Beech Tree News Network

One of the most fascinating places we visited while in London this summer was The Tower.  The Tower was built by William the Conqueror in the 1070s.  A massive stone structure, it has served throughout the years as a fortress, a palace and a prison.  In the 1500s, the Yeoman Warders (also known as Beefeaters) resided at the tower as bodyguards to Henry VII.  The Warders continue to be a mainstay at The Tower today.  They and their families, the Resident Governor, a garrison of soldiers, a doctor, and a chaplain all reside there.  There is even a pub.  The grounds are locked at night, so it is like its own little town (hrp.org.uk).

If you visit The Tower, you can stand on the spot at The Tower Green where Anne Boleyn (2nd wife of Henry VIII) and Catherine Howard (5th wife of Henry VIII) were beheaded.  You can even read prisoner graffiti on the walls of the section that served as a prison.  The graffiti was carved into the stone and included pictures, as well as words.  The prison held Dukes, princes, princesses, ladies, archbishops, common thieves, religious conspirators and politicians.  Some prisoners were executed quickly, others were tortured first.  In 1605, Guy Fawkes, of the Gunpowder Plot fame, was tortured, then hanged, drawn and quartered, and his body parts put on display throughout London as a warning to any would-be challengers to the King.  The last prisoner executed there was in 1941.  Josef Jakobs was convicted of being a Nazi spy and was shot by a firing squad.

Although all those incidents are interesting, the one that caught my attention was the story of the two young princes, whose bodies were discovered buried under the staircase of the White Tower in 1674, during renovations under the direction of King Charles II.  Here’s what happened.  Edward IV was King of England in 1483.  He had two sons, Prince Edward and Prince Richard.  When the young princes were 12 and 9, King Edward became deathly ill.  On his death bed, the king entrusted his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, with the title of Lord Protector to his heirs.

 Duke Richard put Prince Edward and Prince Richard in the tower “for their own protection” until Prince Edward’s coronation—he was next in line to the throne.  Prince Edward’s coronation was scheduled for June 22nd of that year.  Duke Richard used the interim time to his own advantage, getting Parliament to declare that the princes were illegitimate, because their father, Edward IV, was under contract to marry Lady Elanor Butler, but instead married Elizabeth Woodville, making the marriage to Elizabeth null and void.  On the 6th of July—surprise, surprise—Uncle Richard was crowned King Richard.  You will recognize the story from Shakespeare’s play, “Richard III.”

The last sighting of the two young princes was on The Tower grounds on June 16th of that same year, 1483.  It was as if they had evaporated into thin air.  Everybody suspected foul play, but the young boys’ bodies were not found until 1674, during renovations to The Tower.  In part of the section called the White Tower, there was a turret that had once contained a staircase leading to St. John’s Chapel.  Under the staircase foundations, 10 feet below the ground, the workmen found a wooden box with two small skeletons.  It was assumed these were the remains of Prince Edward and Prince Richard.  Their remains were buried in Westminster Abbey.  In 1933, the bones were re-examined, and the conclusion was that the bones belonged to two boys, more than likely aged ten and twelve.

The really odd thing is that Richard III’s remains weren’t discovered until 2012, under the pavement in a Leicester car park.  Modern forensics identified his skeleton.  There was interest in testing the remains of the two small skeletons once again, in order to prove once and for all the theory that these were the two young princes, who had probably been murdered by their uncle’s cohorts.  The hope is that by dating all sets of remains, a timeline can be developed.  However, the Church of England, backed by Queen Elizabeth, refused to let this go forward, saying forensics were not at a place where time of death of the boys could be compared to the time of death of Richard III, holding him responsible.

After the recent death of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles—now King Charles—went on record, saying he would allow examination of the bones of the two young boys, so there may be a resolution to one of the oldest cold cases in our lifetime.