20. A Messy Fight For the English Crown
The deceased Edward IV’s younger brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, decided that he would make a better king than his recently orphaned nephews. So he had Edward’s sons declared illegitimate, and locked them up in the Tower of London. It is unclear what happened to the princes afterward, but they disappeared not long after they were taken to the tower. The most likely hypothesis is that they were murdered by their uncle, who then had himself crowned King Richard III.
Killing his nephews removed the strongest claimants to Richard’s crown. However, the princes’ disappearance and likely demise cleared the way for another challenger: Henry Tudor, the last viable male descendant of the competing Lancastrian line. After nine years in exile, Tudor returned to England in 1485, and claimed the throne. Richard gathered his forces, which included a large contingent commanded by Thomas Stanley, a major Yorkist supporter. However, as seen below, Henry Tudor’s bid for the crown put Stanley in a bind, and subjected him to pressure from both sides.
