Archaeology & History

Princes in the Tower: A 500-year-old murder mystery solved at last?

By T.K. Randall
May 24, 2025 ·  2 comments

A historical depiction of Edward V and the Duke of York. Image Credit: Paul Delaroche - 1830 When the remains of the 15th-Century English monarch King Richard III were unearthed beneath a council car park in 2012, it marked the end of a centuries-old mystery, but there remains another, equally enduring enigma surrounding Richard III that has long proven difficult to definitively solve.

The mystery in question surrounds the story that Richard had his two young nephews - Edward V and the Duke of York (generally known as the Princes in the Tower) - murdered in an attempt to aid his own ambitions.

Trouble is, nobody has been able to determine for sure if this actually happened.

Now, though, following an extensive investigation spanning more than a decade, Philippa Langley - the historian who discovered King Richard III's remains - has reached the conclusion that the princes were most likely not killed by the monarch at all.Her findings are based on an examination of previously unseen letters and documents which suggest that after Richard had died and Henry VII became king, the two young princes reappeared and challenged his claim to the throne.

"But Henry attempted to cast the Yorkist Princes as impostors by giving them false names and reverse-engineering their stories," said Langley.

There are also records suggesting that there had been a rebellion headed up by "Edward IV's son".

Although these discoveries don't absolutely discount the possibility that the two princes really were murdered by Richard III, they do at the very least cast some serious doubt on the matter.

According to Langley, the onus is now on the proponents of the theory to prove that Richard was responsible.

Source: Independent | Comments (2)

Tags: King Richard III