Exhibit 1

Suspects:

Richard III

Richard, Duke of Gloucester was named protector to Edward IV's son, Edward V. Richard took an oath of loyalty to Edward V and assumed the role of protector on or about May 1, 1483. The first week of June, Bishop Stillington informed Richard that his brother's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, the mother of the princes, was bigamous, and their children were therefore bastards. Richard brought the case before the Bishops, Lords, and people and the children were bastardized June 25, 1483, making them inelligible for the crown. Richard was declared rightful king and was crowned July 6, 1483.

The Princes Edward and Richard were seen on the Tower grounds, some report up through the beginning of 1484, long after their uncle's coronation. Some rumors had that they were spirited away to Flanders, and other rumors that both had been killed or that only Edward had been killed. Titilus Regius, enacted by Richard III's parliament of early 1484, mentioned the princes as living at the time it was written.

Henry VII

Henry Tudor lived in exile in France until he defeated Richard III in Battle on 22 August 1485. Once he became King Henry VII, he reversed and destroyed all copies but one of Titulus Regius which had made Richard III rightful king and had bastardized Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville's children. He married Elizabeth of York, Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville's oldest daughter. He executed all the other potential York heirs to the throne, including Edward, Earl of Warwick (son of Edward IV and Richard III's brother, George, Duke of Clarence).

Margaret Beaufort

Margaret Beaufort was Henry Tudor's mother and wife to Thomas Stanley, Richard III's Constable of England.

Lady Margaret Beaufort was descended from John of Gaunt’s son by his mistress and then wife, Katherine Swynford, and as such was a member of the royal house of Lancaster. Her first husband, Edmund Tudor, was the first earl of Richmond who died just before Margaret, at only age 13, gave birth to Henry of Richmond—her only child. Her third husband was Thomas, Lord Stanley, a supporter of Yorkist King Edward. She spent her years at the Yorkist court working to put her son on the throne. She is implicated—although nothing has been proven—in a plot to overthrow Richard’s protectorate and later in 1483 in Buckingham’s rebellion.

Henry Stafford
Duke of Buckingham

Drawing by Kirsten Moorhead

Next to Richard, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham had the strongest claim to the throne, but he had to get past Richard once the princes were declared bastards. Furthermore, hed married to Woodville, and while it has been rumored he hated his wife and the Woodvilles, there is no contemporary evidence to support that claim.

As Constable of England, Buckingham would have ready access to the princes and some suggest he may have killed them and then started the rebellion in October of 1483 to overthrow Richard--ostensibly in Henry Tudor's behalf, but as Richard executed him in that rebellion, his designs are unknown.

After the rebellion, Richard III wrote to his Chancellor, John Russell: "...the malice of him that had best cause to be true, the Duke of Buckingham--the most untrue creature living." What had Richard learned? Had Buckingham killed the princes and now Richard had to carry the burden, unable to reveal it to anyone, lest his enemies pin the murders on him?

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Events:

Brief summary of Events--April 1483 to September, 1485

Early April, 1483(?)--Edward IV named Richard Gloucester Protector should he die
April 9, 1483--Edward IV died (Woodvilles decide to keep it from Richard) and Edward V summoned from Ludlow.
Late April, 1483--Hastings sent a message to Richard to apprise him of his brother's death, that he's protector, and that he'd better make haste and meet up with Rivers who'd be coming to London with Edward to crown him. Hastings advises Richard bring a small token army.
April 20, 1483 (?)--Richard set out to York with 300 men.
April 21, 1483--Richard declared protector. he took loyalty oath to Edward V.
April 24, 1483--Rivers left Ludlow with Edward and headed for Northampton.
April 26, 1483--Richard received word from Buckingham and requested that 'Bucky' should meet him in Northampton. Richard also received word from Hastings that the Woodvilles intended to ignore Edward IV's will and intended to crown Edward V on May 4th.
April 29 to May 1, 1483--Richard met up with Buckingham in Northampton and learned that Rivers has taken Edward to Stony Stratford. Richard and Buckingham high-tail it to Stony Stratford and essentially catch Rivers with his pants down. Rivers returned to Northampton where he was arrested along with Richard Grey, and Thomas Vaughn. Edward's servants and soldiers are dismissed and sent home. Queen Elizabeth received a message late that night about the turn of events. She went into sanctuary with her other children.
May 2, 1483--from Northampton, Richard made a request of the Archbishop of Canterbury to place the prince in protector ship in the royal apartments at the Tower (for when they arrive May 4).
Rivers is sent to Sheriff Hutton, Grey to Middleham, and Vaughan to Pontefract.
May 4, 1483--Richard departed St. Albans with Edward and arrived at Westminster.
May 9, 1483--Richard sent Brampton to attack the Woodville fleet. Anthony Woodville had absconded with a sizable chunk of the treasury. Brampton defeated Woodville, Richard pardoned all the lower ranked sailors, but Woodville escaped with two ships and the treasury.
May-June--Richard protector
June 8, 1483--Stillington dropped his bastard bomb.
Richard had Buckingham do a media blitz to sway the public to accept the bastardization of the princes.
June 25-26, 1483--Stillington went before the Bishops, Lords, and commoners and showed Edward IV had precontracted with Eleanor Butler and declared Edward's children by Elizabeth Woodville illegitimate.
June 26, Richard declared King of England.
July 6, 1483--Richard III crowned. He left for his progress through England
October, 1483--Buckingham's Rebellion, Buckingham Executed
January, 1484--Richard's first and only Parlaiment met where they ratified:

Blind Justice

Presumption of Innocence

Reformed Jury System

Clear Property Title

(See Richard III's Laws by Sandra Worth)

March, 1484--Elizabeth Woodville left sanctuary, agreed to place hier daughters in Richard's care.
April, 1484--Richard's son, Edward, Prince of Wales died suddenly
March 16, 1485--Queen Anne dead after long illness (tuberculosis). Day marked by a solar eclipse. Viewed as bad omen for Richard.
August 22, 1485--Richard III defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth

Aftermath:

August 25, 1485--William Catesby executed for treason
February, 1495--William Stanley executed for treason for aiding Warbeck
November 23, 1499--Perkin Warbeck executed for treason for claiming to be Prince Richard, the rightful heir to the crown
November 28, 1499--Edward, Earl of Warwick (son of George, Duke of Clarence) executed for aiding Warbeck and for attempting to escape from the Tower

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Pretenders:

Lambert Simnel
(First claimed to be Richard, Edward IV's younger son and then Edward, Earl of Warwick, son of George, Duke of Clarence)

(Image not available.)

Lambert Simnel was the first of two pretenders who appeared in 1487 to challenge Henry Tudor’s right to the crown. As a ten-year-old boy, Simnel was proclaimed the earl of Warwick, son of George, duke of Clarence, by the English and Irish lords in Dublin. He was even crowned there on May 24th. Those exiled Yorkists and loyal Irishmen rallied to his banner and threatened Henry’s throne. The army was defeated at the Battle of Stoke—called the final battle of the Wars of the Roses—on June 16, 1487. Henry captured Lambert, and to humiliate the boy, displayed the real earl of Warwick who had been in his custody at the Tower all the time, in a procession through the streets of London. Henry finally sent the boy to work in his kitchens.

Perkin Warbeck
(claimed to be Richard, Edward IV's younger son)

Perkin Warbeck was a greater threat to Henry. He was recognized by many kings and princes in Europe as Richard of York, King Edward’s second son who disappeared with his older brother from the Tower in the first year of Richard III’s reign. Henry did not have the prince to show the people this time, and thus Perkin was far more dangerous. He was 21 when he, too, arrived in Ireland in 1493 looking and behaving every inch a prince of the royal blood. His resemblance to Edward was striking. However, Henry moved quickly against him, and despite the support of his aunt, Margaret of Burgundy, the Irish lords and the young Scottish king James, who gave his royal cousin Katherine Gordon in marriage to Prince Richard, Perkin was captured in Devonshire, and eventually imprisoned next to the earl of Warwick in the Tower. After trying to escape, he was tortured and forced to admit he was the son of a boatman of Tournai and executed 23 November 1499..

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Trials: