History of the Monarchy 

Edward V and Richard III

EDWARD V
House of York
Born in 1470 
Ascended in 1483
Died in 1483, Aged 13 
Reigned between April and June
Unmarried

Edward was only twelve years old when he was crowned King of England. Then Richard III, his uncle and supposed protector, locked him up in the white tower with his brother declaring that they were both illegitimate. It has never been made clear exactly what happened to the two children but they were never seen again. Richard III instated himself as King of England and cruelly put down anyone who argued.

RICHARD III 
Born in 1452 
Ascended in 1483 (usurp)
Died in 1485, aged 33 
Reigned for 2 years
Married to Anne Neville, bearing 1 son.

Richard III, the Duke of Gloucester, appears in Shakespeare's play as a thoroughly evil and treacherous child killer - deformed with a hunched back. In reality there is actually little to suggest that he was a hunchback, but there is reason to believe that he was responsible for the deaths of Edward V and his younger brother Richard. The duke had support from many nobles, who wanted him to be crowned king, so he furthered this by distributing a letter saying that the children were illegitimate. This gave him the slender excuse to lock the brothers in the White Tower in London from which they never returned.

Richard was crowned King and was surprisingly quite a generous one. However, he was mistrusted by many due to the disappearance of the boys and, when his first wife died, there were ideas that he had he had had a hand in the murder of the Princess in the Tower. It was claimed that he killed her to allow him to marry Henry Tudor's prospective wife. Richard was, in the end, attacked and defeated by Henry Tudor (Henry VII). He died alone, wearing his crown, and became the last English King to die in combat in what many see as the last major battle in the Wars of the Roses.