Course Description

Instructor: Peter Campos

It remains the greatest mysteries: Over 500 years ago 12-year-old King Edward V of England and his 9-year-old brother Prince Richard disappeared from the Tower of London. The traditional account is that their uncle, King Richard III, had them killed; but does this hold up after closer examination? In Week 1, we will learn who these Princes were, why they were in the Tower, and what the political atmosphere of 1483 was like. We will also look at the evidence of their deaths, especially the skeletal remains found in the Tower 200 years later. Assuming the boys were killed, in Week 2 will look closely at King Richard’s complicity in this crime. We will even review two 20th Century mock trials, conducted in England and in the US, to adjudicate the King’s involvement. Week 3 considers other possible suspects and their motives, means, and opportunities to murder the princes. Week 4 presents an alternative view, that the princes (or at least one of them) did not die in the Tower but survived. We will consider where they were and what became of them. Maybe, just maybe, we might discover the answer to that nagging question: What happened to the Princes in the Tower?