Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes

Notoriously immortalized by Shakespeare and historians, Richard III is history's most infamous royal villain. In this book, US litigator Bertram Fields goes back more than 500 years to review the case of Richard and the princes in the tower. Applying the same modern techniques he successfully uses in the courtroom, Fields outlines and evaluates the arguments on both sides and weighs the evidence, aiming to offer the definitive truth about this extraordinary man. Clearing away the dust of time, Fields attempts to answer the intriguing questions inherent in the drama: was Edward IV's marriage truly legal? Were his sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, and Richard, Duke of York, illegitimate? What role did Richard play - or not - in his brother Clarence's death? Were the bones found in the Tower of London those of the young princes? Was there even a murder? Were the boys instead removed from the Tower and raised in secrecy? And if they were cold-bloodedly killed, who else would have wanted them dead? The book ends with a re-examination of British and world history: what if Richard had never accepted the Crown? What if he had instead insisted his young nephew reign as Edward V? How would our lives be changed?