THE story of the Princes in the Tower is one of the best-known episodes of mediaeval history.

There have always been unanswered questions about what happened to them.

Were they murdered by their wicked uncle, Richard III? Or did they somehow escape, and return later as the “imposters” known to history as Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck? Or…what?

Lyn Green’s talk to Crediton Area History and Museum Society on January 8 focused a different theory, with a local connection.

The parish church at Coldridge contains some mysterious images in stained glass, a curious tomb, and various other clues.

Local researchers claim that those clues suggest that the young prince, who was the rightful Edward V, lived on in rural Mid Devon under a different identity, living and eventually dying in Coldridge. 

It’s a very complicated tale, and the local team attempting to unpick the details have been given a significant boost by being associated with Phillipa Langley’s "Princes in the Tower" project.

Phillipa Langley is, of course, the writer and researcher best-known for discovering “the king in the car park” - the grave of Richard III in Leicester.

Her attentions have turned to the tumultuous events of Richard’s short reign, including the disappearance of the two young princes.

Her project has attracted the attention and support of many researchers in Britain and overseas, following up several possible lines of enquiry and unearthing new evidence about their fate. 

Being part of this project has led to the Coldridge evidence being re-examined in what our speaker referred to as a forensic “cold case review” – starting with a clean sheet and questioning everything.

Reviewing a cold case from so long ago will be complicated by frustrating gaps in hard evidence; but it offers the best chance of reaching a conclusion as to which of the competing narratives about the fate of Edward V and his brother are most likely to be correct. 

In the meantime, we can continue to speculate on the possibility that Edward lived out his adult life in Mid Devon.

And we can all enjoy mulling over the clues in a good mystery story  – which in this case might be solved in Coldridge. 

Tony Gale