Editing Princes in the Tower (section)

== Bodies ==
=== Tower of London ===
On 17 July 1674, workmen remodelling the Tower of London dug up a wooden box containing two small human skeletons. The bones were found buried {{convert|10|ft}} under the staircase leading to the chapel of the [[White Tower (Tower of London)|White Tower]]. The remains were not the first children's skeletons found within the tower; the bones of two children had previously been found "in an old chamber that had been walled up", which Pollard suggests could equally well have been those of the princes.<ref name=Pollard/> The reason the bones were attributed to the princes was because the location partially matched the account given by More. However, More further stated that they were later moved to a "better place",<ref>Sir Thomas More, ''The History of King Richard III'', R.S. Sylvester (ed.), (Newhaven: 1976), p. 88</ref> which disagrees with where the bones were discovered. The staircase that the bones were found underneath had not yet been built, at the time of Richard III.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Pictorial and Descriptive Guide to London|year=1928|publisher=Ward, Lock & Co.|page=234}} Guidebook to London.</ref> One anonymous report was that they were found with "pieces of rag and velvet about them"; the velvet could indicate that the bodies were those of aristocrats.<ref>Weir, Alison. ''The Princes in the Tower''. 1992, Random House, {{ISBN|9780345391780}}, pp. 252–3.</ref> Four years after their discovery,<ref name=Pollard/> the bones were placed in an urn and, on the orders of [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]], interred in Westminster Abbey, in the wall of the [[Henry VII Lady Chapel]]. A monument designed by [[Christopher Wren]] marks the resting place of the putative princes.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LoLlvnRPY_sC&pg=PA65 |first=John |last=Steane |title=The Archaeology of the Medieval English Monarchy |publisher=Routledge |year=1993 |page=65 |isbn=9780203165225 }}</ref> The inscription, written in [[Latin language|Latin]], states "Here lie interred the remains of Edward V, King of England, and Richard, Duke of York, whose long desired and much sought after bones, after over a hundred and ninety years, were found interred deep beneath the rubble of the stairs that led up to the Chapel of the White Tower, on the 17 of July in the Year of Our Lord 1674."<ref>Andrew Beattie, ''Following in the Footsteps of the Princes in the Tower'' (Pen & Sword Books, 2019)</ref>

The bones were removed and examined in 1933 by the archivist of Westminster Abbey, Lawrence Tanner; a leading anatomist, Professor William Wright; and the president of the Dental Association, [[George Northcroft]]. By measuring certain bones and teeth, they concluded the bones belonged to two children around the correct ages for the princes.<ref name=Pollard/> The bones were found to have been interred carelessly along with chicken and other animal bones. There were also three very rusty nails. One skeleton was larger than the other, but many of the bones were missing, including part of the smaller jawbone and all of the teeth from the larger one. Many of the bones had been broken by the original workmen.<ref>Weir, p. 257</ref><ref>[http://www.r3.org/on-line-library-text-essays/isolde-wigram-were-the-princes-in-the-tower-murdered/ 'Examination on the alleged murder of the Princes'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221224255/http://www.r3.org/on-line-library-text-essays/isolde-wigram-were-the-princes-in-the-tower-murdered/ |date=21 February 2019 }}, Wordpress: Richard III Society – American Branch</ref> The examination has been criticised, on the grounds that it was conducted on the presumption that the bones were those of the princes and concentrated only on whether the bones showed evidence of suffocation; no attempt was even made to determine whether the bones were male or female.<ref name=Pollard/>

No further scientific examination has since been conducted on the bones, which remain in Westminster Abbey; further, DNA analysis (if DNA could be obtained) has not been attempted. A petition was started on the [[Online petition#E-government petitions in Europe and Australia|British government's "e-petition" website]] requesting that the bones be DNA tested, but was closed months before its expected close date. If it had received 100,000 signatories a parliamentary debate would have been triggered.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45769 |title=Richard III and the princes – e-petitions<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=18 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014171732/http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/45769 |archive-date=14 October 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Pollard points out that even if modern DNA and carbon dating proved the bones belonged to the princes, it would not prove who or what killed them.<ref name=Pollard/>

=== St George's Chapel ===
In 1789, workmen carrying out repairs in [[St. George's Chapel, Windsor]], rediscovered and accidentally broke into the vault of Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, discovering in the process what appeared to be a small adjoining vault. This vault was found to contain the coffins of two unidentified children. However, no inspection or examination was carried out and the tomb was resealed. The tomb was inscribed with the names of two of Edward IV's children: George, 1st Duke of Bedford who had died at the age of 2, and Mary of York who had died at the age of 14; both had predeceased the king.<ref>Chapter Records XXIII to XXVI, The Chapter Library, St. George's Chapel,
Windsor (Permission required)</ref><ref>William St. John Hope: "Windsor Castle: An Architectural History", pages
418–419. (1913).</ref><ref>Vetusta Monumenta, Volume III, page 4 (1789).</ref>
However, two lead coffins clearly labelled as George Plantagenet and Mary Plantagenet were subsequently discovered elsewhere in the chapel (during the excavation for the royal tomb house for [[King George III]] under the Wolsey tomb-house in 1810–13), and were moved into the adjoining vault of Edward IV's, but at the time no effort was made to identify the two lead coffins already in Edward IV's vault.<ref>Lysons & Lysons, Magna Britannia, 1812 supplement p. 471. Also in Britton's Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, 1812 page 45. The move to Edward IV's crypt mentioned in Samuel Lewis, "A Topographical Dictionary of Great Britain" 1831.</ref>

In the late 1990s, work was being carried out near and around Edward IV's tomb in St George's Chapel; the floor area was excavated to replace an old boiler and also to add a new repository for the remains of future Deans and Canons of Windsor.  A request was forwarded to the Dean and Canons of Windsor to consider a possible examination of the two vaults either by fibre-optic camera or, if possible, a reexamination of the two unidentified lead coffins in the tomb also housing the lead coffins of two of Edward IV's children that were discovered during the building of the Royal Tomb for [[King George III]] (1810–13) and placed in the adjoining vault at that time.  Royal consent would be necessary to open any royal tomb, so it was felt best to leave the medieval mystery unsolved for at least the next few generations.<ref>Art Ramirez, "A Medieval Mystery", ''Ricardian Bulletin'', September 2001.</ref> The 2012 [[Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England|discovery of the remains of Richard III]] has prompted renewed interest in re-excavating the skeletons of the "two princes", but [[Queen Elizabeth II]] never granted the approval required for any such testing of an interred royal.<ref>{{cite news|author=Robert McCrum |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/sep/15/king-villains-richard-iii |title=Richard III, the great villain of English history, is due a makeover |work=The Guardian|date= 15 September 2012|access-date=7 February 2013 |location=London}}</ref> In 2022, Tracy Borman, joint chief curator of [[Historic Royal Palaces]], stated that [[King Charles III]] held "a very different view" on the subject and could potentially support an investigation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/10/14/king-charles-rumoured-want-mystery-princes-tower-solved/|title=Mystery of Princes in the Tower could finally be solved — with help from King Charles|work=The Telegraph|first=Victoria|last=Ward|date=14 October 2022|accessdate=17 October 2022}}</ref>

===Unidentified bodies===
Four unidentified bodies have been found which are considered possibly connected with the events of this period: two at the Tower of London and two in [[Saint George's Chapel, Windsor Castle]]. Those found in the tower were buried in [[Westminster Abbey]], but authorities have refused to allow either set of remains to be subjected to DNA analysis to positively identify them as the remains of the princes.<ref name=Guardian2013>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/feb/05/princes-in-tower-staying-under|title=Why the princes in the tower are staying six feet under|first1=Alan|last1=Travis|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=5 February 2013}}</ref> It is now possible to determine whether or not any remains are the two princes, since Richard III's DNA is on record, following his body's [[Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England|discovery in a Leicester car park]].