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You are here: UK History > Royal History > House of York > Edward V | The Prince in the Tower
The second Yorkist King, Edward V, had the shortest reign of any English king lasting only 2 months and seventeen days. He came to the throne aged 12 and by his 14th birthday had disappeared completely, believed to have been murdered by his uncle.
Born: 2nd November 1470
Died: Unknown, thought to have been the summer of 1483
Reign: 9th April 1483 – 25th June 1483
Parents: Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville
Predecessor: Edward IV (father)
Successor: Richard III (uncle)
Spouse: none
Children: none
Royal House: Plantagenet, York branch
Edward V was the oldest son of Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. He was one of 12...Read More
The second Yorkist King, Edward V, had the shortest reign of any English king lasting only 2 months and seventeen days. He came to the throne aged 12 and by his 14th birthday had disappeared completely, believed to have been murdered by his uncle.
Born: 2nd November 1470
Died: Unknown, thought to have been the summer of 1483
Reign: 9th April 1483 – 25th June 1483
Parents: Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville
Predecessor: Edward IV (father)
Successor: Richard III (uncle)
Spouse: none
Children: none
Royal House: Plantagenet, York branch
Edward V was the oldest son of Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. He was one of 12 children, having two half brothers from his mother’s first marriage and nine full siblings. At least three of his siblings died in childhood or infancy and he was survived by his half brothers and his five sisters. He was born on 2nd November 1470 at the house of the Abbot of Westminster, which adjoined the abbey. His mother and older siblings had taken sanctuary at the abbey after his father, Edward IV was deposed following a battle with the Lancastrians and exiled to Flanders. The throne was reclaimed by Henry VI, who despite the continuing threat of his Yorkist relatives, refused to imprison or execute Elizabeth Woodville or any of her children. Edward IV returned to England in 1471 and reclaimed the crown following the death of Henry’s only son. Henry was once again imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he died and Edward IV continued his reign until his own sudden death.
Image: Edward V
On his return to England, Edward IV immediately named his son Edward, who was just 7 months old, Prince of Wales. Three years later, young Edward was given his own household at Ludlow Castle, which had been his father's childhood home, where he was to rule Wales and the Welsh Marches. As he was just a child, the household was mostly supervised by his mother’s brother, Anthony Woodville, and young Edward spent a lot of time in the company of his mother and siblings. As heir apparent, Edward was in need of an advantageous betrothal and his father secured a marriage in name to the daughter of the Duke of Brittany.
The eventual plan being that Edward's heir would inherit England and any younger children, Brittany. Unfortunately for young Edward, the plan, like the marriage and his regin, didn't come to pass.
Edward IV died suddenly in April 1483 when young Edward was just 12 years old. In his will, the late King named his younger brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester as Lord Protector, effectively allowing him to rule on behalf of Edward V until he was old enough to do so himself. A royal council was appointed to advise and govern for young Edward, which was mostly made up of members of his mother’s family. They were keen for Edward's coronation to take place immediately to avoid the need for a protectorate and to eliminate the issues faced by other young kings who came to the throne before coming of age. Historians also claim that they wanted to avoid giving the Duke of Gloucester too much power, afterall, should this have happened, the Woodvilles would have been the ones to rule in the King's stead and would have had much more power. Understandably, Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, wanted to avoid this at all costs, the Woodvilles after all were only considered to be nobility because of Edward's mother being the Dowager Queen. Prior to her wedding to Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville had been married to a Lancastrian who had died in battle with York forces and had two sons, both of whom were part of the young King's household.
Wanting the power for himself, Richard continued to postpone the date of the coronation, likely because of his own agenda, and as such, Edward was never crowned.
Following the death of Edward IV, young Edward was named Edward V and was prepared for travel from Ludlow Castle to London for his coronation. The Duke of Gloucester pledged his loyalty to his nephew and so Anthony Woodville, Edward's uncle, and Richard Grey, Edward’s older half brother, were happy for the Duke to meet them and accompany them to London. However, at the start of the journey, Richard the Duke of Gloucester had both Grey and Woodville arrested, seizing their lands and imprisoning them at Pontefract Castle, where they were both executed. Edward protested but was unable to reverse the order. Richard then had the rest of the travelling party dismissed and accompanied the young king to London on his own. On hearing the news, Elizabeth Woodville and her remaining children returned to Westminster Abbey, once again claiming sanctuary. Historians say that she began plans to have Edward released into her care but was unable to do so.
Richard installed Edward in the Tower of London, which, as well as being a prison, was for a time, a royal residence. Many royals spent time there while awaiting their coronation, so it wasn’t unusual for a new monarch to set up home at the royal apartments. After securing the young King, Richard took custody of his other nephew, prince Richard, who was the new Duke of York and the Heir Apparent. The prince joined his brother at the Tower, with Richard claiming that he was simply ensuring the boy’s attendance at the coronation and later claiming that he was keeping the boys under heavy guard there for their own protection. The pair became known as the Princes in the Tower and their lives have become shrouded in mystery.
What we do know is that while Edward V was in the Tower awaiting his coronation, his uncle Richard had dismissed and executed a number of powerful individuals who had been loyal to Edward IV and as such, would support Edward V. He moved into royal apartments and began working with allies to question the legitimacy of Edward’s claim to the throne. Historians have noted that Richard’s older siblings didn’t resemble their father, whereas he did. This on top of the claim from various people that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid, caused support to sway towards Richard as the true heir to the crown.
Edward was eventually deposed on 26th June, just two months after being named king. His uncle was crowned and became Richard III, shortly afterwards, the two princes that had been locked in the Tower disappeared, with general consensus being that the pair were murdered, most likely by their uncle Richard. This could be one of the reasons why the Garden Tower where they were lodged became known as the Bloody Tower – a name that it keeps to this day.
There are a number of theories as to what happened to Edward V and prince Richard. Though it is widely believed that the pair were murdered, there were also reports that the young king was suffering from ill health and could have succumbed to an illness. The last recorded sighting of Edward alive was by the royal physician, Dr Argentine, who noted that the king was in a state of melancholy. Other theories say that at least one of the boys escaped and was smuggled to the continent, but this is widely debated.
In 1674, workmen remodelling the staircase in the Garden Tower uncovered two small skeletons, which were believed to be those of the missing princes. The king at the time, Charles II ordered that they be interred at Westminster Abbey under the names Edward and Richard. In the 1930s, the bones were exhumed and re-examined and it was discovered that the skeletons were incomplete. The remains were determined to be from two young people, likely aged between 15 and 9, the age bracket that the boys were when they disappeared. They were reburied and have not been examined further. While there is no definitive proof that the skeletons are those of the princes, it is unlikely that either left the Tower alive.
A similarly strange incident took place at Windsor Castle when workmen were repairing St George’s Chapel, the final resting place of several English monarchs. They accidentally entered the vault containing the remains of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, who had been buried together. Adjoining their vault was another containing two child sized coffins. It was believed that these were the bodies of George and Mary, two of their ten children that had predeceased them, however, a further vault featuring their names was found elsewhere in the chapel. The two children in the coffins remain unidentified, but historians do not believe them to be the two princes.
When it comes to theories, the most popular is that Richard III had the boys killed on his orders to prevent them reclaiming the throne, however the Duke of Buckingham and Henry Tudor, who would usurp Richard III, also stood to gain from their deaths. Henry Tudor was the remaining Lancastrian claimant to the throne and the Duke of Buckingham had royal blood and was in the line of succession.
Historians have pointed out that Elizabeth Woodville would not have surrendered her daughters to Richard’s care if she knew he had murdered the princes, and for a time, he was proposing to marry her eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York. Richard had after all, already had her oldest son executed. However, Elizabeth Woodville's motives have been hard to explain, later, after Henry Tudor defeated Richard at the Battle of Bosworth, he married Elizabeth of York, which united the families, but Elizabeth Woodville continued to be implicated in plots to remove him from the throne, which of course, endangered the lives of not only her oldest daughter, but her remaining children as well.
It is noted that she and Henry Tudor had a difficult relationship which eventually resulted in him seizing her lands and removing her to a nunnery. Perhaps Elizabeth knew that at least one of her sons had escaped the Tower and was counting on them coming back to claim the throne, so it didn't matter whether she publically supported Henry or Richard. Perhaps she was a product of her time and was just concerned with being allied to the winning side. Historians continue to debate what her actions meant in terms of the boys in the Tower.
During Henry VII's reign, there were several people who claimed to be one of the princes come to reclaim their throne. Historians tend not to take these claims seriously. One, known as Perkin Warbeck, claimed to be the lost Prince Richard. He said that he had been smuggled out of the Tower and onto the continent where he was hidden under the protection of his aunt, the Duchess of Burgandy. In his initially story, Warbeck announced himself as Richard for the first time at the court in Burgandy, he received funds and an army and made his way to Ireland, where he gained support before landing in England where he joined with remaining Yorkist supporters. Warbeck claimed that Edward had been murdered in the Tower, but because of his age, he had been spared. It is said that Warbeck did resemble Edward IV and he could have been an iligitimate son, but many questioned whether he was indeed Richard the Duke of York. Perkin Warbeck eventually confessed to being a pretender and was executed, historian Phillipa Langley presented her research which claims that she had proved Perkin Warbeck was Prince Richard, but there is nothing definitive to say that this was the case.
To this day, the fate of Edward V and his brother remains a mystery.
Ludlow Castle, Wales
The site of Edward's household as Prince of Wales
Tower of London, London
Edward was sent here and was never seen again prior to his coronation.
Westminster Abbey, London
Edward was born next door to the Abbey while his mother and siblings were claiming sanctury during their father's exile.
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