Editing Princes in the Tower (section)

===Survival theories===
Historian [[David Baldwin (historian)|David Baldwin]] suggests that Henry VII's reticence on the subject may have been because at least one of the princes was still alive; he considers that Richard is more likely to have survived, with Edward dying of a malady.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|last1=Baldwin|first1=David|title=Richard III|date=2013|publisher=Amberley|location=Stroud|page=116}}</ref> Baldwin argues that it is "impossible" that no one knew what happened to the Princes after they entered the Tower;<ref name=BEEB>{{cite web|last=Baldwin|first=David|title=The White Queen – What happened to the Princes in the Tower?|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/23574430|work=[[BBC]] History|access-date=18 August 2013}}</ref> he believes Richard III and Henry VII, leading courtiers and their mother would all have known the boys' whereabouts and welfare.<ref name=BEEB/> Baldwin argues that had this been the case, Henry VII would have had the choice of keeping quiet about the survival of Richard, or having him executed, and concluded, "He [Henry] would have been happy to let people ''think'' the boys had been murdered, but not to speculate when or by whose hand."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

During the reign of Henry VII, two individuals claimed to be the princes who had somehow escaped death. [[Lambert Simnel]] was crowned as "King Edward" in Dublin,<ref>{{cite book |author=Jack Robert Lander |title=Government and Community: England, 1450–1509 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1980 |page=339}}</ref> with his supporters naming him as [[Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=djIIAAAAQAAJ&dq=lambert+simnel&pg=PA307|title=The history of England, from the invasion of Julius Cæsar to the revolution in 1688. 5 vols. [in 9. The plates are dated 1797 to 1806] or Richard, Duke of York.  |first=David|last=Hume|pages=323–324|date=4 March 1812|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Perkin Warbeck]] later claimed to be Richard, appearing in Ireland and calling himself king Richard IV.<ref name = "enc">Wagner, John, ''Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses'', ABC-CLIO, 2001, p. 289.</ref> [[Margaret of York]], Duchess of Burgundy, formally recognised Warbeck as Richard. Margaret, Richard III's sister, an unrelenting opponent of Henry VII, had previously recognised Simnel as Warwick.<ref name = "enc"/> Warbeck was also accepted as Richard by [[James IV of Scotland]]. After a failed attempt to invade England he was captured. He retracted his claims, was imprisoned and later executed. Many modern historians believe he was an imposter, whose supporters accepted his claim for political reasons.<ref name = "enc"/>

The fact that two persons claimed to be Richard led the 18th-century writer [[Horace Walpole]] to argue that Richard had in fact escaped death, and that Warbeck genuinely was Richard,<ref>Sabor, Peter (ed), ''Horace Walpole: The Critical Heritage'', Routledge, 1987, p. 124.</ref> a view also supported by the Scottish historian [[Malcolm Laing]]. Walpole, however, later retracted his views and stated that he now believed the princes to have been murdered by Richard III to secure his hold on the crown.<ref>Pollard 214–216</ref> In more recent times the theory that Warbeck was Richard has been endorsed by Annette Carson, a freelance writer with a "lifelong interest" in Richard III.<ref>{{cite web|title=Annette Carson|url=http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/team/acarson.html|website=University of Leicester: Richard III team|publisher=University of Leicester|access-date=27 May 2015}}</ref> She suggested that Richard smuggled the princes abroad to the custody of their aunt, the Duchess of Burgundy, and they were raised there under false identities.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carson|first1=Annette|title=Richard III: The Maligned King|date=2013|publisher=The History Press|location=Stroud|pages=172–174|edition=second}}</ref> Baldwin suggested that by having removed them from sight to prevent them being a focus for opposition, he was then unable to bring them back to court to scotch rumours of their murder without once again having them become a threat.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book|last1=Baldwin|first1=David|title=Richard III|date=2013|publisher=Amberley|location=Stroud|page=118}}</ref> This theory has also been endorsed by [[Philippa Langley]],<ref>{{cite book |title=The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case: Amazon.co.uk: Philippa Langley: 9781803995410: Books |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1803995416/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite episode |title=Princes in the Tower |series=Secrets of the Dead |series-link=Secrets of the Dead  |date=22 November 2023 |season=21 |number=3 |language= English}}</ref> known for the discovery of Richard III's body in 2012, who claims that contemporary documents show the two princes were alive and in contact with royals on the European continent as late as 1493, and suggests that the youths known to history as Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck were genuinely the Earl of Warwick and Richard, Duke of York.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/princes-in-the-tower-actually-became-pretenders-to-the-throne-gv89vc9ns|title=Princes in the Tower 'survived to become pretenders to the throne'|work=[[The Times]]|date=16 November 2023|access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref> One of the sources is a statement (dated 1493) purported to have been written by Richard, describing his escape and flight to Europe, which has been independently authenticated as a late 15th-century document; another is a document claiming that [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor]], had identified a man as Prince Richard by examining three birthmarks on his body.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/16/princes-in-the-tower-richard-iii-philippa-langley-channel-4/|title=New twist in Princes in the Tower mystery as evidence points to escape rather than murder|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=16 November 2023|access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref>

In 2021, researchers from the "Missing Princes Project"<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Langley |first1=Philippa |title= The Missing Princes Project |url=https://revealingrichardiii.com/langley.html|access-date=7 November 2022}}</ref> claimed to have found evidence that Edward had lived out his days in the rural Devon village of [[Coldridge]]. They have linked the 13-year-old prince with a man named John Evans, who arrived in the village around 1484, and was immediately given an official position and the title of Lord of the Manor.<ref>{{Cite web|date=29 December 2021|title=Did Richard III actually save the boy king he's accused of killing?|url=https://royalcentral.co.uk/features/new-theory-suggests-richard-iii-saved-the-boy-king-he-replaced-170335/|access-date=1 January 2022|website=Royal Central|language=en-GB}}</ref> Researcher John Dike noted Yorkist symbols and stained glass windows depicting Edward V in a Coldridge chapel commissioned by Evans and built around 1511, unusual for the location.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Gardner|first=Bill|date=28 December 2021|title=Exclusive: Richard III may not have killed young princes in the Tower of London, researchers say|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/28/richard-iii-may-not-have-killed-young-princes-tower-london-new/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/28/richard-iii-may-not-have-killed-young-princes-tower-london-new/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=1 January 2022|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Other findings of the five-year investigation by The Missing Princes Project research initiative, suggesting the Princes' survival following the reign of Richard III (i.e. after 22 August 1485), was published on 19 November 2023 in Philippa Langley's book ''The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case'' (The History Press). New archival discoveries had been made for both sons of Edward IV: Edward V in an accounting receipt for King Maximilian I dated 16 December 1487 in the archive in Lille, France, discovered by project member, Albert Jan de Rooij. The accounting receipt confirmed that weapons (400 pikes) purchased by Maximilian for the Yorkist invasion of June 1487 was on behalf of the elder son of Edward IV.<ref>The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case, pp. 173–181, 309–310.</ref>

This new evidence was presented in the UK on Channel 4 in an original 1 hour 45-minute "Factual Special" documentary, ''The Princes in the Tower'' (18 November 2023, Brinkworth Productions, Dir: Janice Sutherland).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-princes-in-the-tower-the-new-evidence|title=The New Evidence}}</ref>  The documentary was also broadcast by SBS in Australia (19 November 2023) and PBS in America (22 November 2023) as part of their ''Secrets of the Dead'' series.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/preview-the-princes-in-the-tower-ybnnnv/7943/ |title=Preview – the Princes in the Tower Series 21, episode 3|website=[[PBS]] |date=31 October 2023 }}</ref>  The programme followed criminal barrister Rob Rinder as he investigated new evidence from Langley's research initiative.