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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Edward V Biography EDWARD V (1470–83). King of England. The son of Edward IV, he was born in the Westminster Sanctuary, Nov. 4, 1470. When his father died, he was 13 years old. He proceeded to London for his coronation, which had been appointed for May 14, 1483, but was removed from the care of his maternal relatives by his paternal uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who in the same month had himself proclaimed Protector of the Kingdom and confined Edward and his younger brother, the Duke of York, in the Tower. The rumor of their death spread, when a movement originated for their liberation, but was discredited, popular opinion maintaining that they had been exiled. Twenty years later it transpired that Brackenbury, Constable of the Tower, refused to slay the princes at Richard's command, and Sir James Tyrrel, with two servants, gained admittance to their chamber while they were asleep, smothered them with pillows, and buried them at the foot of a staircase. The skeletons found at the foot of a staircase in the White Tower in the reign of Charles II and buried at his command in Westminster Abbey are considered to have been those of the young princes. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. VII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 492-493. |