Review: The Princes In the Tower by Alison Weir

The penultimate book!  With only nine days left to read my last book (which as yet remains unselected), I come to you with what will most likely be my final historical non-fiction book of the year, and book #99: Alison Weir's The Princes In the Tower.

Reading like a historical thesis, Alison Weir tells the dramatic and tragic story of the child-King Edward V, who ought to have ascended the throne upon the death of his father, and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York.  Only 12 and 10 years old, respectively, when their father died in 1483, the boys were apprehended by their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who had the boys removed to the infamous Tower of London for their supposed protection, only to embark on a smear campaign to disinherit them as illegitimate.  His campaign successful, Richard of Gloucester was crowned King Richard III of England, and the "Princes in the Tower" were never seen nor heard from again.  Taking the traditional myth of their end as fact, Weir illustrates the story in the hopes of solving the mystery for once and for all: who was the murderer of the Princes in the Tower?

In the centuries since the death of Richard III and the meteoric rise of the Tudor dynasty that followed, the tide of public opinion has turned back in favor of Richard III not murdering the Princes, as is commonly suggested.  Weir opens up the book to debate, taking each and every individual who may have benefited from the deaths of the Princes -- including Richard's successor, Henry Tudor (later King Henry VII).  Weir takes all of the evidence that she can unearth with thorough research, and tries to remain objective while pointing out whom she feels to be the Princes' obvious murderer.

Some critics on Goodreads say that Princes reads more like a textbook; in truth I'd say it reads more like a graduate thesis, a good one.  Being someone who always wondered who did kill the unfortunate Princes, Weir's book is interesting, and very thorough, and as an added bonus, it's way more interesting than Paul Murray Kendall's Richard the Third, which I read at the beginning of the year.  I loved it.

So now comes the big question...what is number 100 going to be?  I started The Bronze Horseman, but 832 pages in nine days (during the holidays) seems like suicide.  So I'll have to find something shorter.  Making it count!  I'm almost there!

Rating: ****