19th Century Pre-Raphaelite depiction of the Princes in the Tower by John Everett Millais
I started writing my review of Sandra Worth’s Pale Rose of England with what I had intended as a “brief” summary of The Princes in the Tower, when I realized there is no brief way to recount this complicated time in history. So here I offer my very own colorful (AKA highly editorialized and by no means a scholarly rendering of history) version of what went down.
The Plantagenets were the dynasty that came before the infamous Tudors. If you think the Tudors were a rowdy brew, their predecessors put them to shame in terms of backstabbing, turn-coating, and all around crown grasping. The drama of The Princes in the Tower began with The Wars of the Roses, the name given to a series of battles between the Houses of Lancaster and York by later historians because a white rose symbolized the House of York, while a red rose represented the House of Lancaster (interestingly, when The House of York and the House of Lancaster came together in marriage between Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York, forming the Tudor dynasty, the Tudor emblem became a rose with red and white petals). The Wars of the Roses involved the descendants of Edward III; he had many children and, being the spoiled princes and princesses that they were, everybody wanted a piece of daddy’s pie. And oh, what a glorious pie it was: The Kingdom of Britain itself, which at the time spanned its territory into parts of modern-day France. To that end, a terrifying amount of blood is shed amongst the Houses of York and Lancaster, people change their loyalties as often as they change their undergarments (which, back then wasn’t really all that often, but you get where I’m going with this), and eventually the outcome is that Edward IV, son of the slain Duke of York, becomes king. His reign is, for the most part, relatively peaceful, especially when contrasted with all the heaps of violence that led up to it.
16th-century posthumous portrait of Richard III
The problems begin when Edward IV dies unexpectedly, leaving behind a brood of young children including his two male heirs who are only boys of 12 and 9 at the time of their father’s death. In his will, he indicates that his favorite brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester (he’d executed his only other brother who lived to adulthood, George, so we have to assume that Richard was the favorite, no?!) will serve as Lord Protector while his heir, also named Edward–those royals were really *original* with their names, so to simplify things let’s call him Eddie for now–is in his minority. After Edward IV’s death, things start to get a bit dodgy when Uncle Richard and Little Eddie meet up in Northamptonshire to prepare to embark on London for King Eddie’s coronation. That evening they dine with Edward V’s (Eddie’s) relatives from his mother’s side, his uncle, Earl Rivers, and his half-brother Henry Grey. All seems fine and dandy until the following morning when Rivers and Grey, along with Edward’s chamberlain Thomas Vaughan, are arrested and subsequently executed.
When Richard accompanies King Edward to the Tower of London, which was then a royal residence and the place where royalty usually spent the days leading up to the coronation, everyone in England is expecting a fabulous celebration for their soon-to-be crowned new king. The kingdom is tired of fighting, thus all anticipate a smooth transition of power from father to son. Nobody could have expected what would happen next.
Contemporary portrait of the Tower of London in the 15th Century, by a French nobleman imprisoned there
Edward’s brother Richard, Duke of York–also his heir, as Edward is only 12 and too young to marry and have children–eventually joins Edward in the Tower. And this is where things get creepy. Once both princes are “safely” in the Tower, they are never seen or heard from again! They straight-up vanish. Instead of Edward being crowned king, he and his brother are declared illegitimate by Titulus Regius, an Act of Parliament, their uncle crowned Richard III. One second the people of England think they’re getting a new king; the next he’s disappeared from sight.
There is no record of a funeral, nor any recorded sightings of the Princes that date after the summer of 1483. While the Tower was undergoing renovations in the 17th century during the reign of Charles II, the skeletons of two young children were discovered under the staircase that leads to the chapel. King Charles ordered the bodies removed and reburied in Westminster Abbey, where most British royalty are entombed. Interestingly, the way in which the bodies were found (in the Tower of London, beneath the foot of a staircase, under a heap of rocks) matches Sir Thomas More’s account in A History of Richard III, to a striking degree. In 1933, the bones were removed from the vault for examination, though comprehensive DNA analysis was not available at the time. The examination did find that the bodies belonged to two children aged 11-13 and 7-11, matching the ages of Edward and Richard at the time of their disappearance. The bones remain in Westminster Abbey, and no further investigation has been made as to the identities of the bodies since the 1933 examination.
Nobody knows what actually happened to the lost Princes, though there have been many theories over the years. So let’s examine some of the possibilities.
They escaped! Some speculate that one or both of the princes escaped to Flanders. This idea originates from claims made by “the Pretender” Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Edward’s brother Richard, the younger of the two Princes in the Tower. Warbeck first appeared at the royal court of Burgundy in 1490 during the reign of Henry VII. He posed a significant threat to the Tudor dynasty, as power players throughout Europe (such as Edward IV’s sister Margaret, then Dowager Duchess of Burgundy) actually recognized Warbeck as Richard, Duke of York.
Richard III killed them. Anyone familiar with Shakespeare will remember his story, though Richardians count this to be a cruel and unfair portrayal of him, as Shakespeare was around during the reign of the Tudors, who were no fans of the Plantagenets, which we’ll discuss further in a few paragraphs. After years of fighting for the House of York, first for his father and later for his brother, Richard clearly felt that it was finally his time to reign as king. However, he already had his nephews taken out of the line of succession with an Act of Parliament, so murdering them was not really necessary. On the other hand, he might have feared that the Princes and/or their supporters would rise up in rebellion later on if they were kept alive. Richard’s silence on the issue (and his failure to produce the Princes for public show) makes him very suspect, especially since he was the one responsible for them as Lord Protector. Many historians seem to think he is the most likely one culpable as he had the strongest motive.
Blame Buckingham. Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham was buds with Richard and stood to gain much should his BFF become king. Buckingham eventually rebelled against Richard, perhaps because he did not feel he was properly elevated after disposing of Richard’s rival claimants to the throne. Or, perhaps he and Richard had a falling out because Buckingham had acted on his own, which put Richard in a tough spot, as most seemed to think Richard the culprit.
Tudor Transgressors. An interesting theory purports that Henry VII and/or his mother, the formidable Margaret Beaufort, were responsible for the Princes’ deaths. Henry Tudor ultimately defeated Richard III years later in a battle that won him his crown, and to strengthen his already solid claim to the throne, he married Elizabeth of York, sister of the missing Princes and the last direct heir of the House of York. A woman could not inherit unless all males from her line were deceased, thus Henry needed Elizabeth’s brothers out of the picture in order to gain her claim and join it with his own (he was a descendant of the House of Lancaster). Together they united the Houses of Lancaster and York to form a new dynasty, one that would not have been possible had the Princes survived.
Ultimately, no one knows what really happened to the lost Princes, but it’s fun to speculate and debate the various possibilities. And that is why this subject makes for such fascinating historical fiction! If this topic is one that interests you, you might want to check out the following titles:
