3. Edward V

Pre-reading task:Read about one of the most tragic and mysterious pages in English history.

The elder surviving son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Edward V succeeded his father in April 1483, was deposed by the end of June and disappeared withthout trace some time In July, to become centre of a celebrated unsolved mystery.

Edward V was born in Westminster Abbey, where his mother had taken sanctuary during Warwick the Kingmaker's attempted coup to reinstate Henry VI as monarch. His father was then abroad, gathering forces for a final defeat of Warwick and the Lancastrian threat; this he achieved at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and by June 1471 Edward IV was securely re-established as king and his heir was created Prince of Wales. Much of the prince's boyhood was spent at Ludlow, where he learned the business of government at first hand, as his father’s nominal representative in Wales. The Queen's brother Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, was appointed as governor to the Prince and Sir Richard Grey, his mother's son by her first marriage, was one of young Edward’s closest advisers.

The influence of Rivers and Grey over the King, as Edward became on 9 April 1483, was clearly unwelcome in certain quarters. Edward IV's youngest brother, Richard of Gloucester, who had been appointed Protec-tor, took action: he met the king's party on the journey from Ludlow to London, arrested Rivers and Grey - who were later executed – and escorted young Edward to his state lodgings in the Tower of London. The Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. retired to sanctuary in Westminster Abbey once more, with her younger son. nine-year-old Richard. Duke of York and her five daughters. On 16 June, however, she was obliged to surrender her son Richard to his uncle Gloucester's care, and the boy joined his brother in the Tower. Before Edward V's coronation could take place, a startling allegation was made. On 22 June Ralph Shaw, a supporter of Gloucester, preached a sermon in which he publicly declared that Edward IV's marriage to Elisabeth Woodville had not been lawful, as the king had previously entered into a contract with another lady. The Woodville children, most importantly young Edward and his brother, were thus bastards, and debarred from the throne.

Three days after this revelation, Parlia­ment met. and the matter was discussed. The outcome was that the late king's sons were held to be illegitimate, and Richard of Gloucester was thus the rightful heir to the throne. He was formally requested to become king, and after appearing to hesitate, he accepted. On 26 June, the reign of Edward V was over.

The two boys remained in the Tower, where they were sometimes seen playing and shooting together: But late in July they disappeared, and were never recorded alive again. Suspicions were voiced at the time, both in England and in France, that they had been murdered: and in the reign of Henry VII a man namned Sir James Tyrell claimed that he had been paid by Richard III to smother the children while they were asleep, and that he then buried their bodies beneath a staircase.

Two centuries later, in the reign of King Charles II, some workmen digging beneath an old staircase in the Tower came upon a coffer containing children's bones. They were taken to be the bones of the two Princes, and reverently re-interred hi an urn - designed by Sir Christopher Wren - in Westminster Abbey. In 1933 the remains were forenslcally examined and pronounced to be parts of the bodies of two boys aged about twelve and ten years - the ages of Edward V and his brother Richard of York in 1483. The case remains unproven, but it would seem likely that the uncle who usurped their throne did indeed order the deaths of the Princes in the Tower.