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Documentary, The Princes in the Tower Cold Case Murder Solved -new
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00:00:011483.
00:00:04The Tower of London was the scene of one of the most infamous crimes this country has ever witnessed.
00:00:10Two royal princes, staying at the fortress, vanished.
00:00:15They disappeared one night, and nobody knows what happened to these two young boys.
00:00:22For centuries, historians have tried to solve the greatest mystery in British history.
00:00:27What happened to the princes in the Tower?
00:00:31I'm Jason Watkins, and for seven years I've been the voice of Channel 5's Inside the Tower of London.
00:00:37And I'm fascinated by this gripping cold case.
00:00:41It's a whodunit, it's a whodunit, and also, sadly, a howdunit.
00:00:46And I'm Tracey Borman. As a historian, I've spent my career uncovering the Tower's secrets.
00:00:52Together, we're going to examine the evidence to find out what really took place that night, as we separate fact from fiction.
00:01:01Right, where are we going?
00:01:03Sit straight on up.
00:01:05We'll interrogate the experts.
00:01:07Really, the question people want to answer is, did Richard III murder these two children?
00:01:13Analyze the crime scenes.
00:01:16Oh, goodness.
00:01:18Well, this is a dungeon, isn't it?
00:01:20And unearth extraordinary lost documents that could change the course of history.
00:01:25I think this is going to blow the whole thing up.
00:01:27We're talking about a smoking gun here.
00:01:29You are the first people to see this.
00:01:30Can our investigation finally reveal what happened to the princes in the Tower?
00:01:36It's mid-summer, and I'm joining the crowds of visitors at the Tower.
00:01:53Every day, the yeoman warders entertain the public with grisly stories of the fortress's thousand-year history.
00:01:59Imagine hundreds of years ago, the executioner would bring that large, shiny axe, crushing down!
00:02:10If you want an unusual death, this is the place to come, isn't it?
00:02:15But there's one particular mystery that's so notorious, the Tower will forever be associated with it.
00:02:21Surely the most tragic must be the alleged murder of the two boy princes.
00:02:33One dark, moonlit night, those two boys disappeared.
00:02:40Never to be seen again.
00:02:44It's a story I've been fascinated with since childhood.
00:02:47What happened that fatal summer of 1483?
00:02:51It's a whodunit. It's a why-dunit.
00:02:54And also, sadly, a how-dunit.
00:02:57Two children have been murdered, and I think that obviously hits a chord with everybody.
00:03:10Well, hello.
00:03:12Hello.
00:03:13And I'm not alone in wanting to solve this 500-year-old mystery.
00:03:16Tower historian Tracy Borman is also obsessed by the case.
00:03:22The story of the princes in the tower is one of the first things I can remember from my history lessons.
00:03:28And I was captivated. I thought, I'm going to solve this riddle.
00:03:33But what I would like to do is to go back to basics and strip away all the myths, the rumours.
00:03:40We actually know very little about the run-up to the prince's disappearance.
00:03:46But what we do know is that on the 9th of April 1483, King Edward IV, the prince's father, died suddenly.
00:03:54His 12-year-old son succeeded him as King Edward V, but was too young to rule.
00:04:01So his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became Lord Protector.
00:04:07To prepare for his coronation, Edward came to the Tower of London, followed by his younger brother, Richard.
00:04:13A few weeks later, they vanished without a trace.
00:04:18So we need to find out what happened in those few weeks between the death of Edward and the disappearance of those two princes.
00:04:26Yeah, absolutely. And I want us to be led purely by the evidence. That's our starting point.
00:04:32Yeah, I can't wait to get started, actually. It's such an incredible story.
00:04:37For centuries, historians have argued over the fate of the missing princes. Did they escape, or were they murdered?
00:04:45Now, those two boys were brought to the Tower of London, following the death of their father, King Edward IV.
00:04:54In this infamous case, there's always been one prime suspect.
00:04:59Their uncle, King Richard III. Now, children, this is very important.
00:05:05Have any of you got an uncle called Richard?
00:05:09Don't trust him.
00:05:10Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was the brother of Edward IV.
00:05:17The princes entered the Tower under Richard's care.
00:05:21But Richard was not content just to be Lord Protector.
00:05:25He crowned himself King.
00:05:27And the princes were never seen again.
00:05:35Right, let's get these on.
00:05:37A lot of what we think about Richard III comes from Shakespeare's famous portrayal of him.
00:05:44And as every actor knows, he's the biggest villain.
00:05:47And now I'm finally getting a chance to play him.
00:05:50Richard would have had a servant to tie these.
00:05:53I want to discover if Richard really was that monstrous.
00:05:59Or was it a figment of Shakespeare's vivid imagination?
00:06:02Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York.
00:06:12And all the clouds that lowered upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
00:06:17Abigail Rockerson-Woodhall is Associate Professor in Shakespeare and Theatre at the University of Birmingham.
00:06:28It would be nice to have seen more.
00:06:30It's very nice to speak those lines and you get a real power of the man.
00:06:34And even coming out and just standing there, you feel the weight of what everybody thinks this amazing villain is.
00:06:42So why did Shakespeare cast Richard III as a villain?
00:06:47Well, I mean, it's not just Shakespeare.
00:06:50Everybody around that time views Richard III in this way.
00:06:54Shakespeare left audiences in no doubt the princes were murdered by Richard.
00:07:01The princes themselves are in the play.
00:07:03Yes, absolutely.
00:07:05So they're seen in the flesh on stage.
00:07:08It's shocking. Absolutely shocking.
00:07:11So for an audience to see it, they are going to take that as, you know, real, aren't they?
00:07:18It's what really happened.
00:07:20Yeah, and at the time, you know, that's what most of the audience probably thought did happen.
00:07:25Because everybody's inheriting the same kind of narrative of Richard III.
00:07:32It all makes sense, doesn't it?
00:07:33But it's a bit of a PR disaster for Richard.
00:07:37Poor old Richard, yeah.
00:07:39Everybody likes to play the villain, don't they?
00:07:41And I certainly did.
00:07:42And that was a...
00:07:44Yeah, it's just great to feel the power of that version of Richard.
00:07:47And I can understand why audiences and why our...
00:07:52Our legacy of Richard is informed by this incredible play and this deliciously villainous villain.
00:08:01Love him or loathe him, we all feel we've got the measure of Richard III.
00:08:05But at the heart of this case are two people we know almost nothing about.
00:08:10The victims.
00:08:12And I'm about to discover how these two young princes, destined for greatness, suddenly found themselves brought to the Tower of London.
00:08:21Keep coming right round, folks. Come all the way round here.
00:08:29In the disappearance of the princes in the Tower, the finger of suspicion has always pointed firmly in one direction.
00:08:36The young Prince Edward and his younger brother, they were brought here by their loving uncle, Richard the Duke of Gloucester.
00:08:41We've discovered, thanks to Shakespeare, history might have given Richard III a bad rap.
00:08:49Now we need to get to know the princes and try to understand their world.
00:08:53So while I search in the archives...
00:08:57I'm heading to a place where Prince Edward spent his childhood.
00:09:01Absolutely amazing.
00:09:11It's a cross between a home and a castle.
00:09:15Ludlow Castle in Shropshire.
00:09:18You can imagine Edward running around there, can't you?
00:09:22Brought up to be king here. Amazing.
00:09:26As heir to the throne, Prince Edward needed to learn how to rule a country.
00:09:34So at just three years old, he was sent here to be educated in the ways of being a king.
00:09:40Hi Jason, welcome to Ludlow Castle.
00:09:43This is an amazing place.
00:09:45This is my favourite castle in the world.
00:09:47Historian Matthew Lewis has been researching Edward's time here.
00:09:50He's found a document drawn up by the king himself, which gives an extraordinary insight into the young prince's daily life.
00:09:59So from London, Edward IV is sending instructions here about exactly how his son should be brought up.
00:10:06The original helicopter parenting?
00:10:08It absolutely is.
00:10:10How do you teach someone to be a king? What are the things that he would have been introduced to?
00:10:13That would be Latin, it would be rhetoric.
00:10:16His afternoons are the more physical pursuits, so there he gets a chance to practice wearing a bit of armour, running around with a sword.
00:10:23As well as a top-notch education, the king was especially keen to keep any riff-raff away from his precious heir.
00:10:30So in the document itself, it says here, we will that no person be customable swearer, brawler, backbiter, common hazarder, and use words of ribaldry in the presence of our said son.
00:10:43So you can't come in here if you're going to swear in front of the prince.
00:10:47And for those who got anywhere near him, there were strict rules to follow.
00:10:51He would approach, you know, slowly, you don't want to appear to be any kind of a threat.
00:10:55Would you be looking at it?
00:10:56You can't make eye contact. As you get close, this would be heart in the mouth kind of moment.
00:11:02You make a mistake and you could be in all sorts of trouble here.
00:11:06It must be an incredible feeling and sensation for a boy to be aware that he is the focus of so much attention, authority, respect and power simply for being him.
00:11:19Yeah, absolutely.
00:11:21Remarkably, there's an account of how the prince's training was going.
00:11:24It tells us that in word and deed, he gave so many proofs of his scholarly attainments far beyond his age.
00:11:32He had such dignity in his whole person and in his face, such charm.
00:11:37This points to promise for the future and a promise that will, for one reason or another, never be realised.
00:11:43Edward was a child with a very clear destiny, but it was a destiny that would arrive too soon.
00:11:51On the 9th of April, 1483, his father, King Edward IV, died suddenly, and the young prince's world was turned upside down.
00:12:00One minute you're being trained to be the king of England, and then the next minute you are, and you're 12.
00:12:09So he's got to grow up very quickly, but carry all those skills that he learnt here into a very, very dangerous world.
00:12:16But, certainly, his life has changed forever. There's no going back.
00:12:22Young Edward was now in an incredibly vulnerable position.
00:12:34I want to find out what happened in the days immediately after he became king.
00:12:39He was only 12 years old, and it's thought the late king named his brother Richard as Lord Protector.
00:12:47But Edward's ambitious mother, Elizabeth Woodville, had other ideas for him.
00:12:53There's a theory that in an attempt to seize power herself, Elizabeth Woodville tried to have her son crowned quickly,
00:13:00and in so doing, didn't actually tell Richard that his brother, the king, was dead.
00:13:06Instead, it's thought Richard found out the king had died from one of his courtiers,
00:13:13a man called William Hastings. And there's evidence to support this.
00:13:19According to this source, William Hastings, his chamberlain, sent from London trusty messengers in post
00:13:26to certify him, Richard, of his brother's death.
00:13:30And there's another source that goes even further.
00:13:33This one says that Hastings advised the duke, that's Duke of Gloucester, Richard,
00:13:40to hasten to the capital with a strong force and avenge the insult done him by his enemies.
00:13:47So William Hastings is warning Richard, not only that the king has died,
00:13:53but that the Woodvilles are trying to push him out.
00:13:55So what does Richard do?
00:13:58Well, he seems to genuinely believe that he's been given a duty of care, to look after his nephew, the new king, to govern for him.
00:14:08But at the same time, the Woodvilles seem to be plotting and scheming behind Richard's back, keeping him out of things, keeping key information from him.
00:14:17Edward's mother, Elizabeth Woodville, moved quickly.
00:14:22She sent her son to London, and a coronation date was set for the 4th of May.
00:14:28When Richard heard about her plans, he intercepted Edward and his retinue.
00:14:33He had his Woodville relatives arrested and brought the young king to the Tower of London, under armed guard.
00:14:47Goodbye, now.
00:14:48It's closing time at the Tower.
00:14:50Goodnight, then.
00:14:52And I'm catching up with Jason.
00:14:57It's always a treat to be here after hours, I think.
00:15:00Yeah.
00:15:01To retrace the young king's movements on that fateful day.
00:15:05We're pretty much walking in the footsteps of young Edward V.
00:15:10So, it's quite an ominous thing to be brought to the Tower, isn't it?
00:15:14Back then, it was a royal palace, and it's also the place where, traditionally, a new monarch would spend some time prior to their coronation.
00:15:25So, it made absolute sense to bring the new king here.
00:15:29So, there was a reason, then?
00:15:30Absolutely.
00:15:31And he was lodged in some splendour.
00:15:34We're going to take a look.
00:15:35OK.
00:15:37The royal apartments where Edward stayed are long gone,
00:15:40but the medieval palace at the Tower is decorated in much the same way.
00:15:46Oh, wow.
00:15:48This isn't a prison cell, is it?
00:15:50This is very different.
00:15:52It is, and I think really gives a sense of the Tower as a royal palace, which it was.
00:15:59Yeah, very grand, and very brightly coloured, isn't it?
00:16:03Yes, and that was very fashionable.
00:16:05And he would have been used to luxury.
00:16:07And that must have been reassuring for him.
00:16:10He's about to be crowned as king, so this is what you would expect.
00:16:13Exactly.
00:16:15Edward was given all the comforts of home, and a new coronation date was set for the 22nd of June.
00:16:22But despite the appearance of normality, things were not as they seemed.
00:16:28I can't help thinking there would have been this sense of unease.
00:16:36Given the rapid course of events, from his father dying to him being seized and brought straight here to the Tower,
00:16:45yes, he is being treated as a king, but he must have felt a bit uneasy as well.
00:16:51I wonder if any of the cogs might have been turning.
00:16:55This must have been very daunting, and I get a sense that he must have been waiting for what's going to happen next.
00:17:03With the young king, Edward V, in the Tower, and his mother, Elizabeth Woodville, unable to see him, she now looked to his younger brother, Prince Richard.
00:17:17As the only other male heir to the throne, she needed to protect him.
00:17:24Fearing for their safety, she'd fled to Westminster Abbey, where she sought sanctuary.
00:17:30But Richard's armed supporters followed and surrounded the Abbey, cutting her off from the outside world.
00:17:37With few options left, Elizabeth reluctantly agreed to hand over Prince Richard to his uncle,
00:17:44believing that Edward's coronation would go ahead.
00:17:48But with both her sons now under Richard's control, he postponed Edward's coronation.
00:18:00Prince Richard joined his brother Edward in the Tower, and they were housed first of all in the Garden Tower.
00:18:07As it was then known, it's now known as the Bloody Tower, because of what's supposed to have happened to the two boys.
00:18:13At first, the princes lived a normal life at the Tower.
00:18:17There are records of them playing in the grounds.
00:18:20They weren't prisoners, but they were far from free.
00:18:25These boys are very important to their uncle Richard.
00:18:29His whole position depends on keeping them safe and here at the Tower, where he can see them.
00:18:36So he makes sure to place them under very close watch.
00:18:43I want to find out more about the people Richard trusted with the princes.
00:18:48I think there could be a crucial clue here.
00:18:51One name that comes up a lot is James Tyrrell, and he was a Yorkist through and through.
00:18:58Sir James Tyrrell was intensely loyal to Richard, so much so that people wrote about it.
00:19:04There's an account here that describes him as being a man of right goodly personage and had a high heart.
00:19:12Well, this suggests that Tyrrell was a man of very good character.
00:19:16So I think we can safely assume that men like Tyrrell, or even Tyrrell himself, would have been involved with guarding the princes.
00:19:26For now, the princes were safe under the watchful eyes of Richard's men, but they were living on borrowed time.
00:19:39The princes were now in the Tower under Richard's control, but he saw betrayal around every corner.
00:19:46He had begun eliminating potential enemies, imprisoning some and executing others.
00:19:55But this behaviour was nothing new for Richard, and I think there could be an important clue here.
00:20:02I've been researching how his character might have been formed years before.
00:20:08Richard grew up during what was known as the Wars of the Roses, essentially a civil war.
00:20:14And during one battle, Richard's father and brother were killed.
00:20:19All of this hardened him into a fearful, paranoid, suspicious man, and a ruthless man.
00:20:26Right, where are we going?
00:20:30That's it, straight on up.
00:20:32There's one particularly shocking incident which reveals the world of violence that surrounded Richard and his family.
00:20:42And I'm keen to share it with Jason.
00:20:45So, where have you brought me?
00:20:47So, we're in the Wakefield Tower, and rather a beautiful, peaceful private chapel.
00:20:53You wouldn't think it was the scene of a crime, but that's what we think it is.
00:20:58You can see here a plaque saying, by tradition, Henry VI died here.
00:21:04Oh, wow, okay.
00:21:051471.
00:21:06We think he was murdered while at prayer.
00:21:11Murdered because he stood in the way of Edward IV and the Crown.
00:21:18In 1471, a battle in the Wars of the Roses saw King Henry VI defeated by the York brothers Edward and Richard, who threw him in the Tower.
00:21:31So, who killed Henry VI?
00:21:36That is the question that everybody wants to know.
00:21:40Now, the interesting thing is that Richard was actually in the Tower at the time.
00:21:46Oh, was he?
00:21:47Of Henry VI's death.
00:21:49And, you know, a number of authorities, you know, near to the time and since have put him firmly in the frame for the murder.
00:22:01The death of Henry VI remains unsolved.
00:22:05But even if Richard wasn't involved, it would have been a useful lesson.
00:22:10He would have witnessed somebody being put to death so that somebody else could take the crown.
00:22:17And would have seen how blisteringly effective that was.
00:22:22It's almost like a gangland killing.
00:22:24You have to act quickly. There's no time for hesitation or thought.
00:22:29So, the real character of Richard has started to emerge, hasn't it?
00:22:32Yeah.
00:22:33I mean, he's decisive, he's brutal, and he does the right thing at the right time.
00:22:37That's what it takes in this period of history.
00:22:40You have to live by the sword and die by the sword.
00:22:42Yeah.
00:22:44The murder of Henry VI shows us Richard knew it was possible, sometimes even necessary, to kill a king.
00:22:53For now, the young princes were safe, but a bombshell was about to be dropped, which would make them very vulnerable indeed.
00:23:06Hi, Nathan.
00:23:07Hello, hi.
00:23:08Hi.
00:23:09Nice to meet you.
00:23:10I'm meeting historian Nathan Amin at St Paul's Cathedral.
00:23:14He's been investigating this game-changing event.
00:23:18Well, breaking news is about to hit the streets of London regarding the princes.
00:23:24During the medieval period, they didn't have newspapers or social media.
00:23:27If news needed to be delivered to the people quickly, it was done at places such as St Paul's.
00:23:33The 22nd of June was the date set for Edward's coronation, but the day came and went.
00:23:40There was no crowning and no cause for celebration.
00:23:44Instead, a preacher named Ralph Shaw came to St Paul's to give a shocking speech,
00:23:51saying why Edward V could not possibly be king.
00:23:55I have a document here that records exactly what he stated.
00:24:00So he argued that it appeared unjust that this lad, presumably that's...
00:24:05Edward V.
00:24:06Edward V, the eldest prince, who was illegitimate, should assume the office of kingship.
00:24:12For he was a bastard by reason of his father, Edward, having married Elizabeth when the law was contracted to another wife.
00:24:21And with the result that their entire offspring was unworthy of kingship.
00:24:30Astonishingly, Dr Shaw was claiming that Edward IV was already married when he wed the prince's mother.
00:24:36That would mean his sons were illegitimate and neither could be king.
00:24:40Well, that kind of does it, doesn't it? That condemns them utterly in the space of two sentences.
00:24:47To speak that publicly, that's terrifying, isn't it?
00:24:51You know, it would have been mind-blowing.
00:24:54Do we know this or is that just sort of conjecture that she's betrothed to somebody else?
00:24:59Now, allegedly, a pre-contract was revealed at this moment that shows that Edward IV had truly married a woman before he married the prince's mother.
00:25:11Isn't that a coincidence that on the day of the coronation, this document is miraculously found?
00:25:17Strange timing, a detective would say.
00:25:21I would suggest the timing is very convenient.
00:25:24With the throne of England at stake, could someone else have been behind Ralph Shaw's explosive revelation?
00:25:31The person with the most to gain was the boy's uncle, Richard.
00:25:35I would find it very difficult to believe that Ralph Shaw delivered this message without the approval of Richard.
00:25:44Because this is slanderous to his family.
00:25:47And it does mark a very pivotal point in our story.
00:25:51It marks, for the first time, the disinheritance of the princes in the tower and the right to the crown of their uncle, Richard.
00:26:02Yeah, very smart move by Richard. In fact, he was behind this announcement.
00:26:06A remarkable scenario, but most importantly, it's going to have dangerous consequences for these two boys in the Tower of London.
00:26:15We'll never know for certain if Dr. Shaw's accusation was true.
00:26:20But with the princes now removed from the line of succession, the path was finally clear for Richard to take the throne.
00:26:30Two weeks later, he was crowned in a spectacular ceremony at Westminster Abbey in front of all the peers of the realm.
00:26:38But I'd like to know what was going on in Richard's mind as he became king.
00:26:42Was he even thinking about his young nephews?
00:26:45Breathtaking, isn't it?
00:26:47What a remarkable building.
00:26:50So we've come to Westminster Hall, where Richard celebrated after being crowned.
00:26:57Tell me, what was Richard's host coronation feast like?
00:27:01The king would have been sat on a raised balcony. On one side of the hall would have been the men, the nobles.
00:27:08On the other side would have sat his queen, Queen Anne.
00:27:11All along the sides would have been thousands of people.
00:27:14They all came here to observe Richard III in all of his glory.
00:27:21But not everyone was invited.
00:27:23The two most notable people who were not present at his coronation were his nephews.
00:27:29But I can imagine just being here, thinking, you know, this is all a bit odd, isn't it?
00:27:34Hang on, but there's the wife, there's him. Where are the princes?
00:27:37We have records that show that they were alive at this time.
00:27:40I wonder, would they have heard cannon fire celebrating the king's coronation from the Tower of London?
00:27:47I wonder what Edward would have felt, because he should have been crowned.
00:27:50I'm sure he was fearful of what this coronation would mean for him.
00:27:55Richard has a crown on his head. All he understands, I have to eliminate my rivals.
00:28:03I've got to remove threats. And those threats are those two little boys in that tower.
00:28:11While Prince Edward was alive, there would be those who championed him, and not Richard III as the true king.
00:28:18With every passing minute, the lives of the princes tipped further in the balance, as an unspoken threat lurked behind every door.
00:28:28There must have been a very ominous feeling as they carried on their time at the tower.
00:28:35This was a whole thriving town at that time.
00:28:39And that any rumours, any news in fact, would have spread around quickly.
00:28:45And I'm sure it would have reached the princes. The fact that they were made illegitimate.
00:28:49So even if they weren't told directly, the atmosphere around them would have changed significantly.
00:28:54And that must have been incredibly unnerving and also terrifying.
00:29:03Hello. Hi, hi, hello.
00:29:05Shall we go on in?
00:29:06I'm meeting Tracy at the bloody tower.
00:29:09Getting to the heart of things now, isn't it?
00:29:11To see if life changed for the princes.
00:29:14Now Richard was on the throne.
00:29:18Ah, look at this, yeah.
00:29:19Yeah.
00:29:21I think, even today, it's an incredibly atmospheric space, isn't it?
00:29:26Yeah, it's very quiet as well, isn't it?
00:29:28From the noise from outside, to have this quiet inside.
00:29:33You know, to think that they were in around here, lived here and played here.
00:29:38Absolutely.
00:29:39It's quite eerie being in this place.
00:29:41It is eerie.
00:29:42Imagining how they might have felt.
00:29:45Once the princes had been cut out of the line of succession, events moved quickly.
00:29:50Most of their servants were instantly dismissed.
00:29:53It was the servants that they had used growing up, wouldn't it?
00:29:56Yes.
00:29:57They're like lots of their friends, aren't they?
00:29:58Yeah.
00:29:59So those boys would have started to feel very isolated.
00:30:04And for Edward, who just before had been king, now he's an illegitimate imposter.
00:30:11So it's like the world is collapsing around him.
00:30:15And I've discovered something extraordinary.
00:30:18It's a report by Edward's doctor, John Argentine, into his state of mind.
00:30:23It's recorded that he almost gives up.
00:30:27He describes how the young king, like a victim prepared for sacrifice, sought remission of his sins by daily confession and penance because he believed that death was facing him.
00:30:41Well, the signs must have been so clear then, mustn't they?
00:30:44He's preparing for the worst.
00:30:45Yes.
00:30:46Quite a mature thing to do, really, as a 12-year-old.
00:30:49Very mature.
00:30:50And it means he understands how the world works and the significance of what is happening outside the tower walls.
00:30:56The princes were now completely isolated from the outside world, and there's evidence that things were about to get even worse for them.
00:31:09So we have an account here of Edward and his brother being withdrawn into the inner apartments of the tower proper.
00:31:17So that's over there, the white tower.
00:31:23And day by day began to be seen more rarely behind the bars and windows.
00:31:29And we know as well that as soon as they were moved there, a 24-hour guard was placed to watch over them.
00:31:38That's terrifying, isn't it, for them?
00:31:40Yes.
00:31:41This was like a bedroom, a playroom.
00:31:43Yeah, yeah.
00:31:44And now that's a fortress, isn't it?
00:31:47It's dark and cold and terrifying in there, isn't it?
00:31:51They've gone from being honoured guests to prisoners.
00:31:54It's looking really bleak for the princes at this moment.
00:32:00The princes must have given up hope.
00:32:03They were swallowed into the bowels of the tower.
00:32:06But would they be seen again?
00:32:08By late summer of 1483, rumours were circulating that the princes had been murdered.
00:32:17But there were some who didn't believe they were dead at all, but had somehow escaped from the tower and disappeared into hiding.
00:32:25Could it have been possible for two young boys to get out of the fortress without being spotted?
00:32:31OK, first protocol, just checking that the sunny port is locked.
00:32:36What is that, sunny port?
00:32:38It's the royal entrance.
00:32:39So I just checked the outer door is locked, which it is, and I just pushed this one shut.
00:32:43To find out, I'm going on night patrol with Yeoman Warder Matt Prime.
00:32:48Even today, the tower is guarded 24-7.
00:32:51It's actually great to be here, Matt, at this time of night, where you can really feel the sort of weight of the place
00:32:57and the thickness of the walls and how difficult it would be to breach them.
00:33:02The guards on the parapets would see, especially two small people moving down here, would really stick out.
00:33:08So they'd have to be led by somebody, wouldn't they?
00:33:12And I suppose even that would be unusual, wouldn't it?
00:33:15And we would know that we had some very important small prisoners here.
00:33:19Yeah.
00:33:20So there would have been extra guards looking after them.
00:33:23The white tower where the princes were moved is at the heart of the inner precinct of the fortress.
00:33:29With 15 feet thick walls, it would have been impenetrable.
00:33:33What are the layers that we've got here?
00:33:34Oh, there's guards outside. We have doors here, doors here.
00:33:38The inside is guarded. The door upstairs is guarded.
00:33:42It's all mounting up a little bit, isn't it?
00:33:44Maybe it seems at this point that they did end their days here.
00:33:47I think so.
00:33:48In a thousand years, only a handful of people have ever broken out of the Tower of London.
00:33:54Well, yeah, it seems very unlikely that anyone would be able to escape from here.
00:33:59The only way they could get out would be sanctioned by the King of England, and we would probably know about that.
00:34:05But to think that the two princes spent their last days here is a very discomforting thought.
00:34:18The princes vanished in the summer of 1483, just months after Edward should have been crowned King of England.
00:34:28As days turned into years, it seemed as if they were lost to history.
00:34:33But a chance discovery, two centuries later, brought them back into the limelight.
00:34:40I've arranged to meet Jason at the White Tower, the oldest part of the tower complex.
00:34:46So this is what I've brought you to see.
00:34:48Well, we're not seeing very much, are we?
00:34:50I mean, this is just a stairway leading to nowhere.
00:34:52It's been built over. Not very promising.
00:34:55Not promising, but actually very significant in the story of the princes, potentially.
00:35:00Because it was here in 1674, when workmen were demolishing part of the old royal palace, that under this staircase they found a large wooden chest.
00:35:12And thinking it was buried treasure, they prized it open and they found the skeletons of two children.
00:35:20Right.
00:35:21Charles II was king at the time.
00:35:24He knew the story of the princes, so he ordered that the bones be examined.
00:35:29And they were of about the right size, these skeletons, to have been the missing princes.
00:35:36Back in 1674, there were no tests that could confirm the identities of the skeletons.
00:35:43But witnesses reported there was velvet in the chest, a fabric reserved for royalty.
00:35:50I have here a rather interesting record to support this, because here's a copy of the wardrobe accounts of Edward IV, so the father of the princes.
00:36:01OK.
00:36:02And you'll see here listed, among the clothes ordered for his son, five yards of purple velvet.
00:36:09I mean it's yet another clue sort of pointing us in that way, but it's not giving us the hard evidence that we need.
00:36:15It's circumstantial evidence, certainly, but I do think it's something worthy of further investigation.
00:36:24These skeletons are the closest thing to real evidence in the mystery of what happened to the princes.
00:36:30They were interred in Westminster Abbey, and in 300 years, royal permission to examine them has only been granted once, to two scientists in the 1930s.
00:36:43Their report concluded these were the princes and that they'd been murdered.
00:36:48Human skeletal biologist Simon Mays has re-examined their findings in light of the latest scientific developments.
00:36:57They realised then that the most accurate way of telling how old a child was when they died was to look at the teeth.
00:37:04Because they've described in detail how much each tooth has grown.
00:37:10No one has access to the actual bones found at the tower.
00:37:15They remain sealed in Westminster Abbey.
00:37:17But luckily, the report tells us the measurements of the bones.
00:37:21Simon's using bones similar in size to those mentioned in the report.
00:37:26Here, you can see that the root isn't quite complete.
00:37:29That would have continued growing.
00:37:31Children's teeth grow in a regular sequence, regardless of their circumstances and what nutrition they're getting.
00:37:38So, with information in the report, I was able to re-age the individuals using modern dental standards.
00:37:44And the ages are about 12 and 10, or all thereabouts.
00:37:50Skeletons can reveal how well off a person was in life.
00:37:54From the bone measurements, we can get an idea of how rapidly these children grew.
00:38:00Now, the things that decide how fast a child grows, something that is important is how well nourished they are.
00:38:08Simon can use modern techniques to calculate the height of a skeleton from the bone size.
00:38:14He's compared the bones of a typical ten-year-old from the 1400s, seen here, with the bones he's using to represent the skeletons from the tower, whose size is based on the 1933 report.
00:38:26This kind of comparison has never been done before.
00:38:30And you see how much longer they are.
00:38:32That's a big difference, isn't it?
00:38:34Well, it is. So, this child, the average ten-year-old in the 1400s, would have been about three foot ten.
00:38:40Right.
00:38:41This child, representing our ten-year-old from the Tower of London, would have been about four foot five, four foot six.
00:38:48That's an eight-inch difference.
00:38:50Considerably taller.
00:38:51And thanks, as you say, perhaps to nourishment, but also we know that Edward IV, the father of the princes, was very tall.
00:39:01He was renowned for his height, so genetics could have been a play as well.
00:39:05That's quite possible.
00:39:06So, yeah, it suggests that they were both pretty well nourished by the standards of the time.
00:39:11Despite some interesting findings, the authors of the original report didn't use the same scientific rigour we would today.
00:39:20There are issues, I think, with this report, it's fair to say.
00:39:23I think there are from the scientific side. I mean, as the report goes on, the two scientists even name the two individuals as Richard and Edward.
00:39:33Normally, in a scientific report, you consider the evidence before you come to a conclusion.
00:39:37A bit of reverse engineering here.
00:39:39How useful is this report?
00:39:42I mean, really the question people want to answer is, did Richard III murder these two children?
00:39:51No report is ever going to tell you that.
00:39:54Whether or not the skeletons found at the Tower belonged to the missing princes,
00:39:59it's widely accepted that the two boys probably died in the summer of 1483.
00:40:04But the reign of King Richard III, once the princes were out of the equation, lasted just two years.
00:40:13A rival for the throne came in the form of Henry Tudor, who defeated Richard at Bosworth Field before seizing the crown to become Henry VII.
00:40:23Richard III was brutally murdered in the battle, but his final resting place remained a mystery.
00:40:32Until 500 years later, in 2012, archaeologists made an incredible find.
00:40:39This is where he was discovered.
00:40:42A combination of markings on the bones and genetic analysis proved what the experts had hoped for.
00:40:48I've come to meet Professor Thury King, who used DNA analysis to help identify Richard.
00:40:57He was interred in Leicester Cathedral, and a replica now resides in the King Richard III Visitor's Centre.
00:41:03That's incredible, isn't it? He's staring straight at me.
00:41:08The discovery of Richard III's remains has given us a unique opportunity to find out more about him, including how he died.
00:41:16A lot of battle injuries on Richard. So he's got 11 injuries on him, and nine of those are on his head.
00:41:24That is telling you his helmet has come off during battle.
00:41:28In Shakespeare's version of the Battle of Bosworth, he's calling for a horse, a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.
00:41:35And so obviously he's on a horse, and then he's been knocked off.
00:41:40We know at this point, in order to get these wounds on the base of his skull, he has to be on all fours, or lying down to some extent, on his front.
00:41:50It's amazing to think that we can, with this kind of analysis, we can actually have a physical idea of what was happening in the battle itself.
00:41:57Yeah. So this is the base of Richard's skull.
00:42:00So here you've got six centimetres of brain exposed, thought to be done with something like a halberd.
00:42:06I wonder what all that vaulting ambition had led to this moment.
00:42:11I mean, that's a very unpleasant way to die, isn't it?
00:42:15Yeah. He's seen a lot of battle. He knows the possibilities of what's going to happen to him.
00:42:22But still, as a human being, of course you wouldn't wish this on anybody.
00:42:27I think learning about the violent manner of Richard's death may help us understand his world and some of the actions he might have taken.
00:42:35So seeing Richard's injuries, seeing in great detail how he met his end, brings home the brutality of this period.
00:42:42It was a time where to survive, you might have had to face the ultimate choice, kill or be killed.
00:42:48So if Richard is responsible for the murder of the princess, isn't he just doing what anyone else would have done?
00:42:54Richard III, the prime suspect, was dead on the battlefield.
00:43:04There were still unanswered questions around the death of the princes.
00:43:09Now you can make your own minds up who committed that alleged dastardly deed.
00:43:14It is one of the biggest whodunnits of British history.
00:43:17Much better than anything that Agatha Christie could have ever dreamt of.
00:43:21I think it's worth revisiting the accounts from the time to search for any clues that might have been missed.
00:43:28So I've come back to the Tower Archives.
00:43:31One of the more interesting accounts was written by Thomas More.
00:43:36Sir Thomas More is famous for being Henry VIII's right-hand man,
00:43:41before being executed for opposing Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn.
00:43:46More was also a quite prolific writer.
00:43:50He left several books behind, including a history of Richard III.
00:43:56Now, this book isn't without issues.
00:44:00For example, it was written 30 years after the events he's describing.
00:44:05But it contains an explosive revelation.
00:44:09So I think it's worth sharing with Jason.
00:44:12This account has been debated for centuries by historians.
00:44:16But I want to look at it with fresh eyes to see if anything in these pages
00:44:21could bring us closer to the truth about the princes,
00:44:24and who could have been responsible for their disappearance.
00:44:28And what I'm about to uncover will shock even me.
00:44:38It's always nice to go behind the scenes, isn't it?
00:44:40Yeah.
00:44:41I'm revisiting an old account of the prince's murder
00:44:45to see if any vital clues have been hiding in plain sight.
00:44:49And I'm taking Jason off the tourist trail
00:44:52to one of the most extraordinary buildings in the fortress.
00:44:56And here we are. We're going to go inside the king's house.
00:45:00The king's house.
00:45:02The king's house would have originally been home to the tower's lieutenant.
00:45:06He was the man in charge of the monarch's most important prisoners.
00:45:11Behind his living quarters is something rather special.
00:45:16A secret entrance to the inmate's cells.
00:45:20What I want to show you is just behind this rather incredible door.
00:45:25Thanks.
00:45:26Still with its original lock.
00:45:28And if you'd like to follow me.
00:45:30This is intriguing.
00:45:31Rather scary.
00:45:35Oh, goodness.
00:45:36So, well, this is a dungeon, isn't it, almost?
00:45:41Yes.
00:45:42Just next to someone's living room.
00:45:45It's not what you expect, is it?
00:45:46No, it's huge.
00:45:48Absolutely.
00:45:49It was a cold, uncomfortable dungeon.
00:45:52But it housed one of the most famous prisoners in the history of the tower,
00:45:56Sir Thomas More.
00:45:59After he fell from favour,
00:46:01Sir Thomas More spent a year languishing in this cell
00:46:04before finally being executed.
00:46:08More was a prisoner in 1535.
00:46:12Now, that's more than 50 years after the disappearance of the princes in the tower.
00:46:17So, why are we here?
00:46:18That's a completely different timeframe, isn't it?
00:46:21Well, he could be an important part of the story
00:46:24because he left behind a very detailed account
00:46:28of exactly what happened to the princes in the tower.
00:46:31Thomas More's testimony about the fate of the princes was published in 1557,
00:46:38more than 20 years after his death.
00:46:41In it, he makes an explosive accusation
00:46:45about the identity of the princes' killers.
00:46:48He introduces a couple of characters, suspects, if you like, more than that.
00:46:52He claims that responsible for the murder, Sir James Tyrrell.
00:46:57That name might ring a bell.
00:46:58Absolutely.
00:46:59That was one of Richard's henchmen, wasn't it, at the time?
00:47:02That's right.
00:47:03Sir More is very specific about names, individuals here.
00:47:07And he says that Sir James Tyrrell appointed two men to basically do the deed.
00:47:13He appoints Miles Forrest and John Dyton.
00:47:18Richard III's loyal servant, Sir James Tyrrell,
00:47:22originally employed Forrest to guard the princes.
00:47:25But More suggests he asked him and Dyton to do something far, far worse.
00:47:31More goes into very great, actually quite disturbing detail
00:47:36about how this murder is committed.
00:47:40And he says that Miles Forrest and John Dyton, about midnight,
00:47:46came into the boys' bedchamber and entangled them,
00:47:51keeping them down by force and pressing pillows hard unto their mouths.
00:47:58So that's suffocating them, isn't it?
00:48:00Exactly.
00:48:01So that, indeed, it says here, they are smothered and stifled,
00:48:06their breath failing, and they gave up to God their innocent souls.
00:48:12Oh, my goodness.
00:48:14According to More's account, after the princes were murdered,
00:48:18Forrest and Dyton showed their boss their handiwork.
00:48:22It says after the struggle, the two men fetched Sir James Tyrrell to see them
00:48:28so that there could be no doubt that those princes were out of the way.
00:48:33Oh, my goodness, that's really shocking, isn't it?
00:48:36If it was indeed Richard, he's getting somebody else to ask somebody else
00:48:41to do the dreadful deed.
00:48:43It's deeply shocking.
00:48:45But there's one big question that's been debated for years.
00:48:50Just how trustworthy is More's information?
00:48:54Well, there is reason to doubt this account,
00:48:57primarily because More wasn't actually there at the time.
00:49:01So is this just a work of Tudor propaganda, of fiction?
00:49:06Well, I think perhaps not, because More was a man of principle.
00:49:09He died for his beliefs, so he's not just going to be an apologist for the Tudor regime.
00:49:15So he has no cause, really, to name these people.
00:49:19I think as well it's interesting that this wasn't published during More's lifetime,
00:49:23so he's not looking for glory to curry favour with Henry VIII.
00:49:27This is quite something, isn't it?
00:49:29I do think his account is very interesting,
00:49:32and he leaves absolutely no doubt that those boys were murdered,
00:49:36and, of course, by whom.
00:49:41We've discovered that Sir Thomas More places responsibility
00:49:44for the murder of the princes at the door of James Tyrrell,
00:49:48Richard III's loyal servant.
00:49:51But can we absolutely trust More's account?
00:49:54Is there any other evidence that Tyrrell was implicated in the crime?
00:49:59After Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth
00:50:03and Henry VII was crowned, Tyrrell began working for the new king.
00:50:09But when relations soured between the two men,
00:50:12Henry VII had Tyrrell thrown in the tower for treason.
00:50:16Thomas More tells us that while Tyrrell was imprisoned,
00:50:20he confessed to arranging the murder of the princes.
00:50:24And, incredibly, I think I found evidence that More's account is actually true.
00:50:31We know when Tyrrell would have confessed,
00:50:34because we have the dates when he was in the tower.
00:50:37But there were two other people at the tower at the same time,
00:50:41and they're rather important.
00:50:43One of them was none other than King Henry VII himself.
00:50:47I've discovered a remarkable document that charts Henry's movements in 1502,
00:50:53including the times he visited the tower.
00:50:56It tells us that Henry VII is at the tower from the 27th of April to the 2nd of May.
00:51:03And what makes that particularly unusual is that it's pretty much the only time he was at the tower that year.
00:51:12It's quite rare for him to be there, so is it just a coincidence?
00:51:17It's at the same time that Tyrrell is allegedly there,
00:51:21and he's confessing to the prince's murder.
00:51:24One thought is that King Henry VII may have heard about Tyrrell's confession
00:51:30and went to the tower to hear it for himself.
00:51:34But there's another royal visitor at the tower who would also have been keen to hear this confession,
00:51:41Henry VII's wife, Elizabeth of York.
00:51:44And what is key about Elizabeth is that she was actually the older sister of the princes in the tower.
00:51:51It's her presence at the fortress that I'm especially interested in.
00:51:56We know she doesn't stay long, and where she heads next is, I think, quite telling.
00:52:02After visiting the tower, Elizabeth went to see her aunt.
00:52:07Why is that significant?
00:52:09Well, because these two women were the closest surviving relatives of the princes in the tower.
00:52:15Elizabeth was their sister.
00:52:17So is it possible that she'd found out what had happened to her brothers
00:52:22and then went straight to tell her aunt?
00:52:26Of course, none of this is definitive proof.
00:52:29But the fact they both visited the tower when Tyrrell was there and might have confessed
00:52:35is at least highly coincidental.
00:52:39In Sir Thomas More's account of the murder, he names James Tyrrell as the ringleader
00:52:44and John Dighton and Miles Forrest as the two men Tyrrell hired to kill the princes.
00:52:50But a question hangs over whether Dighton and Forrest even existed.
00:52:54To try and get to the bottom of this, we've come to the National Archives.
00:52:59Hi, Tim.
00:53:00Hello, Tracey.
00:53:01Hello, Jason.
00:53:02To meet Tim Thornton, who's Professor of History at the University of Huddersfield.
00:53:08He's spent five years studying More's account, investigating if it could be true.
00:53:14And he's particularly interested in the mysterious Dighton and Forrest.
00:53:19When More was planning his work on Richard III, he was in Bruges.
00:53:25While he was there, he communicated with the court back in England.
00:53:29And this is an example of the letters that passed between the embassy and the court.
00:53:34And you can see, I always think this is so exciting, at the foot of this letter,
00:53:38you can see the signatures of the ambassadors.
00:53:41And there, just at the right, Thomas More.
00:53:44Oh, yes.
00:53:45That's More's own signature.
00:53:47Thomas More was writing long before a formal postal service
00:53:51and so would have needed people to transport his letters.
00:53:54The name of one courier has caught Tim's eye.
00:53:58What was particularly exciting about this letter, it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck,
00:54:04was that the messenger's name is mentioned on the second line here.
00:54:08And it's M. Forrest.
00:54:11Wow.
00:54:12Now, that is Miles Forrest, and that is the son of one of those two men,
00:54:18who More says carried out the murder.
00:54:21So, that's incredible.
00:54:22So, that's an actual genuine connection between More and the Forrest family.
00:54:31He knows Miles Forrest's son of the same name.
00:54:36So, not only are these people not imaginary, they're not fictional characters, they're real people,
00:54:42but More himself knows the family.
00:54:46And indeed, when we know that More was planning that work on Richard III,
00:54:49we can prove that Miles Forrest was there with him.
00:54:52Right.
00:54:53Tim's research has revealed that one of the alleged murderers, Miles Forrest,
00:54:57had a son with the same name, who was delivering letters for Sir Thomas More.
00:55:03It gives me chills to see that name there.
00:55:06You can pick it out very clearly.
00:55:08Yeah, there we are, M. Forrest, yeah.
00:55:11This is hugely exciting.
00:55:13So, are you saying then, Tim, that it's very possible that More got his account
00:55:20of what happened to the princes from the son of one of the murderers?
00:55:26It's entirely possible, Tracey.
00:55:28That's extraordinary.
00:55:31This shocking discovery that Thomas More actually knew the son of one of the alleged killers
00:55:37is a game-changer.
00:55:39It makes his account much more believable.
00:55:42The whole thing has been turned on its head because now we're looking at Thomas More
00:55:48as actually a very credible source.
00:55:51I mean, that's really exciting, isn't it?
00:55:53Yeah.
00:55:54To see the name Forrest.
00:55:55Yes.
00:55:56It's so compelling.
00:55:57It's very difficult to argue against that connection.
00:55:59Yeah.
00:56:00It's once-in-a-lifetime stuff.
00:56:02But a brand-new discovery is about to blow the case of the princes in the tower.
00:56:06Wide open.
00:56:07We've been able to prove the existence of one of Sir Thomas More's murder suspects
00:56:15in an official document sent by More to the English court.
00:56:19And we've even been able to show that More met the man's son.
00:56:23But despite this promising lead, the trail in our investigation has gone cold.
00:56:30Then, Professor Tim Thornton has a breakthrough.
00:56:34He asks us to meet him at the National Archives.
00:56:37I'm very excited to be able to show you something that I've not shown to anybody yet, which is
00:56:42a new discovery, so we need to look into this document that we have in front of us.
00:56:47You are the first people to see this.
00:56:49Wow.
00:56:50OK.
00:56:51OK.
00:56:52So, this is an official copy of the will of a woman called Margaret Capel.
00:56:59She died in 1522.
00:57:01She was the widow of a very wealthy and powerful Londoner called Sir William Capel.
00:57:07Buried deep in Margaret's will, something has caught Tim's eye.
00:57:11In the midst of all the detail here, we can find a reference to a bequest to her son.
00:57:19Also, I bequeathed to my son, Sir Giles, his father's chain, which was young King Edward V's.
00:57:31The chain of office of the...
00:57:34Of the king himself.
00:57:35Of the king.
00:57:38Extraordinarily, the will states that this chain of office once belonged to King Edward V, the older of the princes in the tower.
00:57:47This royal chain would have been completely unique to Edward and should never have been found in private hands.
00:57:55These chains or collars, they are very, very closely tied to the individuals who wear them.
00:58:01So, this chain of Edward V's is a very, very powerful object.
00:58:05And the fact that it's in the hands of the Capel family has real significance.
00:58:09One of the extraordinary things about the disappearance of the princes is that, until now, they left no trace.
00:58:16Yes, yes.
00:58:18So, no clothing, no personal possessions, no jewels, until now.
00:58:24This is the first indication of some physical possession of the princes, which is still in circulation in London in the early part of the following century.
00:58:35That's incredible.
00:58:36Finding evidence of this priceless personal item belonging to one of the missing princes would have been astonishing enough.
00:58:45But Tim kept digging.
00:58:48There's more.
00:58:49Right.
00:58:50Because Margaret Capel was the sister-in-law of James Tyrrell.
00:58:58Oh, my goodness.
00:59:01Don't believe that.
00:59:03Somehow, after their death, young King Edward's royal chain of office made its way into the family of one of the prime suspects, Richard III's loyal servant, James Tyrrell.
00:59:17This distinctive chain, the only trace of one of the missing princes, hidden deep inside a 500-year-old will, is the biggest breakthrough in the case for centuries.
00:59:29So, your brain starts, how did the Capels end up with it? Did Tyrrell give it to the Capels?
00:59:36Could it have been presented as proof that the murder had been done?
00:59:41We couldn't be certain, but we have a physical possession of the young King here now, and we can show that it's in the hands of a family connected to James Tyrrell.
00:59:52That is just mind-blowing.
00:59:54The idea that this physical object was taken and kept somewhere is absolutely sobering and puts shivers up my spine.
01:00:03Maybe it goes a little way into hinting towards what might have happened.
01:00:07Indeed.
01:00:08The news have finally come together.
01:00:10Sir Thomas More accused James Tyrrell of ordering John Dyton and Miles Forrest to murder the princes on behalf of Richard III.
01:00:20We now know More had a personal connection to Miles Forrest's son.
01:00:24He was a courier for More and could have told him about the crime.
01:00:28We've also discovered a wealthy London family, the Capels, ended up in possession of a chain that actually belonged to one of the missing princes.
01:00:40And the Capels had a brother-in-law, none other than the prime suspect, James Tyrrell.
01:00:47I mean, this is, this is huge. This is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. And, you know, in the story of the princes in the tower, it's so much based on rumour and hearsay.
01:01:01Here we have solid evidence. And it's just extraordinary. I think this is going to blow the whole thing up. I mean, we're talking about a smoking gun here, aren't we?
01:01:13Really. And until now, nobody knew about this.
01:01:16This is the first time it's been identified. That's amazing.
01:01:29We are closer than ever to confirming what really happened to the princes in the tower.
01:01:35But at the heart of this story are two young boys, aged just twelve and nine.
01:01:41Their bodies were never formally identified, but the skeletons discovered in the 1600s at the Tower of London have been laid to rest in Westminster Abbey.
01:01:53So here we have the urn that marks the spot where, apparently, Edward V and his younger brother, Richard, their remains are buried.
01:02:04I find this a very difficult place for me, because I, myself, have lost a child. So I, I, it's kind of bringing home, perhaps, a little bit to me, the fact that they are lost, that they have died, and that they are in this place, surrounded by other children who have died.
01:02:19The urn itself holds some clues as to who history has judged to be responsible for the boys' deaths.
01:02:34So we can see here in the inscription, it leaves no doubt, even though we don't know if these are really the remains of the princes.
01:02:42It actually says here, you know, Edward V, King, and his brother Richard, Duke of York, and specifies they were prisoners in the Tower of London.
01:02:52Really interestingly, and specifically says they were suffocated, so that's Thomas More's account they're using.
01:03:00Yes, I can see that, suffocatus.
01:03:02Yes, and further down, it names Richard, the perfidious or deceitful Richard, the usurper, and he killed them.
01:03:13He's the culprit.
01:03:14Whether the remains buried here belong to the princes or not, they represent two young children who lost their lives.
01:03:27They actually weren't players in this adult infight for the crown, were they?
01:03:33They are the ultimate innocence, aren't they?
01:03:36They lose their lives and their position for someone else's ambition.
01:03:40Well, Tracey, what an investigation we've conducted.
01:04:00I pretty much thought there's nothing more to find out.
01:04:05And then along comes this bombshell and changes everything.
01:04:10The discovery of a royal chain belonging to one of the victims in the hands of the prime suspect's family has at last provided concrete evidence of what may have happened to the princes.
01:04:22I'll remember that moment for the rest of my life.
01:04:24It's just the inked words on the page that mean so much that have this incredible power through the centuries that tell us so much about what happened.
01:04:37For me, that just puts the whole story of the princes in the tower in a completely different light.
01:04:43It's the most important discovery that has been, I think, in living memory.
01:04:48If Sir Thomas More's account is correct, then Richard III could indeed be responsible for the death of his nephews.
01:04:56Of course, it's never as simple as hero, villain.
01:05:00And Richard isn't one-dimensional. He's pious, he's loyal, and also he is under threat.
01:05:06So there's a bit of self-defense in his actions.
01:05:09Yeah, and I think what it teaches us about humanity and about people in general is that when the chips are down, when they're under pressure, that people behave badly.
01:05:17Yeah.
01:05:18And I think Richard III felt threatened, and he did extraordinary things.
01:05:22Ultimately, this journey has helped us focus on the human tragedy at the heart of this 500-year-old mystery.
01:05:30I hope we've humanized this story, and however much we see it as a mystery, as a murder mystery, however much we see it as a dynastic struggle between powers within a family,
01:05:43it's the loss of these two children that has to be remembered.
01:05:47Yeah, it does, and you're right, there's a very human story at the heart of all of this.
01:05:55It's been a real privilege, actually, to research this, to find out new things,
01:06:03to look at the remaining letters, artifacts, whatever we could,
01:06:07and to walk in the footsteps of those two young boys here at the Tower.
01:06:19Can the poet detective get to the bottom of a killing in the clergy?
01:06:22Bertie Carvell is back for a new series as Detective Dalgleish Thursday at 9,
01:06:26and witness more revealing discoveries made inside the Tower of London,
01:06:30with all episodes streaming now on my5.
01:06:33Next tonight, Police Suspect Number One.
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