HistorIQly Mysteries

The Tower

Two Missing Princes and the Disputed Succession of 1483

About this edition 12 chapters · 9,400 words · 38–53 min read

Reading the evidence

Distinguish contemporary records from later histories written under different rulers. Opportunity, motive, and political benefit do not establish murder, and remains or survival claims need independent identification before they can settle the case.

History and reconstruction

This account uses reconstructed scenes, atmosphere, and private thoughts. These passages are storytelling, not eyewitness testimony. Dialogue without a traceable source should be read as reconstruction, not as a verbatim historical quotation. The further reading in the EPUB provides context; it is not a citation for every sentence.

Sources for this editorial note

Free EPUB CASE 03-1483 STATUS: UNSOLVED
Illustrated cover of The Tower
Date Summer 1483
Location Tower of London
Status UNSOLVED
INVESTIGATE

In 1483, Edward V, aged twelve, and his nine-year-old brother Richard were lodged in the Tower of London. Their uncle replaced Edward as king. The visitor Dominic Mancini reported that the brothers were seen less often until they no longer appeared. No agreed account establishes what happened next.

Early reports of violent death, later murder narratives and proposed survival evidence point in different directions. The brothers' fate remains unresolved.

The Victims

2

Edward V, the uncrowned king, and his brother Richard, Duke of York, disappeared from public view during the succession crisis of 1483.

Years Unsolved

543

Their disappearance has prompted debate for more than five centuries; no remains have been conclusively identified as theirs.

Suspects

4

Richard III, Buckingham and Henry VII feature in competing theories. Later accusations against Margaret Beaufort lack a documented link to a killing.

Pretenders

2

Simnel was presented as the Earl of Warwick in the standard account of the 1487 rebellion. Warbeck claimed to be Richard, the younger missing prince.

Exhibit A

The Evidence

The Princes in the Tower by John Everett Millais, 1878
MILLAIS — THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER, 1878

Reports from the Tower

The Great Chronicle recalls the princes playing in the Tower garden. Mancini separately reports their withdrawal from view and Edward's fear of death, associated with the physician John Argentine. These accounts do not establish an exact last-sighting date.

The Bloody Tower at the Tower of London
THE BLOODY TOWER — TOWER OF LONDON

The Bloody Tower

The Garden Tower and Bloody Tower are names for the same building. The princes' exact rooms are uncertain. Bones found near the White Tower in 1674 recalled More's burial story, but their location and identity remain disputed.

The skeleton of Richard III discovered in Leicester, 2012
RICHARD III — LEICESTER EXCAVATION, 2012

The King Under the Car Park

The Leicester excavation found remains later identified as Richard III through archaeology, physical examination, genealogy and DNA. The discovery clarified his burial and spinal condition; it supplied no direct evidence about the princes' fate.

Chronology

A Crown Seized, Two Boys Lost

APR 1483

The King Dies

Edward IV dies on 9 April, aged forty. His son succeeds as Edward V, while Richard of Gloucester takes a leading role in government. Control of the boy and arrangements for his coronation become contested.

APR 30

The Stony Stratford Coup

After meeting Rivers at Northampton, Gloucester detains the king's guardians and takes control of Edward at Stony Stratford. Elizabeth Woodville returns to sanctuary at Westminster with her younger children.

JUN 13

Hastings Executed

Hastings is arrested at a council meeting and executed that day without an ordinary trial. Other councillors are detained. On 16 June the younger prince leaves sanctuary and joins Edward in the Tower.

JUL 6

Richard III Crowned

Richard is crowned after accepting the throne in June on the basis of a claim that Edward IV's children are illegitimate. Parliament confirms the title in January 1484 through Titulus Regius.

1485

Bosworth Field

Richard dies at Bosworth and Henry Tudor becomes Henry VII. Reports that the princes had died were already circulating before this change of dynasty; no securely identified bodies are produced.

1674

Bones Discovered

Bones of two children are found during work near the White Tower and later placed in Westminster Abbey. The 1933 examination produces age estimates compatible with the princes but does not establish their identities.

Dossier

Key Figures

Portrait of King Richard III
The King and Custodian

Richard III

The princes' uncle became Protector and then king in 1483. Their disappearance during his custody forms the core of the circumstantial case against him. The surviving record supplies no authenticated murder order.

Portrait of Elizabeth Woodville
The Mother

Elizabeth Woodville

Edward IV's widow and the princes' mother sought sanctuary at Westminster. Her younger son left her protection in June 1483. She later negotiated safeguards for her daughters and died in 1492.

The princes in their chamber, after Paul Delaroche
Paul Delaroche’s nineteenth-century interpretation of the princes in their chamber. A later artistic scene, not an eyewitness depiction.

The Daughter of Time

Edward V and Richard entered the Tower during a struggle over government and succession. Their uncle became king; Henry VII later defeated him and married their sister. Neither reign left an agreed explanation of the boys' fate.

The Westminster urn commemorates two royal children, but the bones it contains have not been conclusively identified. The monument preserves a historical belief as well as an unresolved question.

Get the Full Book

The complete story — from the Wars of the Roses to the car park in Leicester, from the vanishing of two princes to the mystery that still haunts England.