Titulus Regius

Edward IV's sudden death in April fourteen eighty-three left his two young sons, Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury, as heirs to an unsettled throne.

The boys were brought into the Tower under the supervision of their uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, who would shortly declare himself king after Parliament barred the princes from succession by revoking their legitimacy through Titulus Regius.

By August of that year, Edward V was never seen again.

Records after that point simply vanish.

Historians often point out that the surviving narrative is colored by later Tudor writers who had an interest in delegitimizing Richard III, which may explain why their reports are sometimes vague and contradictory.

Even the most recent scholars admit the absence of direct documentary proof means we can only infer rather than assert what occurred.

Richard's accession in June fourteen eighty-three came on the heels of Parliament's Titulus Regius that declared Edward V and his siblings illegitimate, effectively opening a legal vacancy for the Duke of Gloucester.

Some modern scholars argue that once king, Richard could not afford to allow these princes to survive.

On July 6th, 1483, he was crowned King Richard III at Westminster, co-opting the coronation plans for Edward V for his own usage.

When his first parliament met in January 1484, it passed an act called Titulus Regius.

writing the story into law and formally declaring the sons of Edward IV illegitimate.

The boys, meanwhile, were presumably still somewhere inside the tower, though what condition they were in was unclear.

That's not automatically disqualifying, but it means the famous version deserves scrutiny as a story with its own history.

Notably, Henry VII behaved almost as strangely as Richard had.

After taking the throne in 1485, he had Titulus Regius repealed and ordered every copy destroyed.

He never staged an inquest or announced the boys' deaths, even though proving them dead would have shored up his own position enormously.