Wars of the Roses Thomas Bourchier, the Archbishop of Canterbury, then persuaded Elizabeth Woodville to allow her younger son, the 9-year-old Richard, Duke of York, to join Edward in the Tower. Having secured the boys, Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells then alleged that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been illegal and that the two boys were therefore illegitimate. Richard then claimed the crown as King Richard III. The two imprisoned boys, known as the "Princes in the Tower", disappeared and are assumed to have been murdered. There was never a trial or judicial inquest on the matter. Perkin Warbeck claimed
Vigil of the Princes Vigil of the Princes The Vigil of the Princes refers to two occasions when male members of the British Royal Family "stood guard" during the lying in state of one of their relatives during or as part of a British state funeral or ceremonial funeral. King Edward VIII; Prince Albert, Duke of York (Future King George VI); Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester; and Prince George, Duke of Kent, took guard on 27 January 1936 at the lying-in-state of their father, George V. (A fifth son, Prince John, predeceased his father in 1919). The vigil took place after Westminster Hall was