Latest news with #PrincesInTheTower
CTV News
18-07-2025
- CTV News
U.K. ‘princes in the tower' murder probe clears Richard III
The coffin containing the remains of King Richard III is carried by gun carriage as it processes through Leicester City centre ahead of internment at Leicester Cathedral in Leicester, England, Sunday, March 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira) London, United Kingdom -- It is one of history's most intriguing 'murders' -- the mysterious disappearance over five centuries ago of two young princes from the Tower of London. Nearly 200 years after they disappeared, two small skeletons were found in a wooden box at the historic tower and reburied at Westminster Abbey. The remains were believed, but never proved, to be those of the two brothers -- heir to the throne Edward, 12, and Richard, nine, the sons of King Edward IV of England, who were reputedly murdered at the behest of their uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester. William Shakespeare later immortalized him in Richard III as a scheming hunchback who did away with his royal nephews so he could take the crown himself, sealing his reputation as a child killer. Now British author Philippa Langley, who helped unearth Richard's body from a central England carpark in 2012, has claimed that the princes -- far from being killed -- actually survived. The elder prince, Edward, was heir to the throne at the time of his disappearance and would have ruled as King Edward V of England. Langley decided to delve into the mystery after coming to believe that the conventional narrative in which Richard had the young princes killed smacked of 'history being written by the victors.' She was finally spurred into action after reading an article about Richard's reburial at Leicester Cathedral in 2015 which questioned whether the nation should honour a 'child killer.' 'I think I'd always realized that the story sort of developed during the reign of the Tudors,' she said, adding that it was then 'repeated and repeated over time' until it became 'truth and fact.' Tudor mud The last English king to die in battle, Richard ruled from 1483 until his brutal death at the Battle of Bosworth near Leicester in 1485, aged 32. Bosworth was the last major conflict in the Wars of the Roses and changed the course of English history because the Tudor dynasty of Henry VII captured the crown from Richard's Plantagenets. Langley attributes the accepted story that Richard had the boys murdered to King Henry VII, a 'very, very intelligent individual, but suspicious and highly paranoid.' 'He had a massive spy network working for him. And he was able to completely control the narrative,' she said, adding that Richard ended up 'covered in Tudor mud.' Taking a cold case review approach to the historical 'whodunnit,' Langley says she assembled a group of investigative specialists, including police and lawyers, to advise her. 'They said: 'Look, if you haven't got any confirmed, identified bodies, then it has to be a missing persons investigation and you have to follow that methodology.' 'They said: 'You have to actively look for evidence.' That's when it really started to get interesting.' Langley put out an appeal for volunteers to scour archives, only to be inundated with offers of help from people ranging from ordinary citizens to medieval historians. The result was the decade-long Missing Princes Project which she says unearthed a significant amount of information pointing to the survival of both young princes. Survival theory Langley now believes that it is up to Richard's detractors to disprove the survival thesis, which she outlines in the new book 'The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case.' 'The onus is now on them to find the evidence that the boys died. 'They cannot say Richard III murdered the princes in the tower any more because we found numerous proofs of life everywhere,' she said. Key to Langley's conviction that both boys survived are documents discovered supporting a rebellion by 'Edward IV's son.' During the rebellion in 1487, Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne who came forward after Richard's death, was crowned in Dublin. According to fresh references found by the project, the boy was 'called' or said to be 'a son of King Edward', which she believes points to Simnel being the elder prince, son of Edward IV. The reaction to Langley's research has been mixed. Michael Dobson, director and a professor of Shakespeare studies at the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute, expressed skepticism. 'Given the ways of dynastic monarchy, I think Richard would have been taking a very big risk in leaving those princes alive,' he said. 'The chances of their having accidentally gone missing while incarcerated on his orders in the Tower of London seem pretty remote.' By Helen Rowe, AFP
The Independent
25-05-2025
- The Independent
The Princes in the Tower: Has Richard III historian finally solved the 500-year-old mystery?
A historian claims to have proof that the Princes in the Tower of London were not murdered by their uncle Richard III. Most historians believe Richard killed his nephews in the summer of 1483 after their father, Edward IV, died unexpectedly, despite a lack of hard evidence linking him to the murders. The boys, Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, were 12 and nine respectively when their father died. They were taken one by one to the Tower of London in expectation of Edward V's coronation, but never emerged. Philippa Langley, the historian and screenwriter who played a key role in uncovering Richard III's remains in a Leicester car park, has spent the last ten years investigating the case. Ms Langley teamed up with professional cold case investigators, some of whom work with the police on unsolved murder to join her Missing Princes Project. Uncovering a treasure trove of never-before-seen documents and letters she believes she has built a strong enough case for the boys' survival from the Tower of London. The conventional narrative has always been Richard III's loyal servant, Sir James Tyrell, was the boys' killer, after a confession, obtained under torture, before his execution for treason in 1502. Ms Langley argues that for it to have been worthwhile for Richard to kill the princes, he had to display their bodies, 'otherwise he did it for no reason', putting himself in jeopardy. Following the death of King Richard at the battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485, Henry VII became King but Ms Langley said the Princes rose again and challenged him for the throne. She said: 'But Henry attempted to cast the Yorkist Princes as impostors by giving them false names and reverse-engineering their stories: Edward V became a 10 year-old boy called 'Lambert Simnel', the son of a joiner, tailor, barber, baker, organ-maker or shoemaker, and Richard, Duke of York became 'Perkin Warbeck' the son of a French boatman.' The documents she uncovered include letters supporting a rebellion by 'Edward IV's son' in 1487, the year of Simnel's uprising - which ended in him being crowned in Ireland. They also found fresh references to a boy said to be 'a son of King Edward'. On Richard, three items signed with his seal have emerged in Europe, as well as letters allegedly written by him to James IV of Scotland and even a document from the Pope. A biography of his life as an escaped prince also emerged but the author remains a mystery. Simnel and Warbeck ultimately confessed to being impostors, but Ms Langley and her team of researchers insist these were false confessions extracted by Henry VII to discredit the challengers. Asked by The Times if this amounted to proof, she said: 'Had we supplied this amount of evidence in this book to say Richard III had murdered the Princes in the Tower, would you be asking me that question?' 'I would say that they now have to prove that Richard III murdered the Princes in the Tower.' Officially, the princes' remains were found in 1674, when workmen at the Tower dug up a wooden box containing two skeletons. Four years later, the bones were placed in an urn and interred in Westminster Abbey on the orders of King Charles II. The suspects Richard III The prime suspect, escorted Edward V to the Tower of London where he was last seen. Motive – insecure hold on the Monarchy due to the way he obtained the crown, faced rebellions from the Yorkists loyal to Edward IV prior to Parliament conforming his title to the throne in January 1484. Evidence – circumstantial. Ms Langley argues that it would have better served Richard III to display the dead bodies in public to prevent pretenders to the throne coming forward. Henry VII (Henry Tudor) Richard III's rival who defeated his forces at the Battle of Bosworth. Motive – executed rival claimants to the throne following his coronation. Evidence – Henry Tudor was out of the country at the time of the princes' disappearance and so could only have murdered them post-accession. Historians have called the theory the only plausible alternative to Richard III's being the killer. Henry Stafford 2nd Duke of Buckingham, kingmaker and breaker: played a major role in the rise and fall of Richard III. Motive – held a claim to the throne through the House of Beaufort family. Evidence – a manuscript found in the early 1980s in the College of Arms collection states that the princes were murdered 'be [by] the vise' of the Duke of Buckingham. There is some argument over whether 'vise' means 'advice' or 'devise'. Sir James Tyrell English knight, loyal servant to Richard III. Motive – following the orders of his King. Evidence – said to have confessed under torture to the murder of the princes before his execution for treason in 1502, according to Sir Thomas More's The History of King Richard III. The original document containing his confession was never produced. Shakespeare portrayed Tyrell as the murderer in his play Richard III.
The Independent
23-05-2025
- The Independent
The Princes in the Tower: Has Richard III historian solved 500 year old murder mystery?
A historian claims to have proof that the Princes in the Tower of London were not murdered by their uncle Richard III. Most historians believe Richard killed his nephews in the summer of 1483 after their father, Edward IV, died unexpectedly, despite a lack of hard evidence linking him to the murders. The boys, Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, were 12 and nine respectively when their father died. They were taken one by one to the Tower of London in expectation of Edward V's coronation, but never emerged. Philippa Langley, the historian and screenwriter who played a key role in uncovering Richard III's remains in a Leicester car park, has spent the last ten years investigating the case. Ms Langley teamed up with professional cold case investigators, some of whom work with the police on unsolved murder to join her Missing Princes Project. Uncovering a treasure trove of never-before-seen documents and letters she believes she has built a strong enough case for the boys' survival from the Tower of London. The conventional narrative has always been Richard III's loyal servant, Sir James Tyrell, was the boys' killer, after a confession, obtained under torture, before his execution for treason in 1502. Ms Langley argues that for it to have been worthwhile for Richard to kill the princes, he had to display their bodies, 'otherwise he did it for no reason', putting himself in jeopardy. Following the death of King Richard at the battle of Bosworth on 22 August 1485, Henry VII became King but Ms Langley said the Princes rose again and challenged him for the throne. She said: 'But Henry attempted to cast the Yorkist Princes as impostors by giving them false names and reverse-engineering their stories: Edward V became a 10 year-old boy called 'Lambert Simnel', the son of a joiner, tailor, barber, baker, organ-maker or shoemaker, and Richard, Duke of York became 'Perkin Warbeck' the son of a French boatman.' The documents she uncovered include letters supporting a rebellion by 'Edward IV's son' in 1487, the year of Simnel's uprising - which ended in him being crowned in Ireland. They also found fresh references to a boy said to be 'a son of King Edward'. On Richard, three items signed with his seal have emerged in Europe, as well as letters allegedly written by him to James IV of Scotland and even a document from the Pope. A biography of his life as an escaped prince also emerged but the author remains a mystery. Simnel and Warbeck ultimately confessed to being impostors, but Ms Langley and her team of researchers insist these were false confessions extracted by Henry VII to discredit the challengers. Asked by The Times if this amounted to proof, she said: 'Had we supplied this amount of evidence in this book to say Richard III had murdered the Princes in the Tower, would you be asking me that question?' 'I would say that they now have to prove that Richard III murdered the Princes in the Tower.' Officially, the princes' remains were found in 1674, when workmen at the Tower dug up a wooden box containing two skeletons. Four years later, the bones were placed in an urn and interred in Westminster Abbey on the orders of King Charles II. The suspects Richard III The prime suspect, escorted Edward V to the Tower of London where he was last seen. Motive – insecure hold on the Monarchy due to the way he obtained the crown, faced rebellions from the Yorkists loyal to Edward IV prior to Parliament conforming his title to the throne in January 1484. Evidence – circumstantial. Ms Langley argues that it would have better served Richard III to display the dead bodies in public to prevent pretenders to the throne coming forward. Henry VII (Henry Tudor) Richard III's rival who defeated his forces at the Battle of Bosworth. Motive – executed rival claimants to the throne following his coronation. Evidence – Henry Tudor was out of the country at the time of the princes' disappearance and so could only have murdered them post-accession. Historians have called the theory the only plausible alternative to Richard III's being the killer. Henry Stafford 2nd Duke of Buckingham, kingmaker and breaker: played a major role in the rise and fall of Richard III. Motive – held a claim to the throne through the House of Beaufort family. Evidence – a manuscript found in the early 1980s in the College of Arms collection states that the princes were murdered 'be [by] the vise' of the Duke of Buckingham. There is some argument over whether 'vise' means 'advice' or 'devise'. Sir James Tyrell English knight, loyal servant to Richard III. Motive – following the orders of his King. Evidence – said to have confessed under torture to the murder of the princes before his execution for treason in 1502, according to Sir Thomas More's The History of King Richard III. The original document containing his confession was never produced. Shakespeare portrayed Tyrell as the murderer in his play Richard III.
Times
23-05-2025
- Times
Has the Princes in the Tower mystery finally been solved?
A writer and historian who played a key role in uncovering Richard III's remains in a Leicester car park claims to have proved that the Princes in the Tower were not murdered. After ten years of investigation, Philippa Langley believes she has built a case for the boys' survival that needs to be disproven. She says her 'Missing Princes Project' has uncovered a large number of documents that, when considered together, create an irrefutable body of evidence. Others say, however, that her findings are far short of proof and do not contradict the conventional narrative. The traditional view on the Princes in the Tower — Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, the sons of Edward IV — is that the elder brother was deposed
