Somewhere between 1483 and 1484, two young boys went missing and the world still wonders what happened to them. In 1483, King Edward IV died, leaving his brother Richard III as Lord Protector of his two children, Edward V and Richard IV. Edward V was to be crowned king shortly after, but this was prevented when Richard III declared his parents bigamous, claiming that King Edward IV had married another previous to his union with Elizabeth Woodville and their marriage was illegitimate. Because of this, Edward V and Richard IV were declared bastards. Richard III became king in Edward V’s stead.

Like in a fairy tale, he then locked the two boys inside the inner apartments of the Tower of London, but unlike in modern fairy tales, there was no happy ending. The boys were never seen again. The people were outraged. A rescue was attempted, the people raring to see Edward V on the throne, despite his supposed illegitimacy. Due to this insecurity of the throne, many believe that Richard III killed his nephews to ensure that they never took over. They may have been out of the running, but in his mind, they wouldn’t be out of the race until they were dead.

Ironically enough, Richard III died a humiliating death in 1485, merely two years after he began his reign. Having been brutally murdered by his enemy and successor, Henry VII via two fatal head wounds that created large holes in the back of his skull, modern scientists say bodily mutation after Richard III’s death was likely. It was said that after his death, Richard III was stripped of his armor and clothing and stabbed several times in his backside. His remains were found in 2015, underneath a parking lot in London.

The whereabouts of the bodies of Edward V and Richard IV is still unknown however, several different skeletons having been found that may have belonged to them, but never been confirmed. In 1674, the Tower of London was remodelled, and two skeletons of children were found in a box 10 feet underneath one of the staircases. These skeletons were suggested to have belonged to the princes. They were allegedly found with rags of velvet, leading many to believe that the skeletons had belonged to nobles. The remains were reburied in Westminster Abbey. The skeletons were exhumed in 1933 and scientists reported that they would have been around the correct age to have been the princes. This examination has been criticized though, as only the age of the skeletons were checked, not the sex of the skeletons nor anything else, making it possible that the bodies belonged to girls instead of boys.

These aren’t the only skeletons found in the Tower of London that may have belonged to the princes however. Before the previous skeletons were ever found, the bodies of two other children had been found in a walled up chamber, but not much about these bodies is known aside from that. There was never a follow up investigation, and the skeletons have been lost to time.

The other most likely candidates were found in St. George’s Chapel in 1789. Within Edward IV’s vault, a second tomb leading off from the main vault marked with the names “George Plantagenet” and “Mary Plantagenet” was found. Inside were two small unmarked coffins, having obviously belonged to children. Mary and George were siblings of Edward V and Richard III, having died at ages 14 and 2, respectively. Thus, this wouldn’t have been suspicious had two coffins made of lead and clearly labeled “George Plantagenet” and “Mary Plantagenet” been found in 1810, nearly 20 years later. George and Mary were moved into their marked tomb, but the other two children found inside have never been identified and have rested inside of the tomb belonging to Mary and George Plantagenet ever since.

Could this have been a result of Richard III’s guilt, leading him to put the children to rest with the other children of his deceased brother? Or did Richard truly have nothing to do with it as some have suggested?

It has been proposed that instead of Richard III killing the Princes in the Tower, which is  the most popular theory, it may have been one of his contemporaries, or even his successor, Henry VII, who also killed Richard III’s illegitimate son in his attempts to keep the throne. It has also been put forward that the story of Richard III murdering his nephews only began circulating after his death, during Henry VII’s reign. This has never been confirmed though, and is in fact doubted my most historians.

In the two years of Richard III’s reign, he would have paraded the boys about to cut back the claims that he murdered them if they had truly been alive. During his reign, Richard III also declared his innocence regarding their murder, which he would not have done had they still been alive. Another possible suspect is Richard III’s right hand man, Henry Stafford. Stafford was executed very shortly after Richard III took the throne, suggesting that they had a falling out, but the reasons are unknown. Some theories claim that this was due to the fact the princes died from starvation under Stafford’s care, while others claim that Stafford was shocked at their callous murder by Richard III’s hands.

This brings us back to Richard III. Not only did he refuse to investigate into the prince’s deaths, but his declaration of innocence and the strong motive for keeping the throne in his hands causes him to be the most likely subject. Whether or not he actually killed the Princes in the Tower is unknown, and it is unlikely that it will ever be proven or disproven.

MORE INFORMATION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_the_Tower#Disappearance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London
https://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/osteology.html
https://www.geni.com/people/Mary-Plantagenet-of-York-Princess/6000000001820517642
https://www.geni.com/people/George-Plantagenet-of-York-Duke-of-Bedford/6000000003219740900
https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-princes-in-the-tower-will-the-ultimate-cold-case-finally-be-solved-after-more-than-500-years-10466190.html