Editing Princes in the Tower (section)

=== 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>