forrest, was granted King's favours as found in British historical documents: "After the Dissolution, the manor of Morborne, with the house and grange of Ogerston in the same parish, lately the property of the Abbey of Crowland, was granted in 1540, with all appurtenances, to Miles Forrest, bailiff of the Abbot of Peterborough at Warmington in 1535.. In 1513, Thomas More names his Miles Forrest as a murderer. In 1534, More fell out of favour with Henry VIII when More denied that the king was the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Henry had More beheaded in 1535. In the same year 1535 or 1540 (the above history references both dates), Henry awards the manor to Miles Forrest, the documented bailiff of the Abbot Peterborough.

In 1674, some workmen remodelling the Tower of London dug up a wooden box containing two small human skeletons. The bones were found at the foot of a staircase, consistent with More's description of the original burial place of the princes. They were found with "pieces of rag and velvet about them", the velvet indicating that the bodies were those of aristocrats. Eventually the bones were gathered up and put in an urn, which Charles II of England ordered interred in Westminster Abbey. In 1933 the bones were taken out and examined and then replaced in the urn in the vault under the Abbey. Examination of photographs from this exhumation indicated that the elder child was 11–13 years old and the younger was 7–11 years old. No further scientific examination has been conducted on the bones, which remain in Westminster Abbey, and DNA analysis has not been attempted. It is not possible to say the sex of the skeletons. (One skeleton was larger than the other, but many of the bones were missing, including part of the smaller jawbone and all of the teeth from the larger one.)

In 1789, workmen carrying out repairs in St.George's Chapel, Windsor, rediscovered and accidentally broke into the vault of Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, discovering in the process what appeared to be a small adjoining vault. This vault was found to contain the coffins of two mysterious, unidentified children. However no inspection or examination was carried out and the tomb was resealed.

Literature

Fiction

• Valerie Anand - Crown of Roses
• Elizabeth George - I, Richard (short story) (2002)
• Philippa Gregory
  • The White Queen (2009)
  • The Red Queen (2010)
• Margaret Peterson Haddix - Sent (2009)
• Robin Maxwell - To The Tower Born (2005)
• Sharon Kay Penman The Sunne in Splendour (1982)
• Elizabeth Peters - The Murders of Richard III (1974)
• Anne Easter Smith
  • The Daughter of York (2008)
  • The Kings Grace (2009)
• William Shakespeare - Richard III (circa 1595)
• Josephine Tey - The Daughter of Time (1951)
• Elaine M. Alphin - Tournament of Time (1994)
• Guy M Townsend - To Prove a Villain (1985)

Non-fiction

• Peter A. Hancock - Richard III and the Murder in the Tower (2009)
• A J Pollard - Richard III and the Princes in the Tower (1991)
• Horace Walpole - Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of Richard III (1768)
• Alison Weir - The Princes in the Tower (1992)
• Audrey Williamson - The Mystery of the Princes (1978)

Popular culture

• The first season of the British sitcom Blackadder is set in a comic alternative history where the Princes In The Tower survived and grew to adulthood, Prince Richard assuming the throne as Richard IV upon Richard III's death at Bosworth Field. Edward V is ignored by the storyline, and is never mentioned in script.
• The secret was discovered in The Kingmaker, an audio drama based on Doctor Who, in which the princes were discovered to be princesses.
• An episode of the Canadian children's documentary series Mystery Hunters is dedicated to the unsolved case of the missing princes.
• In 1984, Channel 4 broadcast a four-hour "trial" of Richard III on the charge of murdering the princes. The presiding judge was Lord Elwyn-Jones and the barristers were recruited from the Queen's Counsel, but had to remain anonymous. Expert witnesses included David Starkey. The jury was composed of ordinary citizens. The burden of proof was left to the prosecution. The jury found in favour of the defendant.
• The Japanese anime series Kuroshitsuji details a possible scenario of what happened to the Princes in the Tower in Episode 16 ("His Butler: The Lone Castle"). Under orders from 'relatives' King Edward V and Richard were executed in Ludlow Castle, and had their bodies disposed in the River Teme. This revelation allows their ghostly forms to ascend to heaven after 400 years of haunting the Tower of London.
• The Rich Kids had a hit song with, and an album named, "Ghosts of Princes in Towers" which made reference to the Princes and drew on rumors of their haunting the Tower of London.