The two princes were murdered by their uncle Richard III

The most common theory is that the two princes were murdered by their uncle, Richard Duke of Gloucester. Richard took the two brothers to the tower of London shortly after their father died and pronounced himself the Lord Protector until Edward V was of age to rule . It was in the tower of London, in Richard’s custody, that the two princes disappeared.^[1] Richard also stood to gain the most if the boys died, with the two princes out of the way he would be the next king. Richard had the means and opportunity to murder them, as they were with him in the tower of London. He could have also paid someone to murder them for him, in order to create a believable alibi. Thomas More wrote that James Tyrell, an English Knight who served Richard III, confessed to being paid to smother the two boys in their sleep by Richard Duke of Gloucester. ^[2]This claim is made more believable by the two skeletons found buried under the stairs in the tower of London in 1674, about 200 years later.^[3]