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What happened to the Princes in the Tower? Source Scholarship In 1484, Queen Elizabeth Woodville (the mother of the princes) sent all her daughters from sanctuary to Richard’s court at Westminster. Christmas that year was celebrated with great splendor. There was lots of dancing and laughter. It was clear that Elizabeth trusted Richard with her daughters.
Written in the Croyland Chronicle in 1486 by a monk. Some historians think he got his information from a councilor at the royal court. A B Killing the princes may not have been Richard’s first choice, and I reject all assertions he was a tyrant or monster. But when you place yourself in his shoes during that tense summer – uncertain who around him was friend or foe – it is surely credible he acted decisively to the benefit of himself and his line. Unpalatable as it may be to the modern observer, I’d argue Richard had learnt from the hesitancy of his father, Richard, 3rd Duke of York, who ended his life with his head spiked on a gateway after defeat in battle by the Lancastrians.
Historian Nathan Amin, writing in BBC History Magazine in 2020 Story “ King Richard wanted Sir James Tyrell to carry out his wishes. Tyrell decided that the princes should be murdered in their beds. He picked Miles Forest and John Dighton to do the job.
About midnight Forest and Dighton entered the room where the children lay in their beds and forced the feather bed and pillows hard into their mouths until they stopped breathing.
They laid their bodies out on the bed and fetched Sir James Tyrell to see them. Then he got the murderers to bury them at the bottom of the stairs, deep in the ground under a heap of stones. Later a priest dug up the bodies and moved them to a place which only he knew.
Written in 1513 by Sir Thomas More. More was brought up by John Morton, a man who hated Richard III because he put him in prison in 1483. I am certain that the princes were alive when Henry came to London in August 1485. He issued a proclamation, giving out all Richard’s supposed crimes and this list does not include killing the princes. That to my mind is proof that they were not even missing. Richard had no reason to kill them; Henry had every reason. If they lived, all he had fought for would be useless because Prince Edward had more right to be king than Henry Tudor. Henry spread the word that Richard had done the killing. Henry Tudor, murderer and liar- it is time the truth was known!
Written by historian Philip Lindsay in Argosy magazine in 1972<br>
