What Really Happened To The Princes In The Tower, aka 'Princes'

(Hereinafter ‘PRINCES’)

By Pueros

Introduction

In 1483, 12 years old Edward, Prince of Wales and rightfully the new King, and his 9 years old brother Richard, Duke of York, were imprisoned in the Tower of London whilst their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, usurped the throne, becoming Richard III. The Princes, sons of the late monarch, Edward IV, later disappeared, presumed murdered by their uncle. This presumption seemed to have been proved by a discovery that was made during reconstruction work 191 years later in 1674. Workmen had been employed by Charles II to clear some ruined structures around the White Tower and, during the demolition of an old castellated tower, they found under the bottom step of a spiral staircase, at a depth of about ten feet, a wooden casket. In it were the skeletons of two children, the taller one lying on his back with the shorter on top face downwards.

King Charles subsequently commissioned Christopher Wren, architect of the new St. Paul’s cathedral, to make a white urn with an inscription stating that it contained the bones of the Princes. The beautiful sarcophagus was placed in the chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey where it can still be seen. In 1933, the Abbey’s Dean and Chapter gave permission for the bones to be examined by medical experts and they concluded that the remains were consistent with the theory that they were those of the Princes. It was noted that the older boy seemed to have suffered with a serious jaw complaint. The identity of the boys was seemingly confirmed by DNA testing conducted in the 1990s that indicated that the bones had characteristics linking them to the royal family of the time.

However, your author has read a number of contemporary 15th and 16th century sources, many postulating other explanations for the boys’ disappearance. This story presupposes a particular one of these to be correct.

Chapter 1 – Murder

(Warwick Castle, English Midlands, August 1483)

Richard III was dining with his chief ally, the Duke of Buckingham, and his chief fixer, Sir James Tyrell. Richard had no deformity apart from having one shoulder slightly higher than the other. Talk of a hunchback was Tudor propaganda, propagated by Shakespeare and others. He was lean and of medium height. He was reserved but ruthlessly determined and his austerity was emphasised by the fact that he always wore black. Buckingham was almost an opposite, but perhaps that is why, along with similar ambitions and detestation of the Woodvilles, they got on well together, at least until a later falling out that cost the Duke his head. The man was imaginative but volatile, being easily provoked. Tyrrell was fawning and out to reward himself with as much as possible from his association with the usurper, to whom he was just a useful tool for the darkest tasks, of which there were many.

The king had become Lord Protector of England when his brother, Edward IV, had died of pneumonia at Westminster Palace on 9 April. The late King’s will entrusted him with the protection of his son, now no longer Prince of Wales but Edward V, during the boy’s minority. However, Edward IV’s widow Queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and her faction were determined to prevent this happening as there was intense dislike and rivalry between them. Richard knew this and so set out to obtain a hold on the new boy king’s person. He and Buckingham, with a small force of armed retainers, intercepted the King and his retinue at Stony Stratford in Northamptonshire as they made their way to London from Ludlow, where they had been staying. Most of the boy King’s adult companions were arrested or dispersed, including Sir Thomas Vaughan who had affectionately looked after the child since he was a baby. Many, including Sir Thomas, were to be executed over the next few months. The young Edward burst into tears when he was presented with his sinister uncle’s own choice of attendants.

The revised escorting party arrived in London to an enthusiastic reception on 4 May, the date originally set for the new King’s coronation, and the boy was lodged initially with the Bishop of London. However, by 19 May, Edward had been transferred to the royal apartments in the Tower of London, where he was to be joined later by his younger sibling. Meanwhile, their mother fled into sanctuary. Edward’s coronation was postponed to 24 June but, in the interim, Richard decided to go for the crown himself. He had some support for many in the country remembered the awful and long tribulations caused when another minor, Henry VI, had assumed the throne. It had led to the still inconclusive, in 1483, Wars of the Roses. Richard was seen by many as being a good soldier who would make a capable King. There were actually calls for him to assume kingship, especially from some church pulpits in the capital and eventually from a compliant Parliament itself. The pronouncement from the latter was made on 25 June. On the same day, the coup was completed when the two royal brothers were moved from the royal apartments to the Bloody Tower. It was then known as the ‘Garden Tower’ because of an adjacent garden where the boys were occasionally observed playing. However, they disappeared from view altogether shortly afterwards when they were relocated again, this time to the upper reaches of the White Tower, an altogether less pleasant facility.

“You must get rid them,” declared Buckingham, “whilst they live they will remain the focus for all dissenters, especially those supporting the Woodvilles. Your crown will never be safe until they are gone!” “I know,” replied Richard III, “I don’t mind what happens to my late brother’s bastards but I refuse to kill his legitimate children. I have enough on my conscience already in taking the older boy’s throne away without having his blood and thereby regicide on my hands too.”

“If you’re just looking for someone to do the deed,” said Tyrell, “I’m sure that I kind find some appropriate discrete people.” “Yes do that,” responded Richard, “but only for the two bastards. Dispose of the Princes some other way. I’m sure that you can find one.” Tyrell brooded over his chicken for a time whilst Richard and Buckingham debated the dangers posed by the exiled Henry Bolingbroke. He then made the suggestion for removing the Princes permanently from sight that was agreed upon, and which Richard granted his associated request to acquire the keys of the Tower of London for just one night from the Constable, John Brackenbury. Tyrell set off for London the following day, accompanied by his chief servant, a big broad strong knave by the name of John Dighton. Dighton happened to know one of the Tower jailers, a certain Miles Forest, already a murderer.

(Tower of London, a few days later)

In 1483, the Tower of London was at the very eastern edge of the city. In fact, the city walls came right up to it, ending at the Postern Gate, expecting the Tower itself to be the continuance of the fortification to the edge of the Thames, from which its final battlements with mounted cannon stood on huge white pillars. The western windows overlooked London’s congested roofs over which rose the great landmark of the old St. Paul’s Cathedral. The view from the eastern windows was over the adjacent St. Katherine’s Dock and across the swans swimming in the clear aquamarine river towards water meadows and down-land stretching to the horizon. Barges regularly went past, propelled by sail or oar.

As well as providing little-used royal accommodation, the Tower was a secure place of detention for the country’s most important prisoners, many of whom would be executed on nearby Tower Hill or on the pavement outside the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula. The Princes were now in the gruesome White Tower where many such captives had been held. Unlike in the pleasant royal apartments, their accommodation was now spartan and all of their attendants had been withdrawn. Miles Forest looked after their needs instead. The ugly bearded middle-aged man had even bought two bags of lime for them, although he neglected to appraise the boys of this for obvious reasons. However, he had reclaimed the cost in the normal manner for the record of the purchase of this material is still extant in Tower records.

Both boys were renowned for their similar slender good looks. They sported long golden hair and blue eyes. Edward was 12 years 9 months old. He was precocious and thoughtful, although the latter had recently turned to fatalistic melancholy, especially after he had bravely spoken up for his mother and her family in front of his uncle and been rewarded with the move to the White Tower. Richard, Duke of York, was about to celebrate his 10th birthday. He was usually playfully nimble and merry but had caught some of his brother’s unhappiness and fear.

The clothing of the two Princes had substantially deteriorated in quality. Forest had taken away and sold their previous rich garments. He had received most for the blue robes with crimson mantle and matching ermine capes, although he still undersold them far below their real value. The boys now wore simple peasant dress of brown shirt and breeches, with matching underpants, although it was new and kept clean for Forest was wary that there might be unexpected important visitors who could admonish him for attiring the lads in dirty rags.

The large one-room accommodation was terrible by the Princes’ former standards, and even by that of the wider population. They could see nothing but sky out of the high narrow open windows. It was cold even now in the height of summer. Their crude beds with even cruder covers were hard and uncomfortable. Forest brought them almost uneatable food, and little of it. The boys had not been under the outside sky in weeks and had received no visitors. However, worst of all for such young boys, they had little to do. It was as if no-one cared for them anymore.

The Princes were trying to sleep despite their sorrow at the turn of events and longing for their living mother and dead father when, about midnight, Forest entered their quarters with the first visitors for a long time. The boys were never to know that their respectively slightly younger half-brothers, conceived by a young Westminster Palace servant girl whilst the Queen was not available for the matrimonial bed because of her confinements with the embryonic royalty, had resided in the room below them for several weeks. They were also never to learn that the two thugs entering their chamber had just smothered their half-kin in that room and then buried them deep below the stairwell of a nearby Tower, under the supervision of the more important third intruder. Only Forest appreciated that the now dead elder boy had suffered from a serious jaw disease.

The Princes were wakened by Forest. They did not recognise the well-dressed Tyrell and dowdy Dighton but said nothing. They had invariably been relocated previously at this time of night by strangers and accepted that this was happening again. They were to be proved right, but not in their wildest estimations could they anticipate by how far they were to be resituated.

The men took them silently down a myriad of stairwells into the dark deep innards of the Tower. They eventually emerged at Traitors’ Gate, through which many famous but condemned personages had passed since the construction of the fortress had been started by William the Conqueror over 400 years before. However, the boys were to make a very unusual journey for the condemned for they were to pass through the gateway, on a rowboat with the three men, in the opposite direction to that usually undertaken.

The boat went along the moonlit river to St. Katherine’s Dock where there were a number of small ships anchored. They set to alongside one that was very similar to those in which, in just another 9 years, Columbus would set out for the New World, for it was Spanish. The captain was waiting to greet them on the quiet deck. All the crew were enjoying the taverns and bawdy houses of the city. The captain guided the small party down to his cabin.

“We sail on the morning tide,” he told Tyrell, with whom he had had a lucrative smuggling arrangement for many years. He confirmed, in good English for he had traded with the natives most of his adult life, “They will be kept, locked in my side cabin, away from view and where only I have access. They will not emerge until I reach Cadiz. There I shall sell them very quietly to the Moorish trader of whom I have spoken.” He handed Tyrell a small money bag and said “Your entitlement, I believe.” Tyrell peeked inside to make sure that the amount of gold was as agreed, but avoiding letting his compatriots in crime see what had been paid for they would receive a tiny fraction for their particular efforts. “Thank you” Tyrell responded. To him it was a nice bonus for he would receive more from the usurper. However, the captain inwardly chuckled. The Englishman obviously did not know the worth of the trade for the Moor would pay twenty times as much, in the expectation of even greater profits, for displaying two young beautiful virgin English noble boys in the slave markets of faraway Constantinople.

(To be continued in Chapter 2 – ‘Constantinople’)