Why was the Pharaohs Ihnton dead

 

**A 500-Year-Old Royal Mystery Reignited: Historian Claims Princes in the Tower Survived**

 

The fate of the Princes in the Tower – young King Edward V and his brother Richard, Duke of York – stands as one of Britain's most enduring and chilling historical enigmas.

**A 500-Year-Old Royal Mystery Reignited: Historian Claims Princes in the Tower Survived**

**A 500-Year-Old Royal Mystery Reignited: Historian Claims Princes in the Tower Survived**

 For over five centuries, the prevailing narrative, solidified by Tudor historians and immortalised by Shakespeare, has pointed to their murder in the summer of 1483, allegedly orchestrated by their ambitious uncle, Richard III. However, historian Philippa Langley, renowned for her pivotal role in the discovery of Richard III's remains, now presents a provocative challenge to this long-held belief, suggesting the princes not only survived their Tower imprisonment but later re-emerged to challenge the Tudor regime.

Following the sudden death

 of King Edward IV in 1483, his sons, 12-year-old Edward V and 9-year-old Richard, Duke of York, were placed in the Tower of London, ostensibly in preparation for Edward V's coronation.

•  They subsequently vanished without a trace, their disappearance paving the
•  way for Richard, Duke of Gloucester, to claim the throne as Richard III.
•  While no definitive contemporary evidence directly links Richard III to their
•  murder, the assumption of his guilt has largely held sway.

 

Langley, however, has dedicated the past decade to a meticulous re-examination of this "cold case," collaborating with professional investigators experienced in unsolved crimes. 

Her research has unearthed a compelling array of previously unpublished documents and letters, leading her to a startling conclusion: Edward V and his younger brother were not victims of their uncle but successfully escaped the Tower.

 

Central to Langley's 

thesis is the assertion that the princes reappeared years later under assumed identities during the turbulent reign of Henry VII, who had defeated Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. She argues that Edward V re-emerged as Lambert Simnel, and Richard, Duke of York, as Perkin Warbeck – two figures historically dismissed as pretenders.

1. Langley contends that Henry VII orchestrated a sophisticated disinformation
2.  campaign to delegitimize their claims. "Henry sought to discredit the Yorkist
3.  princes," Langley suggests, "by branding them impostors, giving them false
4.  names and rewriting their narratives." For instance, Simnel was variously
5.  described as the son of a tradesman, while Warbeck was purported to be the
6.  son of a French boatman.

 

Langley's 

evidence includes documents supporting a 1487 rebellion led by "Edward IV's son," coinciding with Simnel's uprising, which saw him crowned King in Ireland. 

• For Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, the evidence
•  is even more extensive: three European documents bearing his personal seal,
•  letters he allegedly wrote to King James IV of Scotland, a papal document,
•  and even an anonymous biography detailing his life as a prince in hiding.
• Langley maintains that the eventual confessions of Simnel and Warbeck as
•  impostors were coerced under duress by Henry VII, designed to crush their
•  royal claims.

 

Langley also questions the traditional logic implicating Richard III. If he had indeed ordered the princes' deaths, she argues, it would have been politically astute to display their bodies to quash any future claims and solidify his own reign, an action he never took.

 

The historical record

 does note the official discovery of two small skeletons in a wooden box by workmen in the Tower in 1674. Four years later, under the orders of King Charles II, these remains were interred in Westminster Abbey, presumed to be those of the lost princes. Langley's theory, if proven, would inherently challenge this identification.

 

Langley provocatively states, "I believe the burden of proof now lies with those who claim Richard III killed the princes in the Tower." While Richard III remains the principal suspect for many, alternative theories have also been posited over the centuries.

•  Henry VII himself has been suggested as a suspect, potentially eliminating
•  them after his accession. Henry Stafford, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, a
•  one-time ally of Richard III who later rebelled, is another candidate, with a
•  manuscript found in the 1980s suggesting the princes were killed by his
•  "advice" or "plot." Sir James Tyrrell, a loyal servant of Richard III, famously
•  "confessed" under torture to the murders before his execution in 1502,
•  though no original record of this confession survives, and its veracity is
•  highly questionable.

 

Philippa Langley's extensive research and bold reinterpretation of evidence inject fresh vigour into this centuries-old mystery. While her conclusions are bound to be debated fiercely within historical circles, they offer a compelling alternative narrative, ensuring that the enigmatic disappearance of the Princes in the Tower will continue to captivate and challenge for generations to come.