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The most famous crime of the historical Richard III, and
the deed for which he was most demonized in the century following
his death, is his murder of the two young princes in the Tower of
London. For centuries after the death of Edward IV, the fate of
the princes was a mystery—all that was known was that they had disappeared.
It was speculated that Richard had them killed, it was speculated
that they had spent their entire lives as prisoners in the tower, and
it was speculated that they had escaped and lived abroad. The English
author Sir Thomas More wrote that they were killed and buried at
the foot of a staircase in the White Tower. Many years later, in
Because the story of the princes in the tower was so
well known, it was crucial to Richard III that
Shakespeare make the princes memorable and engaging figures despite
their youth and their relatively small roles in the story. As a
result, Shakespeare creates princes who are highly intelligent—they
are among the only characters in the play to see through Richard’s
scheme entirely. They are courageous, standing up fearlessly to
the powerful Richard. They are charismatic, outdoing Richard in
games of wordplay. However, they are utterly, pitifully helpless
because they are so young. Though Elizabeth remarks that her younger
son is a “parlous boy,” meaning sharp or mischievous, the princes
are never a threat to Richard, and they are unable to defend themselves
against him (II.iv.
