In the early 1480s – some ten years into his second reign – Edward IV's health began to fail. He became subject to an increasing number of ailments; his physicians attributed this in part to his habit of using emetics, which allowed him to gorge himself at meals, then return after vomiting to start again. He fell fatally ill at Easter 1483, but survived long enough to add some codicils to his will – the most important of which named his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as Protector after his death. He died on 9 April 1483 and was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
The cause of Edward's death is uncertain; allegations of poison were common in an era when lack of medical knowledge meant death often had no obvious explanation. Other suggestions include pneumonia or malaria, although both were well-known and easy to describe. One contemporary attributed it to apoplexy brought on by excess, which fits with our knowledge of his physical habits.
Edward died 19 days before his 41st birthday. He was survived by two of his sons: Edward, Prince of Wales, and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York – aged 12 and 9 respectively. Their uncle and Protector – Richard, Duke of Gloucester – lodged them in the Tower of London, supposedly in preparation for Prince Edward's coronation as King Edward V. But before the coronation could take place, the princes were declared illegitimate and the Duke of Gloucester assumed the throne as King Richard III.
Whatever happened to the boys after the last recorded sighting of them in the Tower is a mystery. It is generally assumed that they were murdered; a common hypothesis is that they were killed by Richard in an attempt to secure his hold on the throne. Their deaths may have occurred some time in 1483, but apart from their disappearance, the only evidence is circumstantial. As a result, several other hypotheses about their fates have been proposed, including the suggestion that they were murdered by Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (a former ward of Edward IV), or Henry VII (who seized the throne in 1485), among others.
It has also been suggested that one or both of the princes may have escaped assassination. In 1487, Lambert Simnel initially claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but later claimed to be Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick (a nephew of Edward IV and Richard III – cousin to the princes, and a potential claimant to the throne). From 1491 until his capture in 1497, Perkin Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, having supposedly escaped to Flanders. Warbeck's claim was supported by some contemporaries (including the aunt of the disappeared princes, Margaret of York).
In 1674, workmen at the tower discovered a wooden box containing two small human skeletons, under a staircase. The bones were widely accepted at the time as those of the princes, but this has not been proven and is far from certain. King Charles II had the bones buried in Westminster Abbey, where they remain.
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