Yeah, still guilty.

Look, I am not an historian, I'm not British, and really, this affects my life not at all. But I do have internet access and a duty to chime in on things, regardless of how ill-informed I am, so I'm just going to day it: naw. Dude's totally guilty.

Well, lots of dudes are guilty. But I'm
referring to this one in particular.

Although after the year we've had,
I'd be willing to let tweens take a shot.

That's King Richard III. Yes, the guy from the play. The one that soliloquizes about how discontent his winter was. For those unfamiliar, he's famous for three things: having a hunched back, being willing to pay exorbitant prices for a horse, and murdering his nephews. You see, when his brother Edward IV died, Richard's nephew, Edward V, became king. But twelve year olds don't make the best leaders, so his uncle Richard, not unreasonably took over. Less justifiable, was Richard's next move.

Pictured: the unarmed children that stood
between an ambitious adult and power.

You see Richard locked Edward V and his younger brother (who was also called Richard) in the Tower of London. Then he "discovered" that the both the boys were illegitimate, and wouldn't you know it? He (the uncle) was next in line. So Richard the uncle became Richard the third (the third King named Richard that is, there're a million Richards) and no one ever heard from the boys again. Although, a couple hundred years later some maintenance workers found two prince-sized skeletons under a staircase in the Tower and people did the math.

"Slander! Those could be
usurper's nephew's bones."

-Richard III

Where I'm going with all this, is that recently--ok, a couple months ago, but I only heard about it recently--a new claim was made that there is now proof that Richard didn't have the princes murdered, and in fact, that they weren't murdered at all. Wild right? Instead, according to writer and amateur archeologist Philippa Langley, there was actually a whole rebellion built around trying to restore the very much not-murdered princes. And the bones under the stairs? It's an old building, who knows how those got there? I'm not the one trial here. Out of order? You're out of order!

Langley and a reconstruction of her
favorite late medieval king/murder suspect.

Anyway, calling Philippa Langley an amateur archeologist isn't exactly fair, since she organized an excavation back in 2012 that dug up Richard III's long lost body exactly where she predicted it would be. Like, they stuck a shovel in a parking lot and corpse one was Richard. So she's got some credibility. She may also have a potentially unhealthy relationship with a centuries dead king who may well have murdered his way to the top, but still, that's one more king than most archeologists have dug up. I guess the issue here is in the evidence.

"Hello there, I'm Edward V, and this
is my alive brother Prince Richard."

According to Langley, if Richard murdered the boys, then he would have done so openly. That way, no one would use them and their claim to overthrow him. And that, Langley says, is exactly what happened. A rebellion formed around the un-un-alived princes. That rebellion was unsuccessful, and the boys were forced to say they were imposters by Richard III's successor, Henry VII. Henry, obviously, wanting to legitimize his own claim. And, I don't know. I mean, that's a lot right? 

Although, some people will let just
about anything slide, so who can say?

It kind of seems like the simplest solution here would be that Richard offed the kids, and then hushed it up because medieval people, like people today, don't love it when you murder children. As for the imposters, couldn't they just be imposters? There were no photographs or DNA tests. One's legitimacy kind of relied on how much you looked like your dad. It seems like it would be pretty easy to hose off a couple of peasant children who fit the general description of the dead princes. 

Look, ultimately Langley will need to come up with something more compelling than: "what if Richard didn't murder his nephews?" And that's going to be an uphill battle for a woman who's not only the president of the Ricahrd III Society and also organized a state funeral for a guy who very likely murdered children. But she did find his body in a parking lot, so we should willing to cut her at least some slack. 

"'ello 'ello, what's awl this then?"

-Langley's team upon 

finding Richard III's body