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On Sun, 29 Aug 2010 19:37:34 -0400, NP-f31 wrote:
> Victor of the Tower - Part 2
> June 13th, 1483
> Lord Hastings is dead. He was beheaded without trial or cause on the
> Tower Green this morning. He seems to have walked into a trap
> unawares. It is now clear that Duke Richard will be King. He has both
> Princes in the Tower, the Queen in sanctuary and his Northern Army a
> days march from London. The worst news of all came to me this morning.
> The Duke of Buckingham himself visited me in my chambers. He has laid
> on me the task of murdering the princes. It is to be done in secret
> with no witnesses. Clearly he plans to do away with me when I have
> performed his heinous crime for him. He gave me a bag of golden coins
> to hire assassins and assassins to kill the assassins. I wist not how
> to save the princes or myself. For all this gold will serve me not.
> Certainly not in England, foreign these coins appear, and certainly
> not if I am headless as well. Yet these coins have given me an idea. I
> must earn the trust of the princes if my plan is to work.
> June 17th, 1483
> I have gone to visit the princes and made clear to them my plan. At
> the sight of me they made joyful sounds of welcoming. These two
> beautiful boys have had the company of no one for days. The food that
> I order brought up to them is placed inside their door anonymously. I
> am the only one allowed to see them, and I am to be their executioner.
> As I told the young King of his Uncle's plot he wept bitterly that
> fate should be so unkind to him. He surprised me when he stood before
> me, as brave as any man has ever been and quoth, 'If I am to die
> uncrowned, I take joy in the fact that my dearest friend will send me
> to the Lord my God.' He looked at me with the greatest severity and
> said, 'Make it quick, Victor. You will not cause me pain. Please allow
> me to acquit myself of my sins.' And with that he knelt in prayer
> before me. No! Said I, 'You will not die, my prince!' I love you too
> dearly to ever harm you. Nay, my beloved, I intend to save you.' From
> that moment on I spoke to Edward as a familiar, as my own son. And if
> my plan shall work, so shall he be and his brother as well. I laid out
> my plan to the brothers. They agreed to every aspect, for they knew
> that with much luck this plan may well succeed. They embraced me
> warmly with kisses, tears and affections. Their outpouring of love
> caused my heart nearly to burst with happiness. I knew I must do my
> utmost now to keep us all alive. They bade me sleep with them to
> comfort them and keep a safe vigil. This I did without reserve.
> June 18th, 1483
> I have procured the services of a certain Doctor, an acquaintance of
> myself. He is not a purveyor of leechcraft, as some so-called Doctors
> practice. Nay, he is schooled in the new learning of the Italians. In
> the city there is an outbreak of typhus, as we often see in summer. He
> does what he can to help the sick, but many still die of the typhus
> vapours. The Doctor, through great danger unto himself, hath brought
> to the Tower the bodies of two young boys who were victims of the
> outbreak. Very similar of look and build are these nameless lads to
> the princes. Though they died in poverty, they have been buried as
> princes. The Doctor and I washed their wasted bodies and their flowing
> hair. How it pained me to see such beauty in such a pathetic state. We
> dressed them in the clothes of young Edward and Richard and had I not
> known that my Lord and liege Edward sat with his brother in his
> apartment above us, I fain would have thought these boys were my
> Princes. We had buried the impostors reverently under flagstones at
> the foot of the tower steps. The Doctor was ushered out of the castle
> at daybreak in a cart and dressed as a drover or farmer. On his cart
> was secreted a sack of clothing and the belongings of the princes.
> Now the final steps of my plan rely on luck and stealth. My writings
> will leave a trail, my son, for you to follow if you can. Take this
> letter and these gold coins with you. Say to William, my servant, to
> report to Lord Buckingham that the Warden says that the deed is done.
> If he can make clean his escape, he will, and will meet us in Germany.
> For that is where we are to go my son. The Holy Roman Emperor will
> offer us sanctuary in his lands. The Princes will be raised there
> safely according to their station. We've enough gold to buy a small
> duchy, if the opportunity arises. The Queen has heard whispers of the
> plan and sent money by way of a trusted priest. Perhaps, as men, the
> Princes can regain their kingdom. But as boys, they will not die, by
> my soul I swear this.
> Our plan is to buy transport, not to France, as the Yorkists will
> expect, but on a Dutch fluyt to Amsterdam. This morning I made
> arrangements with a trading vessel. We will dress the princes in the
> clothes of the dead boys and cut their hair. They will pretend to be
> my sons. Tonight when darkness falls we will lower the Princes down
> the privvy shaft to the sewers. They are to follow the sewer pipes to
> the Thames where the Doctor will meet them with his cart. Dressed as
> they are and smelling as they will, no one will suspect that they
> aren't victims of the typhus plague. They will travel to the Docklands
> on the Thames and join me on the fluyt. We will spend the night on
> board and set sail for Amsterdam at dawn. Should God grant us the
> grace of a safe passage we will make our way over land to Bremen and
> then perhaps to Hannover. The Germans embrace all things English
> because they so distrust the French. Perhaps we can make a life there
> such as befits a King and Prince of England. Do as I bid my son, keep
> safe this message as well as your life. Should this note fall into the
> wrong hands, we will all lose our heads.
> My God speed you to me.
> Your loving father,
> Victor
> Postscript 2010-
> This manuscript, carbon dated to the late Middle Ages, was discovered
> in a trunk in the attic of a country house in Yorkshire, UK.
> Apparently, the son of Victor, Warden of the Tower, never made it to
> Germany. There are references to a Victor who served as warden in the
> Tower in the late 15th Century. His name disappears after the coup of
> 1483, he was last reported missing and presumed dead.
> Bones were discovered in 1674 by workmen rebuilding a stairway in the
> Tower, and these were subsequently placed in Westminster Abbey, in an
> urn bearing the names of Edward and Richard. However it has never been
> proven that the bones belonged to the princes, so there remains a
> possibility that Edward survived the Tower.
> Interestingly, at the end of the 15th century a series of marriages
> occured in duchies throughout the Hannover region of Germany. This
> wealth and power as subsequent generations of this powerful family
> continued to intermarry with other royal families throughout Western
> Europe. In fact, in August 1714, George I of this line, was crowned
> the first Hanoverian King of England. His great-great-great
> Granddaughter was Victoria I. Apparently, this name was a favourite in
> the family for many generations.
> Doc
> NP-f31
I must confess, Sir, to preferring your Map to the Territory, as best
we know it; though this be a decided Grownuply thing to do.
Ronin
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