Princes in the Tower act stated that Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville's marriage was invalid because of Edward's pre-contract of marriage with Lady Eleanor Butler. Gloucester was crowned King Richard III of England on 3 July. The declaration of the boys' illegitimacy has been described by Rosemary Horrox as an ex post facto justification for Richard's accession. Dominic Mancini, an Italian friar who visited England in the 1480s and who was in London in the spring and summer of 1483, recorded that after Richard III seized the throne, Edward and his younger brother Richard were taken into the "inner apartments of the Tower" and
Vigil of the Princes closed to the public for the evening. No known photographic record of this event exists, though a painting was made of it after the King's funeral. The oil painting was produced by Frank Beresford as the official painting of the King's lying-in-state, and was exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1936 at Burlington House. The painting, named "The Princes' Vigil: 12.15am, January 28, 1936", was subsequently purchased by Queen Mary to give to her son Edward VIII on his birthday. In the painting, the King is depicted wearing the uniform of the Grenadier Guards, of