Richard III - Did Richard Kill the Children? :: Richard II Richard III Essays

Did Richard III Kill the Children? We really cannot know for certain. If there was a deal to protect the actual murderers, it was done exceedingly well and so exhaustively that we will never be able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what really happened. In spite of what I see as very persuasive evidence that Richard did not extinguish the children, there atomic number 18 many very intelligent, highly successful, and unquestionably respectable historical scholars out there who believe that they pee-pee evidence that the tycoon did commit the murders and that this evidence is equally as compelling as anything I believe. But since you ask, let me give you my reasons. First, Richard did not have a real enough need to kill the boys or enough of a reason. He seems to have successfully had them declared bastards legally--based on evidence of bigamy against his elder fellow (their late father) Edward IV-- before he (Richard) ascended the quite a little. This action remove d the boys from the line of episode to the throne of England. Killing them might thereby rid Richard of two sight who later might try to prove their own right to inherit, plainly killing them also might alienate him from his own supporters as a murderer of his own family. This logic, however, does not save Richard from the charge of having had someone else--most normally thought to be Buckingham--assassinate them secretly. I still do not relish this is likely, for reasons I will explain as I go. But Richards successor, the supplanter Henry Tudor, had all sorts of good reasons to kill off any Plantagenet heirs to the throne, the briny one being that Henry was out to establish his own family--the Tudors--as the reigning dynasty. Henry celebrated his success in taking over the throne by hiring his own historian to write an account of how this all came about, and we are still relying on this account, even though we know that it is pro-Tudor propaganda. Second, Richards family i s known to have been extremely close in their affections for each other. Richards older brother, Edward IV, seems to have believe Richard a great deal when the younger sibling was a unspotted teenager, Edward had him commanding armies in the battles over the succession (a.k.a. The Wars of the Roses). When Edward made his will, he remaining Richard as Regent to protect the two sons--Edward, Prince of Wales and Richard of York--of the dying king and his married woman Elizabeth.