The Lost Prince: Classic Histories Series: The Survival of Richard of York

By David Baldwin

Did Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the Princes on the Tower, survive his imprisonment? In this revealing new book medieval historian David Baldwin presents an original and intriguing scenario. On 27 December 1550 an old man named Richard Plantagenet was buried at Eastwell in Kent. He had spent much of his life working as a bricklayer at St John's Abbey, Colchester, but, unusually for a bricklayer, he could read Latin. Reluctant to give any account of his background, he eventually told his employer that he was a natural son of Richard III. Yet, if this was true, why was he not publicly acknowledged by the king? Richard III made provision for his other bastards, John of Gloucester and Katherine. The fact that he was called Richard Plantagenet is also revealing. Had he simply been Richard III's bastard, he would have been styled 'of Gloucester' or given the name of his birthplace. And, most tellingly of all, where is the evidence that Prince Richard actually died? David Baldwin opens up an entirely new line of investigation and offers a startling solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in English history and a final exoneration for Richard III.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Nov 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9780752479927

David Baldwin

David Baldwin has held a variety of jobs in his twenty-eight years, including security guard, tattoo artist, and carpenter. In addition to his writing career, he is a Harley Davidson mechanic.

Reviews for The Lost Prince

[soliloquies · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Slightly disappointed with this as it could have been so much better. The main argument in the book would have been better suited to a journal or short thesis. In book form there was a lot of padding and not enough evidence to support the authors claims. Worth reading, however.

[john257hopper · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The author has a lively writing style, but I found this book far less convincing in its arguments than his biography of Elizabeth Woodville. My suspicions were aroused when in the opening chapter he said that an impartial survey on the supposed survival of Richard must include the "evidence" provided by a spiritual medium. Although that low point was not plumbed in the main part of the book, the theory the author presents is wafer thin, too thin to make a whole book - the main text is only 150 pages and that is padded out with a fair amount of only tangentially relevant historical detail. He is too inclined to treat ambiguities in the sources as the foundation for a whole tower of speculation, which is all he really has. I am not sure whether the author even really believes it himself; it reads as though it is a mere exercise in speculative argumentation.