ExEcution of Sir James Tyrell
Child Killer or False Confession?
Sir James Tyrell was an English knight, a trusted servant of king Richard III of England.
He is best known for confessing to the murders of the Princes in the Tower – under Richard’s orders.
James Tyrrell was born in 1445, as the eldest son of William Tyrell and Margaret Darcy.
Tyrell’s father was b-headed on Tower Hill on 23rd February 1462 for treason, on the basis of a supposed plot against King Edward.
At the age of just 15/16, James Tyrell fought on the Yorkist side at the Battle of Tewkesbury, on 4th May 1471.
After the battle, he was knighted by King Edward IV.
A few months later Tyrell entered the service of Richard Duke of Gloucester, the future Richard III.
Richard then appointed Tyrell Sheriff of Glamorgan and Constable of Cardiff.
Constable of Glamorgan was certainly a key job, and one of the most important at Richard’s disposal.
It was a position of considerable power, and almost certainly, a considerable income.
After Richard became King, he granted Tyrell a number of additional offices including Knight of the Body, Master of the Horse and Chamberlain of the Exchequer.
It seems certain that Richard saw Tyrell as a valuable ‘member of staff’ who was useful in a number of roles, and well worth keeping on board.
Taken together with his existing appointments this made him a man of considerable importance, both at court, and in the country.
If Richard had wanted to dispose of the Princes, then Tyrell would indeed have been a plausible candidate to arrange it; a loyal supporter, who was both trusted and competent.
In 1484, Richard gave Tyrell the position of High Sheriff of Cornwall.
Tyrell was then sent to Flanders on a covert mission, for which payment was issued in January 1485. Whatever this mission was, it must certainly have been of importance.
In January 1485, Tyrell was appointed to command the important castle of Guisnes, in the marches of Calais.
He received a very large and unexplained payment of £3000.
Tyrell was still in France in 1485, and played no part in the Battle of Bosworth Field, unable to follow his lawful king into battle.
Richard’s defeat signalled the end of the Yorkists, and the start of the Tudor dynasty.
At first King Henry VII deprived Tyrell of certain offices, but on 16th June 1486, and again on 16th July of the same year, Tyrell received a royal pardon for all offences he might have committed.
Tyrell was now apparently in Henry’s favour, and was allowed to continue in charge at Guisnes.
Tyrell attended the Coronation of Elizabeth of York, and fought for Henry at the Battle of Dixmunde in 1489.
Given his apparent closeness to King Richard, Tyrell had made the transition better than most, and looked as if he was accepted as a loyal supporter of the new regime.
However, in 1501, Tyrrell lent his support to Edmund de la Pole, 3rd Duke of Suffolk, now the leading Yorkist claimant to the English throne.
In the spring of 1501, Tyrell was arrested for treason.
Tyrell was tried and convicted at the Guildhall in London on 2nd May 1502.
On 6th May he was b-headed, just outside Tower Green.
Some years after Tyrell’s eXecution, Sir Thomas More in his “History of King Richard III” wrote that during his examination, Tyrell had confessed to the murders of the Princes in the Tower.
King Edward V of England and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, were murdered under Richard’s orders.
According to Thomas More, Tryell also implicated John Dighton as a perpetrator.
When questioned, Dighton corroborated Tyrell’s account.
However, he was unable to say where the bodies were, claiming that they had been moved.
The original document of Tyrell’s alleged confession was never produced.
“Sir James Tyrell devised that they should be
murdered in their bed, to the eXecution whereof he
appointed Miles Forest, one of the four that kept
them, a fellow fleshed in murder before time.
To him he joined one John Dighton, his own
horsekeeper, a big broad, square, strong knave.
Then, all the other being removed from them, this
Miles Forest and John Dighton about midnight, the
children lying in their beds, came into the chamber
and suddenly lapped them up among the clothes
so bewrapped them and entangled them, keeping
down by force the featherbed and pillows hard
unto their mouths, that within a while, smored and
stifled, their breath failing, they gave up to God
their innocent souls into the joys of heaven, leaving
to the tormentors their bodies dead in the bed”
– Sir Thomas More 1511.
🖤 King Edward V and Richard Duke of York- The Princes in the Tower.
By Paul Delaroche c.1830.
Louvre, Paris.