- It is currently believed that the princes were murdered by their uncle, Richard III
The Princes in the Tower may have escaped prison and fled to Europe rather than be killed, new evidence suggests.
This contrasts with the current belief that the two boys, sons of Edward IV, were murdered by their uncle Richard III in his attempt to get closer to the throne.
Shakespeare dramatizes this theory in his famous play about the Machiavellian king, in which Richard orders his young relatives murdered in the Tower of London.
Amateur historian Philippa Langley, who is said to have found Richard’s remains under a car park in Leicester, has now revealed a series of ‘extraordinary discoveries’ to support her theory that the princes escaped, according to the BBC. The Telegraph.
She believes that a pair of boys who were dismissed as pretenders to the throne – Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck – were the real princes. These boys each made unsuccessful attempts to depose Henry VII towards the end of the 15th century.
The Princes in the Tower (pictured) may have escaped prison and fled to Europe rather than be killed, new evidence suggests
The two princes disappeared from history in 1483 after being taken to the Tower of London.
Human remains found under a staircase at the Tower in the 17th century were identified as the princes and transported to Westminster Abbey. They have never been tested for DNA.
Ms Langley said documents from European archives point to the princes’ escape and later attempts to invade England.
One piece of evidence is an apparent witness statement from Richard, the younger of the two princes, who was nine when he disappeared.
Written ten years later, the author remembers being taken from the tower by Henry and Thomas Percy.
“They shaved my hair and put me in a shabby and boring shirt and we went to St. Katharine’s (dock),” the document said.
In Shakespeare’s play Richard III, the Machiavellian royal family has his two cousins murdered in the Tower of London (pictured) in an attempt to get closer to the throne
The account then says that they took the boat to go to Boulogne-sur-Mer before traveling to Portugal.
Experts have determined that it was written during that period.
Another document from 1483, which appears to bear the signature of ‘Richard, Duke of York’, says that Richard will pay 30,000 florins to Duke Albert of Saxony within a few months of landing on the English throne.
Philippa Langley and Rob Rinder front Channel 4’s new Princes in the Tower documentary.
The evidence will be revealed in a Channel 4 documentary, The Princes in the Tower: The New Evidence, which will be broadcast on Saturday.