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Edward V (2 November 1470 – July 291483?) was King of England from 9 April 1483 until his deposition two months later. His reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who succeeded him as Richard III
Richard III of England

Richard III was List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England of Kingdom of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king from the House of York, and his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the culmination of the Wars of the Roses and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty....
. Along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York

Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and 1st Duke of Norfolk was the sixth child and second son of Edward IV of England of England and Elizabeth Woodville....
, Edward was one of the Princes in the Tower
Princes in the Tower

The Princes in the Tower, Edward V of England and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York , were two sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville....
, who disappeared after being sent (ostensibly for their own safety) to the Tower of London
Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames....
. Richard III has been widely blamed for their deaths, but what actually happened remains a mystery.

Along with Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII was Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the dominion, and Emperor of India from 20 January 1936, following the death of his father, George V of the United Kingdom, until his abdication on 11 December 1936....
, Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda, also known as Matilda of England or Maude was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry....
 and Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey , also known as Queen Jane of England, was a claimant to the Kingdom of England and Monarchy of Ireland, who was de facto monarch of England for just over a week in 1553....
, Edward V is one of only four post-1066 English monarchs never to have been crowned
Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the investiture of a monarch with regal power, specifically involving the placement of a coronation crown upon his or her head, and the presentation of other items of regalia....
.






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Edward V (2 November 1470 – July 291483?) was King of England from 9 April 1483 until his deposition two months later. His reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who succeeded him as Richard III
Richard III of England

Richard III was List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England of Kingdom of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king from the House of York, and his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the culmination of the Wars of the Roses and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty....
. Along with his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York

Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and 1st Duke of Norfolk was the sixth child and second son of Edward IV of England of England and Elizabeth Woodville....
, Edward was one of the Princes in the Tower
Princes in the Tower

The Princes in the Tower, Edward V of England and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York , were two sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville....
, who disappeared after being sent (ostensibly for their own safety) to the Tower of London
Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames....
. Richard III has been widely blamed for their deaths, but what actually happened remains a mystery.

Along with Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII was Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the dominion, and Emperor of India from 20 January 1936, following the death of his father, George V of the United Kingdom, until his abdication on 11 December 1936....
, Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda

Empress Matilda, also known as Matilda of England or Maude was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry....
 and Lady Jane Grey
Lady Jane Grey

Lady Jane Grey , also known as Queen Jane of England, was a claimant to the Kingdom of England and Monarchy of Ireland, who was de facto monarch of England for just over a week in 1553....
, Edward V is one of only four post-1066 English monarchs never to have been crowned
Coronation

A coronation is a ceremony marking the investiture of a monarch with regal power, specifically involving the placement of a coronation crown upon his or her head, and the presentation of other items of regalia....
. If, as seems probable, he died before his fifteenth birthday, he is the shortest lived monarch in English history (his great-nephew Edward VI
Edward VI of England

Edward VI became List of English monarchs and King of Ireland on 28 January 1547 and was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII of England and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first Protestantism ruler....
 died in his sixteenth year).

Early life

Edward was born in sanctuary
Sanctuary

Sanctuary has multiple meanings. A sanctuary is the consecrated area of a church or temple around its church tabernacle or altar. An animal sanctuary is a place where animals live and are protected....
 within Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
 during a period when his mother, Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville or Wydeville was the Queen consort of King Edward IV of England from 1464 until his death in 1483....
, was taking refuge from Lancastrians
House of Lancaster

The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century....
 who had temporarily removed King Edward IV of England
Edward IV of England

Edward IV was Kingdom of England from 4 March 1461 until 2 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death....
 from power in the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars fought in England between supporters of the Houses of House of Lancaster and House of York....
. Edward V was created Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom . The current Prince of Wales is Charles, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom....
 in June, 1471, following his father's restoration to the throne, and appeared with his parents on State occasions.

King Edward IV concluded an alliance in 1480 with the Duke of Brittany
Brittany

Brittany is a former independent Celtic nations monarchy and duchy, now incorporated into France. It is also, more generally, the name of the cultural area whose limits correspond to the historic province and independent duchy....
, Francis II, and both decided to betroth their heirs, Edward (10 years old) and Anne (4 years old), to each other, promising to marry them at their majority. The devolution of Brittany would have been given to the second child to be born, the first becoming prince of Wales. Those plans disappeared together with Edward V.

Reign

Edward IV, having established a Council of Wales and the Marches, sent his son to Ludlow Castle
Ludlow Castle

Ludlow Castle is a large, now partly ruined, non-inhabited castle which dominates the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. It stands on a high point overlooking the River Teme....
 to be its nominal president. It was at Ludlow
Ludlow

Ludlow is a market town in Shropshire, England close to the Wales and in the Welsh Marches. It lies within a bend of the River Teme, on its eastern bank, forming an area of 350 acres and centred on a small hill....
 that the prince was staying when news came of his father's sudden death. Edward inherited the throne on 9 April 1483, at the age of twelve, but it took until 11 April for news of his accession to be made public in London. His father's brother Richard
Richard III of England

Richard III was List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England of Kingdom of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king from the House of York, and his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the culmination of the Wars of the Roses and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty....
, Duke of Gloucester, was entrusted with the role of Protector to his young nephews, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York. He intercepted Edward's entourage on its return journey from Wales
Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
 and escorted the prince to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. Less than three months later, Richard took the throne himself. On 25 June Parliament declared his nephews illegitimate
Titulus Regius

Titulus Regius is a statute of the Parliament of England, issued in 1483, by which the title of King of England was given to Richard III of England....
 after clergyman Ralph Shaa
Ralph Shaa

Ralph Shaa was a 15th century English theologian, the half-brother of the Lord Mayor of London, Edmund Shaa. Shaa played a minor but pivotal role in the Wars of the Roses by preaching a sermon in 1483 which claimed that Edward IV of England had already been betrothed to another woman at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, and...
 presented evidence that Edward had contracted to marry Lady Eleanor Butler
Lady Eleanor Talbot

Lady Eleanor Talbot was a daughter of John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury. Her alleged pre-contract of marriage with King Edward IV of England was of great significance to the final fate of the Plantagenet dynasty and outcome of the Wars of the Roses....
 before he married Elizabeth Woodville
Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth Woodville or Wydeville was the Queen consort of King Edward IV of England from 1464 until his death in 1483....
; this would have made his marriage to Elizabeth invalid. Richard's other brothers, Edmund and George, Duke of Clarence, had both died before Edward, leaving Richard next in line for the throne.

Imprisonment

After the two boys went into the Tower of London
Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames....
, they were never seen in public again. What happened to them is one of the great mysteries of history, and many books have been written on the subject
Princes in the Tower

The Princes in the Tower, Edward V of England and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York , were two sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville....
. It is generally believed that they were killed, and the three principal suspects are their uncle, King Richard
Richard III of England

Richard III was List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England of Kingdom of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king from the House of York, and his defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the culmination of the Wars of the Roses and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty....
; Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham

Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham played a major role in Richard III of England's rise and fall. He is also one of the primary suspects in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower....
; and Henry Tudor
Henry VII of England

Henry VII was the Kingdom of England and Lordship of Ireland from his usurpation of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty....
, who defeated Richard and took the throne as Henry VII.

Legacy

Delarochekingedward
After the princes' disappearance, there was much uncertainty as to their fate. If they were killed, the secret was well kept; conversely, there was no evidence of their survival or of their having been shipped out of the country. When a pretender
Pretender

A pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else. The English word :wikt:pretend comes from the French word pr?tendre, meaning "to put forward, to profess or claim"....
, Perkin Warbeck
Perkin Warbeck

Perkin Warbeck was a pretender to the England throne during the reign of King Henry VII of England. Traditional belief claims that he was an impostor, pretending to be Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV of England, but was in fact a Flemings born in Tournai around 1474....
, turned up claiming to be Prince Richard, in 1495, William Stanley (younger brother of King Henry's stepfather, Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby
Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby

Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, Order of the Garter , was King of Mann, an England nobleman and stepfather to King Henry VII of England.He was the son of Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley, and Joan Gousell, daughter of Sir Robert Goushill and Elizabeth FitzAlan, daughter of Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel-a descendant of King He...
), who, despite his Yorkist sympathies, had turned against Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field
Battle of Bosworth Field

The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field was House of Lancaster Henry VII of England defeat of House of York Richard III of England, ending the Plantagenet dynasty to begin a new Tudor dynasty....
 and helped King Henry VII win it, said that, if the young man was really the prince, he would not fight against him, thus demonstrating that some Yorkists had not given up hope of the princes' survival.

In 1674, some workmen remodelling the Tower of London
Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames....
 dug up a box containing two small human skeletons. They threw them on a rubbish heap, but some days or weeks later someone decided they might be the bones of the two princes, so they gathered them up and put some of them in an urn that Charles II of England
Charles II of England

Charles II was the Monarchy of Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland.His father Charles I of England Regicide#The regicide of Charles I of England at Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War....
 ordered interred in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
. In 1933 the bones were taken out and examined and then replaced in the urn in the vault under the Abbey. The experts who examined them could not agree on what age the children would have been when they died or even whether they were boys or girls. (One skeleton was larger than the other, and many of the bones were missing, including part of the smaller jawbone and all of the teeth from the larger one.)



Portrayals in fiction

Edward is a character in the play Richard III
Richard III (play)

Richard III is a Shakespearean history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591, depicting the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England....
 by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
. He has been played on film and television by:
  • Kathleen Yorke in the silent short Richard III (1911), dramatising a part of Shakespeare's play
  • Howard Stuart in the silent Shakespeare adaptation Richard III
    Richard III (1912 film)

    Richard III is a 55-minute film adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III , starring Frederick Warde as Richard III of England. The film, a French/U.S....
     (1912)
  • Ronald Sinclair in Tower of London
    Tower of London (1939 film)

    Tower of London black-and-white historical film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Rowland V. Lee. It stars Basil Rathbone as the future Richard III of England, and Boris Karloff as his fictitious club foot executioner Mord....
     (1939), a horror film loosely dramatising the rise to power of Richard III
  • Paul Huson
    Paul Huson

    Paul Huson is a United Kingdom-born author and artist currently living in the United States. In addition to writing several books about occultism and witchcraft he has worked extensively in the film and television industries....
     in Richard III
    Richard III (1955 film)

    Richard III is a 1955 in film Cinema of the United Kingdom Shakespeare on screen#Richard III of William Shakespeare's Shakespearean history Richard III , including elements of Henry VI, Part 3....
    , with Laurence Olivier
    Laurence Olivier

    Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, Order of Merit was an English people Stage actor, Theatre director, and Theatrical producer. He is one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson....
  • Hugh Janes in the BBC series An Age of Kings (1960), which contained all the history plays from Richard II to Richard III
  • Eugene Martin in the remake of Tower of London
    Tower of London (1962 film)

    Tower of London is a 1962 in film historical drama and horror film, starring Vincent Price and Michael Pate. The film is a remake of the Tower of London of the same name, starring Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff....
     (1962)
  • Nicolaus Haenel in the West German TV version of Shakespeare's play König Richard III (1964)
  • Jonathan Soper in the "Who Killed the Princes in the Tower?" episode of the BBC drama documentary series Second Verdict
    Second Verdict

    Second Verdict was a six-part BBC television series from 1976, of dramatised documentaries in which classic criminal cases and unsolved crimes from history were re-appraised by fictional police officers....
     (1976)
  • Dorian Ford in the BBC Shakespeare version of The Tragedy of Richard the Third (1983)
  • Spike Hood (voice) in the BBC series Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
    Shakespeare: the Animated Tales

    Shakespeare: The Animated Tales comprised two six-part television series, first broadcast in 1992 and 1994. Each episode was an animation half-hour adaptation of one of Shakespeare plays....
     (1994)
  • Marco Williamson in Richard III
    Richard III (1995 film)

    Richard III is a 1995 in film film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Richard III , starring Sir Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, John Wood and Dominic West....
     (1995), with Ian McKellen
    Ian McKellen

    Sir Ian Murray McKellen, Order of the Companions of Honour, Order of the British Empire , is an England actor of theatre and film, the recipient of the Tony Award and two Academy Awards nominations....
     as Richard
  • Timotei Cresta in the British television drama Princes in the Tower (2005)
  • Jon Plummer in Richard III (2005), a modernised version set on a Brighton
    Brighton

    Brighton is a city on the south coast of England and, with its neighbours Hove and Portslade, forms the Brighton and Hove.The ancient settlement of Brighthelmston dates from before the Domesday Book , but it emerged as a health resort during the 18th Century and became a destination for day-trippers after the arrival of the railway in...
     housing estate
  • Germaine De Leon in Richard III (2007), a modern day version
  • Chip Winston in the book, Sent
    Sent (novel)

    Sent is the second novel in The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It is scheduled to be released on August 25, 2009....
     (August 25, 2009), by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Also, with Richard, his younger brother, was portrayed by Alex.


See also

  • Princes in the Tower
    Princes in the Tower

    The Princes in the Tower, Edward V of England and his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York , were two sons of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville....


External links