The mystery of who killed the Princes in the Tower has fascinated historians for generations. Prime suspect is King Richard III, whose remains were discovered buried beneath a Leicester car park in 2013.

The mystery of who killed the Princes in the Tower has fascinated historians for generations. Prime suspect is King Richard III, whose remains were discovered buried beneath a Leicester car park in 2013.

The terrible murder of the two young boys came with England in the grip of civil wars known as the Wars of the Roses.

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These were a series of conflicts between the nobles of the house of Lancaster and their rivals from the house of York over who was to rule England.

By 1471 the Yorkists had the upper hand. The Lancastrian King Henry VI was murdered and replaced by the Yorkist Edward IV.

But in 1483 Edward died, leaving the country in political turmoil.

His son and heir, Edward V, was just 13 and the Yorkists feared that their grip on the crown was too weak to allow a boy King to rule.

The young Edward was therefore deposed by his uncle, Richard of Gloucester.

Richard, soon to be crowned Richard III, did this by declaring that both Edward and his 10-year-old brother Richard, Duke of York, were illegitimate.

The two boys were removed to the Tower of London in 1483 — and never seen again.

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Richard III reigned for just 18 months. A Lancastrian claimant to the throne, Henry Tudor, was soon mustering an army.

On August 22, 1485, the Yorkist and Lancastrian forces met for the last battle of the War of the Roses, at Bosworth, Leicestershire.

The Lancastrians were victorious and Richard died on the battlefield. Soon afterwards the victor was crowned as Henry VII.

No trace of the young Princes was found. They were assumed to have been murdered and the finger of suspicion pointed at Richard.

During Henry’s reign, his propagandists did everything in their power to blacken Richard’s name and portray him as a monster.

In fact, during his lifetime Richard built a reputation as a just ruler.

As Duke of Gloucester he was often called on to settle disputes because of his record of dealing fairly with defendants and plaintiffs, irrespective of rank.

As King he introduced trial by jury.

Richard’s guilt over the Princes’ death has certainly never been proved. Indeed, many historians have suggested Henry had a much greater motive for killing two young boys from a rival faction — both of whom had claims to the throne.

Did Richard kill the Princes shortly after seizing power? Or did Henry find them still alive after Bosworth and decide to remove his potential rivals as quickly and secretly as possible?

It is unlikely that the truth will ever be known. In 1674 workmen discovered some bones in the Tower. They were declared to be the remains of the Princes and were reburied in Westminster Abbey.

After his death at Bosworth, Richard was given a low-key burial at a church in Leicester. Over the centuries the exact spot was forgotten. The church was demolished in the 16th Century and hundreds of years later the site was home to a car park.

Historians traced the likely area of the King's burial and in 2012 dug up remains there of a young man roughly matching Richard's age when he died.

They carbon-dated the skeleton to the time of Richard's life and DNA-match it with a known descendant. On February 4, 2013, it was announced that "beyond reasonable doubt" the skeleton was Richard's.

His skull had two potentially fatal wounds. The skeleton, with ten injuries in total, also had a curved spine, confirming the "hunchback King" depicted in William Shakespeare's play Richard III, written around 1592.