The Mythology of the 'Princes in the Tower'

By John Ashdown-Hill

Book Overview

The term "Princes in the Tower" is generally synonymous with the supposedly murdered boy King Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, sons of Edward IV. But were those boys genuinely held against their will in the Tower? Would their mother, Elizabeth Widville, have released Richard from sanctuary with her if she believed she would be putting his life in danger? The children were declared bastards in 1483 and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was offered the throne. But after Bosworth, in order to marry their sister Elizabeth of York, Henry VII needed to make her legitimate again. If the boys were alive at that time then Edward V would once again have become the rightful king. Following the discovery of some bones in the Tower in 1674 they were interred in a marble urn in Westminster Abbey as the remains of the two sons of Edward IV. What evidence exists? What did the 1933 urn opening reveal? By working with geneticists and scientists, and exploring the mtDNA haplogroup of the living all-female-line collateral descendant of the brothers, John Ashdown-Hill strips away the myths.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1445699133
• ISBN13: 9781445699134
• Release Date: July 2020
• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.7"