   #copyright

Edward V of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain)

                   Edward V
     By the Grace of God, King of England
   and France and Lord of Ireland
   Reign       18 April 1483 - 25 June 1483
   Coronation  Never crowned
   Born        4 November 1470
               Westminster
   Died        1483?
               Tower of London?
   Buried      Westminster?
   Predecessor Edward IV
   Successor   Richard III
   Consort     Never married
   Issue       Died without posterity
   Royal House York
   Father      Edward IV ( 1442- 1483)
   Mother      Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437- 1492)

   Edward V ( 4 November 1470 – 1483?) was the King of England from 9
   April 1483 until his deposition two months later. His reign was
   dominated by the influence of his uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
   who succeeded him as Richard III. Along with his younger brother
   Richard of Shrewsbury, Edward was one of the Princes in the Tower, who
   were never seen alive after being sent (ostensibly for their own
   safety) to the Tower of London. Richard III has been widely blamed for
   their deaths, though it is not certain that he was responsible for
   them.

   Along with Edward VIII and Lady Jane Grey, Edward V is one of only
   three post-1066 British monarchs never to have been crowned.

Early life

   Edward was born in sanctuary within Westminster Abbey while his mother,
   Elizabeth Woodville, was taking refuge from the Lancastrians who
   dominated the kingdom after his father, the Yorkist King Edward IV of
   England, was removed from power. He was created Prince of Wales in
   June, 1471, following his father's restoration to the throne, and
   appeared with his parents on State occasions.

   He was a younger brother of Elizabeth of York, Mary of York, and Cecily
   of York. He was an older brother of Margaret Plantagenet (Princess of
   York); Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York; Anne of York; George
   Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford; Catherine of York; and Bridget of York.

Reign

   Edward IV, having established a Council of Wales and the Marches, sent
   his son to Ludlow Castle to be its nominal president. It was at Ludlow
   that the prince was staying when news came of his father's sudden
   death. Edward inherited the throne on 9 April 1483, at the age of
   twelve. His father's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was entrusted
   with the role of protector to his young nephews, Edward V and Richard,
   Duke of York. He intercepted Edward's entourage on its return journey
   from Wales and escorted the princes to London. Less than three months
   later, Richard took the throne himself. On 25 June Parliament declared
   his nephews illegitimate after clergyman Ralph Shaa presented evidence
   that Edward had contracted to marry Lady Eleanor Butler before he
   married Elizabeth Woodville; this would have made his marriage to
   Elizabeth invalid. Richard's other brothers, Edmund and George, Duke of
   Clarence, had both died before Edward, leaving Richard next in line for
   the throne.

Imprisonment

        English Royalty
         House of York
   Armorial of Plantagenet
           Edward IV
       Elizabeth of York
      Edward V
       Richard, Duke of York
           Edward V

   After the two boys went into the Tower of London, they were never seen
   in public again. What happened to them is one of the great mysteries of
   history, and many books have been written on the subject. It is
   generally believed that they were killed, and the three principal
   suspects are their uncle, King Richard; Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of
   Buckingham; and Henry Tudor, who defeated Richard and took the throne
   as Henry VII.

Legacy

   King Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul
   Delaroche. The theme of innocent children awaiting an uncertain fate
   was a popular one amongst 19th-century painters.
   King Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul
   Delaroche. The theme of innocent children awaiting an uncertain fate
   was a popular one amongst 19th-century painters.

   After the princes' disappearance, there was much uncertainty as to
   their fate. If they were killed, the secret was well kept; conversely,
   there was no evidence of their survival or of their having been shipped
   out of the country. When a pretender, Perkin Warbeck, turned up
   claiming to be Prince Richard, in 1495, William Stanley (younger
   brother of King Henry's stepfather, Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby),
   who, despite his Yorkist sympathies, had turned against Richard III at
   the Battle of Bosworth Field and helped King Henry VII win it, said
   that, if the young man was really the prince, he would not fight
   against him, thus demonstrating that some Yorkists had not given up
   hope of the princes' survival.

   In 1674, some workmen remodelling the Tower of London dug up a box
   containing two small human skeletons. They threw them on a rubbish
   heap, but some days or weeks later someone decided they might be the
   bones of the two princes, so they gathered them up and put some of them
   in an urn that Charles II of England ordered interred in Westminster
   Abbey. In 1933 the bones were taken out and examined and then replaced
   in the urn in the vault under the Abbey. The experts who examined them
   could not agree on what age the children would have been when they died
   or even whether they were boys or girls. (One skeleton was larger than
   the other, and many of the bones were missing, including part of the
   smaller jawbone and all of the teeth from the larger one.)

Ancestors

   CAPTION: Edward's ancestors in three generations

   Edward V of England Father:
   Edward IV of England Paternal Grandfather:
   Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Anne de Mortimer
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Cecily Neville Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland
   Mother:
   Elizabeth Woodville Maternal Grandfather:
   Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Sir Richard Wydevill
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Joan Bedlisgate
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Jacquetta of Luxembourg Maternal Great-grandfather:
   Pierre de Luxembourg, Comte de Saint Pol, Conversano et Brienne
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Margaret de Baux

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_V_of_England"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
