On Tuesday evening a programme on the Princes in the Tower (subtitled ‘The Damning Evidence’) will be broadcast by Channel 5 at 9pm. In it Professor Tim Thornton reveals the will of Margaret Capell (d.1522) in which she bequeathed a chain of Edward V’s to her son Giles. The chain had belonged to her husband, Sir William Capell (d.1515).

Professor Thornton believes that the chain must have therefore belonged to Sir James Tyrell, Margaret’s brother-in-law because Tyrell was the murderer of the Princes according to Thomas More. More’s narrative was written in the sixteenth century, during the reign of Henry VIII, and published after his death in the reign of Elizabeth I. Shakespeare’s play was then based on More’s narrative.

We therefore thought that it might be helpful to make the following points of clarification for the broadcast:

1. The bequest is of a chain belonging to her deceased husband Sir William Capell. The recipient of the bequest is her eldest son, Sir Giles Capell. Sir Giles was born c.1486 and after 1509 became one of Henry VIII’s leading courtiers and military captains. He was a frequent jousting companion of the king. There is no mention of the collar/chain in Sir Giles’s will (1557), or those of his sons.

2. Sir William Capell was prosecuted under Henry VII for usury and various other financial misdemeanours. He was an important money lender who acquired all sorts of metalwork as surety, including people’s signet rings. The chain may simply have been given to Sir William as collateral for a loan.

3. We have no evidence to authenticate the chain as belonging to Edward V other than the will.

4. The recipient of the chain was Sir Giles Capell. Another of Dame Margaret’s brothers-in-law was Sir Giles Daubeney. Daubeney had been a member of Edward IV’s household, joined the rebels against Richard III in October 1483, and joined the earl of Richmond in exile shortly after. He fought for Henry VII at Bosworth and was rewarded with the lieutenancy of Calais and made chamberlain of Henry VII’s household. It is just as possible that Margaret named her eldest son in recognition of Sir Giles Daubeney and he gifted the chain to the Capells on the occasion of the birth of their first son. There is therefore a connection to Daubeney for the chain.

5. There is no evidence that the chain belonged to Sir James Tyrell.

As a result of the above, Professor Thornton’s discovery cannot be deemed as evidence but conjecture. He acknowledges this in his accompanying article in the journal History (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-229X.13430)

For more, please see Matt Lewis’s blog: https://medievalmatt.substack.com/p/a-damning-discovery?r=17nngx&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true

The Missing Princes Project will shortly be publishing more archival discoveries for the survival of both sons of King Edward IV of England.