Editing Princes in the Tower (section)

===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/>