richard, duke of york was the father of the princes in the tower.
richard, duke of york was the father of the princes in the tower.
who was the father of the princes in the tower?
richard, duke of york
the year after becoming king, henry married the princes' eldest sister, elizabeth of york, to reinforce his claim to the throne. not wanting the legitimacy of his wife or her claim as heir of edward iv called into question, prior to the marriage he had repealed the "titulus regius" which had previously declared the princes (and elizabeth) illegitimate. markham suggests the princes were executed under henry's orders between 16 june and 16 july 1486, claiming that it was only after this date that orders went out to circulate the story that richard had killed the princes, and that the princes' mother, elizabeth woodville, knew that this story was false, and so henry had to have her silenced. markham suggests this was the motivation behind henry's decision, in february 1487, to confiscate all of elizabeth's lands and possessions, and have her confined to bermondsey nunnery, "where she died six years afterwards". however, arlene okerlund suggests that her retirement to the nunnery was her own decision, whilst michael bennett and timothy elston suggests the move was precautionary, precipitated by lambert simnel's claim to be her son richard. pollard calls markham's theory "highly speculative", and states that henry's silence over the princes was more likely "political calculation than personal guilt". henry was also never accused of the murder by any contemporary, not even by his enemies, which he likely would have been had contemporaries thought there was any possibility of his guilt. jeremy potter, at the time he wrote chairman of the richard iii society, noted, 'with henry, as with richard, there is no real evidence and one must suspect that if he had killed the princes himself he would quickly have produced the corpses and some ingeniously appropriate story implicating richard.' further, raphael holinshed reported in 1577 that richard "purged and declared is innocence" regarding "the murther of his nephews towards the world", indicating that the boys did indeed meet their end during richard's days. it is also unlikely that the princes would have been kept alive in secret by richard for 2 years after their last sighting while rumours of his responsibility for their murder circulated.
princes in the tower
bullet::::19. princes gundorovy (rurikids, a branch of princes paletsky, descended from the princes of starodub)









































bullet::::20. princes guramovy (guramishvili) (2 kinds) (georgian nobility)









































bullet::::21. princes gurgenidze









































bullet::::22. princes gurieli (georgian appanage princes)









































bullet::::23. princes gyachba (abkhazian)









































section::::princely families.:h.









































bullet::::1. princes herkheulidze (herheulidzevy) (2 kinds) (georgian nobility)









































bullet::::2. princes hidirbegovy (georgian nobility)









































bullet::::3. princes hilkovy (rurikids, a branch of the princes of starodub)









































bullet::::4. princes himshievy (georgian nobility)









































bullet::::5. princes hodzhaminasovy (georgian nobility of armenian descent)









































bullet::::6. princes holm









































bullet::::7. princes hovansky (gediminids)









































section::::princely families.:i.









































bullet::::1. princes ilyinsky (then prince romanovsky elijah)









































bullet::::2. princes imeretian









































bullet::::3. princes inal-ipa (abkhazian)
list of russian princely families