The New Murrey and Blue blog

The mystery of who/what is in That Urn* in Westminster Abbey has been rattling around for centuries, and now it’s in the news again. Westminster Abbey is what is known as a Royal Peculiar, and therefore under the jurisdiction of the monarch. See here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_peculiar. While the late Queen wouldn’t allow the urn to be examined, it seems that her son, King Charles III, who studied archaeology at Cambridge, has a different attitude. I wrote about this back in 2020, when it first surfaced that Charles’s thoughts on the urn differed from those of his mother (see here https://murreyandblue.org/2020/11/14/prince-charles-poised-to-solve-550-year-old-royal-mystery-on-throne/) but now it’s in the headlines again. I don’t know if there has been some new development.

“….Chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, Tracy Borman, explained: ‘He [King Charles] has said he would like an investigation to go ahead, so that we can determine, once and for all, how the young royals died.’….” Always the sly twist! No, Ms Borman, it’s not to find out how the young royals died, it’s to find out if the bones in the urn could possibly be those of the princes or, more likely, of a much earlier period. Probably Roman. With a few animal bones thrown in, quite literally.

Ms Borman is a Tudor historian and is never likely to give Richard III a fair hearing. See https://murreyandblue.org/2024/08/27/more-tv-delving-into-what-happened-to-the-boys-in-the-tower/. Another such committed Tudorite is Lucy Worsley, who only seems happy when she’s prancing around in 16th century clothes. See https://murreyandblue.org/2022/06/12/lucy-worsley-proves-richard-iii-murdered-his-nephews/. As soon as these ladies’ names are trotted out, we know the slant of the programme/book/whatever will be anti-Richard.

According to the latest article to arrive in my mailbox (https://uk.style.yahoo.com/king-charles-supportive-solving-spooky-082245340.html) the history of the urn is that the remains of two children (it’s not known whether they were male or female) were found under a staircase in the Tower in 1674. Because the box also contained “rags of velvet” and matched the location described by that oracle of all oracles, Thomas More. He said they were interred in a handsome urn, labelled as the remains of the sons of Edward IV, and that’s how it’s been ever since.

Well hallelujah. If the Sainted Sir Thomas claimed the bones were those of the princes, then it HAS to be so! I mean, he was a witness to the dastardly deeds, wasn’t he? Aged four, or whatever. A remarkably precocious little chap. 🙄

The presence of velvet proves nothing because the fabric has been around since at least the time of the Ancient Egyptians, see here https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-digital-exhibition/index.php/velvet/item/173-a-brief-history-of-velvet. And it wasn’t only used by the nephews of Richard III! For heaven’s sake, when is this stupid kowtowing to Tudor lies going to end?

Anyway, once again we have to wait to see if anything new ensues. But I’m afraid that I don’t hold out much hope concerning the end result. For Richard to be innocent simply will not SUIT too many vested interests!

* An excellent account of the urn and its contents can be found here https://murreyandblue.org/2014/11/17/another-view/ by the late Super Blue.