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Historical person

Edward V

1470–1483

Edward V became king of England at the age of twelve after Edward IV’s death in April 1483, but he was never crowned. His uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester, assumed the protectorate, arrested the Woodville relatives accompanying the boy and placed Edward in the Tower of London.

Parliament later declared Edward IV’s children illegitimate, and Gloucester became Richard III. Edward and his younger brother disappeared, creating the enduring mystery of the Princes in the Tower. Edward V was born in Westminster and died in Tower of London.

Alison Weir’s The Princes in the Tower reconstructs Edward V’s brief uncrowned reign, his confinement with Richard of Shrewsbury and the evidence surrounding their disappearance after Richard III took the throne. Shakespeare’s Richard III turns the young king into one of Gloucester’s most vulnerable obstacles, removed to the Tower as the usurpation advances. Anne Easter Smith’s Royal Mistress views the crisis through Jane Shore and the household of Edward IV, where the king’s death suddenly leaves his children exposed. Derek Birks’ Scars from the Past approaches the same transition from the unsettled Yorkist world of the early 1480s. Robyn Young’s Sons of the Blood begins directly with Edward IV’s death and the expectation that twelve-year-old Edward V will succeed, before the struggle over the boy king overturns that succession.

Periods

Periods linked to Edward V

Princes in the Tower1483 CE Yorkist England1461–1485 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Edward V (4 series)

The Wars of the Roses in Order

by Derek Birks 9 books 4.4(3,534)

The Wars of the Roses series follows the fictional Elder family through the dynastic conflicts that divided England between 1459 and 1485. Beginning with a private Yorkshire feud, the family is drawn into the struggle between Lancaster and York and repeatedly finds its survival tied to the fortunes…

All books in this series

New World Rising in Order

by Robyn Young 2 books 4.2(1,852)

New World Rising follows the fictional half-brothers Jack Wynter and Harry Vaughan through the dynastic upheavals that ended Plantagenet rule and opened the early Tudor age. Sons of the Blood begins in 1483 with Edward IV’s death, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower and Richard III’s…

All books in this series

York Family Novels in Order

by Anne Easter Smith 6 books 4.1(16,252)

The York Family Novels are six overlapping biographical novels about the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and the opening of Tudor rule. Each book centres on a different historical or lightly documented figure—Kate Haute, Margaret of York, Grace Plantagenet, Cecily Neville, Jane Shore and…

All books in this series

Tudor Rose Trilogy in Order

by Alison Weir 5 books 4.2(18,357)

The Tudor Rose Trilogy follows three generations of the dynasty through novels centred on Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII and Mary I. Beginning in the final decades of the Wars of the Roses and ending with Mary’s death in 1558, it traces how family memory, contested legitimacy and…

All books in this series

Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Edward V (3 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Edward V (6 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.