Around 30 years ago I came across a book called The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. It’s a novel about a detective who tries to solve the mystery of the two Plantagenet princes who disappeared from the Tower of London under their uncle’s watch. Their uncle was to become King Richard III, immortalised by Shakespeare as a terrible villain – in the story the detective decides that the surviving portrait of Richard III does not look like the face of a man who would murder his nephews. It is a piece of classic crime fiction, but now it seems the investigation by Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector Grant whilst bed-bound is just the tip of an iceberg of those desperate to find out what really happened to the two princes. 

It is not just crime writers who have turned their hand to some historical detection: so have historians. And so, if you have watched the documentary series on this over the holidays or are thinking of reading the books that support the different hunts for the truth, then we can also give you a hand with a couple of history articles from our archive.

What do you think – did he do it?