The Princes in the Tower: How History’s Greatest Cold Case Was Solved by Philippa Langley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve been interested in the case of the princes in the tower for many years, and I’ve read a lot of books about them and their uncle Richard III. The young princes, Edward V and Richard Duke of York disappeared sometime in 1483 after their uncle became king. Richard III is commonly held to be responsible for the deaths of the two boys – this has been the theory promoted by Tudor historians since Henry Tudor defeated Richard at Bosworth in 1485. And of course this was picked up by Shakespeare and so this theory became pretty much accepted as fact.

However, there is a considerable amount of evidence that one or both of the boys survived past 1485. The author is one of the founders of the “Missing Princes Project” which is searching out evidence to find out what really happened to the princes. This volume is sort of a “work in progress” report on the project so far. Most of the surviving evidence comes from archives outside of the United Kingdom – Henry VII and his historians destroyed an amazing amount of documents in the archives in England and Ireland. So it has been a struggle to find and evaluate documents in the Netherlands and other countries as well.

I don’t want to go into too much detail for fear of spoilers, but the working theory is that two of the “feigned boys” that the Tudors complained about for causing disruption by invading England, were actually the missing princes.

This is a familiar period of history to me, and so I’ve read a lot of books on the princes and their uncle and the Tudors. I do not recommend this book for someone who is unfamiliar with this era. But if you do have some background knowledge of the story of the princes, I think you may find this to be an interesting read. I liked this book, but it can be a little difficult to read – it is set up like a missing persons case folder, so there is no real narrative line. And at this point, anyway, there is no final resolution of the question.