CHAPTER 6
The Two Little Princes in the Tower

Some people think that the ravens liked to live in the Tower because so many people were killed there. Dead bodies are food for ravens.

Two kinds of executions used to take place in the Tower. Ordinary people were hanged on the gallows. Lords and ladies had their heads cut off. Usually people were killed outside the walls, on Tower Hill, so that the crowds could watch. People thought of it as entertainment.

Very important people were allowed to be beheaded privately inside the Tower walls. It was a quick and relatively painless death, compared to other forms of execution. The victim paid the headsman beforehand. This was to be sure he did a good job. Sometimes he did a bad job, or the ax wasn’t sharp enough. Then it might take many strokes before the person’s head was cut all the way off. After someone was beheaded, the executioner would hold the head up high, so everyone could see the person was dead.

There were not really all that many executions at the Tower. In its entire history, only about 135 people were put to death there. And only about nineteen of them were killed inside the Tower’s walls. The rest were killed on Tower Hill, outside. But there were other ways to die in the Tower without being executed. Inside the Tower walls it was easy to get rid of an enemy secretly. Then the public could be told that the person had gotten sick and died. Or the death could be kept secret altogether.

George Plantagenet

One person who was secretly killed in the Tower was George Plantagenet, the duke of Clarence. He was convicted of treason against his brother, King Edward IV. This means the king was afraid George was trying to take the throne away from him. George died in 1478 while he was being held in the Tower. The legend is that he was drowned in a barrel of wine. After his death, his daughter always wore a charm shaped like a barrel in his honor.

By far, the most famous people to be killed in secret in the Tower are the “two little princes.” They were innocent children who got trapped in a struggle among powerful groups of men.

In 1483, King Edward IV died. He left behind two sons. The older child became King Edward V. But Edward was only twelve years old, not old enough to rule. A person called the regent ruled for him. Since the regent controlled the boy king, he was the one really ruling the country.

Edward’s uncle Richard served as regent and also guardian of the young king. Richard, however, wanted to be king himself. So he had Edward and Edward’s nine-year-old brother (also named Richard) moved to the Tower. He said he put them there to keep them safe. But really the two boys were prisoners. For a while they were seen playing in the garden. Then they disappeared. Exactly what happened to them is a mystery.

Richard III

Most people think they were murdered in the Tower. According to legend, they were smothered with pillows while they slept. The most likely murderer was their uncle, who went on to become King Richard III.

Richard had a strong motive for murdering his nephew Edward. As long as Edward was alive, people could use the boy as an excuse to fight. They could try to get rid of Richard and put Edward back on the throne.

But some people think Richard wasn’t the killer. They say the next king, Henry VII, was the real murderer. His claim to the throne was even more shadowy than Richard’s. So Edward was even more of a threat to him. But no one knows.

Henry VII

There were even stories that the little princes hadn’t been killed at all. Two young men showed up several years later claiming to be the princes from the Tower. Some people believed them.

In 1674, workmen at the Tower dug up a box that held small skeletons. Most people believe these are the bones of the two little princes. If so, they were definitely murdered soon after they moved to the Tower.

But we will never know for sure who did it.

The tower where the boys were kept was called the Garden Tower because it had its own garden. But after their deaths, it was renamed the Bloody Tower. And that’s what it’s been known as ever since.