ANDREA MANTEGNA - PARNASSUS - PAGE 2

Princes in the Tower
Prince Richard and Edward V

- In April 1483, King Edward IV (1442 – 1483) of England died, leaving his throne to his 12-year-old son, Edward, Prince of Wales.
- Edward was living at Ludlow Castle in the care of his maternal uncle, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, and his maternal half-brother, Richard Grey.
- Young Edward V was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 9th April to 26th June 1483.

Edward V was never crowned, and his brief reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and Lord Protector, the Duke of Gloucester, who deposed him to reign as King Richard III; this was confirmed by the Act entitled Titulus Regius, which denounced any further claims through his father's heirs. (S. A. R Histories)

Eldest of four sons

- Now some background on Edward Vs father.
- Before becoming king, Edward IV was 4th Duke of York.
- He was born at Rouen in France, the 2nd child of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, who had a strong genealogical claim to the throne of England, and Cecily Neville, Duchess of York.
- Edward IV was the eldest of the four sons who survived to adulthood.

Plantagenet

- Edward IVs father's assertion of his claim to the crown in 1455 ramped up the conflict known as the Wars of the Roses.
- His family belonged to the House of Plantagenet, and his ancestors had occupied the English throne since 1154.
- However, the house split into two opposing factions, the House of Lancaster and the House of York, and both wanted to claim the throne for themselves.

 

Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

York helmet

- While the Lancastrians had ruled since 1399, Henry VIs weak rule and subsequent mental illness was not going well.
- This prompted Edward IVs father, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, as a descendent to Edward III via the Yorkist branch, to pursue his own claim to the throne in 1455.

 

Richard’s opposition to the Lancastrians was the cause of the famous civil wars between the two houses, known as the War of the Roses because of the emblems of each house (a red rose for the Lancastrians and a white rose for the Yorkists), which continued periodically through a series of fierce, bloody battles for the next 30 years. (historic-uk.com)

My kingdom for a throne

- On October 25, 1460, the English Parliament passed the Act of Accord, which ruled that Lancastrian Henry VI should remain King for the rest of his life.
- It also granted that Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and/or his heirs would succeed Henry VI to the throne.
- The Parliament therefore, placed his son, Edward IV, next in line after Richard, 3rd Duke of York.

Plant hiding

- This was prompted by Richard, 3rd Duke of York, forcing his way into the Royal Court and laying his hand on the empty throne of England 15 days previously.
- As a result of the temporary usurpation of his Lancastrian throne, Henry VI had fled and gone into hiding.
- What a ruling, it's easy to see why they all wanted each other dead and how the kingdom was used to protect all their personal assets.

No cease fire

- The Act of Accord was by no means the cause of a cease fire between the warring houses.
- Protective of the rights of her young son Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, Henry VIs wife, the strong-willed Queen Margaret of Anjou and her supporters were in fierce opposition to the act knowing this meant her son would not be king.
- Which is pretty much unheard of for somehow whose father was king.

Gravesite

- Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and his youngest son Edmund were killed in pursuit of the crown at the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460.
- He never made it to the throne and his claim passed to Edward IV as the eldest of his four sons.

Baking up a king

- Edward IV had another brother, George, Duke of Clarence, who was younger than him, but older than his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester. 
- George had a son named Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and a daughter Margaret who were still alive in 1483 when the young Princes disappeared.
- Under normal circumstances, the Neville's claim to the throne would have trumped Richard's, however, their father's execution in 1478 for treason had cost them their right to the throne.
- This left their uncle, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, as the only legitimate claimant.

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, 6th Earl of Salisbury KG (22 November 1428 – 14 April 1471), known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, landowner of the House of Neville fortune and military commander. The eldest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, he became Earl of Warwick through marriage, and was the wealthiest and most powerful English peer of his age, with political connections that went beyond the country's borders. (Wikipedia)

Anjou seahorse

- With the support of his cousin Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick who was known as the 'Kingmaker,' Edward IV defeated the Lancastrians in a succession of battles.
- Meanwhile the Lancastrian King Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou were campaigning in the north of England.

Earl of March

- Earl of Warwick gained control of the capital and had Edward IV declared King in London in 1461.
- When he was only 11, it was noted that Edward was extremely handsome: tall for his age, with golden-brown hair, dark grey eyes, and a merry smile.
- At the age of 19, he had remarkable military acumen and a notable physique, being described as handsome and affable.
- Edward was 6'4" (193 cm), which was very tall for the 15th-century.

The month of March comes from the Roman name for the month, Martius, which was named after Mars, the Roman god of war. In the earliest Roman calendar, Martius was the first month, but it became the third month after February around 153 BC. (Britannica)

Imprisoned

- Having imprisoned the ineffectual Henry VI in March 1461, Edward IV and his supporters faced a formidable army raised by Queen Margaret of Anjou, and the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton, a small Yorkshire village, on March 29.
- While Edward IV had gathered support from those nobles who were furious that Queen Margaret had so openly defied the Act of Accord, the Yorkists were still heavily outnumbered.
- Edward strengthened his claim with a decisive victory at the Battle of Towton.

In the largest, bloodiest battle to take place during the War of the Roses, it was reputed that over half of the 50,000 Yorkist and Lancastrian soldiers lost their lives. (historic-uk.com)

 

War-wick

- The Earl of Warwick, believing that he could continue to rule through young Edward IV, coerced him to enter into a marital alliance with a major European power.
- Edward IV then secretly married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian sympathizer in 1464, thus alienating Warwick.
- Elizabeth's mother was Jacquetta of Luxemburg, dowager Duchess of Bedford, and the widow of Henry VI's uncle, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford.
- Her father, Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, was a newly created baron.

 

King's angry younger brother George Plantagenet

 - Elizabeth's marriage to Edward IV made the unmarried among her 12 siblings desirable as noble and royal matrimonial catches.
- Although they posed no immediate threat to Warwick's own power, he resented the influence this group had over King Edward IV.
- With the aid of Edward's disaffected younger brother George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, Warwick led an army against the king.

Warwick’s initially strong bond with Edward had deteriorated throughout the latter’s reign, particularly when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of a Lancastrian supporter, rather than a queen of Neville’s choosing. Edward’s younger brother George, Duke of Clarence, was also recruited to the cause when his father-in-law Neville promised that he would be next in line to the throne after Edward of Westminster, should he support the Lancastrians against his brother. (historic-uk.com)

 

Olney

- The main part of the King's army was defeated at the Battle of Edgecote Moor in 1469, and Edward IV was captured at Olney.
- Warwick then attempted to rule in Edward IVs name, but the nobility, would have no part of it, and Warwick was forced to release him.
- At this point Edward IV did not seek to destroy either Warwick or his brother Clarence, but instead sought reconciliation.

Forced to flee to France

- Despite the reconciliation between Warwick and Clarence, a few months later in 1470 they both rebelled against Edward IV again.
- This time they were defeated and forced to flee to France.

 

Royal plant

- Although Edward IV had successfully claimed the throne, Queen Margaret of Anjou was still determined that Lancastrians Henry VI or his son Edward of Westminster, should be reinstated as King.
- The Queen had been initially exiled to Scotland but following her move to France, aided by King Louis XI, she hatched a plot to overthrow Edward IV with the allegiance of Edward’s previously staunch supporter, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick.

When Margaret of Anjou returned, she formed an army to march against Edward IV, which forced Elizabeth to seek shelter at the Tower of London. After the Battle of Tewkesbury, Elizabeth exited the Tower and Margaret of Anjou and Henry VI entered it; Henry VI would later die in the Tower. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

The Neville sisters married to Dukes

- Edward IVs two younger brothers, George, Duke of Clarence, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, were married to Isabelle Neville and Anne Neville.
- They were both daughters of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick by Lady Anne Beauchamp, Countess of Warwick and rival heirs to the considerable inheritance of their still-living mother, leading to a dispute between the brothers.

King flee

- While in France, Warwick and Clarence made the alliance with Margaret of Anjou, and Warwick agreed to restore Henry VI in return for French support in an invasion, which took place in late 1470.
- This time, Edward IV was forced to flee when he learned that Warwick's brother, John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu, had also switched to the Lancastrian side.
- This made Edward's military position untenable.

Neville had his own agenda for the throne and after marrying his daughter to Edward of Westminster he managed to overthrow his fellow Yorkists with the support of Margaret’s army, allowing Henry VI to reclaim the throne on 30th October 1470, which sent Edward into hiding. The weak King Henry left Neville to essentially rule on his behalf. (historic-uk.com)

 

Burgundy

- Henry VI was briefly restored to the throne in 1470 and Edward IV took refuge in Burgundy, accompanied by his younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
- His brother-in-law Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and his sister Margaret of York were the rulers of Burgundy.
- Charles was initially unwilling to help Edward but in the end, the French declared war on Burgundy.
- This prompted Charles to finally give his aid to Edward IV, and from Burgundy Edward IV raised an army to win back his kingdom.

 

Kingdom raised an army

- As Edward IV marched southwards he began to gather support, and Clarence, who had realized that his fortunes would be better off as brother to a king than under Henry VI, reunited with him.
- Henry VIs restoration to the throne was unsurprisingly brief; having unwisely provoked a war with Burgundy.
- Edward IV entered London unopposed, where he took Henry VI prisoner.

Red Dragon

- Edward IV and his brothers then defeated Warwick at the Battle of Barnet.
- With Warwick dead, he eliminated the remaining Lancastrian resistance at the Battle of Tewkesbury on May 4, 1471.
- Edward IV forcibly seized the throne from the fleeing Henry VI, and he remained on the throne for the next 9 years until his death.
- The Lancastrian heir, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, was also killed on the battlefield, son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou.

Life returned to a normal pace for Elizabeth Woodville and her family. In January 1477, she watched as her young son Richard Duke of York was married to Anne Mowbray; both the bride and groom were not over the age of 5 when the wedding happened. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

 

Heraldry

- A few days later, on May 24, 1471, the night that Edward IV re-entered London, King Henry VI, having lost his Protectors also died.
- One chronicle claimed that his death was due to 'melancholy, deep sadness and despair,' but it is widely suspected that Edward ordered Henry's murder in order to remove the Lancastrian opposition.
- All these wars that tore the nation apart and it was all about their wealth and power, plus they were killing children for it.

Grim-visaged War hath smoothed his wrinkled front. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Hung from a tree

- In 1478, George, Duke of Clarence, was eventually found guilty of plotting against Edward IV, imprisoned in the Tower of London and executed on February 18, 1478.
- An exhumation of the body proved he had not been beheaded as assumed, which leads to questioning the manner of his death.

 

The widely held belief that George was drowned in a casket of Madeira wine (also purported to be true by Shakespeare in his plays Henry VI and Richard III) was thought to be a humorous reference to the fact that George was fond of a drink or two. (historic-uk.com)

 

Failing health

- Edward IVs health began to fail, and he became subject to an increasing number of ailments.
- He fell fatally ill in spring 1483, but lingered on long enough to add some amendments to his will, the most important being his naming of his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Protector of his minor son, Edward V.
- Edward IV died on April 9, 1483, and was buried in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Poison ivy

- Edward IV was succeeded by his 12-year-old son, Edward V of England (who was never crowned) and then by his brother, Richard III of England.
- It is not known what actually caused Edward IVs death.
- Pneumonia and typhoid have both been conjectured, as well as poison.
- Some attributed his death to an unhealthy lifestyle, as he had become stout and inactive in the years before his death.

Richard III, formerly the Duke of Gloucester

- Within three months after Edward V became king, his paternal uncle, Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, who was the boy's Protector, intercepted the young royal and his entourage on April 29, 1483, while they were on their way to London.

 

As for Richard's physical appearance, most contemporary descriptions bear out the evidence that aside from having one shoulder higher than the other, Richard had no other noticeable bodily deformity. (Wikipedia)

Peacocks

- So now after the two rivaling sides of the family (the elder Lancasters vs. Yorks) have passed on, we find Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, a Yorkist, who didn't want the family crown passed on to his brother's son, Edward V, age 12, also a Yorkist.
- It doesn't appear clear who has more rights to the throne, the dead king's son or his brothers?
- Apparently, whoever is stronger, and older, and greedier, it seems.

 

The Yorkist monarchy's downfall was marked by poor finances, heightened concerns about the succession, and the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the Princes in the Tower. (Wikipedia)

Executioner

- Gloucester seized control of his nephew, Edward V, age 12, the next day and had his caretakers, Rivers and Grey arrested and sent north.
- Both men were executed on June 25, 1483, on trumped up charges of planning to kill Gloucester.

Richard had Earl Rivers, his nephew Richard Grey and his associate, Thomas Vaughan, arrested. They were taken to Pontefract Castle, where they were executed on June 25 on the charge of treason against the Lord Protector after appearing before a tribunal led by Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

Tower of London

- Gloucester then took the young king to the capital where he installed little Edward in the Tower of London, ostensibly to prepare for his coronation which was scheduled for June 22, 1483.
- This was not uncommon as all royal coronations took place in the Tower and it was the monarchs traditional place of residence prior to their coronation.

 

So wise so young, they say, do never live long. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

On ice

- However, problems began when Richard, Duke of Gloucester ordered the coronation postphoned for 6 weeks, and then indefinitely.
- Next, an important sermon was preached at an open air pulpit in London promoting Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as the only legitimate royal heir, while a group had petitioned him to take the throne.
- There is not a lot of information on how the Princes and their siblings were declared illegitimate.

Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York; And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Elizabeth Woodville

- Meanwhile, the dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Edward IV, with whom Gloucester did not get along, took her remaining children and fled into sanctuary in Westminster Abbey on May 1.
- Elizabeth had her youngest royal son, Richard, Duke of York, age 9, also known as Richard of Shrewsbury, with her when she escaped.
- On June 13, 1483, Gloucester had the two boys' staunch supporter, Lord Hastings, executed without trial.

Elizabeth Woodville was the eldest child of Richard Woodville and Jacquetta of Luxembourg, born around 1437 at Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire. Her parents marriage was controversial because they married for love and without King Henry VI’s permission. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

Duke of York taken away

- Three days later, Elizabeth, willingly or unwillingly, surrendered her son Richard, the Duke of York to his uncle's custody.
- The child was sent by Gloucester to the Tower of London to join his older brother, Edward V.

Fake queen?

- Some consider Edward IV a bigamist and Elizabeth Woodville as a fake queen.
- If so, then her children with Edward IV would be considered illegitimate and Edward's brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester would have full right to protest Edward passing the throne to his son, Edward V.
- But there are a lot of questions about her including whether she was really Lady Jane Butler.

 

Since I cannot prove a lover… I am determined to prove a villain. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Legendary tale

- Edward, who was called Earl of March, married Dame Elizabeth Grey, a commoner, in 1464.
- It's a legendary tale well known in history, she was destitute and asked for his help after being embroiled in a political struggle due to the death of her late husband, Sir John Grey.
- They met in 1464 when he was an unmarried young man age 21 and had been king for 3 years, and Elizabeth was a 27-year-old widow with 2 children.
- Her mother's Burgundian connections may have influenced her family's support for Edward's plans to form an alliance with Burgundy.

Edward was born in Rouen, to Richard Duke of York and Cecily Neville, on 28 April 1442. He was their third child, but eldest surviving son. By 1445 Edward had been given the title Earl of March, perhaps to strengthen negotiations for a planned marriage into the French royal family. (warsoftheroses.com)

Secret ceremony

- Edward IV fell in love with her and she may have resisted the idea for some time, but eventually, the two were married in a secret ceremony where there were very few attendees.
- No one is sure of the exact date of their marriage but the King didn't reveal the news to his family and advisors until September 1464, and they were livid.

After the Yorkist victory a few weeks later at Towton, Edward IV, the new king, stopped by at Grafton Regis for a couple of days, where it is said he fell in love with Elizabeth Woodville. It is said that he saw her under an oak tree, waiting for him to arrive and to plead her case to get her sons’ inheritance, but there is no evidence that this actually happened. The couple married in secret sometime in May 1464. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

Fly away

- Not only was Elizabeth Woodville not rich, but she had a large family to support.
- Everyone close to Edward felt that he had thrown away the chance to make a strategic marriage alliance with a foreign power.
- On top of that, Elizabeth's first husband had died fighting on behalf of Edward IVs enemies, the Lancasters.

Roses 911

- This was all happening in the middle of the Wars of the Roses, the multi-generational dispute for the throne between the two warring sides of the Plantagenet family.
- Nevertheless, Edward and Elizabeth remained together until his death in 1483 and had ten children.
- Elizabeth was the mother of the Princes in the Tower and Elizabeth of York, the mother of the Tudor Dynasty.

An honest tale speeds best, being plainly told. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Coronation of Gloucester

- There would be no coronation for young Edward V.
- Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had Parliament falsely declare that the Princes were illegitimate and he was duly crowned Richard III on July 6, 1483.
- There is no evidence that either boy attended the coronation, but other than their disappearence, there has never been any strong proof of what happened.

Bloody thou art, bloody will be thy end; Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

 

Mère weeds

- In fact, Richard III had all his brother Edward IVs children by Elizabeth Woodville declared illegitimate.
- This was based on Richard's accusation that Edward IV had been married to another woman named Lady Eleanor Butler, nee Talbot.
- No one knows when this marriage occurred but Eleanor was married to Sir Thomas Butler in 1450 and he died in 1461 so any 2nd wedding had to have occurred after that, and before the 1464 marriage to Elizabeth.

Was Elizabeth Woodville ENGLAND’S FAKE QUEEN? Who was Edward IV married to? Lady Eleanor Butler (History Calling)

Cobwebs under Edward's bed

- The fact that Eleanor married her 1st husband some 14 years before Edward and Elizabeth wed, makes it seem improbable, especially because he was only 22 and would have been about 8 when she married her first husband.
- But on the other hand, if Eleanor was only 13 when she wed and she was married for 14 years, well that would make her 27.
- Eleanor did live until 1468 so that means if she really did marry Edward IV, she was still alive when he married his 2nd wife, that is bigamy.

Family nightmare on Elm Street

- This would mean his marriage to Elizabeth was invalid and its offspring illegitimate and ineligible for the throne.
- There have never been any documents found from the 1460s or 1470s that suggest that Edward IV ever married anyone else.
- In fact, the first information about the marriage wasn't discovered until it was found in documents from 1483-84, shortly after Edward IVs death.
- Then in accounts written by later historians during the Tudor period who spread a lot of propaganda.

Harp not on that string. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Italian monk

- One of the earliest references comes from an Italian monk, Dominec Mancini, who was in England in 1483 and left shortly after Richard IIIs coronation in July.
- That same year, Mancini wrote his memoirs of his time in England for his patron, the Archbishop of Vienne, which he completed on December 1.
- Mancini said that Edward IV had married 'a lady of humble origin named Elizabeth, much against the will of the magnates of the realm who distained to show royal honours to an undistinquished woman promoted to such exalted rank.'

Edward IVs mother's madness

- Mancini went on to say that because of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV not only alienated those nobles with whom he afterwards waged war, but also most vehemently offended members of his own house.
- Indeed his mother, Cecily Neville, the Duchess of York, fell into such a state of madness from the whole affair, that she offered to submit to public enquiry.
- Even resorting to claiming that Edward IV had not been conceived from Richard, 3rd Duke of York, but was begotten in adultery and was by no means worthy of the eminence of kingship. 

 

Gossipy informer and shady monk

- Now Mancini was just reporting the gossip of the day that he heard while he was in England and it's important to note that he didn't even speak English so he had to rely on translations.
- Which many believe were 2nd-hand translations told to him by 3rd-parties, which might explain the errors in his work.
- For instance, although there were rumors that Edward IV was illegitimate, they certainly weren't perpetuated by his mother.

 

Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Secret gossip

- However, Mancini did not report that the marriage was in bigamy, just that it was grossly unequal in social terms and therefore against the wishes of the royal family and the leading magnates.
- According to Mancini, Richard had preachers claim in 1483 that his brother, Edward IV, was illegitimate and looked nothing like their father, the long-dead Richard, 3rd Duke of York.
- And that Elizabeth had been wed to another husband and Edward IV had taken possession of her, rather than married her.

The void realm

- As a result all their progeny were unworthy of the 'realm.'
- There was also talk that Edward IV had been pre-contracted to a foreign princess by his cousin, Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick and that was the reason his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was void.
- No prior marriage made in England was mentioned and Lady Eleanor Butler doesn't come into it.

Mancini the monk

- Additionally, the claim that Edward IV never married Elizabeth was also making the rounds.
- Mancini seemed to be under the impression that Elizabeth was also married to someone else and was not a widow.
- Warwick had indeed tried to find a foreign match for Edward IV to Bona of Savoy at the time of the Woodville marriage and this had been made public.

 

Black magic panpipe

- There's no doubt that Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville went through a wedding ceremony and that was documented.
- What the monk was passing around was the medieval equivalent of social media.
- All kinds of wild rumors were swirling around England, some of them absolutely ridiculous and easily disproved.
- Mancini's report is not a reliable account of what was going on behind closed royal doors, he never even met with any of them.


 

On the medieval streets

- Although Mancini's report is an interesting insight into what was being said on the street, or at least in his circle.
- It's also interesting because it was written in the period before any Tudor revisionist history took hold.
- It tells us that Mancini was hearing a lot of anti-Richardian rumblings in England in the summer of 1483 and that those he was in contact with expressed a lot of doubts that either the king or his son were illegitimate.

Titulus Regius

- The answer lies in an extraordinary document called the Titulus Regius, which means title of the King, which was written in 1483 and confirmed by Parliament in 1484 and had to be signed by the new monarch, Richard III.  
- It was designed to shore up Richard's claim to the throne by calling his brother's relationship with Elizabeth as 'the ungracious pretensed marriage, as all England hath cause to say, made betwix the said king Edward and Elizabeth, sometime wife to Sir John Grey, Knight, late naming herself and many years heretofore, Queen of England.'

On June 25, Parliament agreed that Edward V was illegitimate and the following day, June 26, Richard was proclaimed king. His joint coronation with his wife Anne Neville would occur on July 6, 1483, and his title was confirmed in an act of Parliament called the Titulus Regius, which was passed in January 1484. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

Sorcery and witchcraft

- Richard then went on to say that the marriage was made without the consent or knowing of the lords of this land, and also by sorcery and witchcraft by the said Elizabeth and her mother, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford.
- The document continued on and claimed that Edward IV was also married to Dame Eleanor Butler, daughter of the old Earl of Shrewsbury, with who Edward had made a pre-contract of marriage a long time before he made the pretensed marriage with Elizabeth Grey.

At Richard III’s first Parliament in January 1484, he stripped Elizabeth Woodville of all of her lands that were granted to her during the reign of Edward IV. On March 1, 1484, Elizabeth and her daughters left sanctuary after Richard III promised not to harm them and to arrange marriages for all of Elizabeth Woodville’s daughters. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

Mangled

- Richard III also claimed that the couple had lived together in sin and adultery and all their issue was illegitimate and unable to claim any inheritance.
- He also substituted the word 'bastard' four times instead of illegitimate and unable to inherit anything, least of all, the crown.
- The outcome of the Titulus Regius was absolutely damning because here in the official government records of England, the marriage was called adultery, Edward IV was called a bigamist, and their children were left as illegitimate, as well as Elizabeth reduced to a witch and the children to bastards.

Lady Butler

- It also cleared up beyond a reason of doubt, who Edward was supposedly married to, and far from someone foreign, it was an English woman, Lady Eleanor Butler, the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury.
- This story is repeated by another near contemporary source, the Croyland (Crowland) Chronicle and there were all kinds of debates about who wrote the earlier years of the document, but by the later years  in the 1480s they were more accepted.
- The author is unknown but the documents were written close to the events they described.

Certain roll of parchment

- The chronicle claimed that it was set forth,  by way of prayer, in an address in a certain roll of parchment that the sons of King Edward IV were illegitimate on the ground that he had contracted a marriage with one Lady Butler, before his marriage to Elizabeth.
- What these 3 sources, the Titulus Regius, Crowland Chronicle and Mancini the monk, don't tell us however, is what the ultimate source of this story was and why it only popped up in 1483 at the most convenient time possible for Richard III, and not years earlier.

It was set forth, the blood of his other brother, George, Duke of Clarence, had been attained, so that, at the present time, no certain uncorrupted lineal blood could be foumd, except in the person of said Richard, Duke of Gloucester. (Crowland Chronicle)

Vegas style wedding

- There is a possible answer from the memoirs of French diplomat and courtier, Philippe de Commines, which were written mostly in the 1490s but not published until the 1520s.
- He claimed that it was Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who told Richard III that his brother's marriage had been bigamous because 'King Edward being in love with a certain lady whom he named, and otherwise unable to have his desires of her, had promised her marriage, and caused the Bishop to marry them.'
- Upon which, he 'enjoyed her person but his promise was only made to delude her.'

Across the Channel Bath water

- However, Commines never did say who this lady was, and he did not write his memoir until a few years later, and he was not in England in 1483.
- There are other errors in his work, for instance, he claimed that Richard III used Parliament to make 2 of Edward's daughters illegitimate, when in fact, it was all of them.
- Although the story about Robert Stillington, hasn't been verified, it's the best explanation of where the story about Edward's supposed bigamy came from.
- Given other details in this part of his work are accurate, there's no reason to doubt him.

 

Just about dead horse

- Polydore Vergil had something to say about Edward IVs supposed bigamy in the 1510s when he wrote that Richard had churchmen preach that he was taking the throne due to illegitimacy in his brother's line.
- But also Vergil said that the preacher in question, by the name of Ralph Sha (Shaw), only claimed that Edward IV was illegitimate, not his sons.
- Vergil cited as evidence, Cecily, Duchess of York's later complaints about being accused by her own child of adultery, when she said she was entirely innocent.

Both Polydore Vergil and Thomas More emphasise that Richard was devious and flattering, while planning the downfall of both his enemies and supposed friends. Richard's good qualities were his cleverness and bravery. All these characteristics are repeated by Shakespeare, who portrays him as having a hunch, a limp and a withered arm. (Wikipedia)

Richard digging

- Vergil has been proved wrong because the Titulus Regius shows beyond a doubt that Richard III did claim that the marriage was void.
- Although the claims against Cecily don't appear in it, the fact that these claims surface in several sources suggest that Richard may have also put out the story that Edward IV was illegitimate for good measure to make his case even stronger.
- What is likely seen in Vergil's work is Henry VII propaganda.

Wedding plans announced

- Thomas More, who was Henry VIIIs minister, had something to say about Edward IVs marriage to Elizabeth Woodville and that is Edward had discussed his intentions to marry her to his mother and his counselors and then refused to listen to their objections.
- They called in a woman who Thomas More called Elizabeth Lucy, not Eleanor Talbot, who was pregnant by the king and they tried to get her to claim that Edward was betrothed to her.
- She refused to make such a claim and the Woodville marriage proceeded.

Mysterious Elizabeth Lucy

- This completely flies in the face of the Titulus Regius that stated that the marriage was made without the knowledge of the lords of the land.
- Thomas More's work is almost certainly a fabrication because Edward did have an illegitimate son named Arthur who lived until 1452 and whose mother is assumed to be the mysterious Elizabeth Lucy.
- Although no one is quite sure who she was, some identify her as Elizabeth Waite, with Lucy being a married name.

Slippery slope

- Thomas More later came out and said he had thought about the marriage somewhat 'more at length, because it might thereby the better it appear how slippery a ground the Protector built his pretext, by which he pretended King Edward's children to be illegitimate.'
- Again, this is the realm of Tudor propaganda, More wanted to keep Henry VIII and the rest of the Tudor family legitimate and sweet by making the Woodville marriage seem watertight.
- More eliminated the secretive nature of the story, and any talk of bigamy.

Thomas More weeds

- Thomas More did follow the line of other writers in certain details and he talked about Doctor Shaa (Shaw) in a sermon at St. Paul's Cross that signified to the people that neither Edward or his brother George were lawfully begotten, nor were the other children of Richard, the 3rd Duke of York, but all the cause of his wife, Cecily's adultery.
- Also, that Dame Elizabeth Lucy was verily the wife of Edward IV making all Elizabeth Woodville's children illegitimate.
- This was the first time that talk of both Edward IV and his brother George, Duke of Clarence, were both illegitimate and it's thought More added this detail to futher sully Richard IIIs reputation.

Richard III exposure

- Thomas More did not have a great reputation as a historian and he appears to be more a propagandist for the throne.
- Was Edward IV a bigamist, well conveniently these accusations by Richard III were made public after both Edward and his 'bride' Dame Eleanor Butler were dead.
- During their lives, neither of them ever mentioned a marriage and if she really believed herself to be the Queen of England, she never mentioned it.

All these marriages

- Edward IV, proved himself willing to admit to an inconvenient marriage with an older widowed woman to his family and counselors when he acknowledged Elizabeth.
- So why wouldn't he have been willing to admit a union with Eleanor? 
- And would he have been so anxious to marry Elizabeth when he was already married and had wife and Bishop hanging around who could destroy his dynasty if he committed bigamy?

Bishops and preachers at work

- Also the reliability of Robert Stillington, the bishop, as a source, if he indeed did tell Richard III that Edward had married elsewhere.
- This is because two of the main sources, the Titulus Regius and Mancini, written by sources who were in England in 1483-84, don't even mention him.
- Edward IV was a known womanizer who cheated on Elizabeth during their marriage, but would he go as far as risking everything by committing bigamy with Elizabeth.

Richard III seemingly 'legal' measures

- Also the timing of all these rumors makes them suspicious because they emerged just after Richard III had seized control of his nephew Edward V and had his half-brother and uncle arrested and executed.
- This makes it appear even more probable that Richard needed to discredit the Woodville marriage to clear his path to the throne using seemingly 'legal' measures.

 

Do you know where your child is tonight?

Clothing tab for Edward V

- In a coronation roll referring to the ceremony, there exists a list of clothing items ordered for 'Lord Edward, son of late King Edward IV.'
- This would appear to be a reference to Edward V after he had been disposed.
- Though the documentation mentions evidence that the child's concerns were still alive at this point, it doesn't clarify that it was anything more than an accounting transaction.

Practicing archery

- According to a later chronicle, written by a man named Robert Fabyan between 1504 and 1512, at least 21 years after the fact, Richard III of Gloucester's 2 nephews were at first seen playing on the grounds of the Tower and practicing archery in June 1483.

Towering bars and windows

- According to an Italian scholar named Dominec Mancini who was in London in the summer of 1483, soon the young boys servants were dismissed.
- Then the Princes were 'withdrawn into the inner apartments of the Tower proper, and day by day began to be seen more rarely behind the bars and windows, until they ceased to appear altogether.'

Silverfish

- The physician John Argentine, the last of the attendants whose services the king enjoyed, reported that Edward V, age 12, acted like a victim prepared for sacrifice and sought remission of his sins through daily confession and penance.
- This was because he believed that death was imminent.

Black magic

- The two Princes were never seen again, and Richard III never offered any explanation as to what happened to them under his care.
- By the autumn of 1483 it was widely assumed that they were dead.

 

Richard III after the Battle of Bosworth

- Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet kings, died soon after at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 when he was defeated by the new king-to-be, Henry VII Tudor.
- The most popular theory, then and now, is that Richard III had his nephews killed in order to secure his hold on the throne.
- Though many dispute that theory.
- Red dragons at war.

White Tower bones

- In 1674, bones were discovered in a chest buried 10' beneath a staircase in the Chapel in the White Tower, which is the central building in the Tower of London complex.
- The remains were interred under the names of the Princes in an urn in Westminster Abbey by King Charles II in 1674.
- They are traditionally believed to be those of the two lost children, though in fact, these are just one set of bones found over the centuries that have been connected to the Princes as other bones of young boys have been found in different locations.

Bloodlines

- Some of the later bones found appear to be from boys who died after Richard III which would remove blame from Richard III if DNA testing were performed.
- Another set of bones recovered would place King Henry VII in the scope of the investigation.

Blue blood relative

- A direct maternal line descendent of Elizabeth Woodville's mother had been identified and she is a 16 times great-granddaughter so it is presumed her mitocrondrial DNA should have some match to the Princes and allow eventual testing of some of the bones recovered in the Tower.
- Over the years, the royals would not allow any additional testing of any bones, although King Charles III may possibly be more agreeable to forensic testing.
- Consequently, the DNA donor sadly passed on in 2008 and now a son has also generously provided evidence for the case.

Westminster Abbey urn

- A 1933 examination of the bones, which is the most recent, claimed that they were the correct size for two boys who were Edward and Richard, the Duke of York's ages.
- However this was before more modern technology was available to examine the bones such as DNA testing.

Boar hog

- The documents detailed all the information known about the bones, although it omitted Richard IIIs murder of Rivers and Grey.
- It also didn't specify sources or offer any analysis and added some padding about Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard, Edward Vs life at Ludlow, the death of Henry VI in the Tower in 1471, and other fluff.

Informally, he may have been known as "Dickon", according to a sixteenth-century legend of a note, warning of treachery, that was sent to the Duke of Norfolk on the eve of Bosworth: Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold, For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold. (Wikipedia)

Children scorned

- Additional evidence also surfaced about the discovery of Richard IIIs bones in 2012 under a carpark and their subsequent examination in the 'Look for Richard Project.'
- Richard was treated as a villian by Shakespeare.
- Although his successor to the throne, Henry VI Tudor apparently tried to destroy every bit of documentation about Richard IIIs right to the throne and he may have destroyed many other documents.
- As the years pass, documents are emerging from private collections in other parts of Europe.

The historian who led the discovery of the remains of Richard III beneath a Leicester car park unearthed evidence that she claimed suggested both of his nephews survived their imprisonment in the Tower of London. (dailymail.co.uk)

Richard III carpark

- Documents unearthed by Philippa Langley's team of researchers who discovered Richard IIIs remains buried under a carpark,  indicated that Edward and Richard, the Duke of York, fled to Europe.
- Once free, they assumed the identities of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, who are long known to have launched failed attempts to depose Henry VII in the late 15th-century.
- The man who came from Flanders claiming to be Richard, the missing Duke of York, the younger prince, ended up losing his head on the gallows at Henry VIIs behest.

Richard's death encouraged the furtherance of this later negative image by his Tudor successors due to the fact that it helped to legitimise Henry VII's seizure of the throne. (Wikipedia)

 

By British School - Royal Collection of the United Kingdom, Public Domain via Wikimedia Richard III rings and loops

- There was some speculation by Langley's team from evidence they discovered that Richard III may have made a pact with the Princes mother, Elizabeth Woodville, to spare their lives.
- Langley believes that Richard may have allowed Edward V to live in secret with a false identity in the rural village of Devon.
- A paper trail, including royal documents have been discovered where an unknown man named John Evans suddenly appeared in Devon on Edward's half-brother's seized lands.

Park Keeper

- The mysterious John Evans was immediately granted the status of 'Lord of the Manor' and other prestigious titles and researchers found it remarkable that no other reference to Evans was ever found until he arrived in Devon.
- Evans rebuilt the Chantry in the local St. Matthew's Church in Devon in 1511 and it's filled with 'DaVinci Code' type symbology which point to him being the exiled royal heir. 
- A stained glass window shows the young Edward V under a large crown with 41 deer, and one of John Evans' titles was 'Park Keeper' of the large deer park in the parish.

Deer park and chantry

- Additionally, Edward V would have been age 41 at the time the Chantry was rebuilt.
- Strangely, his name was spelled wrong as 'John Evas' but that is the Latin abbreviation for Edward in sanctuary, but the big question is, why would there be a portrait of Edward in a remote church that was hard to access.
- Some feel that the Tudor's tried to discredit Richard III by creating propaganda of foul play after the Wars of the Roses.

Velvet fabric

- In a book written in 1910 by Richard Davey, he discusses the bones discovered in 1674 and he attributed this information to a manuscript in his personal possession which is now long gone, if it ever existed.
- However, Davey glossed over how the bones were handled.
- He omitted the fact that the workmen who discovered them, originally threw them on a rubbish heap despite the fact there were apparently pieces of velvet with them.

Velvet fog

- Davey was known to make things up, especially in his work on Lady Jane Grey and he got many things wrong.
- He also claimed the bones were from teens and that was incorrect.
- The urn in which they were placed, might be the inspiration for Davey's later claims.
- There was mention of tokens found to suggest their identity, but it's unknown if it was the purported pieces of velvet fabric.

Doctor's examination

- The bones themselves can't be re-examined, but a modern doctor reviewed the report from 1933 in order to confirm that the length of the bones aligned with children of the correct ages.
- He worked out the younger child's height and compared it to the average heights of 10-year-old boys in the 15th-century and the doctor was able to point out that this child was quite a bit taller.
- This suggested a healthy, high status diet and possibly a genetic link to the very tall King Edward IV himself.
- None of this was conclusive, but if we're never going to be allowed to look at the bones, whatever's left of them, it might be the only evidence available.

Escape from the Tower

- Some historians believe that the Princes, either one or both of them, may have escaped from the Tower and fled to mainland Europe, but this would have seemed impossible since it was a fortress.
- It would also make a mockery of those that claim that Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor VII, had her minions break into the Tower and kill the Princes, because it would be even harder to break in, than break out.
- Plus the fact that Richard III never mentioned it and allowed himself to take blame across the continent for the fate of the children.

Thomas More

- There are many theories as to what happened to the boys including one by Thomas More, born in 1878, who was minister of Henry VIII.
- He wrote an unfinished history of King Richard III during the 1510s, some 25 years after Richard's death, although it was not published until 1557, after More's death.

The green bracken covered hill

- Thomas More claimed that while at Gloucester on his post-coronation tour, Richard III decided to rid himself of his nephews to better secure his grip on the throne.
- He sent a man named John Greene to the Tower with a letter for its Constable, Sir Robert Brackenbery, telling him to put the boys to death, but Brakenbery refused.

  

Sir Robert Brackenbury (died 22 August 1485) was an English courtier, who was Constable of the Tower of London during the reign of Richard III. He is believed to have been responsible for enabling the (presumed) murders of the Princes in the Tower, though there is no conclusive evidence to prove it. He died defending the King at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. (Wikipedia)

Tyr-el rock and roll

- Next, Richard III supposedly sent his servant, Sir James Tyrell to perform the job instead.
- Tyrell was dispatched to the Tower with another letter for Brackenbery instructing him to turn over all the keys to the building.
- Once he had these keys, Tyrell decided to kill the boys the next night in their beds.

Forest miles

- Tyrell delegated the task to two men named Miles Forest and John Dighton, who was his horsekeeper.
- At midnight they snuck into the boys room and smothered them in their bed linens, pillows, and feather beds.

To the execution whereof, he appointed Miles Forest, one of the four that kept them, a fellow hardened in murder before that time. 'To him he joined one John Dighton, his own housekeeper, a big, broad, square strong knave. (dailymail.co.uk)

Bed pillows

- Once they were dead, the killers stripped them and brought their boss Tyrell in to view the bodies.
- However, the idea that their clothing was removed doesn't mesh with the velvet found with the bones unless they were reclothed.

 

Great heap of stones

- Thomas More goes on to talk about how they disposed of the Princes bodies, at the foot of the stair, deep in the ground under a great heap of stones.
- This would appear to match with the description of bones found under a staircase in 1674.

Royal blood

- Thomas More also noted that although King Richard III was delighted with the news, he ordered that they be buried somewhere better on account of their royal blood.
- The Princes were dug back up and Brackenbery had a priest secretly bury them in another place, which is unknown because the priest died.
- Many scholars disagree with More because his writing took place so many years after the fact.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry— But ’twas thy beauty that provokèd me. Nay, now dispatch; ’twas I that stabbed young Edward— But ’twas thy heavenly face that set me on. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Cemetery is full

- Other scholars felt that Thomas More was a trustworthy witness who would later die on the scaffold for his principles.
- He also never published the work, that was done after his death, proving he wasn't a propagandist.
- Therefore, they claim he must have believed what he wrote, and that possibly the reason he never published his work was he didn't want to accuse others of crimes when he wasn't sure. 

Ivory Tower scrub

- On the other hand, there's no doubt at one point Thomas More pushed the Tudor propaganda and his work is filled with known errors.
- Although Henry VIII Tudor ordered his beheading which took place on July 6, 1535, for treason.
- More also wrote his book like a novel, putting words into the mouths of his characters, taking much artistic license.
- It's not a scholarly history book such as we have today.

Judge and jury

- The question is whether there is any other evidence that Tyrell is guilty of murder?
- He was imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason and executed on May 6, 1502, for a supposed confession of arranging the killings.
- Thomas More wrote about both Tyrell and Dighton's confessions saying that they confessed to the murder.

Bomb threats

- Although Thomas More wasn't a witness to the confessions, he provided no other details as to how he came upon this information.
- Instead, he said that the information came from 'those that knew much and had little cause to lie.'
- Logically though, he was also in a high position in Henry VIIIs court and with his lawyering background it's easy to see how connected he was.

 

Dighten demonized

- From what we know, this could be the accused murderers in the confession, or it could be someone else.
- That's because there's no direct evidence that proves Dighten even existed, much less that he was involved and was in the Tower of London and confessed.

Dead kings all over the place

- The dead royalty at this point include, Henry VI, his son Edward of Westminster, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, his son Edmund, Edward IV, Richard III, Edward V and Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick; plus younger brother George, Duke of Clarence, who was executed for treason.
- There was no one left on the Yorkist side to pass the crown to.
- All the prior kings and their contenders were dead so succession for the English throne had passed to Henry VII Tudor, a Lancastrian, after he defeated Richard III in battle in 1485.
- The Yorkists who been granted the right by Parliament to succeed Lancastrian Henry VI on the throne, never sat on the throne again.

The Yorkists claimed the throne through the female line of descent, as descendants of Lionel, the Duke of Clarence. The Yorkists were represented by the white rose, while the Lancastrians were represented by the red rose. (Wikipeda)

Last of the Plant kings

- Henry VII Tudor, a Welsh claimant to the throne was a distant relation to Edward III and son to Henry VI’s half brother Edmund, who became the last British King to claim the throne on the battlefield.
- However, to appease his predecessors King Henry VII married Edward IV’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York.
- The Wars of the Roses was finally over and so began the reign of the infamous House of Tudor, who continued to rule England and Wales for the next 117 years.

 

Elizabeth Woodville was now known as Elizabeth Grey and she decided to side with the Duke of Buckingham and Margaret Beaufort to put Margaret’s son Henry Tudor on the throne. Henry Tudor was the closest male Lancastrian heir and in order to cement this new alliance, Elizabeth and Margaret arranged that Henry would marry Elizabeth of York. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

 

Henry VII

- Henry VII took the throne in 1485, married Edward IVs eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York and had the Titulus Regius repealed, thus removing the stain of illegitimacy from his wife.
- He also tried to expunge it from history by having all copies of it destroyed.
- Polydore Vergil tried to brush aside this story during the reign of Henry VIII and he was writing a generation later, and wasn't in England in the 1480s, making him reliant on the memories and truthfulness of others.

Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

- There is evidence that Henry VII, a Lancastrian, and his Queen Elizabeth of York, who was sister of the Princes at the Tower, were staying at the Tower too, and there are those who wonder if they were there to hear what Tyrell had to say.
- Elizabeth of York was the eldest child of Edward IV, the Yorkist king, and Elizabeth Woodville.

Elizabeth married Henry VII, the Lancastrian claimant, in 1486. Their marriage united the warring houses of York and Lancaster, ending the Wars of the Roses and establishing the Tudor dynasty. (hrp.org.uk)

Death bed

- The fact that Queen Elizabeth of York then went to visit her aunt, Anne Neville, who was the wife of the late Richard III, is considered odd, almost as though she wanted to share what she learned with one of her close female relations.
- None of this is conclusive, but the presence of the king and queen in the Tower at the time is coincidental because they went there often.
- In fact, Elizabeth of York died in the Tower after childbirth the following year.

 

Ermine

- It's possible there was some connection and obviously both the king and queen had a vested interest in learning what happened to the boys.
- Historian Professor Tim Thornton, produced a document showing that Thomas More knew a courier named M. Forest in the mid-1510s while he was in Brugge writing his book on Richard III.
- This was the son of Miles Forest who supposedly killed the boys.

Secret source

- The importance of this is that may have been where Thomas More heard the story of the boys murders.
- It can't be proved, but this man would also fit More's description of his source as someone who 'knew much and had little cause to lie.'
- Thomas More may not have named him in the interest of keeping his source private.

Speculation about what happened in the past

- Miles Forest senior was dead by September 1484, so anything his son knew would have been told to him 30 years earlier if it came directly from his father.
- His son didn't die until 1558, he must have been a very young child when his father passed, so it's either childhood memories or 3rd-hand family lore, which weakens the case.
- It is possible however, that he was in his teens when his father died and he himself lived to his 90s!

FaFaceless Miles Forest

- There is also evidence that Thomas More knew both Miles Forest junior, and his brother Edward in England during the 1510s which was discussed by Professor Thornton.
- There is a will written by a Margaret Capel who died in 1522 and who was the sister-in-law of James Tyrell.
- In the will, she left a neck chain to her son that apparently belonged to Edward V and then later came into her deceased husband's hands.

The previously overlooked will, which dates back to 1522, was found at the National Archives by Professor Tim Thornton, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Huddersfield. It reads: 'Also, I bequeath to my son, Sir Giles, his father's chain which was young King Edward the V's.' (dailymail.co.uk)

Chain of office

- This is what author Tracy Borman called the smoking gun, this apparent link between a possession of Edward Vs and James Tyrell's family.
- It 'was also referred to as a 'chain of office' which is a very special item and also very personal. 
- However, even after all this, there is no way to know if either of the Forest brothers spoke to Thomas More about the case.

Willful exposure

- No one really knows if the chain really belonged to Edward V and even if it did, there is no way to know how the Tyrell family obtained it.
- Because it really is quite the coincidence.
- Also the information about the chain is not new, it was discussed in Susan James book about Tudor wills published in 1485.

 

Chain gang

- It remains unclear how Lady Margaret, who was the widow of Sir William Capell, the two-time lord mayor of London, came into possession of Edward Vs chain.
- Tyrell was one of three brothers-in-law of Sir William Capell whose own will refers to business dealings with the Tyrells.
- They are know to have exchanged jewellery.
- The discovery suggests that Thomas More's version of events, written down in his book The History of King Richard III, may not just be Tudor propaganda.

The smothering

- The story about the Forest brothers seems like a solid hypothesis, but if true, it means that we have to believe that one or both of them implicated their own father in a double child murder and regicide.
- This is not impossible, but what would they gain from it?

Henry's floating crown

- Some additional evidence shows that Miles Forest who died in 1484 was already dead at the time Thomas More was writing his book, however, Dighton was still alive and free.
- Can we really believe that after confessing to such a horrific crime, the man wasn't executed as Tyrell ultimately was.
- Although some claim Tyrell wasn't put to death for killing the Princes and there is no source for his supposed murder confession.
- Also, the fact that if 2 or 3 of these men were really involved in such a plot, that King Henry VII didn't make the story public.

Pillows and Tyrell's hand

- Thomas More wasn't the first person to implicate Sir James Tyrell, in fact, the chronicle written in 1504 by Robert Fabyan, also mentioned Tyrell as one of the suspects.
- As did Polydore Vergil who wrote about the subject in 1512, though he said Tyrell committed the murder with his own hands.
- Vergil also mentioned Sir Robert Brackenbery, just as Thomas More had.

Henry VII lemons

- As for the suffocation, burial, exhumation and reburial, those reports were discussed by the Burgundian chronicler, Jean Molinet, no later than 1506.
- Though Molinet claimed that the boys were reinterred during Henry VIIs reign.
- So many of the details given by Molinet were in circulation, even if only in manuscript form, years before he wrote them down, but none cited a Tower confession as their source.

Pearls of somebody's wisdom

- Thornton also speculated that Thomas More may have been influenced by Fabyan and Vergil's written works.
- He believed that Thomas More potentially had access to people who were adults at the time of the boys' disappearance and possibly to their children as well.
- In fact, he even establshed some links between Thomas More, Miles Forest and Edward Forest although it doesn't really provide any new information but does give a slightly earlier date for their alliance.

 

Frozen in time for now

- While rumors have circulated over the years about the Princes apparent demise, the true reason for their disappearance although purported to be by order of their uncle and ‘Protector’ Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, has never been solved.
- Except that the 'chain of office' discovered with Richard Tyrell's family is very significant and makes the boys disappearance seem devious.
- The story about Richard III after he was discovered under the carpark almost appeared to absolve him from any crime, but now, many are not sure again.

Elizabeth Woodville died at the Abbey on June 8, 1492 and she was buried with her husband King Edward IV in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle. (adventuresofatudornerd.com)

Shadowy

- There have been so many reported sightings of the boys shadowy apparitions in the White Tower wearing white nightgowns and holding hands, it's now considered quite common.
- They never make a sound and then fade into the stonework behind them after a few moments.
- More recently there have been reports of the two boys staring from from the windows of the Tower.
- Since its construction in 1066 as a fortress, the Tower of London has had so many tragic events take place there, it is known as the most haunted location in London.

So wise so young, they say, do never live long. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

 

Happy subjects finally

- Henry VII was never a popular king and most of his court feared him.
- Upon his death there was a sense of relief, joy and much celebration and the hope that England would now be able to coronate a young, charismatic as king, Henry VIII.
- Henry VIII very much resembled his grandfather, Edward IV, who had been very popular.

Shine out fair sun, till I have bought a glass, That I may see my shadow as I pass. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Henry as pretty woman?

- There was a real sense of hope for the future and Henry VIII was seen as a true Renaissance Prince come to save the day.
- He was highly educated and incredibly good-looking and in his youth was described as so beautiful he'd make a pretty woman.

The world is grown so bad that wrens make pray where eagles dare not perch. (Shakespeare, Richard III)

Moral of the story! - Some people will do lot's of things in the name of God and then forget about loving one another.

	Andrea Mantegna
	Parnassus - Page 3