The fate of the princes in the Tower is one of history’s most fascinating mysteries, at least in my opinion. Since the time of the two boys’ disappearances, many theories have been put forward as to what happened to them and if they were indeed killed, who had the strongest motives for their murder? Unsolved mysteries of the past create a perfect subject for historical fiction writers; they provide events that are not set in stone, and thus a lot of interpretation is allowed by the author. Shakespeare and other writers, from directly after the princes’ disappearance until fairly recently, have placed the blame on Richard III, and theorized that he had the two murdered. Philippa Gregory in The White Queen continues this tradition and puts the blame on Richard III. However, she added her own theories in also. She believed that there was no way that Elizabeth Woodville would have actually surrendered her second son Richard (also called Dickon) to Richard III and the Tower. She thought that the former queen found a young boy who resembled young Prince Richard and put him in the Tower, sending the real Richard off to relations in mainland Europe. Other authors like Josephine Tey, have placed the blame on Henry Tudor (Henry VII).
In her author’s note, Robin Maxwell discusses what led her to formatting her theories. She discusses the theories that say Henry Tudor murdered the princes. She says that because Henry Tudor was exiled from Britain and did not set food on English soil for seventeen years before the boys’ disappearance and for some time after, it is extremely unlikely that he was behind the disappearance/murder. Instead, To the Tower Born suggests that one of the most intelligent and powerful women in England was behind the plot: Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII and grandmother to Henry VIII. The book suggests that Richard III was completely innocent of the situation and put the princes in the Tower strictly because he believed they would be safer there. (When most people think of the Tower of London, they think of only prison cells and torture. The Tower was originally a palace, and when the two princes were taken there, they were not kept in a prison cell but resided in the royal quarters.) She also suggests a rescue mission, where the main characters stumble across the boys in a prison cell below one of Margaret Beaufort’s residences and attempt to smuggle them out of the country. Edward does not make it due to sickness, but Richard is secretly sent to live with his royal relations in Burgundy.
The difficulty of how to tell this story from a particular character’s point of view, was cleverly solved by Robin Maxwell. The said character must be a part of the royal family and thus privy to the inner workings and events in the royal residences. But there are many times in which the royal family was exiled and cut off almost completely from the outside world, and thus there would be great holes in the story. To the Tower Born is actually told from two different points of view: those of Nell Caxton (the daughter of the famous William Caxton, whose printing press served the royal families of both England and Burgundy) and Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville and sister to Edward V and Prince Richard; she was later married to Margaret Beaufort’s son, Henry Tudor/Henry VII). The chapters alternate between the points of view of Nell and Elizabeth. This way, we get a complete sense of the events happening around the princes’ disappearance.
