The Princes in the Tower, page 35
Richard IV’s proclamation from Scotland (see Appendix 9) can certainly be viewed as a declaration of his intent as king and here we also see a clear understanding of, and respect for, the rule of law, similarly in obtaining justice. Richard seems to have been a kindly young man, but with perhaps a tendency to naivety as evidenced by his recoil from his invasion of England having witnessed the Scottish army’s attack on his people. He was later described as ‘intelligent and well spoken’.9
On 15 August 1501, twenty months after the execution of Richard, Duke of York, and Edward, Earl of Warwick, members of fifty-one families with lands in Yorkshire worth £40 p.a. or more failed to turn up to be knighted by King Henry. The list was headed by Scrope of Upsall, and included the names of nearly every family of standing in Yorkshire, including Conyers, Fairfax, Franke, Mauleverer, Metcalfe, Neville, Pilkington, Redman, Stapleton and Vavasour.10
Conclusion (and Next Steps)
On 2 July 2016, I launched The Missing Princes Project at the Richard III Middleham Festival in the town’s collegiate church. I was asked what I hoped to find. I responded that by using the methodology of a missing person investigation and turning over every possible stone, some small pieces of hitherto unknown or disregarded information might come to light and help illuminate the mystery. I was then asked what I would like to find. I replied that I would like to find a witness statement, written by one of the boys and detailing exactly what had happened to them with names and places and verifiable facts. I smiled, and the audience burst into appreciative laughter, clearly hoping for the same seemingly impossible discovery.
Four years later, that would turn out to be exactly what was uncovered by Nathalie Nijman-Bliekendaal in the Gelderland Archive in the Netherlands, and I will never forget sitting at my desk on a bright November afternoon in 2020 reading her email. And yes, I had goosebumps. Six months earlier, on a warm May day, I had experienced the same reaction with an email from Albert Jan de Rooij and his discovery in the archive at Lille in France. A timeline for the younger missing person, Richard, Duke of York, is now in place. We can track his removal from the Tower of London on or by 11 August 1483, his travels to the island of Texel in 1495, subsequent invasions of England, and his eight-year campaign for the throne.
A timeline for our elder missing person, Edward V, is a significant focus. Current evidence suggests Edward was placed in the Channel Islands on or before late 1485,11 travelled to Francis Lovell in Yorkshire by April 1486 and was established in Ireland by August of that year. He then seems to have crossed to Burgundy, returning to Ireland with his English and continental forces in May 1487 for coronation, invasion of England and subsequent battle at Stoke Field. As the boys were separated at the Tower on or by mid– late July 1483, Edward’s steps from this point to early 1486 are currently unknown (for lines of investigation in this regard, see Chapter 18).
A search for more data concerning Edward V continues in the archives of Burgundy and the Netherlands. What is clear from current evidence was the need for secrecy to maintain the element of surprise for Edward’s drive for the throne. Henry VII’s spies were everywhere, as evidenced in Sir Edward Woodville’s household and the events pertaining to Richard of York’s invasion from Burgundy in 1494–95. A mention of George of Clarence’s son in Malines by a clerk at Easter 1487 in a financial reckoning, compiled at the end of that year, is currently the only mention of an Edward relating to the family located in the right place and time.
The Lille Receipt of December 1487 supports Edward V’s survival at Stoke Field; it recorded no prayers for his soul. Similarly, the action of the Earl of Kildare and the Irish lords six months later, in July 1488, strongly suggests they knew, or believed, King Edward to be alive.
Edward would finally be removed from public and political life on Sunday, 8 May 1491, when his Garter stall at St George’s Chapel was reallocated to Arthur, Prince of Wales,12 who was 4½. We may find that the theory of Edward’s post-battle survival could perhaps account for this particular four-year delay.
With the boys separated and Richard, Duke of York’s whereabouts and identity kept secret to protect his life following Henry Tudor’s victory at Bosworth, was Richard believed to be dead, to have perished in his travels, as his aunt Margaret would later assert to the Spanish monarchs?13
If so, all this would be reversed when, following his brother’s defeat at Stoke, Thomas Peirse journeyed to bring the news of Richard’s where-abouts in Portugal to his mother, Elizabeth Woodville, in the late summer of 1487 – news that soon reached Margaret in Burgundy.14 But unanswered questions also surround his fate. In prison in 1499, Richard of York was so badly beaten that the Spanish Ambassador believed he would not live long, his face disfigured beyond recognition.15 The once handsome prince who, like his brother, bore a striking resemblance to their father, Edward IV, would be hanged as a commoner at Tyburn.
If the person hanged at Tyburn was Richard of York, then this too was a judicial killing. He had been tried in the White Hall at Westminster and found guilty of treason. It was never explained how a Tournai boatman’s son might be executed for treason against a foreign (English) monarch. The excuse seems to have been that seventeen months earlier, as a servant, he had escaped the royal household.16 Escape ‘from custody’ could be cited under laws of treason, but again, these laws, as devised and accepted in England, applied only to the king’s subjects.
And what of the de la Pole family, the princes’ royal cousins? Did they decide to speak truth, or hide the princes’ new lives in anonymity in order to protect them? And is this why these Plantagenet cousins felt able to launch their own campaigns for the throne?
The de la Pole genealogy roll, incorrectly labelled the ‘Lincoln Roll’, was created in France sometime after 1492 with additions made after 1513, probably for Richard de la Pole, the last ‘White Rose’.17 Here, Henry VII is placed on an illegitimate line, with his grandfather, Owain Tudor, described as a household servant. The medallion for Edward reveals he died as a youth, without issue and Richard also died without issue.18 A youth is a young man between the ages of 15 and 24.19 At Stoke Field, Edward V was 16, in May 1491 he was 20; at Tyburn on 23 November 1499 Richard of York was 26. No further detail is offered.
Phase Two of The Missing Princes Project aims to attempt to answer these questions and, if possible, locate the final resting places of both princes, some clues to which have been discussed in Chapter 18.
The project will continue to commission original research, extend its search of international archives for new and neglected material and continue to request the assistance of families of ancient lineage with private archives.
Our heartfelt thanks go to all those families whose archives have already helped the project. If you have materials relating to our key period of investigation (1483–1509), or which might inform it, please get in touch through the website. Our specialists are waiting for your message. If you are an archivist, researcher or genealogist and have specialist skills in palaeography, Latin or languages (ancient or modern), we are also waiting to hear from you.
At the Middleham Festival in 2016, during the official launch of The Missing Princes Project, I presented an image of the Gordian knot and likened the centuries-old mystery surrounding the Princes in the Tower to the famous challenge faced by Alexander. A second image was that Gordian knot somewhat frayed and opening; a visual representation of my hopes. Never did I dare to believe that, like the Greek legend, we too would expose the two ends of the knot, unravel it and solve the unsolvable mystery. Now the project feels more like a jigsaw puzzle; the major pieces in place, the final ones yet to be found.
As I write these closing words to present The Missing Princes Project’s first five-year report, new discoveries continue to come to light. It has been an exciting Phase One of our investigation, Phase Two promises to be equally exciting.
To the dead we owe only the truth.
Voltaire
Philippa Langley MBE
23 November 2022
20
Postscript
In the summer of 1987 I was at a conference at Winchester. Going upstairs one afternoon I was suddenly aware of a conversation above me. A well-known historian was shaking with laughter and chortling, ‘A book on Lambert Simnel! What next? One on Perkin Warbeck?’ Too embarrassed to say anything I turned into the corridor for my room.1
Ian Arthurson found the courage to write his book and tell his story. His work did not question the orthodoxy surrounding the identity of the alleged French impostor to the English throne. Whether this helped with his determination to publish is not known by the present writer.
Today, so many of our young historians are not so lucky, or able to be so brave. Those questioning the received wisdom surrounding the reign of Richard III and the two claimants to Henry VII’s throne are, at several of our leading seats of learning, patronised, threatened and bullied so they renounce their earlier ideas and conform to the traditional, regurgitated narrative. At one institution, a student was quietly warned that if they questioned anything with regard to the reign of Richard III they would have ‘no career at this university’. Another was ridiculed for a paper, rich with research, and informed that their job was not to question but to find new ways of saying the same thing.
Can we imagine, just for a moment, where our scientific discoveries and breakthroughs would be if our students in this particular discipline received the same startling advice?
To all those brave young historians who contact me in despair, please do not give up. You are our next generation and if you can stand firm, change will come and you will make the most remarkable discoveries, as this work has, I hope, attested – all who question do.
A Call to Honour the Fallen
At the Battle of Stoke in June 1487, it is estimated that 5,000 men died fighting for a young King of England and his right to the throne. Their mass graves lay unmarked and unattended. With these unknown warriors may lie the remains of their commanders: John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, Martin Zwarte, Thomas Fitzgerald, and possibly Edward V himself.
In 1982, a partial excavation took place for one of these gravepits, located on the ‘west side of the Fosse Way (A46) just south of the modern village of Stoke’.2 I now wish to join historian David Baldwin (d. 2016) in asking for these remains to be re-examined using the most up-to-date techniques and technology so that their stories can now be told; for the remainder of the burial site to be excavated; and for all those uncovered, whether named or unnamed, with their stories told, to receive honourable reburial.
Appendix 1
King Richard’s Oath and Promise
Westminster, 1 March 1484 (Modernised)
Memorandum that I Richard by the grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland in the presence of you my Lords Spiritual & Temporal and you Mayor & Aldermen of my City of London, promise & swear on the King’s word & upon these holy Gospels of God by me personally touched that if the daughters of dame Elizabeth Grey late calling herself Queen of England that is to say Elizabeth, Cecily, Anne, Katherine and Bridget will come unto me out of the Sanctuary of Westminster and be guided Ruled & directed by me / then I shall see that they shall be in surety of their lives and also not suffer any manner of hurt by any manner of person or persons to them or any of them in their bodies and persons to be done by way of Ravishment or defouling contrary to their will / nor them or any of them imprison within the Tower of London or other prison / but that I shall put them in honest places of good name & fame / and them honestly & courteously shall see to be well provided for & treated and to have all things required & necessary for their endowment and provision as my kinswomen / And that I shall marry such of them as now being marriageable to gentlemen born / and each of them give in marriage lands & tenements to the yearly value of 200 marks for the term of their lives / and in likewise to the other daughters when they come to lawful Age of marriage if they live / and such gentlemen as shall happen to marry them I shall strictly charge from time to time lovingly to love & treat them as their wives & my kinswomen / As they will avoid and eschew my displeasure.
And over this that I shall yearly from henceforth content & pay or cause to be contented & paid for the endowment & provision of the said dame Elizabeth Grey during her natural life at 4 quarters of the year / that is to say at Easter, Midsummer Michaelmas & Christmas to John Nesfield one of the Squires for my Body & for his provision to attend upon her the sum of 700 marks of lawful money of England, by even portions / And moreover I promise to them that if any allegation or evil report be made to me of them or any of them by any person or persons that than I shall not give there unto faith nor credence nor therefore put them to any manner of punishment before that they or any of them so accused may be at their lawful defence and answer.
In witness whereof to this writing of my oath & Promise aforesaid, to your said presences made I have set my sign manual the first day of March the first year of my Reign.
British Library Harleian Manuscript 433, Vol. 3 [f.308b], p. 190: 1 March 1484, Westminster.
Witnesses:
The Three Estates:
Elizabeth Woodville
Lords Spiritual (Bishops)
Elizabeth of York
Lords Temporal (Nobles)
Cecily of York
Mayor of London (Commons)
Anne of York
Aldermen of London (Commons)
Katherine of York Bridget of York
Appendix 2
Edward V: Proof of Life, 16 December 1487
I, Jehan de Smet, merchant, maker of wooden objects, living in Malines, declare to have received from Laurens le Mutre, counsellor and receiver of the artillery of the King of the Romans, our Lord, and Lord the Archduke, his son, the amount of 120 livres, at the rate of forty groats of the money of Flanders the livre, which was owed to me for the quantity of 400 long pikes made of ash, 24 and 23 feet long, clad with good iron in the new fashion/way, finished and sharpened, which the King has had taken away and bought from me in the said place in the month of June, the year one thousand four hundred and eighty-seven and delivered to the Lord of Walhain.
[These pikes were] to be distributed among the German-Swiss pikemen, who were then under the command of my lord Martin de Zwarte, a knight from Germany, to take and lead across the sea, whom Madam the Dowager sent at the time, together with several captains of war from England, to serve her nephew – son of King Edward, late her brother (may God save his soul), [who was] expelled from his dominion – and obstruct the King of the forementioned England in his activities.
These [pikes], at the price of six sous of two groats of the said money of Flanders each pike, bought from me by Lienart de La Court, squire, lieutenant of the master of the foresaid artillery, and Andrieu Schaffer, controller of the same, in the presence of the forementioned receiver, amount to the abovesaid sum of 120 livres, at the said rate of forty groats the livre, with which sum I am satisfied [i.e. which sum I have received].
Witness the signature of Florens Hauweel, secretary of the said Lords, set here at my request, the 16th day of December, in the year one thousand, four hundred and eighty-seven.
Hauweel
We, Lienart de La Court, squire, lieutenant of Lord Jean de Dommarten, knight, counsellor, chamberlain and Master of the Artillery of the King of the Romans, our Lord, and Lord the Archduke, his son, and Andrieu Schaffer, controller of the same, declare to anyone that should know, that Jehan de Smet abovementioned has sold and delivered the pikes clad with iron which, at the order of the King, with our knowledge and consent, have been delivered to the Lord of Walhain, knight, also their [King and Archduke] counsellor and chamberlain, at the price [mentioned/set?] and to be distributed in the manner contained and extensively described in the receipt above, amounting to 120 livres, at the rate of forty groats of the money of Flanders the livre, which at the above order has been paid by Laurens Le Mutre, also counsellor of the same Lords.
Witness our signatures set here, year and date abovementioned.
De La Court A. Schaffer
A.J. Martin Schwartz Transcriptie, Archives Départementales du Nord, Lille (Departmental Archives of the North, Lille): ADN B 3521/124564.
(Capitals, u and v, and punctuation modernised. With special thanks to Dr Livia Visser-Fuchs.)
Appendix 3
An Ideal Place to Hide a Prince
by John Dike, Lead Researcher, Coldridge Line of Investigation
Introduction
The Coldridge line of investigation, led by John Dike, in Devon, is important for our ongoing enquiries with significant primary evidence uncovered. Specialist police investigators with many years’ experience of cold-case enquiries working within The Missing Princes Project have advised that where coincidences occur, you must also investigate – no ifs, no buts – and here, as you will read below, there are many. In addition, as you will have seen throughout this work, the project cannot afford to ignore any line of enquiry and must turn over every stone we can in search of the truth. We do not have the luxury to make preconceived judgements. As a result, we look forward to John and his team discovering more as their research into this fascinating line of enquiry continues.
