Historian Reacts to New Princes in the Tower Evidence From Philippa Langley

From History Calling

Did the PRINCES IN THE TOWER SURVIVE the reign of their uncle, Richard III? In this video from History Calling I’ll review the new Channel 4 documentary entitled ‘The Princes in the Tower: The New evidence’ which argues just that. It features Philippa Langley (famous for her part in the discovery of Richard III’s remains) and looks at evidence gathered from several European archives by her team of ‘citizen historians’ to see whether it truly supports the theory that either Edward V or his brother, Richard, Duke of York (also known as Richard of Shrewsbury) were still alive during the reign of Henry Tudor, aka Henry VII. We’ll study the documentary’s claim that they both tried to retake the throne from the man who had become their brother-in-law after his marriage to their sister, Elizabeth of York and look at what it had to say about the pretenders to the throne, Lambert Simnel (who was presented as the Princes' cousin, Edward, Earl of Warwick) and Perkin Warbeck, including Lambert’s coronation as Edward VI at Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. I’ll also analyse the reasons why Ms Langley and fellow Ricardians believe that the evidence they have amassed shows that Perkin really was Richard of Shrewsbury, including a discussion of the support he received from the Princes’ aunt, Margaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy as well as Maximilian, King of the Romans and James IV of Scotland. This documentary also featured Judge Rob Rinder and I’ll be talking about what I thought of his examination of the evidence, given that he is a lawyer rather than an historian. One thing I think we can all agree on at least is that the question of what happened to the Princes in the Tower continues to fascinate.