No one can be sure exactly what happened, but their deaths remain one of the most mysterious events in English history. Many theories abound – some say they were murdered on the orders of their uncle Richard III, others believe they died from illnesses from living in a prison. The scientist who examined the bones concluded they belonged to two boys aged between 10 and 12. The bones were buried at Westminster Abbey and in 1933 they were examined. It was concluded that they were the bones of children. The location included a turret that had once contained a privy staircase leading into St John’s Chapel.īeneath the foundations of the staircase, some 3m (10ft) below the ground, the workmen were astonished to find a wooden chest containing two skeletons. Nearly 200 years later, in 1674, King Charles II ordered the demolition of what remained of the royal palace to the south of the White Tower. Eventually, Warbeck was sent to the tower and executed for treason. Warbeck traveled all over Europe and in 1490 declared he was Richard IV. Perkin Warbeck pretended to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, and claimed that he had been hidden away and survived the murder. Henry married Elizabeth of York the sister of the two princes. Tudor then became King Henry VII and re-opened investigations into the deaths of the princes. In 1485, Henry Tudor defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The disappearance of the two princes made Richard III very unpopular with the people of England and this led to his downfall. On 6 July 1483, the princes’ uncle was crowned King of England. With the princes’ claim to the throne discredited, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became next in line as his other brothers, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, and George, Duke of Clarence, had both died. This made his marriage to Elizabeth invalid. In June 1483, Parliament declared the two princes illegitimate on the grounds that their father Edward IV had contracted to marry Lady Eleanor Butler before he married Elizabeth Woodville. Their disappearance has been shrouded in mystery for centuries – was it murder? Or did they die from natural causes? This has been corrected.Edward V, age 12, and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, were sent to the Tower of London under orders of their uncle, King Richard III. The original gave the date of Edward IV's death as 1493 rather than 1483. This article was amended on 6 February 2013. However, photographs taken at the time failed to resolve the mystery surrounding their deaths – including the key question of who was responsible for them. The skeletons were and determined to be those of two young children, one aged seven to 11 and the other 11 to 13. In 1933 Westminster Abbey and King George V gave permission for the remains to be examined to see whether modern science could cast any light on the issues. The 17th-century Latin inscription with their reinterred remains, which are in bags in a sarcophagus designed by Sir Christopher Wren, reads: "These brothers being confined to the Tower of London and there stifled with pillows, were privately and meanly buried, by the order of their perfidious uncle, Richard the Usurper." On the orders of Charles II the remains, which were assumed to be of the two princes because the location matched a description by the Tudor historian Sir Thomas More, were reburied in Westminster Abbey. In 1674 the skeletons of two children were discovered in a wooden casket under a stone staircase connecting the royal apartments with the White Tower during building work at the Tower of London. ![]() Others, however, have claimed that Henry VII, also known as Henry Tudor, was responsible, or have pointed the finger of suspicion at Richard's cousin Henry, Duke of Buckingham. Historians have been split on whether or not More’s account was credible, with many concluding that he slandered Richard III at the behest of the Tudors ( Henry VII and Henry VIII ), who would have had reason to portray their House of York predecessor in the worst possible light. Shakespeare notably made the Tudor case for Richard as the prime suspect. It is widely assumed that they were murdered. Their uncle was crowned King Richard III of England in July, and his two nephews were never seen again. Shortly afterwards, the princes were declared illegitimate by an act of parliament, on the grounds that their father had been contracted to marry someone else before his marriage to their mother, Elizabeth Woodville.
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