TOWER PRINCES

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1933, Page 3

TOWER PRINCES

THEIR REMAINS DISINTERRED

TRADITIONAL STORY CONFIRMED

The revelation that the Dean of Westminster Abbey, the Rev W. Foxley Norris, had, in July last, permitted them to reopen the urn in which the remains of the Princes who were murdered in th e Tower of London were placed, was made by Mr Lawrence lv. Tanner, Keeper of the Muniments anu sub-librarian sj; the Abbey, and Dr William Wright, Professor of Anatomy, at the London Hospital Medical School, in the course of recent lectures before the Society of Antiquaries. Dr Wright said that he had "confirmed conclusively, by means of anatomical examination, the traditional account of the Princes’ death, at the order of Richard 111., and .he claimed that he had dispelled the theory that Henry VI. was responsible. The president of the Royal College of Surgeons, Lord Moynihan, who was present when the urn was opehed, said that the bones confirmed the commonly accepted historical account. He was specially impressed by the strong family resemblance between the two, particularly in the skulls. Roman Catholics are indignant at the Protestant burial service being read over the Princes when the remains were reinterred in the Abbey. They contend that the Princes were members of the Roman Catholic Church in preReformation days,. and consider that the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster should have been notified of the Abbey’s intentions, in order to enable him to hold Requiem Mass at the same time in Westminster Cathedral.

It has been revealed that the King permitted the reopening of the tomb. Dr Wright sent His Majesty the result of the “inquest” before it was publicly announced.