Recently two television documentaries have been screened on National television in the UK, both claiming to reveal new evidence in the fate of the “Princes in the Tower” Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York, the young sons and heirs of King Edward IV.
The young princes disappeared without trace while aged 12 and 9 after their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed Lord Protector and took the boys into his care and confined them in the Tower of London in 1483. Within three months of the death of Edward IV in April, his brother the Duke of Gloucester claimed the throne and was crowned Richard III the following July and the young princes were never seen again.
The popular perception of Richard III is that he was responsible for the death of the two young princes, after all, as Lord Protector he alone was accountable for their well-being. They were under his care when they disappeared, and he surely had the most to gain by eliminating them from the line of succession.
The fate of the two young princes is one of the greatest mysteries of British history. Today, over 540 years later, argument continues as to whether their uncle King Richard III was responsible for the boys’ murders or if they escaped the tower and lived on. Does the received wisdom portray a faithful record of events or is Richard III an innocent victim of malicious ‘Tudor propaganda’?
The UK Channel 5 documentary Princes in the Tower: A Damning Discovery, (first screened 3rd December 2024) and The Princes in the Tower: The New Evidence (UK Channel 4, first screened 18th November, 2023) both claimed to present new evidence]for either side of the argument.
The newspapers reported the documentary as uncovering evidence that may finally solve the mystery of the Princes in the Tower after 500 years.1
The Damning Discovery: The Chain
The ‘bombshell’ evidence of the C5 documentary Princes in the Tower: A Damning Discovery presented jointly by Tracy Borman, Chief Historian at Historic Royal Palaces and Jason Watkins, actor and narrator of the television series Inside The Tower of London, was the discovery of a reference to an item belonging to one of the Princes. The disappearance of the two Princes was so complete and clean that not a trace of their existence since their confinement in the Tower in the summer of 1483 has been found. Until now.
Tim Thornton, Professor of History and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Huddersfield, has found reference to a chain belonging to Edward V bequeathed in the Will of Margaret, Lady Capell. This is a significant find because it is the first reference in 500 years to the discovery of any physical item belonging to one of the ‘Princes in the Tower’. However, the documentary lost some credibility when this chain was suddenly elevated to Edward V’s ‘chain of office’. Now that would be quite damning but in Lady Capell’s Will it was described as simply a chain.
The Will, found in the Register of Wills held at the National Archives entry of 1516, detailed a chain that belonged to Edward V that Lady Capell bequeathed to her son Giles. It is unclear how Edward’s chain came into the possession of Lady Capell. Yet the Will of her late husband Sir William Capell, the two-time lord mayor of London, refers to business dealings with the Tyrell family. Indeed Sir William is known to have exchanged jewelry with Sir James Tyrell, his brother-in-law, and trusted servant of Richard III.2
Professor Thornton said, “'…… while there is a clear possibility that the chain came to the Capell family in some neutral way, as the king’s property was distributed in the aftermath of Edward’s disappearance, there is also the possibility that it came as a result of his murder– and through the Capells’ connection with the alleged murderer, Sir James Tyrell.”
The discovery of the reference to a chain of Edward V suggests that Sir Thomas More's account of the murder of the Princes in the Tower contained within his History of King Richard III, much discredited by Ricardians, may not simply be Tudor propaganda.
Thomas More and James Tyrell
Tyrell was named by by Sir Thomas More as the man who hired two men to carry out the killing of the young Princes Edward and Richard. More appears to have had contact with the son of one of those men claimed to have been responsible for the death of the Princes, which Thornton claims is a possible source from where he heard the murder story.3
More used a courier to transport his letters to the English court, one is named as 'M Forest', the son of one of the men he named as the murderer of the Princes. Did More get his account of the Princes's killers direct from this M Forest?
However, sympathisers of Richard III accuse More of bias as he was educated in the house of the Tudor loyalist Cardinal Morton, a staunch enemy of Richard III, and fabricated his accounts to favour the Tudors. More was much closer to these events than modern historians and perhaps his account should not be dismissed so lightly. More was a man who went to his death for his beliefs; he refused to acknowledge the annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and refused to sign the 1534 Oath of Succession making Henry supreme head of the Church of England. More was charged with treason and executed on 6 July 1535 at Tower Hill. Ironically, 50 years to the day when Richard III was crowned.
Even if we accept More’s account that Tyrell was involved with the disappearance of the Princes this chain doesn't help us determine if they died in the Tower or escaped and survived. Tyrell’s henchmen may have taken the chain from the dead body of Edward V, or he may have been given the chain by Edward for helping him escape the Tower or other services unknown; we really have no idea how the family of James Tyrell came by this chain, or its whereabouts today.
After Richard III died at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, Tyrell started working for the first Tudor king Henry VII, but their relationship turned sour and he was imprisoned. More claims that when at the Tower, Tyrell confessed to the murder of the Princes.
The C5 documentary examined the ‘King’s Itinerary’ and found that from 27 April - 2 May 1502 Henry VII was at the Tower, the only time that year, the same time as Tyrell is said to have confessed. Henry VII is known to have personally attended several confessions of his enemies. A record of the confession has not survived, but according to More, Tyrell claimed that two men named Dighton and Forest killed the boys. The same time that Tyrell was there in the Tower. Elizabeth of York, Henry VII's wife and sister to the two princes, visited the Tower. Immediately after visiting the tower Elizabeth went to visit her aunt, Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk and sister to Edward IV and Richard III, as if bearing some important news; the documentary speculates that it may have been Tyrell’s confession that revealed the fate of the two young princes.
On the Otherside
The day after its first screening (03/12/24) The Daily Mail reported, "Row breaks out over Princes in the Tower murder evidence as Richard III's defenders pour cold water on new 'smoking gun' document.”4
The newspaper states “Philippa Langley, the amateur-turned-professional historian who played a key role in the discovery of Richard III's remains beneath a Leicester car park in 2012 claimed the evidence is 'conjecture at best'.”
The Richard III Society, which says it works to 'secure a more balanced assessment of the king', issued a five-point rebuttal of the findings. Richard III Society 'Statement On The Chain' arguing that the discovery of a reference to Edward V’s chain that Thornton claims supports the theory that the Princes in the Tower were murdered 'cannot be deemed as evidence but conjecture'.5
Ms Langley, a staunch defender of the maligned king Richard III, said, “When Sir William Stanley was executed in 1495 a gold chain was found amongst his belongings. This is said to have been his chain as Steward of Edward V (when Prince of Wales). No one has ever suggested that Sir William Stanley murdered Edward V because he kept his gold chain.”
She added, “Historians have to be very careful about what they present as ‘evidence’”.6
In 2023 Ms Langley revealed the discovery of documents that she claims suggested both of the Princes, Edward and Richard, the sons of Edward IV, survived their imprisonment in the Tower of London and went on to assume the identities of two usurpers who challenged Henry VII for the crown. It follows that if the Princes survived the Tower then Richard III is therefore exonerated of their deaths.
Case solved: Quod Erat Demonstrandum.
Ms Langley assembled a team of researchers, The Missing Princes Project in 2016, which last year uncovered documents that she claims proves that both Edward V and his younger brother Richard, the Duke of York, fled to Europe and assumed the identities of Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, who are long known to have launched failed attempts to depose Henry VII in the late 15th century. However, the documents were dismissed as unverified evidence at the time by some academic historians.
The New Evidence: Proofs Of Life
Whereas the Channel 5 television documentary presented the record of a ‘chain’ that belonged to Edward V that somehow came into the possession of the family of James Tyrell, the man named by Thomas More7 as being responsible for the murder of the Princes at the instructions of Richard III, a year earlier Channel 4 screened a documentary presenting ‘New Evidence’ claiming that the two sons of Edward IV, ‘the alleged victims of an alleged murder’, actually survived and did not die in the Tower. The well known TV barrister Rob Rinder was provided to sift through the evidence to deliver his expert verdict as if to add some legal weight to these claims.
NO, Richard III did not order the killing of the two princes. Ricardians dismiss that as just Tudor propaganda. It was disappointing to see the respected historian Janina Ramirez just brush off anti-Richard literature as such. True, some later accounts such as Polydore Vergil certainly were produced to bolster the claims of Henry VII to the throne and in doing so malign the Plantagenets. But not all documents from the late-15th century can be considered as such.
Since finding the remains of Richard III under a car park in Leicester in 2012, supporters of the last Plantagenet king have switched their attention to the alternative theory that claims both Princes, the young sons of Edward IV, survived the Tower, and escaped to Europe. They returned to Britain to fight against the first Tudor king Henry VII to, unsuccessfully, restore the Yorkist claim to the throne. If the Princes escaped the Tower and lived on to fight another day then Richard III must be totally exonerated of the 500 year accusation that he had them killed. And that, we may suspect, is the real purpose of the Missing Princes Project led by Philippa Langley who is emotionally attached to Richard III.
The 2024 Channel 4 documentary was based on Langley’s book, ‘The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case’ (The History Press, November 2023) which claimed the Princes survived the tower. Case solved?
Langley is well known for the discovery of the remains of Richard III under a car park in Leicester in 2012. She was as the public face of the ‘Looking for Richard’ project which, following seven years of investigation, culminated in the discovery, exhumation, positive identification and re-interment of King Richard III in Leicester Cathedral.
Langley is an avid Ricardian and believes the bad reputation of Richard III as portrayed by Shakespeare’s play based on Sir Thomas More’s account which has endured for the last five hundred years as totally undeserved and largely due to Tudor propaganda. She is adamant that Richard was not the evil uncle that the sources depicted.
Accordingly, Langley and fellow Ricardians see no supporting evidence for the Princes’ death at the hands of Richard III. Richard was absent from London when rumours started circulating about the disappearance of the Princes and he was in York in early September 1483 when the Prices were seen at the Tower.
But where did the Princes go; they are not seen after Richard placed them in the Tower. To solve this perennial mystery Langley was instrumental in launching the ‘Missing Princes Project’ in 2016 as a follow up to ‘Looking for Richard’, with the objective of establishing the facts of what happened to the two Princes following their disappearance in 1483.
Using the same methodology as a modern police investigation, ‘Accept nothing – Believe nobody – Challenge everything’ Langley admits The Missing Princes Project is not an academic study but an intelligence gathering exercise requiring the examination of all contemporary and near contemporary source material. After a seven year search concluding the first phase of the Project, Langley believes she has solved the 540 year old mystery of the missing princes.
Langley argues that all records dating to the reign of Richard III revealed no evidence of the death of the two Princes. Both Edward V and Richard, Duke of York are referenced as alive in all existing day-to-day accounting and legal records during the reign of Richard III. Stories of the murder of the two Princes, she claims, originated in England with the arrival of Henry Tudor and his French invasion force on 14 August 1485.
Langley cites four ‘Proofs’ that show the two young Princes survived the Tower:
- Edward V: Proof of Life: The Lille receipt, dated 16 December 1487, discovered by the Dutch Research Group in May 2020, records payment by King Maximilian I for 400 long pikes. The receipt is signed by three leading members of Maximilian’s court and references Edward’s aunt Margaret of York in Burgundy. Langley argues that the Lille receipt suggests that Edward V was alive, or thought to be alive, in December 1487, then 17 years of age.
- Richard, Duke of York: Proof of Life: The Gelderland document, rediscovered by the Dutch Research Group in November 2020, in the Gelderland archive, in Arnhem, Netherlands. The Gelderland document is a record of what happened to Richard, Duke of York over the ten years from when he left sanctuary at Westminster in 1483, age 9, up to his arrival at the court of his aunt, Margaret of York, in Burgundy in 1493. It is a witness statement, Richard’s biography, written in the first person, undated and unsigned.
- A document in the Dresden archive in Germany recorded a receipt and pledge of payment of 30,000 florins by ‘Richard of England’ to Duke Albert of Saxony dated 4 October 1493. The document is signed by ‘Richard of England’ with his royal monogram and seal.
- From the Austrian archives is a letter from King Maximilian to Henry VII of England, dated 1493, in which Maximilian declares that Henry will know that this Richard, Duke of York, is the true son of King Edward (IV) because he can be recognised by three marks on his body
These documents appear to be genuine documents of the time, indeed the Gelderland document has been dated by Andrew Dunning at Oxford and authenticated as late 15th century. However, Langley’s conclusions, and particularly her scrutiny of the sources, has not been without criticism.8 She accepts these as genuine proofs that Edward and Richard escaped the Tower without scrutiny of their origin or verification by external sources.
The Dresden document promising payment of 30K florins, dated 1493, displays the signature of ‘Richard of England’ and the associated seal has the appearance of being authentic. However, they do not provide proof of Richard’s survival: how do we know it is Richard’s signature, what are we comparing it to, is there a genuine signature from Richard on record? Similarly, what are we comparing the seal to? And the claimed ‘marks’ on Richard’s body, where are the original accounts of these marks on Prince Richard’s body, prior to his disappearance? And how would Henry VII know these marks?
Surely, to maximise support for a Yorkist rebellion against Henry VII the conspirators would want to convince people that the figurehead was Edward V or his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, the rightful heirs to the throne who survived the tower.
From these unverified sources Langley has accepted that the Two Princes escaped the Tower and reappeared under the names Lambert Simnel, and later as Perkin Warbeck: Edward and Richard respectively. Supported by their aunt Margaret of Burgundy, ‘the diabolical duchess’, they made separate, unsuccessful Yorkist attempts to retake the throne. Edward was said to be Simnel, who was the central figure in the 1487 Yorkist invasion of England ending in the Battle of Stoke Field. Warbeck, who had initially claimed to be Richard, failed in a 1497 bid to claim the throne and then before his execution signed a confession admitting he was a boatman's son.
Indeed these are exactly the type of documents you expect to be produced by Yorkist challengers to Henry VII claiming to be legitimate heirs to the Yorkist line. If one were pretending to be Edward V to raise an army and challenge the king you would not be using your real name.
Simnel and Warbeck would hardly sign documents in their real names but we could expect them to use a pseudonym such as Edward V or Richard of England. The Gelderland document would have also been constructed for the purpose of showing Richard as the ‘genuine article’ and maximising support. Forgeries of this kind were not uncommon in the Medieval period when documents were altered to support the claims of Kings.9
Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy, sister to Edward IV and Richard III, is associated with many of these so-called ‘Proofs’. Margaret was only too willing to support anyone prepared to challenge Henry VII and restore the Yorkist line. She provided financial backing for weapons and mercenaries to both the Yorkist pretenders Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. She even claimed Warbeck was her nephew Richard, the youngest son of Edward IV.
With regard to Philippa Langley’s four proofs historian Michael Hicks specialising in the Wars of the Roses writes:
“. . . for the survival of the two Princes in the Tower after 1485. Neither the Lille document nor supporting evidences prove that Lambert Simnel was really Edward V rather than Edward, earl of Warwick. The Gelderland manifesto recounting the escape of Richard, duke of York and the pretender’s pledge to Duke Albert of Saxony were propaganda as necessary for the imposter Perkin Warbeck as for the real prince. The blemishes of Warbeck’s body cannot be shown to identify him as the younger prince. While useful additions to the continental plots against Henry VII, these new evidences do not prove that either prince lived beyond the reign of Richard III.”10
Langley set out her investigation to “accept nothing, believe nobody and challenge everything” but she fails to adhere to her own criteria and accepts the “proofs” without further scrutiny or verification by other external sources. In comparison, Thomas More is virtually demonised as a blatant liar by Ricardians but Langley all too readily accepts these ‘Proofs’ as the genuine article without challenge, a methodology which has raised concerns among her own researchers.
The use of the findings of the Dutch Research Group (DRG), who are part of the Missing Princes research team, has been termed ‘premature and counter productive’. This statement comes from members of the DRG, not from any anti-Ricardian critic. In a letter to the Ricardian Bulletin Zoe Maula, Jean Roefstra and William Wiss, former members of the research group, note that their concerns about using the finds in the publication of the book, and documentary.
“Although we agree that the contemporary documents are genuine and valid, the finds made by the DRG are in our own opinion open to various interpretations and do not constitute irrefutable proof without other genuine and undoubted sources to back up what these documents are telling us – or what we (wish to) believe they are telling us.” 11
As Ms Langley told the Daily Mail, “Historians have to be very careful about what they present as ‘evidence’”.12
Notes & References
1. What The Papers said:
a. The Telegraph (02/12/24) reported "The ‘smoking gun’ evidence that could finally prove Princes in the Tower were murdered. Discovery of a will shines new light on the centuries-old unsolved case."
b. The Mirror (02/12/24) was much the same: "Princes in the Tower mystery could finally be solved after 500 years in new documentary."
c. The Daily Mail (02/12/24) heralded the program as "The 'murder' of the Princes in the Tower 'solved at last': New evidence links their 'killer to gold chain of 12-year old Edward V".
2. Tim Thornton, Sir William Capell and A Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V,, Volume 109, Issue 388, December 2024, pp.445-460. Open Access.
3. Tim Thornton, More on a Murder: The Deaths of the ‘Princes in the Tower’, and Historiographical Implications for the Regimes of Henry VII and Henry VIII, History: The Journal of the Historical Association, Volume106, Issue369, January 2021, pp.4-25. Open Access.
4. The Daily Mail (03/12/24) : "Row breaks out over Princes in the Tower murder evidence as Richard III's defenders pour cold water on new 'smoking gun' document.”
5. Richard III Society Statement On The Chain
6. The Daily Mail (03/12/24) : "Row breaks out over Princes in the Tower....”
7. Thomas More, The History of King Richard the Third, 1513, pp.85-86. [PDF}
8. What the historians say:
a. Conflicting ‘Proof’ and the Princes in the Tower – Dan Moorhouse, (Wars of The Rosed)
b. Sourcing the truth: the fatal flaws of Langley’s quest - Gareth Streeter (Royal History Geeks)
- 9. The Princes in the Tower: David Pilling on ‘The New Evidence’ (Aspects of History)
11. The Ricardian Bulletin, page 4. June 2024.
12. The Daily Mail (03/12/24) : "Row breaks out over Princes in the Tower......”
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