Princes in the Tower themselves to Henry Tudor's bandwagon." The fact that the majority of the rebels were wealthy and powerful southern noblemen, loyal to Edward IV, suggests a degree of revulsion against Richard's usurpation of the throne: their willingness to fight on under an implausible alternative candidate suggests that they regarded anyone as preferable to Richard as King due to his usurpation and the murder of his nephews. Bennett suggested that perhaps those who had initially supported Richard in his seizure of power may have felt complicit in the crime, which he thought "might explain the bitterness of the subsequent recriminations against him."
Princes in the Tower goal. This theory formed the basis of Sharon Penman's historical novel, "The Sunne in Splendour". Henry VII (Henry Tudor), following his seizure of the crown, executed some of the rival claimants to the throne. One who was either executed or died in captivity was John of Gloucester, illegitimate son of Richard III. Henry was out of the country between the princes' disappearance and August 1485, thus his only opportunity to murder them would have been after his accession in 1485. Pollard suggests Henry (or those acting on his orders) is "the only plausible alternative to Richard III." The year after