The Princes in the Tower: Two Boys Vanished — and the Untested Bones

In the summer of 1483, King Edward V and his brother Richard were lodged in the Tower of London and were never reliably seen again; in 1674 two child skeletons were found there and placed in Westminster Abbey as theirs. This documentary separates the 1483 witnesses from the Tudor story told decades later, and asks what the untested bones, DNA and a 1516 will can and cannot prove. Subscribe to The Mystery Archive for cases built on the record, not the legend. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:53 The Heirs 1:49 1483 5:04 The Bones 7:53 The Story 9:40 The Verdict On screen, every scene is labelled: DOCUMENTED (primary record), TESTIMONY, ALLEGATION (unproven), INTERPRETATION (later explanation) or LATER LEGEND. Sources [1] Edward V & Richard Duke of York (the urn, its inscription, the 1933 opening) — Westminster Abbey — https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-co... [2] Anne Mowbray, Duchess of York — Westminster Abbey — https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-co... [3] The Fate of the Princes: the evidence (extracts from Mancini, tr. C. A. J. Armstrong; the Crowland Chronicle; the Great Chronicle; the French Chancellor's speech) — David Crowther, The History of England — https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk/resource... [4] Dominic Mancini (De occupatione regni Anglie, rediscovered at Lille in 1934) — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominic_Mancini [5] Were the Princes in the Tower murdered? (Great Chronicle wording; Shaa's mayoralty; Warbeck) — Medievalists.net, 2012 — https://www.medievalists.net/2012/09/were-... [6] Princes in the Tower (overview and bibliography) — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princes_in_t... [7] Edward V of England (chronology of 1483) — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_V [8] How I established a direct link between Richard III and the two princes' murder — Tim Thornton, University of Huddersfield / The Conversation, 2021 — https://www.hud.ac.uk/news/2021/july/richa... [9] More on a Murder: The Deaths of the 'Princes in the Tower' — Tim Thornton, History 106 (2021) — https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.111... [10] Chain linked to Prince Edward V found in 16th-century will — Medievalists.net, December 2024 — https://www.medievalists.net/2024/12/chain... [11] Sir William Capell and A Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V — Tim Thornton, History 109, issue 388 (Historical Association, December 2024), pp. 445–460 — https://www.history.org.uk/publications/re... [12] Research reveals DNA of the 'Princes in the Tower' — University of Essex, 2018 — https://www.essex.ac.uk/news/2018/07/11/re... [13] Petition 177624: Test bones found in the Tower of London (rejected 6 February 2017) — UK Parliament Petitions — https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/pe... [14] Identification of the remains of King Richard III — King et al., Nature Communications, 2014 — https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms6631 [15] Recent investigations regarding the fate of the Princes in the Tower — L. E. Tanner & W. Wright, Archaeologia 84 (1934), transcription — https://sparkypus.com/2020/05/14/recent-in... [16] The 1933 examination of the bones in the urn — Richard III Society — https://richardiii.net/?p=942 [17] Anne Mowbray: the Princess in the Police Station and the Princes in the Tower — London and Middlesex Archaeological Society — https://www.lamas.org.uk/anne-mowbray-the-... [18] James Tyrrell — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tyrrell [19] Guillaume de Rochefort (speech to the Estates-General, Tours, January 1484) — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_de... [20] New Dutch evidence for the missing Princes in the Tower? — Yvette Hoitink, Dutch Genealogy, 2023 — https://dutchgenealogy.nl/new-dutch-eviden... [21] Croyland Chronicle (the continuations covering 1459–1486) — Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croyland_Chr... Images (Wikimedia Commons, used under their licences; cropped and overlaid with text): London, Tower of London, White Tower -- 2016 -- 4681-2.jpg — Dietmar Rabich — CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lo... View of Henry VII's Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 6304376.jpg — Robert Lamb — CC BY-SA 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vi...