The sun reflects off the White Tower as we, two sons of York, linger at the window. Here at the Tower of London, we await my crown. We playfully draw our bowstrings in the courtyard of our royal residence but controversy at court delays my coronation, my claim to the throne, now called into question. Some claim my brother and I are not at leisure but captives of a charge of our dear uncle Richard, Lord Protector. Ambitious souls cast envious looks upon the throne of England. Many may wish us ill, but who stands to gain most? Who may go in for the kill? [footsteps approaching] [door handle rattling] Smothered in our sleep, they say. Murder at midnight, they cry. Two York roses snuffed out in the darkness. Did Uncle Richard murder two princes? No bodies are found. Perhaps we weren't killed at all. Uncertainty will thrive, but one thing is crystal clear. The mystery of the Princes in the Tower does yet remain alive. In a world where closure is so important, the story of the Princes in the Tower remains one of the biggest mysteries of all time. The events that take place happen within the spring and summer months of 1483. The two princes are Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, who's 12 years old, and his younger brother Prince Richard, Duke of York, who's just 9 years old. Their parents were King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. They marry in secret. Now Elizabeth Woodville is just a commoner, and this creates conflict because she's moving into a position of power above more established families. The Woodvilles are ambitious and they want to take advantage of their new status. Her brother Anthony Woodville, Lord Rivers, is responsible for Prince Edward's education and upbringing. The princes didn't actually know each other that well at all. Prince Edward was looked after by Lord Rivers who was his maternal uncle, whereas Prince Richard would have been looked after by his mother, Elizabeth Woodville. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, is their paternal uncle. Suddenly on 9th April 1483, King
Edward IV dies, leaving Prince Edward now heir to the throne at just 12 years old. And on his deathbed his wish is that his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester is Lord Protector of the realm which means Richard is to rule
until Prince Edward comes of age. The Woodvilles want to get Prince Edward crowned as soon as possible. They write a letter to Lord Rivers asking him to bring Edward to the capital for his coronation. But what they fail to do is to tell Richard, Duke of Gloucester that his brother, King Edward IV, has died. He doesn't find out till nearly a week later. On 30th April the two uncles, Lord Rivers and Richard, Duke of Gloucester decide to meet to take the boy to the capital together. But the meeting doesn't exactly go to plan. Rivers doesn't stick to the agreed meeting spot. Richard has Rivers arrested and takes Prince Edward into his custody. [door closing and creaking] Elizabeth Woodville flees to take sanctuary at Westminster Abbey with her boy Richard and her daughters. Rivers is later executed. [executioner's axe against a block] [horses trotting] Richard, Duke of Gloucester and Prince Edward arrive in London on 4th May and then by 19th May, Prince Edward is lodged in the Royal Apartments here at the Tower of London. At that time all coronations started from
here. Coronation preparations begin, the coins
are minted so we know at this point that they're taking everything really seriously. By 16th June both the boys are lodged in the Royal Apartments so this is the first time they're actually spending any significant time together which is quite amazing. They are running around the Tower, they've got their bow and arrow and their archery and they can play and get to know each other as brothers. But things start to take a turn for the worse when coronation preparations really start to slow down. Then we hear
that there's evidence that King Edward actually had a premarital contract which meant that the boys were
illegitimate. It was known that Edward had numerous affairs with women so it was possible. The way the information came out and the timing of it was questionable. By 25th June, parliament petitions Richard to take the throne as he was the next in line, and by 6th July he accepts and becomes
Richard III. The boys are last seen residing in the
Tower until around September 1483. That seems to be the last sightings we have of them. Richard III remains king for
another two years until 1485 when he is defeated in the Battle of Bosworth by Henry Tudor who had a weak claim to the throne. He becomes King Henry VII. And then marries one of Elizabeth Woodville's daughters, Elizabeth of York so one of the princes' sisters. [door opening] [footsteps approaching] [sword unsheathes] 'Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of York.' The common theory for what happened to the Princes in the Tower is that Richard III killed them. We have such few sources to actually work with that definitively say anything about what really happened to them. Dominic Mancini was an Italian cleric who was in England at that time with the Italian ambassador He kept an account of what happened and he's our only contemporary source that we have from 1483. Mancini actually met with Doctor Argentine who was Prince Edward's physician who said that the prince had become more subdued and that he was like a victim preparing for sacrifice. The problem with Mancini's accounts is
that, although he was there at the time, he didn't speak English at all so a lot
of what he heard might have been lost in translation. [door slamming] We have a source from 1486 which was the Crowland Chronicle. We don't actually know who wrote it. The author of the Chronicle chose to write anonymously. The Chronicle was written a couple of years after the events took place but it was then suppressed for many years by Henry VII. But it confirms that the boys were residing in the Tower until September. So what happened after that point? So we have another source, Polydore Vergil, who was employed by Henry VII to write an official history of England. Virgil's account was the first to appear in print. He doesn't always say where his sources are from but he has to be tactful and avoid offending powerful people. Now this is gonna have some kind of Tudor bias. Later on in the reign of Henry VIII, Thomas More writes a history of Richard III. More's account is the first real biography that we have of Richard III. He portrays Richard as the murderer of the princes. He describes Richard as little of stature, ill-featured, croak-back, malicious and wrathful. He was also only five years old when the events took place. But when he was older he actually knew a lot of the key people that were around at that time. He never intended his account to be published, and he gets several of the dates wrong. In a lot of the places, he just completely invents what people said although this was an accepted practice at the time. So how much we can rely upon it, I'm not sure. Shakespeare essentially defines Richard
III's image as this evil hunchback with a withered arm, and to portray Richard as this kind of malevolent evil being. 'And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell, until this misshaped trunk that bears this head be round impaled with a glorious...' [chuckling] '...crown.' Fair enough, he is a playwright so he's gonna be dramatising to a certain extent. However, the sources that he's using are Thomas More's accounts of what he wrote and this is over a century later. So it's around the Tudor period that pictures of Richard begin to be altered. His lips become thinner and his fingers are like talons, and the curve of his spine is really emphasised. This physical disability was seen as an outward expression of an evil character. By the Victorian era, we start to see these romanticised images of the two boys. Victorians loved Gothic stories of death and mystery. They were actually the ones who came up with the phrase 'The Princes in the Tower'. Unpicking the facts from the sources that span over hundreds of years with numerous authors is really difficult. All we know for sure is that the princes disappeared from the Tower around September 1483. It's strange from a mother's point of view - Elizabeth Woodville - that no big fuss and no questioning happened after the disappearance of the princes. These are her two sons, her boys. There's no funeral as she seems to reconcile with Richard III and she comes out of sanctuary which is a really odd reaction to the situation that's happened. After Richard III's death, there's still no outright accusations from anyone. Surely now would be the time to say something. It would be so easy for Henry VII to blame Richard but he doesn't. He doesn't make any accusations and no
official statement. If Henry the seventh did know or discover that the boys were alive, it could cause him real problems. He's married to the princes' sister, Elizabeth of York, and in order to do this he has to re-legitimise her and the princes. If the princes turn up now, Prince Edward is actually the rightful king so it's better for Henry if the boys remain out of the equation. So beginning to investigate what happened to the princes really does open a can of worms. It seems easier for everybody to remain silent. In 1674, during Charles II's reign, human remains of two small children were found ten feet down under the steps leading to the White Tower. It was assumed that these were the remains of the two princes and Charles had them interred in Westminster Abbey. [camera flash] Later, in 1933, medical experts studied
the remains. Dental evidence showed that one of the skeletons had the teeth of a 12 to 13 year old and the other the teeth of a 7 to 11 year old. They were unable to identify whether the skeletons were male or female, and actually what period they came from. So we can't conclusively say that these are the princes. Modern-day science could help answer these questions but unfortunately all requests for DNA testing have been refused. Murdered or survived? We might never really know what happened to the Princes in the Tower. What do you think?
