nn
n
n
n
n Their story will always be remembered as one ofnhistory’s most heartbreakingly romantic tragedies. It has all the elements thatnyou could ever wish for – two orphaned young brothers locked away in the deep,ndank dungeons of the Tower of London, one of whom is the King of England untilnhis crown is usurped by their wicked uncle who then arranges, one darknmidnight, to have the young innocents murdered in their beds and their bodiesnhidden away in the depths of the Tower. The tale has been embroidered over thencenturies, with threads added and details embellished, preludes and aftermathsninterwoven, and loose ends neatly tied. So much so, that the facts will nevernbe known.
n
n
n
 |
| The Murdered Princes in the Tower |
n
n
n
nWe do not have much in terms of what we can even consider to benprimary sources –an Italian, Dominic Mancini, was in London in 1483, and laternin the year, when he had returned to France, he made a report of his visit innwhich he repeated a rumour that Richard was suspected of killing his nephews.nIt is possible that this is the report influenced Guilliame de Rochefort, LordnChancellor of France, who repeated the rumour at the Estates-General innTours in 1484, at which another French diplomat was present.
n
n
n
nIn the Memoirsnof Philip de Commines, this diplomat (who did not come to England but wasnin contact with many on both the Lancastrian and Yorkist sides in northern France) whose memoirsnwere not written until about seven years later and not published until 1524,nwrote,
n
n
n
n“Not long after, he [King Louis XI of France] received letters from the Dukenof Gloucester, who had made himself king, styled himself Richard III, andnbarbarously murdered his two nephews.”n
n
n
n
n
 |
| Richard III by John Rous |
n
n
n
nAn unreliable source is John Rous’s HistorianRegum Angliae, in which we find,
n
n
n
n“The throne of the murdered King wasnthen usurped by their Protector, Richard the tyrant, who had remained two yearsnin his mother’s womb, and at Fotheringay on the feast of 4,000 virgins was bornnwith long hair, and his teeth complete … such was Richard, who received hisnmaster Edward with kisses and fawning caresses, and in three months murdered himnand his brother, poisoned his own wife, and what was most detestable both tonGod and the English nation, slew the sanctified Henry VI.”n
n
n
nI do hope thatnyou will agree with me that anyone who believes in two-year pregnancies is notnreally to be trusted when it comes to other matters.
n
n
n
 |
| An abridged royal family tree |
n
n
n
nThe Grey Friars’ Chroniclenhas a single, cryptic line,
n
n
n
n“And the two sonnyes of kynge Edward were put toncilence, and the duke of Glocester toke upone hym the crowne in July, wych wasnthe furst yere of hys rayne.”n
n
n
nThat ‘put to silence’ might mean thatnthe princes were ‘silenced’ by being killed, but it might just be thatnthey were ‘silenced’ by being removed to a place where they could not benheard, a place like the Tower of London, and the deliberate ambiguity is anproleptic safeguard, written by a nervous chronicler who feared how an as-yet unresolved futurenmight turn his record against him.
n
n
n
nThe Continuation of the History ofnCroyland has the following entry,
n
n
n
n“In the meantime, and while thesenthings were going on, the two sons of king Edward before-named remained in thenTower of London … while a rumour was spread that the sons of king Edwardnbefore-named had died a violent death, but it was uncertain how.”n
n
n
n
n
 |
| The Bloody Tower |
n
n
n
nRobertnFabyan’s New Chronicle of England and France for the year 1483 has,
n
n
n
n“INnthis yere the foresayd grudge encreasinge, and the more for asmoche as thencommon fame went that kynge Richarde hadde within the Tower put vnto secretendeth the ii sonnes of his broder Edwarde the iiii.”n
n
n
nFabyan’s Chroniclenmay have been ‘revised’ to suit his new Tudor patrons; it was not printed untiln1515. When the next accounts appear, time and circumstance had given enoughnspace for twists to be added to the story.
n
n
n
nPolydore Vergil wrote his Historynof the Life of Richard III over twenty years after the events, and at thenbehest of Henry VII, who had defeated Richard in battle and had assumed thenthrone in his stead. Vergil wrote that Richard,
n
n
n
n“ … determynyd by death tondispatche his nephewys, because so long as they lyvyd he could never be out ofnhazard; wherefore he sent warrant to Robert Brakenbury, lyvetenant of the towrnof London, to procure ther death with all diligence, by some meane convenyent.”n
n
n
n
n
n
n
 |
| The Princes in the Tower |
n
n
n
nBrakenbury was reluctant to carry out the murder, so Richard arranged for JamesnTyrrell to do the deed and he,
n
n
n
n“… rode sorowfully to the Towere London, andnto the woorst example that hath been almost ever hard of, murderyd those babesnof thyssew [the issue] royall …. king Richard, delyveryd by this factnfrom his care and feare, kept the slaughter not long secret, who, within fewndays after, permyttyd the rumor of ther death to go abrode, to thinterit (as wenmay well beleve) that after the people understoode no yssue male of king Edwardnto be now left alyve, they might with better mynde and good will beare andnsustayne his governement.”n
n
n
nAnd this is the version of events that becamenthe standard account of the murder of the Little Princes in the Tower. SirnThomas More, writing for Henry VIII, another Tudor royal patron, and who wasnthree years old when the event occurred, takes the story of Brakenbury’snreluctance, adds some hired bully boys who,
n
n
n
n“… about midnight (the selynchildren lying in their beddes) came into the chamber, and sodainly lapped themnvp among the clothes, so bewrapped them and entangled them, keping down by forcenthe fetherbed and pillowes hard vnto their mouthes, that within a while smorednand stifled, theyr breath failing, thei gaue vp to God their innocent soulesninto the joyes of heauen, leauing to the tormentors their bodyes dead in thenbed.”n
n
n
nAdd to this Shakespeare’s version in his Richard III andnRichard’s reputation as a murderous traitor is sealed.
n
n
n
 |
| J E Millais – The Princes in the Tower – 1878 |
n
n
n
nThe legend receivednanother shot in the arm during the Victorian times when mawkishlynsentimentalised history paintings came into vogue, and the two boys, hopelesslynvulnerable but heroically brave, cruelly abandoned but pluckily proud, werenideal subjects for this niche market. Consider their pale little facesnsurrounded by shocks of blond curls shining like saints, as they shiver,nhand-in-tiny-hand in their gloomy gaol, uncomprehendingly awaiting whateverntheir terrible fate has next in store for them.
n
n
n
 |
| Clements Markham – Richard III : His Life and Character – 1906 |
n
n
n
nThere have been attempts tonrescue Richard’s name, beginning most notably with Horace Walpole’s HistoricnDoubts on the Life and Reign of Richard III (1768), and followed over thenyears by others, including Richard III: His Life & Character Reviewed InnThe Light Of Recent Research, by Sir Clements Markham in 1906, and anRichard III Society was founded in 1924, with the aim of reappraising thenKing’s posthumous reputation. But that’s for another day.
nnn
n
nnn