The Princes in the Tower Vanished... But Where Did They Go?

The Princes in the Tower Vanished... But Where Did They Go?

Today I want to take a look at one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in English history, that is the story of the Princes in the Tower.

 

The story starts in the spring of 1483 when King Edward IV died unexpectedly. His eldest son was twelve-year-old Edward, he was now King Edward V, although he was still too young to rule alone. His younger brother, Richard, Duke of York, was only nine years old. This must have been such a chaotic and scary time for the two boys who suddenly found themselves at the centre of a power struggle.

 

Edward V was travelling to London for his coronation when his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, met him along the way. Richard arrested several of the king’s supporters and took charge of his nephew. Was it the actions of a loyal uncle protecting the future king or was it something more sinister.

 

Edward was taken to the Tower of London, which was not unusual before a coronation. Many monarchs stayed there beforehand. His younger brother Richard then joined him so that they could be together. The brothers were reportedly seen playing in the gardens and looking out from the Tower windows.

 

Everything changed during the summer of 1483. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, claimed that his brother Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had not been  valid because Edward had  already promised to marry another woman, Lady Eleanor Butler. If the claim was true,  Edward IV’s children, including the two princes, would have been made illegitimate and would have had no right to inherit the throne. Parliament accepted the claim, and Richard was then crowned King Richard III. Historians still fiercely debate what Richard's motives.

 

Some people believe that Richard genuinely thought that he was protecting the country. Others think that he used the claim in order to strengthen his own position and to take the crown. The debates can actually get quite heated, but there is no conclusive evidence either way to prove exactly why Richard acted the way that he did, which is one of the reason why the events in 1483 remain so controversial.

 

After that,  the two princes were  rarely seen. By the end of the summer, they had disappeared completely. No official explanation was ever given. But their sudden disappearance caused rumours across England.

 

If the boys were alive after Richard became king, someone else may have killed them without his knowledge.

If they had survived Richard’s reign, they would have remained a threat to Henry VII after he took the throne in 1485, giving Henry a possible motive as well.

Henry Stafford, one of Richard’s closest allies before rebelling against him, has also been suggested as a possible suspect because he had ambitions of his own.

 

 The truth is unknown because no contemporary evidence clearly explains what happened.

 

In 1674, workmen rebuilding part of the Tower of London discovered the skeletons of two children under a staircase. Many believed that they were the missing princes. The bones were placed in Westminster Abbey, where they still are today. Modern DNA  testing has never been carried out on them, so we still do not know their true identity.

 

More than five hundred years later, the mystery still continues to fascinate historians. At the heart of the story are two young boys whose future was taken from them. Whatever did happened to the boys, one thing is true, they were just children who were caught up in a dangerous world where ambition and power mattered more than them.

 

What do you think happened to the Princes in the Tower?