Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-06-27
MURDER OF
H PRINCES

MURDER Of
: THE PRINCES
What is the rue story of the muir
der of princes of the tower? We're
they murdered by Richard. Duke OF
Gloucester, who subsequently became
king? There is no name stamped upo
the bloddy Tower OF London that is so
dark as that of Gloucester. Men picture
him as drowning his brother Clarence
In the butt of wine; he stabbed King
Henry in the hall tower. now the
jewel house: he accused Lord Hast
fngs i'm the council chamber, and struck
of his head on the terrace below the
keep. He drowned his brother i'm the
Bowyer tower. But the most revolt
ing crime laid to his door was the
murder of the two prices. King edward
and Richard. Duke of York. who We're
his nephews.
These W. boys We're lodged by him
I'm the rooms owe the entrance gate,
then known rs the Garden tower.
That they We're murdered I'm the tower
there ought to be 40 doubt. Two of
the greatest men in English history
vouch for it: not in the general fea-
ture only. but in the minor details of
the crime. Sir Thomas Moore (the
true author of the book which bears
his nalne). wrote at the time-about
the year ~15l3-while while he was act
ing as Judge of the sheriff's court. and
while two of the four actors in the
business We're ~stil1Nalive.
Lord Bacon, who knew the place and
the story we'll. who probably heard the
tower authorities. when they read IL
welcome to King James, describe the
Bloody tower as the scene of that
doubt on the point. What Moore and
Bacon wr'te received clinching proof
In the discovery which was afterwards
made of the children's bones.
Yet the story of this murder has
been doubted; not in detail only, but
I'm block. In the first place, political
passion led to reports that the princes
were not dead. and when these political
reports fell away with time, they left
behind them "a bodiless spirit in the
shape of historic doubt.
Partisans of Lambert Smynell AND
Perkin Warbeck We're bound to say
the two princes had not been killed
by Tyrrel' in the name commonly
supposed. and that one of them had
not beer killed at all. Duchess Mar
suerite. King Edwards sister, re-
ceived Young Warbeck as her
nephew, the Irish mobiles owned him
for their prince. while IA powerful
English party. hating the victor of
Bosworth field, We're secretly dis
posed to push his claim. TO all
iiSo RdI OL MS mousse OF
York. hat story of a midnight muir
Ger was a fatal bar.
From that day to our own some
ghost of "a doubt has always fluttered
around the tale. Bayley denies that
II the crime We're done at all it
could have been done in the Gate
house. But his reasons for rejecting
a tradition which certainly goes back
to the time of the alleged murder
are very weak. He thinks it un-
likely that Gloucester would confine
the y youths i'm SO obscure ~
place. He thinks 1t absurd to- call n
room bloody because two boys had
been smoothered in it. He finds in a
survey made in the reign of Henry
VIII, that this pile was called the
Garden tower, nor the Bloody tower,
as he thinks it ought to have been
styled If the legend of the crime had
then been considered true. This goes
to prove that historic doubt frequently
rests on very slight grounds.
Richards scrlples about. putting
his nephews into a dull lodging, after
he had resolved to kill them. may be
dismissed with "a smile. Yet fact being
fact. 1t must be added that the rooms
over the gate We're n part of the royal
palace, communicating with the kings
bedroom in the Lantern, through the
private chapel and the Greek hall.
Old writer's 90 not say that both the
AA0NCN IN xxi
first narrative of this murder. that Of
john Rastall. states that the ruffians
smothered one of the boys with a pill
low and cut the throat OF the other
| with "A knife.
Edward v, was IL years old. and
Richard, Duke of York was 8
at the time they were murdered.
Gloucester ruled the kingdom AS pro-
tector. When the murderers crept up
to the room of the princes it was only
a few seconds and the deed was done.
Stealing downstairs the murderers
called their master, who was in charge
nf the tower. to come up and see that
the boys We're dead. 1yrrell crept no
by Il private door: and after giving a
few orders to his agents. ne rode away.
from the scene and from London
h murderers got the bodies down
stairs into the gateway. dug Il hole
near the wall, and threw in the dead.
There the bodies lay until 200
years afterwar ri. when. at the
order Of Charles III. they were removed
to a royal scpulchre in Westminster
Abbey.
From PuddIer to PuIpiteer.