Editing Princes in the Tower (section)

=== 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/>