Richard, Duke of York (Prince in the Tower)

This article is about Richard, Duke of York, son of King Edward IV who was imprisoned in the Tower of London. For the article about Edward IV's father see Richard, Duke of York.

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Richard, Duke of York (August 17, 1473 - 1483?) was the second son of Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville and, thus, the younger brother of Edward V of England. In January 1478, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne Mowbray, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476.

Young Richard's uncle, Richard III of England, took him to the Tower of London in mid-1483, and what happened to him and his brother -- the Princes in the Tower -- after that has been the subject of much speculation and debate ever since. In the 1490s, Perkin Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but he was an imposter. Richard's might have been the smaller of the two skeletons discovered in a chest in the Tower in 1674, but there is as yet no evidence one way or the other.

The comedy series The Black Adder features an alternative history where Richard succeeded his uncle to the throne as Richard IV of England (reigned 1485 - 1498) before being poisoned and succeeded by Henry VII.