The New Murrey and Blue blog

Philippa Langley’s new announcement….!

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Well, we’ve been waiting and waiting for Philippa Langley’s exciting announcement, for which it feels we’ve been holding our breath for ages. She has written a new book, called The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case and it deals with the eponymous mystery that’s confounded us all for centuries. What did happen to Richard III’s nephews?

Was this book prompted by the thrilling new events at Coldridge in Devon, where it’s now thought the elder boy, so briefly the uncrowned Edward V, had survived and lived until he passed away in his allotted time? If he did, then he at least did not perish at his wicked Uncle Richard’s hands.

I don’t think either of the boys died as a result of anything Richard did or ordered to be done. The truth may elude us forever … unless Philippa has now unearthed something spectacular.

We have to wait until November this year before the book is published, but you can read about its acquisition by The History Press here.

Now we hold our breath again! Oh, one grizzle. The Wars of the Roses are referred to by the awful modern Cousins’ War. Bah to that! 😠

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  1. H.J. Hill Avatar
    H.J. Hill

    Cousins’ War? Really? That sounds like something me and mine would get into as kids at Christmas.

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  2. Christine Avatar
    Christine

    What can she possibly know that other historians do not?

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    1. super blue Avatar
      super blue

      Quite a lot really, as she and the MPP team are following the evidence and not the discredited propaganda. There must be some useful civic records still around, despite Vergil and Robert Morton destroying many of the more obvious ones, in the same way that Titulus Regius survived in Croyland or Richard’s marriage plans survived in the Portuguese archives.

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  3. Annette Carson Avatar
    Annette Carson

    Two comments to make: First, the book wasn’t ‘prompted’ by John Dike’s Coldridge theories, it’s more significant than that. As Philippa has announced, it is the first 5-year report of the findings of her Missing Princes Project which involves an international team of researchers (including me) – her website gives an idea of its scope. Second, the phrase ‘Cousins War’: how modern is ‘modern’? And how modern is the phrase ‘Wars of the Roses’? My recollection is that ‘Cousins War’ has very early origins, but of course I’ve been reading about this period since the 1950s and have encountered zillions of terms that are unfamiliar to 21st-century readers. When Philippa Gregory used ‘Cousins War’ I tried to trace it back in time because it was already familiar to me (18th-century, I thought), but I lacked the wherewithal to do that kind of tracing. I certainly knew it in the 1980s and have a photocopy of an article that uses it in the title. And don’t ask me why our Philippa prefers it – I don’t know! Maybe to discourage people thinking along tramlines.

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    1. sighthound6 Avatar
      sighthound6

      It sounds like quite some book.

      We need more myth busting. You have done so much already, Annette. I point people at your work all the time. This sounds like it will be more ammunition.

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  4. Anne Ayres Avatar
    Anne Ayres

    “… unless Philippa has now unearthed something spectacular…” Yes, I do hope that there is some further discovery or collaboration of the Coldridge theory, as Annette says in these comments. Or I fear that it will simply be treated as “Old News” and dismissed by the tramline historians.

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    1. super blue Avatar
      super blue

      “Tramline historians” – excellent.

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      1. Anne Ayres Avatar
        Anne Ayres

        More Annette’s phrase than mine Super blue! Just used her idea and embellished it…

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      2. super blue Avatar
        super blue

        Yes, thankyou both. Souunds like the poem about buses and trams.

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  5. patricia feeney Avatar
    patricia feeney

    they are supposed to be trying to to excavate the princes remains but have to get

    permission from prince charels if we could find out what the princes dna is

    this could be intrsting thnask tish

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    1. super blue Avatar
      super blue

      I think you mean Charles III, as he has been for eleven months. Permission there may take time and the bones may have been contaminated but we already have the “Princes” mtDNA through Ashdown-Hill and Moran and radio carbon-dating may, eventually, be more informative. Any testing is likely to show a mismatch as:
      More, who lies in his first paragraph about Edward IV’s age at death, describes a solitary priest burying, but surely not ten metres under a 13th century stone staircase.
      More then says that the same solitary priest moved the “Princes” to hallowed ground, which people who just want to believe in the bones find inconvenient and just ignore.

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