Top Secret

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Detectives, I need your help to solve a 529 year old mystery!

These 2 princes were regularly seen playing at the Tower of London. But then, around the beginning of June, 1483, they dropped out of sight. Rumours began to circulate, perhaps started by enemies of Richard III, that the princes had been murdered. Richard was well aware of these rumours, but he did not stop them. Why didn’t he show them to the world and stop the rumours? Were they indeed dead?

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Names: Prince Edward and Price Richard

Father: King Edward IV

Ages: 12 and 9

Crime: They disappeared

Hypothesis: Do you think the princes were murdered?

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

In order to solve this crime, you need to pay attention to the following things

1.Enemies of the princes2.Family of the princes3.Motives of the men involved 4.Tower of London 5.Pretenders

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Suspect: Henry Tudor

Relationship to the Princes: enemyHis claim to the throne was weak, and came from his mother, Margaret Beaufort.

Motive: Henry was a Lancaster who was at war with the King of England who was a Yorkist. When the king of England died, Henry saw this as his chance to take the throne from the new 12 year old king.

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Suspect: Richard, Duke of Gloucester

Relationship to victims: was the uncle of the two princes.

Motive: He was next in line to be king if the princes were dead.

Other information: The old king, Edward IV, in 1483 put Richard in charge of the country until the princes grew up. But, the princes' mother Elizabeth hated Richard III, and wanted to run the country without him.When Edward IV died Richard along with the Duke of Buckingham seized the two princes from their mother. Richard and Buckingham then put the princes in the Tower of London to live.

Who else had access to the princes?

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Suspect: The Duke of Buckingham

Relationship to the princes: One of the great barons and soldiers of the time. He was a close friend of Richard when the king, Edward IV died in early 1483. He and Richard seized the princes and had them sent to the Tower of London in June.

Motive: At this time Buckingham wanted to be king. The easy thing for him was to kill the princes and then attempt to kill Richard.

Important additional information: After the princes went to live in the Tower of London Buckingham was still in London - Richard had left. Now Buckingham had soldiers in his private army to kill the princes, a motive, and a way to get into the Tower of London with a governor who would have obeyed his orders.

Where were the princes taken to?

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Place of Disappearance: The Tower of London

The Tower of London was both a royal family home, a palace, as well as a prison. When the princes went to the Tower of London to live, they were not being sent to prison.Where the princes lived overlooks the river. It is cut off from the view of the public.The governor of the Tower of London had the keys to the princes’ bedroom.

Who had access to the Princes’ bedroom?

The Tower of London

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Sir Robert Brackenbury was the governor of the Tower. He was a close friend of King Richard III.Richard made him governor of the Tower on 17 July 1483. Richard could rely on Brackenbury to keep the princes safe - he would do what he said. Brackenbury had the keys to the princes ’ bedroom.

Where should we search for Evidence?

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Police Report: the princes’ bedroom was searched. The room was empty. There were pieces of the boy’s clothing on the floor. No sign of the boys.

There appears to be stones at the bottom of the stairs which have been moved. This looks suspicious.

What do you want to investigate next?

The Princes Bedroom

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

What is at the bottom of the stairs?

Police Report: Under the stairs were found the skeletons of two young male children. They may have been the princes, but it is not clear whether the skeletons were of boys of the right age.

Were these the princes?

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Eye Witness Report : A French Writer

The bones found in the Tower were in a bricked up room close to the princes’ bedroom.

The boys were locked up in a room. The bricks covered the door, no one could get in and no one could get out. The boys died of hunger.

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Name: Perkin Warbeck

Relationship to the princes: claimed that he was Richard, youngest son of Edward IV. Over the course of several years Warbeck gathered support from abroad, and landed in England in 1497.

Death: Henry VII had him thrown in prison, where he was subsequently executed.

Did the Princes survive?

A New Lead in the Case?

It seems unlikely, but Elizabeth Woodville certainly seems to to think they did. The former queen testified before Parliament that she did not agree to the assumption that they were dead. She never, to the day of her death, claimed they had been murdered.

Background Suspects EvidenceEye Witness Case Closed?

Case Closed?

Monarchs and their Problems

People thought King Richard killed his nephews. What kinds of problems would

this cause to his rule?