Richard III counts as a ‘Cumbrian Character’ because for a time when he was Duke of Gloucester, ‘the north’ was his power base.

Richard was, for a while, Constable of Carlisle Castle and Warden of the West March of England. 

The picture at the top is a Penrith pub sign: ‘The Royal’ could be any monarch, but it’s Richard III who has the ‘local connection’.

He used his position, and his marriage to Anne Neville, to acquire lands and property. 

And he’s supposed to have stayed in Dockray Hall, Penrith, when the castle was being altered and upgraded in 1471.

The Princes in the Tower

Richard got a bad press from Shakespeare (who was writing when the Tudors ruled England, so hardly surprising). But he has his ‘fans’ to this day, who claim he was falsely maligned about a lot of things.

And THE big issue that has caused a lot of debate, books, and TV programmes (without ever being resolved) is: did he kill the Princes in the Tower?

The answer remaining: no one can be sure.

So, why am I weighing in on this never-ending debate? It’s because while watching Rob Bell’s interesting programme about the Battle of Bosworth Field, I found myself thinking of the logic of the thing.

A disclaimer first: I have no particular feelings towards or against Richard III (or any of the medieval monarchs, come to that). 

My only thoughts are that he didn’t inherit the crown on his father’s deathbed (not that his father was ever ruler anyway). And he didn’t get it, or keep it, by being Mr Nice Guy with fluffy kittens embroidered on his nightgown. None of them did.

Richard III was warrior king who lived, and died, by the sword.

Princes in the Tower – the facts

Edward IV died in 1483, leaving two young sons: Edward V, aged 12,  and his brother Richard, aged nine.

Edward IV’s brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, became their official Protector.

He immediately took Edward to the Tower of London, ‘for his safety’ and then insisted Richard should leave his mother and join him in the Tower.

The boys were then declared illegitimate, because it was said their father had been contracted to marry someone else before his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville.

Their Uncle Richard was then crowned Richard III.

Sightings of his nephews stopped and they were never seen alive again.

But two ‘pretenders’ called Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck were to pop up in later years, after Richard III had died and Henry VII was on the throne. 

Their claims to be the lost princes got them respectively a job in the royal kitchens and a place in the Tower, respectively, Warbeck being executed after an alleged escape attempt.

Fast-forward to 1674, and two skeletons were found walled up in the Tower of London, and interred by Charles II in Westminster Abbey as the young princes. For some reason, the Church of England has always refused for the bones to be tested.

So, no certainties about what happened to the boys.

But, logic:

Richard had them locked up in the Tower. 

They were quickly declared illegitimate, on dodgy grounds.

Richard was then crowned king.

It’s really hard to see that as anything but Richard manipulating his way on to the throne.

(“Aw, shucks, you guys want ME to take over? I didn’t see that coming. No, I couldn’t possibly. Oh, go on then, you’ve twisted my arm”. Not a convincing alternative, is it?!)

If he didn’t personally declare the boys illegitimate, he didn’t fight their corner, or refuse the crown.

The boys were seen at the Tower for a while, before vanishing, never to be seen again.

The logic: while they remained alive, they were a threat to Richard III’s place on the throne. 

He knew first hand from living through the Wars of the Roses how quickly fortunes could change. 

Going back in time, Richard II had been deposed and had died a prisoner in Pontefract Castle (either murdered or self-starvation).

In Richard’s lifetime, Henry VI had been king, been deposed, been restored to the throne, and then put to death in the Tower. Largely due to the involvement of Richard’s family.

Shakespeare wasn’t exaggerating when he had Henry IV speak the line: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.”

So, Richard III had every reason to fear his nephews (or their mother’s family the Woodvilles and their supporters) making a comeback and retaking the throne. 

Richard III may not have killed the princes, or ordered them to be killed. But it was certainly not in his interests to keep them alive.

The pretenders

A classic example of ‘person’s fate unknown; someone claims to be them’ involves Anastasia, youngest daughter of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II.

Over the years, several women claimed to be Anastasia, to have escaped somehow when her parents and siblings were executed following the Russian Revolution.

Only the real Anastasia HAD been killed with the rest of her family, as was finally officially confirmed in 2018.

Anyone the right age and appearance could have claimed to have been one of the princes. All they needed was a decent cover story, and someone convincing to vouch for them.

Which given the ‘prize’ was a claim on the English throne, wasn’t difficult.

Simnel, in fact, was first claimed to be one of the princes, THEN to be Edward, earl of Warwick (son of Richard III’s second brother, the Duke of Clarence). Who was still alive at the time! Henry VII giving Simnel a job as a servant shows he regarded him as harmless.

Perkin Warbeck’s royal claim doesn’t look to hold water, either. Though some pro-Richard III supporters argue otherwise. 

So what are we left with, logically?

Richard III usurped the throne from his nephews. Or at best, went along with those who elbowed them out in his favour.

Richard III would have been safer on his throne if they were dead.

If they boys did escape the Tower, there are no reliable records to say so or what happened to them after.

Conclusion?

Logic says that whether he gave the order or not, it was in Richard III’s interests for the boys to die. Only secretly, so there’d be no revolt or uprising about it.

And the big question?

For me, the big question is: if they skeletons found walled up in the Tower of London weren’t the two princes, who were they and why were they hidden there in the first place?