0:00

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production

0:02

of I Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild

0:05

from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion

0:07

is advised. In

0:17

the BBC's History magazine,

0:20

History Extra ran a poll

0:22

online asking readers to

0:24

vote for their favorite historical

0:26

mystery. There were twenty

0:29

choices, ranging from the

0:31

purpose of Stonehenge to the

0:33

translation of the Voytage manuscript

0:35

to the final resting place

0:38

of Jesus Christ's body. With

0:40

twenty choices, they probably

0:43

anticipated that it was going to be a

0:45

close race, one where perhaps

0:47

a few front runners emerged. One

0:50

of the mysteries wiped the

0:53

floor with the other choices. More

0:56

than one in three readers voted

0:58

for the Exact Say mystery,

1:00

which ended up at a final percentage

1:03

more than double the votes of

1:05

the mystery that came in second place. The

1:08

first place winner for the History

1:10

Extra poll. The historical

1:12

mystery that captivated and compelled

1:15

readers beyond wanting to know

1:17

what happened to the actual Jesus Christ.

1:20

Was this what happened

1:22

to the Princes in the Tower. In

1:28

fourteen eighty three, two

1:31

boys, the sons and heirs

1:33

of the late King Edward the Fourth,

1:36

were put into the Tower of London,

1:38

ostensibly to prepare and keep

1:41

safe before the older boy, King

1:43

Edward the Fifth coronation. But

1:46

while they were safely behind the walls

1:48

of the castle fortress, their

1:50

uncle and the regent, Richard, Duke

1:53

of Gloucester, announced that

1:55

new information had emerged that

1:57

the boys were actually legitimate.

2:01

That summer, the man coronated

2:04

was actually Richard himself, who

2:06

became King Richard the Third.

2:09

He reigned briefly until

2:11

Henry Tudor bested him in battle

2:14

and claimed the throne, beginning

2:16

the Tudor dynasty and more

2:19

or less ending the civil war that had

2:21

raged for decades over the English

2:23

throne known as the War of

2:25

the Roses. People

2:28

had seen the two princes,

2:31

they weren't quite princes, but we'll get

2:33

to that later, playing outside

2:36

on the lawns of the Tower of London

2:38

that summer in but

2:41

then their servants were dismissed. The

2:44

princes were moved deeper within

2:46

the grounds of the castle to the towers

2:48

inner apartments, and

2:50

then one day no one

2:53

ever saw them again. The

2:58

two doomed princes have come

3:00

famous over the centuries through

3:02

depictions in art. Perhaps

3:04

the most iconic painting of the boys

3:07

was done in eighteen seventy eight

3:09

by Sir John Everett Millay, and

3:12

it features the boys dressed in all

3:14

black. They look younger than

3:16

they would have actually been twelve

3:18

and nine, and in the painting

3:21

they're almost cherubic under halos

3:23

of blonde hair, as the painter

3:26

portrays them their innocence,

3:29

martyrs of the cruel ambitions

3:32

of the grown men around them.

3:34

Most people probably learned the story

3:37

of the Princess through Shakespeare. In

3:39

his play Richard the Third, Shakespeare

3:42

portrays the king as a scheming,

3:45

villainous hunchback who lurks

3:47

in the shadows, waiting for his moment

3:49

to claim power and eventually

3:52

to murder his own nephews in

3:54

order to secure the crown. The

3:57

Lord Chancellor Thomas Moore perhaps

3:59

wrote the most famous historical

4:01

account of Richard the Third, similarly

4:04

portraying him as a murderous tyrant.

4:07

It was More who first named names

4:10

when it came to the Prince's alleged

4:12

murderers, and he added the compelling

4:14

details that their young bodies

4:17

were buried under a staircase

4:19

in the Tower of London. But

4:21

it's important to remember that both of those

4:24

men. More and Shakespeare were

4:26

writing under the Tutor dynasty.

4:29

History is told by the victors,

4:31

after all, and Richard the Third

4:33

was the end of his family's line.

4:36

When Henry Tutor defeated him in battle

4:38

and became King Henry the Seventh, his

4:41

claim was pretty weak. There

4:44

were other older families

4:46

that really, arguably

4:48

should have gotten the crown ahead of him,

4:50

and his claim was really predicated

4:52

on the fact that his victory over

4:54

Richard the Third in the Battle of bosworth Field

4:57

was God's will anointing him king.

5:00

His power relied then on Richard

5:03

the Third being a villainous usurper.

5:05

Otherwise he Henry the seventh,

5:08

would be the usurper. And

5:10

so did Richard the Third actually

5:13

order the death of his own nephews in

5:15

order to secure his crown. Or

5:17

was he manipulated after death into

5:20

a villain by the Tutor pr machine

5:23

when the boys might have been killed by them

5:25

the Tutors all along, or

5:27

did the boys survive and

5:30

run away to live peaceful lives

5:32

as park rangers in pastoral England.

5:35

Over the years, the question

5:37

of the Princes in the Tower has baffled

5:40

and fascinated historians and

5:42

casual hobbyists alike, to

5:44

the point where factions have

5:47

formed and become deeply entrenched,

5:50

another smaller scale war of

5:52

the roses happening among the history

5:54

set. Here are

5:56

the facts as we know them, that

5:59

two boys came into the Tower of

6:01

London, the sons of a king

6:03

who should have been protected and

6:05

powerful. But power

6:08

is only as meaningful as one's

6:10

ability to wield it, and

6:12

kings are only kings so long

6:15

as those around them choose to obey

6:17

them. Whether you believe

6:19

in murder or tutor plots

6:22

or daring escapes, the heart

6:24

of the matter is a reminder that the

6:26

divine right to rule is fragile.

6:30

Kings can be toppled by rumors

6:32

as well as swords. Sometimes

6:34

they're toppled by both. We

6:37

will likely never find a

6:39

definite answer to the question of

6:41

what happened to the princes in the tower. Let

6:44

me get that out of the way upfront, lest

6:46

you listen to this whole episode hoping that

6:48

I'm going to be the one to crack this thing wide

6:51

open. Of course, I do have

6:53

my own theory as to what happened,

6:56

but I also believe that the killing of the

6:58

two boys was a little less

7:00

pat and a little less villainous

7:03

than Shakespeare made it seem

7:05

it was an era of kill or be

7:08

killed, and with the walls closing

7:10

in on him, Richard the Third

7:13

had a decision to make I'm

7:15

Dana Schwartz, and this is

7:17

noble blood. When

7:33

the man we now know as Richard

7:35

the Third was born in fourteen fifty

7:37

two, he was almost an afterthought.

7:40

He was his parents fourth child and

7:42

third son. They already had

7:45

their air and their spare. In

7:47

a family chronicle published when Richard

7:49

was a child, their only note

7:51

on the young Richard was that he quote

7:54

liveth Yet Richard's father

7:57

was also confusingly named Richard

7:59

the d of York, also known as

8:01

Richard Plantagenet. He

8:04

was an incredibly important nobleman

8:06

at the time, inheriting a claim

8:08

to the throne through his own mother, which

8:10

made him a key figure in the War of

8:12

the Roses, which began unfolding

8:15

in earnest during Richard the Third's childhood.

8:18

Entire books can be and have

8:21

been written about the War of the Roses,

8:23

but I'm going to do an incredibly brief

8:26

cursory overview just to give

8:28

you an idea of how complicated

8:31

the seemingly simple question of who

8:33

the rightful King of England was so

8:36

here are the crib notes. We

8:38

begin with King Edward the Third,

8:40

who reigned until thirteen seventy

8:43

seven. He had eight sons

8:45

and five daughters, so as

8:47

you might imagine, there's plenty of legitimate

8:50

and illegitimate royal blood swirling

8:52

around in people ready to claim royal

8:55

ancestry. His oldest

8:57

son is his heir, Edward the Black

9:00

Prince, and the Black Prince has his own

9:02

son the next in line. But

9:04

then Edward the Black Prince dies,

9:07

and so when King Edward the Third

9:09

dies, the throne goes to his

9:11

grandchild, Richard the Second.

9:14

The problem is Richard the Second

9:17

is a ten year old boy at this point,

9:19

and when there's a child in charge,

9:21

especially a child like Richard

9:23

the Second, who was speculated to be later

9:26

either insane or suffering from a

9:28

personality disorder, other

9:30

people tend to want to move into that power

9:33

vacuum. The War of

9:35

the Roses becomes so called by future

9:37

generations because the two

9:39

families involved, the Yorks

9:41

and the Lancasters, both had roses

9:44

for their family symbols, the white

9:46

rose of York and the red of Lancaster.

9:50

Both families were descended from cadet

9:52

branches of King Edward the Third cadet

9:55

branches, meaning descended from his

9:57

younger sons. Personally,

10:00

I'm a very visual thinker, and I

10:02

realize how challenging this is to communicate

10:04

through audio. But bear with me

10:06

if you can. King Edward the

10:09

Third basically has four surviving

10:11

sons that matter to the story right now,

10:14

Edward the Black Prince, Lionel

10:16

of Antwerp, John of Gaunt, and

10:18

Edmund of Langley. Edward the

10:20

Black Prince dies and he has the

10:22

sickly son who's technically the king, but

10:24

whose fairly disastrous reign sets

10:27

up this power vacuum that allows the War

10:29

of the Roses to happen. So now

10:31

there are two main family lines

10:34

vying for the throne. The

10:36

Lancaster claim comes through son

10:39

number three, John of Gaunt. The

10:41

Yorkist claim is a little more complicated.

10:45

Their heirs of son number two,

10:47

Lionel of Antwerp, but through his

10:49

female descendants head

10:52

of the York family was Richard the

10:55

Third's dad, Richard of York. On

10:57

his mother's side, he's a descendant of

10:59

Lionel Vantwerp, son number two,

11:02

but on his father's side he's

11:04

the grandson of Edmund of Langley,

11:07

son number four, So it's

11:09

two claims from sons too and

11:12

four, which you know combined

11:15

is arguably better than the Lancaster

11:17

line from son three, arguably

11:20

hence the war. The

11:22

House of Lancaster has a successful

11:25

early start. Henry the Fourth

11:27

overthrows the weak, unpopular

11:30

Richard the Second in his

11:33

son Henry five, is also king,

11:36

but makes the mistake of dying when his

11:38

only son, Henry the sixth, is

11:41

just an infant. Once again,

11:43

we have a power vacuum, especially

11:46

as Henry the sixth that gets older

11:48

and begins suffering from mental illness,

11:51

so the time is ripe for the Yorks

11:53

to reclaim their throne. Richard

11:56

the Third grows up in this period

11:58

watching his father and older brother

12:01

Edward leading a rebellion against

12:03

the Lancaster King Henry the sixth.

12:07

When Richard's father dies in battle

12:09

in fourteen sixty, it's Richard

12:11

the third older brother who becomes

12:13

Edward the Fourth, who inherits

12:15

the Yorkist claim to the throne and who

12:18

ultimately wins. Richard's

12:20

older brother Edward is crowned

12:22

King Edward the Fourth and

12:24

bearing one brief period ten

12:27

years in where Henry the sixth and his

12:29

supporters fight back and briefly get him

12:31

back on the throne. Edward remains

12:33

King Our Richard

12:35

the third was a child through all

12:37

of that. He was eight when his

12:39

father was killed in battle, and he was sent

12:41

away for low countries the Netherlands

12:44

for his own safety. After that, only

12:46

returning the next year when his older

12:48

brother, Edward the fourth was crowned king.

12:51

As the loyal younger brother of the

12:53

new king, Richard was given a

12:56

shiny new title, Duke

12:58

of Gloucester. He's maid a Knight

13:00

of the Garter and Knight of the Bath,

13:03

and he remains loyal, looking

13:05

up to his brother and eagerly fighting

13:07

for his causes. When Richard

13:09

is eleven, he's made Commissioner of Array.

13:12

At seventeen, Richard has given

13:14

independent command in the military.

13:18

Aside from the brief hiccup

13:20

when Henry the sixth returned to

13:22

the throne for less than six months,

13:25

things are going swimmingly for the York

13:27

family. As Shakespeare

13:29

put it immortally, quote,

13:31

now is the winter of our discontent

13:34

made glorious summer by this son

13:37

of York. By four

13:39

seventy three, Edward the fourth

13:42

was comfortably king and

13:44

not just king, a king with two

13:46

sons, the all important air

13:49

and spare by his wife Elizabeth

13:51

Woodville. The

13:55

King's marriage was actually pretty

13:57

controversial, put it mild. It

14:00

was actually Edward the fourth choice

14:02

of bride that pretty much caused

14:05

that six month pickup where he lost

14:07

the crown. You see, Elizabeth

14:09

Woodville was from fairly

14:12

middle rank. She had already been

14:14

married to a supporter of the

14:16

House of Lancaster, the enemy

14:18

house, with whom she had two sons.

14:21

Her last husband had died in battle fighting

14:24

for the Lancasters. People

14:27

saw the Woodvilles as a scheming,

14:30

social climbing bunch, and

14:32

when Edward the Fourth chose to marry

14:34

one of them, his powerful cousin,

14:37

the Earl of Warwick, defected to

14:39

the other side and helped Henry the sixth

14:41

with that brief restoration. All

14:44

of that was probably a little awkward

14:46

for young Richard the Third, who had grown

14:49

up under the tutelage of Warwick. It

14:52

was work who had trained him as a knight and

14:54

provided for his education. After

14:58

Warwick's betrayal and death in battle,

15:00

Richard married his daughter, which

15:03

Shakespeare positioned as a pretty

15:05

cruel and insidious form of revenge,

15:08

but which a more charitable interpretation

15:11

to Richard the Third would point out also

15:13

gave him a pretty massive inheritance.

15:17

At the end of the day. For Richard, loyalty

15:20

to his brother the king was the most

15:22

important thing. One of his other

15:25

brothers had actually chosen the opposite

15:27

side during the rebellion and was

15:30

executed for treason when Edward the

15:32

Fourth came back to the throne, But

15:34

Richard the Third had always been loyal,

15:37

and so he continued to grow in power

15:39

and prestige at his brother's side,

15:41

loyal protector of the York Family

15:44

dynasty. It was

15:46

fourteen eighty three. After

15:49

decades of war and thousands

15:51

of lives lost in bloody conflicts

15:54

up and down the country, England

15:56

was finally at peace under

15:58

King Edward the Four, but

16:01

that piece was about to be shattered.

16:06

On April nine, King Edward

16:08

the Fourth died suddenly at

16:10

age forty. We don't know

16:12

what he died of, whether the illness

16:15

might have been a sudden case of pneumonia

16:18

or even malaria, or internal

16:20

hemorrhaging, whatever it was. It

16:22

was assumed at the time that the king's

16:25

excessive lifestyle of eating

16:27

and drinking to the extreme didn't

16:29

help. But whatever the cause,

16:32

he was dead and his twelve year

16:34

old son was now King Edward

16:37

the five. Young

16:40

Edward was living at Ludlow Castle,

16:42

the seat of power in Wales at the time.

16:45

His guardian and tutor was his maternal

16:47

uncle, a man named Lord

16:50

Rivers. Lord Rivers had practically

16:53

raised Edward from the time that he was a

16:55

toddler. It was he Lord

16:57

Rivers, the Queen's brother a Woodville,

17:00

who taught Edward how to fight with

17:02

the sword, who secured his tutors,

17:04

and who became the strongest paternal

17:07

present in his life. And it

17:09

was he Lord Rivers who received

17:11

the letter a few days after the king's

17:14

death, who then had to inform

17:16

Young Edward that his father had

17:19

died and that he was

17:21

now the king. Word

17:23

of the king's death had also traveled to

17:25

the north of England, where the dead King's

17:27

brother, the future Richard the Third, had

17:30

his estates. He immediately

17:32

returned to his home and changed into

17:34

black, attending a memorial

17:36

service for his brother and weeping

17:39

for his loss. Richard

17:41

also got noticed that the late king's

17:43

final wishes were to appoint

17:46

him as protector of the realm,

17:48

in effect de facto king until

17:51

the twelve year old boy came of age.

17:54

Richard, now thirty years old, was

17:57

the logical choice. He was the

17:59

most senior royal in the family, and

18:01

after all, he had spent a lifetime in

18:03

military service. He was considered

18:05

an English hero for his leadership

18:07

in putting down rebellions for his brother.

18:10

He was loyal and adept at making

18:12

quick decisions, even when those

18:15

decisions were hard, and so

18:17

he began to prepare to head down to

18:19

London to uphold his brother's

18:21

final wishes. But

18:24

then another letter came. This

18:27

one was from a man named Lord

18:29

Hastings. Hastings was

18:31

an old career nobleman,

18:33

so to speak, one of the dead king's

18:36

closest friends. He warned

18:38

Richard that he needed to get down to London

18:41

as quickly as possible, that the

18:43

Woodvilles, the Queen's family, were

18:45

closing their claws around power.

18:49

The Woodvilles, once a middling

18:51

noble family, had had a meteoric

18:54

rise when their daughter Elizabeth had

18:56

married Edward the Fourth, the

18:58

type of rise that only happens because

19:00

you're married to the king. They

19:03

all knew well enough that if Richard

19:05

had any real power, even

19:07

temporarily, their stars

19:09

would be falling, and

19:11

so the Woodvills, who dominated the

19:14

council in London, announced

19:16

that the coronation for young Edward

19:18

the Five would be immediate.

19:24

It was a move designed to cut

19:26

Richard out, and no doubt it's stung.

19:29

After all, he was the King's loyal

19:31

brother and a celebrated soldier.

19:34

He had royal blood, and

19:36

it was the late king's final wishes

19:38

that he be Lord Protector until Edward

19:41

the Five came of age. Who

19:43

should be making decisions now a twelve

19:45

year old boy a family that was

19:47

basically middle class. By

19:50

making the coronation immediate, the

19:52

Woodvills were in effect dismissing

19:54

Richard's position, deciding that

19:56

Edward the Five was already fine to rule

19:59

with the ice and guidance of

20:01

his mother and her family. Of course, whatever

20:04

Richard was thinking at this moment, we can't

20:07

be sure. I don't really

20:09

believe the Shakespearean portrayal

20:11

that he was already plotting his own assent

20:14

to the throne. But I can't imagine

20:16

that he figured, probably correctly,

20:19

that he was the one who should rightfully be in

20:21

power at the moment. Richard

20:24

wrote to Lord Rivers, the guardian of

20:26

the new King, and said, let's

20:28

all meet up on the way down to London for

20:30

the coronation in Northampton, so

20:33

we can enter London together as a

20:35

sign of unity and strength. Lord

20:37

Rivers had no reason to doubt Richard, and

20:40

so he readily agreed with

20:42

the new uncoornated King Edward

20:45

the Five. Staying nearby at Stony Stratford,

20:48

Richard went to meet Lord Rivers. Recall,

20:52

Lord Rivers is a Woodville, the brother

20:54

of the Queen, and so by

20:56

this point Richard sees him

20:59

as one of the bowl, wrestling

21:01

rightful power away from him.

21:03

And it's here that Richard the Third

21:06

makes a fateful decision, one

21:08

that will be the first domino that

21:11

leads to his own destruction. After

21:16

the men spend the evening cordially

21:18

enough discussing travel arrangements

21:20

and plans for the coronation, Richard

21:23

the Third has his guards arrest

21:26

Rivers for treason. The

21:29

next morning, Richard goes to see

21:31

his nephew, the new King. Alone, Richard

21:34

informs the new King that unfortunately

21:38

his beloved uncle Rivers was

21:40

a trader. The charge

21:42

against him was, if you'll forgive

21:44

me in my opinion a little

21:47

flimsy. Richard claims

21:49

that Lord Rivers was responsible

21:51

for speeding up the death of the late

21:53

King Edward the Fourth by encouraging

21:56

his heavy drinking. Young

21:58

King Edward the five is shocked,

22:01

angry, and maybe a little

22:03

scared. Though Richard is

22:05

the boy's uncle, they barely

22:07

know each other. Edward grew up

22:09

in London and at Ludlow and Richard's

22:12

the states were mostly in the North of England.

22:15

It was Lord Rivers who basically raised

22:17

him. There was one uncle that

22:19

he trusted and one uncle that he really

22:22

didn't, but what choice did

22:24

he have. At that point, Richard informed

22:26

the boy that it was time to go down to London

22:29

for his coronation. I'm

22:31

sure Edward was thinking something along

22:33

the lines of, well, I'm going to

22:35

become king and it's nothing I won't

22:38

be able to straighten out with the rest of my family

22:40

when I get to London. But

22:43

now the power has shifted in Richard's

22:46

favor. When he arrives in London

22:48

with the young King and word of

22:50

the Woodville Lord Rivers supposed

22:52

treason, Richard is finally

22:55

able to be officially appointed Lord

22:57

Protector, at least until Edward

23:00

the Fifth coronation, which is set

23:02

for June twenty second, seven

23:05

weeks away. Those seven

23:07

weeks become a ticking clock.

23:10

Richard has raised the stakes, and

23:12

if he wants to hold onto power, he

23:15

needs to work quickly. It's

23:18

at this point that Richard has the

23:20

Young King Edward the Fifth placed in the

23:22

Tower of London. Now that sounds

23:25

a little bit more sinister than it was.

23:27

The Tower of London now is most

23:30

famous for being a prison, but it was

23:32

also a royal residence, and it

23:34

was tradition for a king to stay

23:36

there the night before his coronation. But

23:39

from this point on Edward

23:41

is more or less under house arrest by

23:43

his uncle Richard. Edward

23:46

will never leave the grounds of the Tower

23:48

of London again. Edward's

23:51

mother, Elizabeth Woodville, the Dowager

23:53

Queen, flees to Westminster

23:55

Abbey Sanctuary with her other

23:58

children, her daughters, and her other

24:00

son, a nine year old boy named

24:02

Richard. Meanwhile,

24:04

the elder Richard the third is

24:07

trying to shore up his power. He

24:09

knows full well that the second that

24:11

the Young King Edward the Fifth is coronated,

24:14

he's going to revert back to full Woodville

24:16

control. Richard grows

24:18

increasingly paranoid, feeling

24:21

trapped into a corner as the Royal

24:23

Council, still dominated by Woodvilles,

24:26

keeps blocking his moves. Richard

24:29

attempts to put Lord Rivers, still

24:31

imprisoned, on trial for treason,

24:33

and he also tries to get the young Richard

24:36

the second quote unquote Prince into

24:38

the Tower of London for quote

24:40

unquote safe keeping. Richard

24:43

the Third fears that even his once close

24:45

ally, Lord Hastings, has betrayed

24:48

him and has begun working with the Woodvilles

24:51

to undermine his power. With

24:53

just nine days left until Edward

24:55

the fifth Coronation, Richard

24:57

calls a small council meeting at the

25:00

Power of London, and to everyone's

25:02

surprise, he has Lord

25:04

Hastings arrested. Lord

25:07

Hastings is brought outside and executed

25:09

in the yard that afternoon on

25:12

a makeshift chopping block, killed

25:14

illegally without a trial.

25:21

For staunch defenders of Richard.

25:23

This killing of Lord Hastings is,

25:26

at least the way I see it, one of those

25:28

real sticking points that looks bad.

25:31

It was a move made almost certainly

25:33

out of fear and paranoia and

25:35

desperation, but it was also

25:38

an illegal execution without a

25:40

trial of one of the most respected

25:42

noblemen in the country, one

25:44

of the late King's closest friends.

25:48

Richard just gave his enemies

25:50

the fuel that they'll need later on when

25:52

they'll try to paint him as an outright

25:55

villain. But for now,

25:58

Richard has made his power and is

26:00

ruthlessness known, and through

26:02

the Archbishop, he more or less

26:04

forces Elizabeth Woodville to

26:06

release her younger son into Richard's

26:08

custody in the Tower of London, still

26:11

at this point under the pretense

26:14

of preparing for his older brother's

26:16

coronation. Now

26:18

Richard has both princes in his

26:21

custody in the Tower. I

26:23

think now is as good a time as any just to clear

26:25

something up. Technically, neither

26:28

of them were actually princes when they were in

26:30

the tower. One of them was a

26:32

king even though he was not coronated

26:34

yet, he was still King Edward the five, and

26:37

the other was a duke, young Richard

26:39

of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. But

26:42

people call them the Princess the Princess

26:44

in the Tower, so for clarity, that's

26:46

sometimes how I'll refer to them. But

26:49

whatever their titles, now that they

26:51

were in Richard's control. The pieces

26:54

were in place for him to make a

26:56

big move. Seemingly

27:00

out of nowhere, a bishop comes forward

27:02

and announces that actually

27:05

the late King Edward the Fourth's marriage

27:07

to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid

27:10

because he had already been pre contracted

27:12

to another woman, and by law

27:14

at that time, pre contracts with

27:16

witnesses were as good as marriage.

27:19

The bishop who came forward claimed

27:21

that he had been the one who performed the

27:24

earlier ceremony, back before

27:26

he was a bishop. He was promoted

27:28

under Edward the Fourth, which some

27:31

people see as a sign that his claim

27:33

was true. Maybe Edward

27:35

the Fourth promoted him to keep

27:37

him quiet, and he only felt

27:39

safe coming forward after the king's

27:41

death. But unfortunately

27:44

we have no real tangible proof

27:46

on either side. The woman

27:48

Edward the fourth had allegedly been contracted

27:51

to Eleanor Butler had already

27:53

passed away. The streets

27:55

of London were buzzing with the gossip,

27:58

and true or not, the

28:00

timing could not have been more convenient

28:03

for Richard. If the king's marriage

28:05

was invalid, his children were

28:07

illegitimate and ineligible

28:09

to become king. Well,

28:12

then who should rule instead?

28:15

I think then it has to be

28:18

the late king's brother, Richard.

28:20

A petition arrives for him,

28:23

nobles and commoners asking

28:25

Richard to be king, and he dramatically

28:28

hesitates for a moment theatrically

28:31

before humbly agreeing to do

28:33

his duty. On July

28:36

six three, Richard,

28:39

Duke of Gloucester, is crowned

28:41

King Richard the Third. Richard's

28:49

nephews, the quote unquote

28:51

princes were seen playing

28:53

on the lawns later that summer,

28:57

but then their servants were dismissed.

28:59

They were moved to apartments

29:01

deeper within the castle's compound, and

29:04

though some claimed to see them at the windows

29:07

gazing out, by autumn

29:10

of free nobody

29:13

ever sees young Edward or

29:15

Young Richard again. King

29:18

Richard the Third has a short reign,

29:21

although not as enemies retroactively

29:23

portray it, not an unsuccessful

29:26

or unpopular reign. Contemporaries

29:29

actually seemed to approve of him,

29:31

but support grew both in England

29:33

and abroad for the exiled Henry

29:36

Tudor, who had a claim to the throne

29:38

through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, who

29:40

was a Lancastrian, the great

29:42

granddaughter of John Gaunt, that

29:45

third surviving son of Edward

29:47

the third. Henry Tudor

29:49

faced Richard in combat during

29:51

the Battle of bosworth Field, and

29:53

though they say that Richard got within a

29:56

sword's length of Henry Tudor, eventually

29:59

Richard was surrounded and knocked to

30:01

the ground. It's here

30:03

that Shakespeare imagined that Richard

30:06

uttered the immortal line my

30:08

Kingdom for a horse. Richard

30:11

was killed, according to legend, by

30:14

a Welshman who delivered such

30:16

a violent blow with a polex that

30:19

Richard's helmet was driven through

30:21

his skull. In actuality,

30:24

Richard probably just lost his helmet

30:26

in battle, but we'll get to that a little

30:28

bit later. Richard

30:30

was dead and Henry was crowned

30:32

King Henry the seventh. As

30:35

a sign of unity and to strengthen

30:37

his claim to the throne, Henry

30:39

married the young Elizabeth of York,

30:42

the sister of those princes in the Tower.

30:45

Because Henry's claim was through the Lancastrian

30:48

side and Elizabeth was a York

30:51

he was symbolically uniting

30:53

the feuding houses of the War of the Roses,

30:56

and he established a new house the

30:59

Tutors, with the symbol of a

31:01

combined white and red

31:04

rose. It

31:10

was during the tudorign that the stories

31:12

really began to emerge about the evil,

31:15

scheming Richard the Third, who

31:17

killed his own innocent little nephews

31:19

to take the crown for himself. The

31:22

truth that Henry and his supporters

31:24

wouldn't really like to admit out loud is

31:27

that it was pretty convenient for him

31:29

too that those princes were gone. If

31:31

they were alive, he would basically

31:33

have no claim to the throne. Even

31:37

centuries later, we can't help

31:39

but be fascinated and compelled by

31:41

the image of the would be king

31:43

and his younger brother, these angelic

31:46

blond boys gazing out

31:48

of a window like ghosts, innocent

31:51

who are victims of ambition or

31:54

who maybe went on to

31:56

live a life that we can only speculate

31:58

about. Because

32:01

the mystery of the disappearance of the

32:03

princes is still unanswered, and

32:05

because there were so many layers of

32:08

gossip and propaganda on both

32:10

sides, and a seemingly

32:12

infinite number of people who benefited

32:14

from the boy's deaths, it's ripe

32:16

for conspiracy theories. Not

32:19

even conspiracy theories necessarily,

32:21

just theories, and all

32:23

of them sort of plausible if you squint.

32:26

So let's get to some of those possible

32:29

answers, the

32:32

most commonly accepted answer is

32:34

that Richard was responsible for the

32:36

death of his nephews, not personally,

32:39

mind you, he wasn't a cartoon villain

32:41

who went and strangled two children

32:43

himself while twirling his mustache,

32:46

but that the deaths were done on his

32:48

orders. Thomas Moore, who

32:50

you have to remember, was writing under the Tutors,

32:53

wrote that the murder itself was done by

32:55

James Terrell, Richard's master

32:57

of the horse, and that he was aided by

32:59

two men named Miles Forrest and John

33:02

Dighton. According to Moore's

33:04

account, the two boys were

33:06

suffocated and buried at the bottom

33:08

of a flight of stairs, and then

33:11

later moved. It's

33:13

also possible that the murders were done

33:15

by someone loyal to Richard, but not

33:17

on his exact orders. Maybe

33:20

a will no one rid me of this

33:22

meddlesome priest situation. Unfortunately,

33:26

I know it's not exciting, but I

33:28

personally do think that this is a situation

33:31

where the most boring answer is

33:33

probably the right one. After

33:36

Richard was crowned, he went on a tour

33:38

of the country as a show of strength to

33:40

show the people that there was a solid king

33:42

in charge. While he was away,

33:45

his guards thwarted an attempt to

33:47

spring the princes from the tower. The

33:50

conspirators were going to set fires

33:52

around the tower and escape with the

33:54

boys in the chaos. The plan,

33:56

as I said, was thwarted, but probably

33:59

made it very clear to Richard that

34:01

as long as the two boys were alive,

34:04

and even though they had been officially

34:06

declared illegitimate, they

34:08

were still a threat. There were

34:10

always going to be people who thought that

34:12

they were the rightful kings, and

34:14

there were always going to be enemies of Richard's

34:17

who would want to use them as ponds. Plus,

34:20

of course, even twelve year old boys

34:22

eventually grow up to be men, men

34:25

who can gather supporters and fight

34:27

for a rightful claim to the throne.

34:31

Even if Richard did order

34:33

the death of his nephews, I think

34:36

it's worth realizing that he probably

34:38

didn't see himself as a monster.

34:41

Richard had grown up during the War of

34:43

the Roses, and he saw firsthand

34:46

how bloody and deadly it was

34:48

when the claim to the crown was contested,

34:50

or when a weak child king was in charge.

34:53

Tens of thousands of people died

34:56

in battle and civil war made

34:58

England and the monarchy vulnerable.

35:01

If Richard did order the murders

35:03

of his nephews, he probably

35:05

would have seen it as a necessary evil

35:08

to protect the peace and stability

35:10

in the country and to protect

35:12

his own son's claimed the throne. These

35:15

were incredibly bloody times,

35:18

and the stakes were life and death. Could

35:21

the princes have died of natural causes,

35:24

maybe, but they were two pretty young,

35:26

healthy boys who mysteriously

35:29

went missing at exactly the same

35:31

time. Also, if they had

35:33

died of natural causes, Richard

35:35

probably would have wanted that known so

35:37

people wouldn't rally behind them,

35:40

and so people would stop accusing him

35:42

of the nephew murder. A

35:44

lot of Richard's defenders make the case

35:46

that it was actually the tutors who killed

35:49

the two princes in the tower. When

35:51

Henry the seventh overthrew Richard

35:53

three, Henry would have rightfully

35:55

recognized that Edward the fifth

35:57

and his brother being alive, were a

36:00

major major threat to his rule,

36:03

and because he had just overthrown

36:05

Richard the third, he needed a

36:07

way to make Richard look as evil

36:10

as possible. It makes

36:12

sense that if the princess had

36:14

still been alive in four five,

36:17

when Henry the seventh took the throne, killing

36:20

them and framing Richard would

36:22

be the ultimate two birds one

36:25

stone. It's a really

36:27

interesting theory and definitely one

36:29

that I understand why people believe, but

36:32

there's not a lot of factual

36:34

evidence, and I think

36:36

that there would have been some record, some

36:39

sightings, anything, if

36:41

the princess had still been alive

36:43

by five, which

36:45

I just don't think on the merit of evidence

36:48

that they were. Thanks

36:50

to historical fiction, particularly

36:52

the incredibly popular work of Philippa

36:55

Gregory, there's also a very

36:57

popular theory that the deaths were

36:59

actually the work of Henry the Seventh's

37:01

powerful mother, Margaret Beaufort,

37:04

who manipulated the situation while

37:07

Richard was still king. Again.

37:09

It's a fantastic story

37:11

that this woman saw the opportunity

37:13

to frame Richard and rally the

37:15

cause around her own son, while

37:18

at the same time eliminating the people

37:20

who would be in line for the throne ahead of him.

37:23

But we don't really have any

37:25

actual evidence of this beyond

37:27

a good story. It's fun,

37:30

but you know, the

37:32

princes under Richard were heavily

37:35

heavily guarded, and though Margaret

37:37

Beaufort could have in theory

37:39

bribed the very loyal guards.

37:42

It's almost impossible to believe that

37:45

she could have offered anything that the sitting

37:47

king couldn't have offered. No one

37:49

could have predicted that Henry the seven

37:51

would have been the one to best Richard the

37:53

three and become king himself. Personally,

37:57

I think this is a question of hindsight being

37:59

able to show us things that Margaret couldn't

38:01

possibly have known at the time. You

38:04

would have to believe that this woman was playing

38:07

four dimensional chess with things

38:09

playing out in an incredibly unpredictable

38:11

way. And you also have to believe

38:14

that she was incredibly ruthless,

38:16

even though contemporary sources actually

38:18

paint her as a pretty

38:20

pious lady. But

38:23

again, I will never knock someone

38:25

for wanting to believe a good story.

38:28

Okay, that's not true. There is one

38:30

story that I do just have to debunk a

38:32

little bit out of hand. In recent

38:35

months, a story has gone around the Internet

38:37

saying that actually the Princess survived

38:40

and that a series of quote Da

38:42

Vinci code like clues reveal

38:45

that Edward the Fifth escaped the tower

38:47

to live a private, secret life

38:50

as a park ranger named John Evans.

38:52

In rural devon. Those

38:54

da Vinci code like clues include

38:56

an effigy of John Evans having a

38:59

small scar on his chin that young

39:01

Edward also might have had, and

39:03

that Evans on one of the shields

39:05

in the church is written as e

39:08

V A S, which

39:10

could stand for e V get

39:13

it like Edward the Five, and

39:16

then a S, which

39:18

they think might refer to the Latin word

39:21

spelled a s A, which

39:23

means sanctuary assa. The

39:26

church also has a lot of Yorkist symbols

39:28

throughout, including a stained glass

39:31

window depicting the young King

39:33

Edward the Five with a bunch of deer nearby,

39:35

which some see as a clue because John

39:38

Evans was a park ranger on a deer

39:40

estate. It's cool and

39:42

fun in theory, but again there

39:45

is no actual proof. The

39:48

Yorkist symbols in the church are

39:50

actually from early in the reign of Henry

39:52

the Eighth, when there was a moment of Yorkist

39:54

reconciliation for the sake of unity.

39:57

I guess for me it's a question of which

40:00

is more likely, one that

40:02

the princes managed to escape with no

40:04

one writing or talking about it, or

40:06

that Richard or Henry had had them safely

40:08

moved away somewhere where they would

40:10

have been free to raise their own army or

40:13

rally supporters behind them, and that

40:15

they left behind a series of elaborate

40:17

riddles about it, or

40:19

two that a guy named John

40:21

Evans got a job as a parker and

40:24

also a church had some Yorkist symbols

40:26

during a period of reconciliation. But

40:30

fundamentally the mystery and

40:32

all of the theories all get to the heart

40:34

of why the missing princes have spawned

40:37

such passionate debate. Because

40:39

there are so many unknowns,

40:41

people love coming up with stories,

40:44

and because it's such a dramatic and

40:46

bloody saga with so many

40:48

suspects. With these compelling

40:51

innocent victims, people are

40:53

going to keep coming up with stories

40:55

and will probably never be able to

40:57

prove anyone right or

41:00

wrong with any absolute certainty.

41:06

In sixteen seventy four, when

41:08

King Charles the Second was having some renovations

41:11

done to the Tower of London, two

41:13

workmen digging under a staircase

41:15

found a wooden box which contained

41:18

two small human skeletons.

41:21

Because of the history written by More, it

41:24

became widely assumed that the

41:26

bodies were those of the princes

41:28

buried under the staircase, even

41:30

though Moore's account did say that the bodies

41:32

were later moved after they were buried

41:34

there, still Charles

41:37

the Second had the remains interred

41:39

in a white marble sarcophagus

41:41

in Westminster Abbey, giving

41:43

them the proper royal burial

41:45

to which they were entitled. Transcribed

41:48

from the Latin, the inscription

41:51

on their grave reads, here

41:53

lie the relics of Edward, the fifth, King

41:55

of England and Richard, Duke of York.

41:58

These brothers, being confined mind in the Tower

42:01

of London, and they're stifled with

42:03

pillows, were privately and meanly

42:05

buried by the order of their perfidious

42:08

uncle, Richard the Usurper, whose

42:10

bones long inquired after and wished

42:13

for after one hundred and ninety

42:15

one years, in the rubbish of the stairs those

42:18

lately leading to the chapel of the White

42:20

Tower, were on the seventeenth

42:23

day of July six seventy

42:25

four, by undoubted proofs

42:28

discovered being buried deep in

42:30

that place. Charles the

42:32

Second, a most compassionate

42:34

prince, pitying their severe

42:36

fate, ordered these unhappy

42:38

princes to be laid amongst

42:40

the monuments of their predecessors

42:43

sixteen seventy eight, in the thirtieth

42:45

year of his reign. A

42:47

little dramatic, but it communicates

42:49

the message. In

42:52

nineteen thirty three, those remains

42:55

were exhumed and re examined,

42:57

and studies confirmed that the

42:59

bone ones within the tomb were in fact

43:02

the remains of two children of

43:04

appropriate ages. But

43:06

that was three.

43:09

The scientific methods used were shaky

43:12

at best, and there was of course

43:14

no DNA testing. The

43:17

Church and Queen Elizabeth the Second

43:19

have both made their wishes clear that

43:21

the bodies not be re exhumed

43:24

for DNA testing, imagining

43:26

that it might be difficult to come up with anything

43:28

conclusive, that it would be destructive

43:31

to the bodies in Westminster Abbey,

43:33

and that it would set a bad precedence.

43:36

Personally, I'm hoping that when Charles

43:39

becomes king he insists upon

43:41

it, just out of sheer curiosity.

43:44

The truth is, the question of the

43:46

murder of the princes in the Tower has

43:48

become such a contentious debate,

43:51

with so many people so deeply entrenched

43:53

in their beliefs, that I think

43:55

even if the testing came back saying

43:57

those bodies were the princes,

44:00

even if we had a handwritten confession

44:02

from someone found. I doubt

44:04

the case would actually be settled. There

44:07

are stories to be told and

44:09

mysteries still to be explored.

44:19

That's the story of Richard the Third's rise

44:21

to power. But keep listening after

44:23

a brief sponsor break to hear a

44:25

little bit more about Richard's more

44:27

recent history.

44:41

On September twelve, and

44:43

incredible discovery was made.

44:46

The University of Lester, working with the

44:48

amateur historian Philippa Langley, announced

44:51

that a skeleton that they had found in a

44:53

dig underneath a parking lot was

44:56

quite possibly the remains

44:59

of Richard the Third. Subsequent

45:02

DNA tests confirmed it after

45:04

hundreds of years, they had

45:07

found Richard the Third in

45:09

a parking lot. Richard

45:12

had been defeated in battle and so

45:14

his corpse was paraded around by his

45:16

enemies until he was finally buried

45:19

quickly and without a shroud or

45:21

marker, near the choir of Greyfriars

45:24

Church in Leicester in four in

45:27

a place of honor near the front of the church,

45:30

but with no pomp or ceremony.

45:33

During the dissolution of the monasteries

45:35

under King Henry the Eighth, Greyfriars

45:38

Church was demolished and the sight of

45:40

it became lost over time until

45:43

it wasn't. Through analysis

45:46

of the skeleton, they found that Richard

45:48

the Third did have scoliosis,

45:50

although he wasn't the hunchback that Shakespeare

45:53

made him out to be, and they found

45:55

out that he was most likely killed by

45:58

a violent halberd wounded to the

46:00

exposed base of his neck in battle

46:02

that probably left his brain visible.

46:06

Richard the Third was reburied

46:08

in Leicester Cathedral. Benedict

46:11

Cumberbatch, the actor who had played Richard

46:13

in the television show The Hollow Crown,

46:16

was there to read a poem,

46:19

It's wild to imagine that a

46:21

man can be a king and still

46:23

somehow get lost and end

46:26

up beneath a parking lot. They

46:28

found him under an actual parking

46:30

spot. Richard the Third was

46:33

under a spot that was reserved

46:35

and it had been painted just a

46:38

few years earlier with the letter

46:40

are Noble

46:52

Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and

46:54

Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. The

46:57

show was written and hosted by Dana Schwartz.

47:00

Executive producers include Aaron Manky,

47:02

Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

47:05

The show is produced by rema Ill Kali,

47:08

and Trevor Young. Noble Blood

47:10

is on social media at Noble Blood Tales,

47:12

and you can learn more about the show over at Noble

47:14

blood Tales dot com. For more podcasts

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wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M