NEW LEADS ON PRINCES IN THE TOWER MYSTERY
The fates of the sons of Edward IV, popularly known as the Princes in the Tower, form one of royal history’s most enduring and fascinating mysteries. Edward IV died in 1483, leaving his eldest son next in line to the throne. His brother, however, declared the princes illegitimate, crowned himself Richard III and imprisoned the princes in the Tower of London.
The pair, also named Edward and Richard, disappeared later that year, and the most widely accepted theory is that Richard III had them murdered – which William Shakespeare popularised more than a century later in his play Richard III.
But historian Philippa Langley – who famously discovered Richard III’s final resting place in a car park in Leicester in 2012 – has uncovered evidence that suggests the brothers not only survived their imprisonment, but then attempted to take back their kingdom later in life.
The names Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck will be well-known to the history buffs amongst us as the pretenders to the throne who tried to overthrow
Edward VII in 1487 and 1497. History, however, is written by the victors, as they say, and Philippa is positive that these “pretenders” really were the princes. Amongst the evidence she has unearthed is a statement from Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, identifying Warbeck as Richard, the younger prince.
There is also evidence that Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin as Edward VI, before Henry VII ordered that all records of the Irish Parliament be destroyed. Philippa outlines her theories in her new book, The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case, and in a fascinating Channel 4 documentary, The Princes In The Tower: The New Evidence, featuring barrister and TV personality Rob Rinder.