WEBVTT - The Ghost Princes and Richard III 0:00:00.680 --> 0:00:03.840 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:08.440 and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Minky. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:22.160 In the BBC's History magazine, History Extra ran a poll 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.240 online asking readers to vote for their favorite historical mystery. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.560 There were twenty choices, ranging from the purpose of Stonehenge 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.200 to the translation of the Voytage manuscript to the final 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:42.560 resting place of Jesus Christ's body. With twenty choices, they 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:46.200 probably anticipated that it was going to be a close race, 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:50.920 one where perhaps a few front runners emerged. One of 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:56.200 the mysteries wiped the floor with the other choices. More 0:00:56.240 --> 0:01:00.920 than one in three readers voted for the Exact Say mystery, 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.280 which ended up at a final percentage more than double 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:07.319 the votes of the mystery that came in second place. 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.840 The first place winner for the History Extra poll. The 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:17.440 historical mystery that captivated and compelled readers beyond wanting to 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.800 know what happened to the actual Jesus Christ. Was this 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:29.440 what happened to the Princes in the Tower. In fourteen 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.920 eighty three, two boys, the sons and heirs of the 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:37.559 late King Edward the Fourth, were put into the Tower 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.160 of London, ostensibly to prepare and keep safe before the 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:46.840 older boy, King Edward the Fifth coronation. But while they 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.720 were safely behind the walls of the castle fortress, their 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.280 uncle and the regent, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, announced that 0:01:55.440 --> 0:02:00.680 new information had emerged that the boys were actually legitimate. 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:06.640 That summer, the man coronated was actually Richard himself, who 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:12.359 became King Richard the Third. He reigned briefly until Henry 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.400 Tudor bested him in battle and claimed the throne, beginning 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.400 the Tudor dynasty and more or less ending the civil 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.000 war that had raged for decades over the English throne 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:29.440 known as the War of the Roses. People had seen 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.720 the two princes, they weren't quite princes, but we'll get 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.440 to that later, playing outside on the lawns of the 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:42.440 Tower of London that summer in but then their servants 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:47.000 were dismissed. The princes were moved deeper within the grounds 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:51.240 of the castle to the towers inner apartments, and then 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:58.359 one day no one ever saw them again. The two 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:03.280 doomed princes have come famous over the centuries through depictions 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:07.040 in art. Perhaps the most iconic painting of the boys 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.480 was done in eighteen seventy eight by Sir John Everett Millay, 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.320 and it features the boys dressed in all black. They 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.240 look younger than they would have actually been twelve and nine, 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.920 and in the painting they're almost cherubic under halos of 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:29.800 blonde hair, as the painter portrays them their innocence, martyrs 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:34.720 of the cruel ambitions of the grown men around them. 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:39.000 Most people probably learned the story of the Princess through Shakespeare. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.480 In his play Richard the Third, Shakespeare portrays the king 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.960 as a scheming, villainous hunchback who lurks in the shadows, 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:52.280 waiting for his moment to claim power and eventually to 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:55.880 murder his own nephews in order to secure the crown. 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.640 The Lord Chancellor Thomas Moore perhaps wrote the most famous 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:05.320 historical account of Richard the Third, similarly portraying him as 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:10.080 a murderous tyrant. It was More who first named names 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.600 when it came to the Prince's alleged murderers, and he 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.000 added the compelling details that their young bodies were buried 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:22.039 under a staircase in the Tower of London. But it's 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.760 important to remember that both of those men. More and 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:30.440 Shakespeare were writing under the Tutor dynasty. History is told 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.839 by the victors, after all, and Richard the Third was 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:38.040 the end of his family's line. When Henry Tutor defeated 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.760 him in battle and became King Henry the Seventh, his 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:47.320 claim was pretty weak. There were other older families that really, 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.440 arguably should have gotten the crown ahead of him, and 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.840 his claim was really predicated on the fact that his 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:56.840 victory over Richard the Third in the Battle of bosworth 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:02.240 Field was God's will anointing him king. His power relied 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.480 then on Richard the Third being a villainous usurper. Otherwise 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.640 he Henry the seventh, would be the usurper. And so 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.279 did Richard the Third actually order the death of his 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.880 own nephews in order to secure his crown. Or was 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:21.480 he manipulated after death into a villain by the Tutor 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.920 pr machine when the boys might have been killed by 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:29.200 them the Tutors all along, or did the boys survive 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.440 and run away to live peaceful lives as park rangers 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.960 in pastoral England. Over the years, the question of the 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:42.440 Princes in the Tower has baffled and fascinated historians and 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.600 casual hobbyists alike, to the point where factions have formed 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.320 and become deeply entrenched, another smaller scale war of the 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:57.240 roses happening among the history set. Here are the facts 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.640 as we know them, that two boys came into the 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:04.119 Tower of London, the sons of a king who should 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:09.000 have been protected and powerful. But power is only as 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.480 meaningful as one's ability to wield it, and kings are 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.720 only kings so long as those around them choose to 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:22.120 obey them. Whether you believe in murder or tutor plots 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.479 or daring escapes, the heart of the matter is a 0:06:25.560 --> 0:06:30.760 reminder that the divine right to rule is fragile. Kings 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.840 can be toppled by rumors as well as swords. Sometimes 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:39.680 they're toppled by both. We will likely never find a 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.719 definite answer to the question of what happened to the 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.599 princes in the tower. Let me get that out of 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.279 the way upfront, lest you listen to this whole episode 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.279 hoping that I'm going to be the one to crack 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.599 this thing wide open. Of course, I do have my 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:57.080 own theory as to what happened, but I also believe 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.000 that the killing of the two boys was a little 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.440 less pat and a little less villainous than Shakespeare made 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.480 it seem it was an era of kill or be killed, 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.400 and with the walls closing in on him, Richard the 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:17.240 Third had a decision to make I'm Dana Schwartz, and 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:34.240 this is noble blood. When the man we now know 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.600 as Richard the Third was born in fourteen fifty two, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.640 he was almost an afterthought. He was his parents fourth 0:07:41.720 --> 0:07:45.880 child and third son. They already had their air and 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.840 their spare. In a family chronicle published when Richard was 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.080 a child, their only note on the young Richard was 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:58.480 that he quote liveth Yet Richard's father was also confusingly 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:03.080 named Richard the d of York, also known as Richard Plantagenet. 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.880 He was an incredibly important nobleman at the time, inheriting 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.880 a claim to the throne through his own mother, which 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.600 made him a key figure in the War of the Roses, 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.480 which began unfolding in earnest during Richard the Third's childhood. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.440 Entire books can be and have been written about the 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.960 War of the Roses, but I'm going to do an 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.320 incredibly brief cursory overview just to give you an idea 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.480 of how complicated the seemingly simple question of who the 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:37.320 rightful King of England was so here are the crib notes. 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:41.559 We begin with King Edward the Third, who reigned until 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:47.000 thirteen seventy seven. He had eight sons and five daughters, 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:50.560 so as you might imagine, there's plenty of legitimate and 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.560 illegitimate royal blood swirling around in people ready to claim 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:59.559 royal ancestry. His oldest son is his heir, Edward the 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:02.480 Black Prince, and the Black Prince has his own son 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.680 the next in line. But then Edward the Black Prince dies, 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.680 and so when King Edward the Third dies, the throne 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:15.679 goes to his grandchild, Richard the Second. The problem is 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:18.600 Richard the Second is a ten year old boy at 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:22.199 this point, and when there's a child in charge, especially 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.400 a child like Richard the Second, who was speculated to 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.600 be later either insane or suffering from a personality disorder, 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:34.400 other people tend to want to move into that power vacuum. 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.439 The War of the Roses becomes so called by future 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:43.240 generations because the two families involved, the Yorks and the Lancasters, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.920 both had roses for their family symbols, the white rose 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:51.280 of York and the red of Lancaster. Both families were 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:56.040 descended from cadet branches of King Edward the Third cadet branches, 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.760 meaning descended from his younger sons. Personally, I'm a very 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.080 visual thinker, and I realize how challenging this is to 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.520 communicate through audio. But bear with me if you can. 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.040 King Edward the Third basically has four surviving sons that 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.280 matter to the story right now, Edward the Black Prince, 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.080 Lionel of Antwerp, John of Gaunt, and Edmund of Langley. 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.040 Edward the Black Prince dies and he has the sickly 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.800 son who's technically the king, but whose fairly disastrous reign 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.440 sets up this power vacuum that allows the War of 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:33.000 the Roses to happen. So now there are two main 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:38.240 family lines vying for the throne. The Lancaster claim comes 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:42.880 through son number three, John of Gaunt. The Yorkist claim 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.160 is a little more complicated. Their heirs of son number two, 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:53.080 Lionel of Antwerp, but through his female descendants head of 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.720 the York family was Richard the Third's dad, Richard of York. 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.559 On his mother's side, he's a descendant of Lionel Vantwerp, 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.760 son number two, but on his father's side he's the 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:09.440 grandson of Edmund of Langley, son number four, So it's 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:13.800 two claims from sons too and four, which you know 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:18.800 combined is arguably better than the Lancaster line from son three, 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:24.480 arguably hence the war. The House of Lancaster has a 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:30.080 successful early start. Henry the Fourth overthrows the weak, unpopular 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:35.679 Richard the Second in his son Henry five, is also king, 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.120 but makes the mistake of dying when his only son, 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.560 Henry the sixth, is just an infant. Once again, we 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:47.160 have a power vacuum, especially as Henry the sixth that 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:51.880 gets older and begins suffering from mental illness, so the 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.160 time is ripe for the Yorks to reclaim their throne. 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:59.320 Richard the Third grows up in this period watching his 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:03.439 father and older brother Edward leading a rebellion against the 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:08.800 Lancaster King Henry the sixth. When Richard's father dies in 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:12.520 battle in fourteen sixty, it's Richard the third older brother 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:16.640 who becomes Edward the Fourth, who inherits the Yorkist claim 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:21.079 to the throne and who ultimately wins. Richard's older brother 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.680 Edward is crowned King Edward the Fourth and bearing one 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.839 brief period ten years in where Henry the sixth and 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.400 his supporters fight back and briefly get him back on 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:36.280 the throne. Edward remains King Our Richard the third was 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.520 a child through all of that. He was eight when 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:41.840 his father was killed in battle, and he was sent 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.160 away for low countries the Netherlands for his own safety. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:49.000 After that, only returning the next year when his older brother, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.200 Edward the fourth was crowned king. As the loyal younger 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.560 brother of the new king, Richard was given a shiny 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.839 new title, Duke of Gloucester. He's maid a Knight of 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.480 the Garter and Knight of the Bath, and he remains loyal, 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.480 looking up to his brother and eagerly fighting for his causes. 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.280 When Richard is eleven, he's made Commissioner of Array. At seventeen, 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:19.040 Richard has given independent command in the military. Aside from 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.600 the brief hiccup when Henry the sixth returned to the 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.600 throne for less than six months, things are going swimmingly 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.559 for the York family. As Shakespeare put it immortally, quote, 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.680 now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:41.480 by this son of York. By four seventy three, Edward 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.920 the fourth was comfortably king and not just king, a 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.960 king with two sons, the all important air and spare 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:57.360 by his wife Elizabeth Woodville. The King's marriage was actually 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.960 pretty controversial, put it mild. It was actually Edward the 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:06.079 fourth choice of bride that pretty much caused that six 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:09.719 month pickup where he lost the crown. You see, Elizabeth 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:14.520 Woodville was from fairly middle rank. She had already been 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:18.360 married to a supporter of the House of Lancaster, the 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:22.280 enemy house, with whom she had two sons. Her last 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:27.280 husband had died in battle fighting for the Lancasters. People 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:32.640 saw the Woodvilles as a scheming, social climbing bunch, and 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.760 when Edward the Fourth chose to marry one of them, 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.240 his powerful cousin, the Earl of Warwick, defected to the 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.120 other side and helped Henry the sixth with that brief restoration. 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.440 All of that was probably a little awkward for young 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:50.680 Richard the Third, who had grown up under the tutelage 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:53.560 of Warwick. It was work who had trained him as 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:59.160 a knight and provided for his education. After Warwick's betrayal 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.640 and death in battle, Richard married his daughter, which Shakespeare 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:08.200 positioned as a pretty cruel and insidious form of revenge, 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.360 but which a more charitable interpretation to Richard the Third 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.520 would point out also gave him a pretty massive inheritance. 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.720 At the end of the day. For Richard, loyalty to 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.600 his brother the king was the most important thing. One 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:28.160 of his other brothers had actually chosen the opposite side 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.960 during the rebellion and was executed for treason when Edward 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.000 the Fourth came back to the throne, But Richard the 0:15:35.080 --> 0:15:38.360 Third had always been loyal, and so he continued to 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.360 grow in power and prestige at his brother's side, loyal 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:48.680 protector of the York Family dynasty. It was fourteen eighty three. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.920 After decades of war and thousands of lives lost in 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:57.360 bloody conflicts up and down the country, England was finally 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.640 at peace under King Edward the Four, but that piece 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:08.480 was about to be shattered. On April nine, King Edward 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:12.760 the Fourth died suddenly at age forty. We don't know 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:15.800 what he died of, whether the illness might have been 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:20.920 a sudden case of pneumonia or even malaria, or internal hemorrhaging, 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:24.160 whatever it was. It was assumed at the time that 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:28.280 the king's excessive lifestyle of eating and drinking to the 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:33.040 extreme didn't help. But whatever the cause, he was dead 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.880 and his twelve year old son was now King Edward 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:42.600 the five. Young Edward was living at Ludlow Castle, the 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.040 seat of power in Wales at the time. His guardian 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:50.720 and tutor was his maternal uncle, a man named Lord Rivers. 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.520 Lord Rivers had practically raised Edward from the time that 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:58.320 he was a toddler. It was he Lord Rivers, the 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:02.080 Queen's brother a Woodville, who taught Edward how to fight 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.720 with the sword, who secured his tutors, and who became 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.600 the strongest paternal present in his life. And it was 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.280 he Lord Rivers who received the letter a few days 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.040 after the king's death, who then had to inform Young 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.280 Edward that his father had died and that he was 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.840 now the king. Word of the king's death had also 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.160 traveled to the north of England, where the dead King's brother, 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.600 the future Richard the Third, had his estates. He immediately 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:36.240 returned to his home and changed into black, attending a 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:40.119 memorial service for his brother and weeping for his loss. 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.720 Richard also got noticed that the late king's final wishes 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.040 were to appoint him as protector of the realm, in 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:52.560 effect de facto king until the twelve year old boy 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:57.080 came of age. Richard, now thirty years old, was the 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:00.880 logical choice. He was the most senior royal in the family, 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:04.520 and after all, he had spent a lifetime in military service. 0:18:05.080 --> 0:18:08.040 He was considered an English hero for his leadership in 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:11.800 putting down rebellions for his brother. He was loyal and 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:16.080 adept at making quick decisions, even when those decisions were hard, 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.560 and so he began to prepare to head down to 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:25.240 London to uphold his brother's final wishes. But then another 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:30.040 letter came. This one was from a man named Lord Hastings. 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:35.120 Hastings was an old career nobleman, so to speak, one 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.320 of the dead king's closest friends. He warned Richard that 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.560 he needed to get down to London as quickly as possible, 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:47.120 that the Woodvilles, the Queen's family, were closing their claws 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:52.840 around power. The Woodvilles, once a middling noble family, had 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.840 had a meteoric rise when their daughter Elizabeth had married 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.560 Edward the Fourth, the type of rise that only happens 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.840 because you're married to the king. They all knew well 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.960 enough that if Richard had any real power, even temporarily, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:13.200 their stars would be falling, and so the Woodvills, who 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.879 dominated the council in London, announced that the coronation for 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:24.520 young Edward the Five would be immediate. It was a 0:19:24.560 --> 0:19:28.639 move designed to cut Richard out, and no doubt it's stung. 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:32.159 After all, he was the King's loyal brother and a 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:37.000 celebrated soldier. He had royal blood, and it was the 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.800 late king's final wishes that he be Lord Protector until 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.040 Edward the Five came of age. Who should be making 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:47.439 decisions now a twelve year old boy a family that 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:52.159 was basically middle class. By making the coronation immediate, the 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:57.080 Woodvills were in effect dismissing Richard's position, deciding that Edward 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:00.280 the Five was already fine to rule with the ice 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.359 and guidance of his mother and her family. Of course, 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.000 whatever Richard was thinking at this moment, we can't be sure. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.280 I don't really believe the Shakespearean portrayal that he was 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.679 already plotting his own assent to the throne. But I 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.919 can't imagine that he figured, probably correctly, that he was 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:22.399 the one who should rightfully be in power at the moment. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.000 Richard wrote to Lord Rivers, the guardian of the new King, 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.920 and said, let's all meet up on the way down 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:33.280 to London for the coronation in Northampton, so we can 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.840 enter London together as a sign of unity and strength. 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:40.400 Lord Rivers had no reason to doubt Richard, and so 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:45.640 he readily agreed with the new uncoornated King Edward the Five. 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:51.960 Staying nearby at Stony Stratford, Richard went to meet Lord Rivers. Recall, 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.359 Lord Rivers is a Woodville, the brother of the Queen, 0:20:55.880 --> 0:20:59.480 and so by this point Richard sees him as one 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.720 of the bowl, wrestling rightful power away from him. And 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.080 it's here that Richard the Third makes a fateful decision, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.600 one that will be the first domino that leads to 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:18.600 his own destruction. After the men spend the evening cordially 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:23.600 enough discussing travel arrangements and plans for the coronation, Richard 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:29.560 the Third has his guards arrest Rivers for treason. The 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.640 next morning, Richard goes to see his nephew, the new King. Alone, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:39.520 Richard informs the new King that unfortunately his beloved uncle 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:44.240 Rivers was a trader. The charge against him was, if 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:48.840 you'll forgive me in my opinion a little flimsy. Richard 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.840 claims that Lord Rivers was responsible for speeding up the 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:56.399 death of the late King Edward the Fourth by encouraging 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:02.160 his heavy drinking. Young King Edward the five is shocked, angry, 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:06.399 and maybe a little scared. Though Richard is the boy's uncle, 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.399 they barely know each other. Edward grew up in London 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.639 and at Ludlow and Richard's the states were mostly in 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:17.119 the North of England. It was Lord Rivers who basically 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:20.680 raised him. There was one uncle that he trusted and 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:24.320 one uncle that he really didn't, but what choice did 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:27.240 he have. At that point, Richard informed the boy that 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:30.240 it was time to go down to London for his coronation. 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:35.200 I'm sure Edward was thinking something along the lines of, well, 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.080 I'm going to become king and it's nothing I won't 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.000 be able to straighten out with the rest of my 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:44.600 family when I get to London. But now the power 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:48.600 has shifted in Richard's favor. When he arrives in London 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:51.640 with the young King and word of the Woodville Lord 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:56.600 Rivers supposed treason, Richard is finally able to be officially 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:01.159 appointed Lord Protector, at least until Edward the Fifth coronation, 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:06.360 which is set for June twenty second, seven weeks away. 0:23:06.880 --> 0:23:11.560 Those seven weeks become a ticking clock. Richard has raised 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:14.479 the stakes, and if he wants to hold onto power, 0:23:14.880 --> 0:23:19.560 he needs to work quickly. It's at this point that 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:22.520 Richard has the Young King Edward the Fifth placed in 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:25.800 the Tower of London. Now that sounds a little bit 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:29.200 more sinister than it was. The Tower of London now 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.119 is most famous for being a prison, but it was 0:23:32.160 --> 0:23:35.639 also a royal residence, and it was tradition for a 0:23:35.760 --> 0:23:39.320 king to stay there the night before his coronation. But 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:42.840 from this point on Edward is more or less under 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:47.359 house arrest by his uncle Richard. Edward will never leave 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:51.680 the grounds of the Tower of London again. Edward's mother, 0:23:51.840 --> 0:23:57.439 Elizabeth Woodville, the Dowager Queen, flees to Westminster Abbey Sanctuary 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:00.640 with her other children, her daughters, and her other son, 0:24:01.080 --> 0:24:05.720 a nine year old boy named Richard. Meanwhile, the elder 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:08.919 Richard the third is trying to shore up his power. 0:24:09.440 --> 0:24:12.080 He knows full well that the second that the Young 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:15.200 King Edward the Fifth is coronated, he's going to revert 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:21.040 back to full Woodville control. Richard grows increasingly paranoid, feeling 0:24:21.119 --> 0:24:24.959 trapped into a corner as the Royal Council, still dominated 0:24:24.960 --> 0:24:29.920 by Woodvilles, keeps blocking his moves. Richard attempts to put 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:34.080 Lord Rivers, still imprisoned, on trial for treason, and he 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:37.040 also tries to get the young Richard the second quote 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:41.200 unquote Prince into the Tower of London for quote unquote 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:45.320 safe keeping. Richard the Third fears that even his once 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:49.639 close ally, Lord Hastings, has betrayed him and has begun 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:53.600 working with the Woodvilles to undermine his power. With just 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:58.200 nine days left until Edward the fifth Coronation, Richard calls 0:24:58.240 --> 0:25:01.520 a small council meeting at the Power of London, and 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:07.800 to everyone's surprise, he has Lord Hastings arrested. Lord Hastings 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:11.879 is brought outside and executed in the yard that afternoon 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:16.879 on a makeshift chopping block, killed illegally without a trial. 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:25.800 For staunch defenders of Richard. This killing of Lord Hastings is, 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:28.680 at least the way I see it, one of those 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:32.359 real sticking points that looks bad. It was a move 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:36.680 made almost certainly out of fear and paranoia and desperation, 0:25:37.359 --> 0:25:40.679 but it was also an illegal execution without a trial 0:25:41.240 --> 0:25:44.160 of one of the most respected noblemen in the country, 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:49.320 one of the late King's closest friends. Richard just gave 0:25:49.440 --> 0:25:52.640 his enemies the fuel that they'll need later on when 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:56.280 they'll try to paint him as an outright villain. But 0:25:56.800 --> 0:26:01.280 for now, Richard has made his power and is ruthlessness known, 0:26:01.920 --> 0:26:05.639 and through the Archbishop, he more or less forces Elizabeth 0:26:05.680 --> 0:26:09.520 Woodville to release her younger son into Richard's custody in 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:13.399 the Tower of London, still at this point under the 0:26:13.480 --> 0:26:19.199 pretense of preparing for his older brother's coronation. Now Richard 0:26:19.280 --> 0:26:23.439 has both princes in his custody in the Tower. I 0:26:23.480 --> 0:26:25.320 think now is as good a time as any just 0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:29.080 to clear something up. Technically, neither of them were actually 0:26:29.119 --> 0:26:31.960 princes when they were in the tower. One of them 0:26:32.080 --> 0:26:35.080 was a king even though he was not coronated yet, 0:26:35.119 --> 0:26:37.760 he was still King Edward the five, and the other 0:26:38.040 --> 0:26:41.280 was a duke, young Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York. 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:44.879 But people call them the Princess the Princess in the Tower, 0:26:45.240 --> 0:26:48.680 so for clarity, that's sometimes how I'll refer to them. 0:26:49.240 --> 0:26:52.960 But whatever their titles, now that they were in Richard's control. 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:56.159 The pieces were in place for him to make a 0:26:56.280 --> 0:27:02.320 big move. Seemingly out of nowhere, a bishop comes forward 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:06.720 and announces that actually the late King Edward the Fourth's 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:11.160 marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid because he had already 0:27:11.200 --> 0:27:14.639 been pre contracted to another woman, and by law at 0:27:14.680 --> 0:27:19.120 that time, pre contracts with witnesses were as good as marriage. 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:22.679 The bishop who came forward claimed that he had been 0:27:22.720 --> 0:27:26.399 the one who performed the earlier ceremony, back before he 0:27:26.480 --> 0:27:30.040 was a bishop. He was promoted under Edward the Fourth, 0:27:30.400 --> 0:27:33.040 which some people see as a sign that his claim 0:27:33.160 --> 0:27:37.280 was true. Maybe Edward the Fourth promoted him to keep 0:27:37.359 --> 0:27:41.040 him quiet, and he only felt safe coming forward after 0:27:41.080 --> 0:27:45.879 the king's death. But unfortunately we have no real tangible 0:27:45.920 --> 0:27:49.480 proof on either side. The woman Edward the fourth had 0:27:49.520 --> 0:27:54.760 allegedly been contracted to Eleanor Butler had already passed away. 0:27:55.240 --> 0:27:58.480 The streets of London were buzzing with the gossip, and 0:27:59.280 --> 0:28:02.240 true or not, the timing could not have been more 0:28:02.320 --> 0:28:06.720 convenient for Richard. If the king's marriage was invalid, his 0:28:06.880 --> 0:28:12.879 children were illegitimate and ineligible to become king. Well, then 0:28:12.960 --> 0:28:17.600 who should rule instead? I think then it has to 0:28:17.680 --> 0:28:23.120