‘The Princes in the Tower’ by John Everett Millais (1829-1896). Rumour swirled when the princes were never seen again, and the matter became fertile ground for conspiracy and impersonation. One royal impersonator was Perkin Warbeck, who was put to death in 1499 by Henry VII after claiming to be young Richard, and heading up a revolt. With him to the scaffold went another of Richard III’s nephews, Edward, Earl of Warwick, after being impersonated by Lambert Simnel. Henry knew that Edward IV’s children or nephews had a better right to the crown than he did.
Introduction
On April 9th 1483, Edward IV’s son acceded to the throne as Edward V. But the boy’s uncle pronounced him and his brother Richard illegitimate, named himself Richard III, and shut the two princes up in the Tower of London. Thirty years later, Sir Thomas More gave his version of what happened next.
AND forsomuch as his mind gave him, that his nephews living, men would not reckon that he could have right to the realm: he thought therefore without delay to rid them, as though the killing of his kinsmen could amend his cause, and make him a kindly* king. Whereupon he sent one John Greene, (whom he specially trusted) unto Sir Robert Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower, with a letter and credence also,* that the same Sir Robert should in any wise put the two children to death.
This John Greene did his errand unto Brackenbury, kneeling before our lady in the Tower.* Who plainly answered, that he would never put them to death.* With which answer John Greene returning, recounted the same to king Richard. Wherewith he took such displeasure and thought, that the same night he said unto a secret* page of his: “Ah! whom shall a man trust? Those that I have brought up my self, those that I had went* would most surely serve me, even those fail me, and at my commandment will do nothing for me.”*
‘Kindly’ here means natural or normal, i.e. of the proper kind.
‘Credence’ is used in the sense of credentials, proofs of authorisation.
Sir Thomas More, who is the source of this account, presents Brackenbury as being at his prayers when Greene accosted him, and implies that this helped him refuse the errand.
In much the same way, Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, refused to murder Prince Arthur for King John. See The Disappearance of Arthur.
‘Secret’ is used here to mean confidential (as in secretary), i.e. a confidential servant.
‘I went’ is in this case the past form of the Middle English verb ‘wenen’, meaning ‘suppose, imagine,’ especially (though not necessarily) in error. A remnant of it remains in Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘The Gondoliers’: “Oh, ’tis a glorious thing, I ween, / To be a regular Royal Queen!”.
This outburst recalls the unguarded words of King Henry II concerning Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket, though Henry did not really mean any harm to come to him. See The Assassination of Thomas Becket.
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
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