7. Richard III

Richard III / the third was only king of England for two years, but he is one of the most famous. This is partly because historians still can't agree whether he ordered the murder of his young nephews so that he could become king. It is also, however, because he was the last English king to die in a battle, William Shakespeare wrote a play about him, and as a result of something extraordinary that happened in 2012.

Richard was the younger brother of King Edward IV / the fourth. When the king died after a short illness in April 1483, Richard was supposed to protect Edward's young sons, who were twelve and nine years old at the time. The older prince became king after his father, but his uncle may have prevented him from being crowned so he could be king instead. Richard arranged for the boys to stay in the Tower of London, a large castle next to the River Thames, but did he want them to be imprisoned and murdered, or protected? Once they were in the Tower, a law was passed by Parliament which made their parents' marriage illegal. It was claimed their father, King Edward, was already in a legal agreement to marry another woman before he married their mother. As a result of the law, the boys lost any right to the throne, and Richard became the new king in July 1483. The young princes were never seen in public again.

Their disappearance and their uncle's actions made people think he had arranged their murder.

Richard and a distant cousin called Henry Tudor were both descended from King Edward III / the third, who had died more than a century earlier in 1377. Henry also believed he had a right to be king. In August 1485 he led an army against Richard and won the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard was killed in the battle and for hundreds of years no-one knew where he was buried. In 2012 a skeleton was found under a car park in the city of Leicester. Experts examined it very carefully and a DNA test confirmed that it was Richard's.