Editing Princes in the Tower (section)

==Disappearance==
[[Dominic Mancini]], an Italian friar who visited England in the 1480s and who was in London in the spring and summer of 1483, recorded that after Richard III seized the throne, Edward and his younger brother Richard were taken into the "inner apartments of the Tower" and then were seen less and less, until they disappeared altogether. Mancini records that, during this period, Edward was regularly visited by a doctor, who reported that Edward, "like a victim prepared for sacrifice, sought remission of his sins by daily confession and penance, because he believed that death was facing him".<ref>"The Usurpation of Richard the Third", ''Dominicus Mancinus ad Angelum Catonem de occupatione regni Anglie per Riccardum Tercium libellus''; Translated to English by C.A.J. Armstrong (London, 1936)</ref> The Latin reference to "Argentinus medicus", was originally translated as "a Strasbourg doctor"; however, D.E. Rhodes suggests it may actually refer to "Doctor Argentine", whom Rhodes identifies as [[John Argentine]], an English physician who later served as provost of [[King's College, Cambridge]], and as doctor to [[Arthur, Prince of Wales]], eldest son of King [[Henry VII of England]] (Henry Tudor).<ref name=Rhodes>{{cite journal|last=Rhodes|first=D.E.|title=The Princes in the Tower and Their Doctor|journal=The English Historical Review|date=April 1962|volume=77|issue=303|pages=304–306|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ehr/lxxvii.ccciii.304}}</ref>

There are reports of the two princes being seen playing in the tower grounds shortly after Richard joined his brother, but there are no recorded sightings of either of them after the summer of 1483.<ref name = "walk">R. F. Walker, "Princes in the Tower", in S. H. Steinberg et al., ''A New Dictionary of British History'', St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963, p. 286.</ref> An attempt to rescue them in late July failed.<ref name=RH/> Their fate remains an enduring mystery.

Many historians believe that the princes were murdered; some have suggested that the act may have happened towards the end of summer 1483. [[Maurice Keen]] argues that the rebellion against Richard in 1483 initially "aimed to rescue Edward V and his brother from the Tower before it was too late", but that, when the Duke of Buckingham became involved, it shifted to support of Henry Tudor because "Buckingham almost certainly knew that the princes in the Tower were dead."<ref>M. H. Keen, ''England in the Later Middle Ages: A Political History'', Routledge: New York, 2003, p. 388.</ref> [[Alison Weir]] proposes 3 September 1483 as a potential date;<ref>Alison Weir, ''The Princes of the Tower'' (p. 157)</ref> however, Weir's work has been criticised for "arriving at a conclusion that depends more on her own imagination than on the uncertain evidence she has so misleadingly presented".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wood|first=Charles T|title=Review: Richard III: A Medieval Kingship. by John Gillingham; The Princes in the Tower. by Alison Weir|journal=Speculum|date=April 1995|volume=70|issue=2|pages=371–372|publisher=Cambridge University Press: Medieval Academy of America|doi=10.2307/2864918|jstor=2864918}}</ref>

[[Clements Markham]] suggests the princes may have been alive as late as July 1484, pointing to the regulations issued by Richard III's household which stated: "the children should be together at one breakfast".<ref name=Markham>{{cite journal|last=Markham|first=Clement Robert|title=Richard III: A Doubtful Verdict Reviewed|journal=The English Historical Review|date=April 1891|volume=6|issue=22|pages=250–283|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ehr/vi.xxii.250|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431672}}</ref> [[James Gairdner]], however, argues that it is unclear to whom the phrase "the children" alludes, and that it may not have been a reference to the princes.<ref name=Gairdner>{{cite journal|last=Gairdner|first=James |title=Did Henry VII Murder the Princes?|journal=The English Historical Review|date=July 1891|volume=6|issue=23|pages=444–464|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/ehr/vi.xxiii.444|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431674 }}</ref> It may refer to [[Edward, Earl of Warwick]] (son of the [[George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence|Duke of Clarence]]) and Edward IV's two youngest daughters ([[Catherine of York|Catherine]] and [[Bridget of York|Bridget]]), all of whom were living under Richard's care at [[Sheriff Hutton]].<ref name=Pollard/>

===Rumours===
Several sources suggest there were rumours of the princes' deaths in the time following their disappearance. Rumours of murder appeared in France. In January 1484, [[Guillaume de Rochefort]], [[Lord Chancellor of France]], urged the Estates General to "take warning" from the fate of the princes, as their own king, [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]], was only 13.<ref name=Gairdner/> The early reports, including that of Rochefort, [[Philippe de Commines]] (French politician), Caspar Weinreich (contemporary German chronicler) and Jan Allertz (Recorder of Rotterdam), all state that Richard killed the princes before he seized the throne (thus before June 1483).<ref name=Pollard/> De Commines' ''Memoirs'' (c.1500), however, identifies the Duke of Buckingham as the person "who put them to death".<ref>Philippe de Commines, ''Memoirs: the Reign of Louis XI, 1461–83'', Translated by Michael Jones (1972), pp.354, 396–7.</ref>

[[File:DelarocheKingEdward.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''King Edward V and the Duke of York (Richard) in the Tower of London'' by [[Paul Delaroche]]. The theme of innocent children awaiting an uncertain fate was popular among 19th-century painters. [[Edward V]] is again depicted wearing the emblem of the [[Order of the Garter]]. [[Louvre]], Paris.]]
Other than their disappearance, there is no direct evidence that the princes were murdered, and "no reliable, well-informed, independent or impartial sources" for the associated events.<ref name=Pollard/> Nevertheless, following their disappearance, rumours spread in France that they had been murdered.<ref name="Langley">{{cite book|author=Philippa Langley|title=The Princes in the Tower: Solving History's Greatest Cold Case|publisher=The History Press|year=2023|pages=77–78, 84}}</ref> Before November 2023, only one contemporary narrative account of the boys' time in the tower was known to exist: that of Dominic Mancini. Mancini's account was not discovered until 1934, in the Municipal Library in [[Lille]]. Later accounts written after the accession of Henry Tudor are usually biased or influenced by Tudor propaganda.<ref name=Pollard/>

Only Mancini's account, written in London before November 1483, is contemporary.<ref name=Pollard/> The Croyland Chronicle and de Commines' account were written three and seventeen years later, respectively (and thus after Richard III's death and the accession of Henry VII). Markham, writing long before Mancini's account was discovered, argued that some accounts, including the Croyland Chronicle, might have been authored or heavily influenced by [[John Morton (bishop)|John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury]], in order to incriminate Richard III.<ref name=Markham/>

===Early writers===
{{quotebox|
:'''KING RICHARD III'''
:Darest thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
:'''TYRREL'''
:Ay, my lord;
:But I had rather kill two enemies.
:'''KING RICHARD III'''
:Why, there thou hast it: two deep enemies,
:Foes to my rest and my sweet sleep's disturbers
:Are they that I would have thee deal upon:
:Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower.
– [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Richard III (play)|King Richard III]]'' (Act IV, scene II)}}
[[Robert Fabyan]]'s ''Chronicles of London'', compiled around 30 years after the princes' disappearance, names Richard as murderer.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fabyan|first=Robert|title=Chronicles of London|year=1902|orig-year=first published 1516|publisher=Clarendon Press|location=Oxford|url=https://archive.org/details/chroniclesoflond00kinguoft|editor=Charles Lethbridge Kingsford}}</ref>

[[Thomas More]] (a Tudor loyalist who had grown up in the household of [[John Morton (cardinal)|John Morton]], an avowed foe of Richard III) wrote The ''History of King Richard III'', c.1513. This identified Sir [[James Tyrrell]] as the murderer, acting on Richard's orders. Tyrrell was the loyal servant of Richard III who is said to have confessed to the murder of the princes before his execution for treason in 1502. In his history, More said that the princes were smothered to death in their beds by two agents of Tyrrell (Miles Forrest and John Dighton) and were then buried "at the stayre foote, metely depe in the grounde vnder a great heape of stones", but were later disinterred and buried in a secret place.<ref> However, there is no actual proof Tyrell ever confessed to being a part of killing the princes and Dighton is accused by Thomas More of confessed to have taken part in the murders, but when More was writing Dighton was a free man. Simply, there is no evidence that they confessed to killing the princes, or even questioned on the princes.[https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/801/kingrichard.pdf?sequence=1 ''The History of King Richard the Third''], by Sir Thomas More.</ref> (''Metely'' is a [[Middle English]] word describing a size as "moderate, normal, average.")<ref>{{Cite web |title=metely |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED27556 |website=Middle English Compendium (umich.edu)}}</ref> Historian Tim Thornton claimed that the sons of Miles Forrest were at court in Henry VIII's England, and Thomas More's contacts with them could have given him the detail of the murder.<ref name="Thornton2020"/><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/did-richard-iii-order-deaths-his-nephews-they-slept-tower-london-180976930/|title=Did Richard III Order the Deaths of His Nephews as They Slept in the Tower of London?|first=Meilan|last=Solly|date=4 February 2021| magazine=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2021/february/richard-iii-princes-in-tower-new-study/|title=Richard III's links to 'Princes in the Tower' mystery deepened|website=University of Huddersfield}}</ref>

[[Polydore Vergil]], in his ''Anglica Historia'' (c.1513), also specifies that Tyrrell was the murderer, stating that he "rode sorrowfully to London" and committed the deed with reluctance, upon Richard III's orders, and that Richard himself spread the rumours of the princes' death in the belief that it would discourage rebellion.<ref>Polydore Vergil, ''[http://www.r3.org/bookcase/polydore.html Anglica Historia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226004142/http://www.r3.org/bookcase/polydore.html |date=26 February 2009 }}'' 1846 edition, pp. 188–9</ref>

''[[Holinshed's Chronicles]]'', written in the second half of the 16th century, claims that the princes were murdered by Richard III. The chronicles were one of the main sources used by William Shakespeare for his play ''Richard III'', which also portrays Richard as the murderer, in the sense that he commissions Tyrrell to have the boys killed. [[A. J. Pollard]] believes that the chronicle's account reflected the contemporary "standard and accepted account", but that by the time it was written, "propaganda had been transformed into historical fact".<ref name=Pollard>{{cite book|last=Pollard|first=A.J.|title=Richard III and the princes in the tower|year=1991|publisher=Alan Sutton Publishing|isbn=0862996600}}</ref>

More wrote his account with the intention of writing about a moral point rather than a closely mirrored history.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Baker-Smith|first1=Dominic|title=Thomas More|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-more/|website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|date=2014}}</ref> While More's account does rely on some firsthand sources, the account is generally taken from other sources. Additionally, More's account is one of the bases for Shakespeare's ''Richard III'', which similarly indicts Richard for murdering the young princes.