Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

Author:Alison Weir [Weir, Alison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House, Inc.

12. Conspiracies

Dominic Mancini left England during the week after the coronation, and his account, sadly for us, ends there. He says that, before his departure, the Princes had 'ceased to appear altogether', and this is corroborated by every other source. Already, people were thinking and fearing the worst. Mancini writes: 'I have seen many men burst forth into tears and lamentations when mention was made of [Edward V] after his removal from men's sight; and already there was a suspicion that he had been done away with. Whether, however, he has been done away with, and by what manner of death, so far I have not at all discovered.'

Mancini's account is the earliest evidence of rumours that the Princes were dead. Given the fate of earlier deposed kings -- Edward II, Richard II and Henry VI had all been secretly murdered -- it is hardly surprising that people should suspect that the same fate had overtaken Edward V and his brother. The people with whom Mancini associated would have been intelligent men of standing in business and courtly circles; the fact that they believed the Princes to be already dead is proof that these rumours were not mere speculative gossip but the product of serious concern on the part of informed men who were not so hard-headed that they could fail to be deeply distressed when contemplating the possible murder of two children.

It is clear, nevertheless, as we shall see from the Croyland Chronicle - whose author was well-placed to know the truth -- that the Princes were not yet dead. Fabyan states simply that they were now 'under sure keeping. They never came abroad after,' but More, who had reliable sources close to the Tower, gives more details of the Princes' imprisonment. They were, he says, 'both shut up, and all others removed from them, only one called Black Will or Will Slaughter except, set to serve them and see them sure. After which time the Prince never tied his points [i.e. did up his hose] nor aught wrought of himself, but with that young babe his brother lingered in thought and heaviness and wretchedness.' More's account is substantiated by the details of Edward's captivity passed from Dr Argentine to Mancini, and almost certainly describes Edward's mental condition a few weeks after Argentine last saw him. By that time the boy was so sunk in misery and fear that he was unable to perform even basic tasks, such as dressing himself properly.

William Slaughter, whose nickname 'Black Will' may have derived from his appearance or, more ominously, his character, was both gaoler and servant to the Princes. More, in a later passage, reveals that the number of attendants was soon increased to four, and that 'one of the four that kept them' was Miles Forrest, 'a fellow fleshed in murder before his time'. No record exists of Forrest's crime(s), but it is thought that he was a northerner; a Miles Forrest had been keeper of the wardrobe at Barnard Castle in Yorkshire, a residence owned by Richard III since his marriage.

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