Assassination: The Royal Family's 1000-Year Curse (19 page)

A period of general prosperity followed. By 1475, Elizabeth had borne Edward seven children: five girls and two boys, Edward and Richard. There would be two more girls and another boy, but all three died in infancy.

Clarence’s chances of the crown were now remote; yet with his record, he was still the likely centre of any rebellion. After Clarence’s wife died in childbirth (the baby dying ten days later), he had her maidservant hanged for poisoning her, and also hanged a man for killing the baby. In retaliation, two members of Clarence’s household were charged with plotting to kill King Edward by black magic. Clarence spoke in their defence. Having failed to protect the accused, Clarence started once more to spread rumours of Edward’s illegitimacy, and he encouraged riots in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

Edward showed his brother no mercy. Clarence was arrested and tried for treason for having put himself above the law by ordering the hangings of two innocent people. He was condemned to death and executed, reputedly by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. The only supporter Edward needed was his brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, the one person who had never let him down. However, Richard was deeply aggrieved at the execution of his brother Clarence, which he saw as the work of the Woodvilles. He suspected that he would be next, and heavily outnumbered at court, Richard retired to the North, where for thirteen years he loyally ruled for the benefit of Edward.

Only one danger remained for Edward. After the Battle of Tewkesbury, Jasper Tudor had escaped to the Continent with his nephew, Henry. Through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, Henry was the heir of the illegitimate Lancastrian line of John of Gaunt by his third wife, Katherine Swynford. But for the moment, young Henry was not a serious threat.

Much of the rest of Edward’s reign was spent in intrigues and alliances against the French, although without success. Then, in March 1483, at the age of forty, Edward suddenly fell ill, and three days later he was dead. Four possible causes were put forward. That Edward caught a chill whilst fishing – the severity of the illness makes that unlikely. That it was an illness contracted eight years earlier in France, yet there is no evidence of previous suffering. That it was an attack of apoplexy suffered when he flew into a sudden rage, infuriated at the signing of the Treaty of Arras under which the French acquired Burgundy – the rage could not have been very sudden as the Treaty had been signed in December of the previous year. Or – poison.

Great efforts were made to display Edward’s seminaked body to prove that there had been no foul play. That in itself suggested foul play. Who could have been the murderer? With Edward having infant children, only two candidates are available. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had been Edward’s loyal supporter throughout his life, but who was becoming increasingly isolated by the advance of the Woodvilles. Unlikely, as he was far off, and Edward’s death left him even more isolated. Or the Woodvilles? That grasping family would have been confident of finally ruling the country through the Prince of Wales who was a child and was, of course, a Woodville himself. And that is exactly what they would try to do.

Of course, violent death was the normal way for men in Edward’s family unless they had died in infancy. Not just the crown, but also to be near the crown, risked death.

When Edward IV died, his first son, Prince Edward, was twelve years old and the second son, Richard, was nine. They would be the battleground for the rival factions: the Woodvilles led by the Queen and her brother Earl Rivers on one side, and the old nobility led by Richard Duke of Gloucester on the other side.

Prince Edward was living with Earl Rivers, so the Woodvilles had possession of the key to power. In his will, Edward IV appointed his brother Richard Duke of Gloucester as Protector during the Crown Prince’s minority. However, a judgment of Solomon did not solve the problem; rather it made it clear to each side that it must destroy the other in order to survive. This was the consequence of Edward IV’s irresponsible marriage.

Richard Duke of Gloucester immediately set out for London. While he was making his way from the North, the Woodvilles called a meeting of the Council, where they had a majority. A resolution was passed abolishing the protectorship and replacing it with a Regency Council. Richard would head the Regency Council, but the Woodvilles would dominate its membership. Next, the Woodvilles decided to bring the princes to London and to advance Edward’s coronation date. The young king’s minority was to end on his coronation, and then Edward V could choose his own advisers. That would give the Woodvilles total control.

As Richard approached London, it was agreed that Rivers and Prince Edward would meet up with him in Northampton. But when Richard arrived, Rivers and Prince Edward had already moved closer to the capital. Rivers rode back to Northampton and explained to Richard that he had been forced to travel further south because Northampton was too small to cope with both retinues. That was an excuse that did not work.

Later in the day, Richard was joined by a man who would become central to the ensuing events. When Edward III’s youngest son, Thomas Duke of Gloucester, was murdered in 1397 on the instructions of Richard II, the House of Gloucester fell out of the battle of the Royal Houses. However, the family of the Duke of Gloucester did not become extinct. Rather, the Duke’s descendants lost their prominence and name. The Gloucester title was forfeited on the Duke’s death with the accusation of treason, and it had therefore been available to be given by Edward IV to his brother, Richard. Yet the original Duke of Gloucester’s family lived on, and his grandson Humphrey Earl of Stafford married Anne Neville (sister of Richard’s mother Cecily), and became the 1st Duke of Buckingham. He was succeeded by his grandson Henry. So the present Duke of Gloucester was Richard of the House of York; and Henry 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 2 x great-grandson of Thomas Duke of Gloucester, was the heir of the original House of Gloucester. With all the murders and deaths, Buckingham found himself the premier peer behind Richard and the young princes.

Buckingham hated the Woodvilles, not least because when he was ten years old he had been required to marry one of them – the Queen’s sister, Catherine. He wanted revenge for a forced marriage to a commoner, and he explained to Richard that it was time for action. Outnumbered as they were, with inaction matters would only get worse. Richard was convinced. In a matter of hours, Rivers was arrested and Prince Edward was taken into custody.

Once Richard and Buckingham reached London, Richard was confirmed as Protector. Then Buckingham took Rivers’s seat on the Council, and he arranged for Prince Edward to be moved from the Bishop of London’s palace to ‘more spacious lodgings’ in the Tower. Of course, the Tower of London, a medieval fortress built at the direction of William the Conqueror, was still a royal residence as well as a prison.

Then trouble arrived as four of Richard’s supporters, most importantly Lord Hastings, changed sides, Hastings disappointed at being supplanted as Richard’s principal adviser. Richard would not put up with that; Hastings was swiftly executed. The others kept their lives, notably Lord Stanley. But Hastings was not a Woodville, he was of the older nobility. Many of the other peers sensed danger.

It now became clear to Richard that chasing away the Woodvilles was not enough, because Prince Edward was demanding authority and complaining about the treatment of his family. As a first step, the Queen, who was living in sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, was forced to surrender her younger son. He was taken to the Tower to join his brother.

Next, Richard needed a case to show that he was entitled to the throne as of right. There was an old story that before he had married Elizabeth Woodville, Edward IV had contracted to marry Lady Eleanor Butler; it was apparently the only way he could get her to sleep with him. If there had been such a contract, it would have invalidated Edward’s marriage to Elizabeth and would make the two princes bastards, thereby nullifying their rights to inherit the crown. As a result, Edward IV’s rightful successor would be his brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester (Clarence’s retarded son being ignored as the child of a traitor, as was his sister Margaret). The story may well have been true; Clarence had raised it many times and it had been rumoured for years. Of course, neither Edward nor Lady Eleanor was alive to prove or disprove it. Yet it may have explained why Edward married Elizabeth Woodville secretly; for if advance notice of the wedding had been given, then Lady Eleanor might have spoken out.

Buckingham made himself busy, spreading the allegation and warning of the dangers of an infant Woodville king. Then a priest was produced, and he confirmed that there was such a marriage contract, and over-helpfully added that he had actually officiated at the wedding of Edward and Lady Eleanor. Wishing to avoid a child king, hating the Woodvilles and fearful of another civil war, on 25th June 1483 Parliament declared the young princes illegitimate and petitioned Richard to take the throne. He accepted the following day.

Now Richard and Buckingham got to work. Earl Rivers (the Queen’s brother), Lord Richard Grey (the Queen’s son by her first marriage) and Sir Thomas Vaughan (Chamberlain to young Edward) were executed. On 6th July 1483, Richard Duke of Gloucester was crowned King Richard III.

What of the two boys in the Tower? They remained there; not in a cell, but in well-furnished rooms. Nevertheless, the Tower was their prison. Soon they were moved to rooms deeper within the building, then they received fewer visitors, then none. Exactly what happened and who did it will never be known for sure. The two boys were not seen publicly again; it is almost certain that they were murdered.

The favoured story is that Richard and Buckingham agreed that Richard’s crown and their lives could not be safe whilst the two princes lived. Either the boys must die, or Richard and Buckingham would die. Faced with that choice, they naturally decided that Edward and his brother must be killed.

Forty years later, Sir Thomas More wrote a detailed version of what he was told had happened. Principled as More was, it has to be borne in mind that this version of events was provided at a time when it was mandatory to blacken Richard’s name. That blackening is best illustrated by the false description of Richard (which was followed by Shakespeare) as a man with a withered arm, a limp and a hunchback; although there may well have been a problem with one arm.

According to More, Richard summoned one of his most reliable servants, John Green, and gave him a letter to deliver to Sir Robert Brackenbury, who was Constable of the Tower. The letter contained a direct order from King Richard to Brackenbury, requiring him to kill the two princes. Green delivered the letter, but Brackenbury refused to carry out the instruction.

Green told Richard of the response. The furious king complained loudly that those he had favoured could not be relied on to perform a favour for him. On hearing this, one of Richard’s pages suggested that the man he could count on was Sir James Tyrrell (remarkably, the same surname as the murderer of William II). Richard immediately summoned Tyrrell and explained to him the duty he was to perform. He accepted the task without demur.

Tyrrell made his way to London bearing a new letter from the King to Brackenbury. It had a different command, it merely ordered the Constable to deliver to Tyrrell all the keys of the Tower for one night so that he might carry out the King’s instructions. Although the nature of those instructions must have been obvious to Brackenbury, he had no choice but to obey.

Late the following evening, Tyrrell called on Brackenbury and was given the keys. The princes had known for some time that Richard had taken the crown and that they were in danger. Their low spirits were further depressed as Edward was suffering from osteoangelitis, a bone disease of the jaw that was causing him increasing pain, and which was incurable at the time.