A half-baked plot to replace the (maybe) true king of England with an impostor involved mind-controlling ointment, a loyalist uprising that never materialized, and some of the biggest political powers in Europe.
Content note: The backstory of this episode involves the likely murder of two children, although the focus of this case is a different crime.
Featured image: A portrait of Perkin Warbeck, aka Piers Osbeck, aka Richard, Duke of York. (Image source)
A miniature showing William Caxton presenting the first book printed in the English language to Edward IV. His heir, the future Edward V, is also pictured. (Image source)
A portrait of Richard III, based on a copy of a lost original. (Image source)
The Marriage of Richard, Duke of York, a painting from the 1800s. Richard and Edward were popular painting subjects centuries after their deaths, possibly in part due to the continued popularity of Shakespeare’s play detailing their unhappy fates. (Image source)
_-_The_Marriage_of_Richard,_Duke_of_York_(1473-1484),_15_January_1478_-_RCIN_405198_-_Royal_Collection.jpg){kind=link}
The Princes in the Tower, one of the most famous portraits of Edward and the real Richard, by John Everett Millais. (Image source)
Another painting from the 1800s on the theme of the assassination of the princes. this one seems to be showing the boys as extra-innocent young boys, quite a bit younger than their actual ages at their likely time of death. (Image source)
Another painting on the same theme. (Image source)
Sources
- The Perfect Prince: Truth and Deception in Renaissance Europe
- Wars of the Roses
- Edward IV
- Henry VI
- Richard III
- Edward V
- Edward, Earl of Warwick
- Arthur, Prince of Wales
- Cornish Rebellion of 1497
- Edward, Earl of Warwick