Regarding the bones of the small children discovered in the tower, do you have any ideas who they may have been?
Supposing the boys were murdered, I’ve seen both Margaret Beaufort and Henry VII listed as the possible guilty party with one historian leaning towards Henry. Thoughts on this? After study, I’m starting to find Richard III a much more sympathetic character, and dont believe he had need to murder the boys.
I find the War of the Roses captivating history. It’s doubly so since my genealogy shows descent from major players of this time-—if the genealogy is correct. Ha.
Maybe they were Pages to the King. Pretty plausible, since I don't think Richard III had any inkling Bosworth was going to go that bad that day.
There’s no evidence that they were the bones of very small children — one of the problems uncovered when they were examined by forensics guys (1930s?) was that they were remains of individuals too old to have been the princes if they’d died during the reign of Richard III. Also, there was no scientific dating. Also, the find spot wasn’t all nice and neat, and other partial remains were ignored. It’s not unlikely that they were from a burial ground, and could well have been much older remains, perhaps Dark Ages, perhaps Roman, perhaps pre-Roman.
It’s a fascinating period with so many interesting characters. Richard the Third is a very sympathetic character. A beloved figure in England until the Woodvilles decided to kill him.
The bones in the urn were discovered in the 17th century along with animal bones and broken pottery when doing excavation at the Tower. It was assumed, without any evidence, that they were the two boys. They were examined in the 1930s by a dentist. He thought they were too young to be able to identify their sex. One had serious bone disease in its jaw. There is no evidence that either of the princes had such an illness. Many bones have turned up at the tower site because it was inhabited for centuries and was originally a fort. Some think the bones may have been from the Roman era.
The Queen refuses to have the bones reexamined.