‘Princes in the Tower’ may have escaped prison and fled to Europe rather than be killed, new evidence suggests
- It is currently believed that the princes were murdered by their uncle, Richard III
The Princes in the Tower may have escaped prison and fled to Europe rather than be killed, new evidence suggests.
This contrasts with the dominant belief that the two boys, 12-year-old King Edward V and his nine-year-old brother Richard, were murdered by their uncle Richard III in his attempt to get closer to the throne.
Shakespeare dramatizes this theory in his famous play about the Machiavellian king, in which Richard orders his young relatives murdered in the Tower of London.
Amateur historian Philippa Langley, who found Richard’s remains under a car park in Leicester, has now revealed a series of ‘extraordinary discoveries’ that support her theory that the princes escaped.
She will present her findings in a Channel 4 documentary on Saturday. In The Princes in the Tower: The New Evidence, Ms. Langley speaks of “surprising discoveries” she has made after seven years of research.
She believes that a pair of boys who were dismissed as pretenders to the throne – Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck – were the real princes.
These boys each made unsuccessful attempts to depose Henry VII towards the end of the 15th century.
The Princes in the Tower (pictured) may have escaped prison and fled to Europe rather than be killed, new evidence suggests
Edward V – who was never crowned – and his brother were the sons of King Edward IV, who died in 1483.
After being declared illegitimate heirs by Richard III, then Duke of Gloucester, the two princes were taken to the Tower of London and subsequently disappeared from the historical record.
For years, experts have wanted to test the remains of four children – two of which were found in the Tower of London in the 17th century and two in the grounds of Windsor Castle in the 18th century – in the hope that some of Edward and Richard might be are.
However, it was believed that the late Queen Elizabeth II blocked any investigation on the grounds that the bodies had long been buried in royal crypts.
Ms Langley said documents from European archives point to the princes’ escape and later attempts to invade England.
One piece of evidence is an apparent witness statement from Richard, who was nine when he disappeared.
Written ten years later, the author remembers being taken from the tower by Henry and Thomas Percy.
‘They shaved my hair and put me in a shabby and boring shirt and we went to St Katharine’s [dock],” the document reads.
In Shakespeare’s play Richard III, the Machiavellian royal family has his two cousins murdered in the Tower of London (pictured) in an attempt to get closer to the throne
The account then says that they took the boat to go to Boulogne-sur-Mer before traveling to Portugal.
Experts have determined that it was written during that period.
Another document from 1483, which appears to bear the signature of ‘Richard, Duke of York’, says that Richard will pay 30,000 florins to Duke Albert of Saxony within a few months of landing on the English throne.
Philippa Langley and Rob Rinder front Channel 4’s new Princes in the Tower documentary.
The Princes in the Tower: The New Evidence airs on Saturday at 8pm on Channel 4.