However, RichardвЂ™s succession was never intended, for the crown was to be passed naturally to the kingвЂ™s eldest son and heir, Edward. Richard IIIД®dward IVвЂ™s reign continued undisturbed until his death in 1483, when he was succeeded by his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard III). However, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the younger brother of Edward IV and later Richard III) did stay in the Tower that night, and it is almost certain that Henry was murdered under the order of Edward IV, who could no longer risk HenryвЂ™s restoration as king and another Lancastrian uprising. Who was the killer? This remains a mystery. One source claimed that Henry VI died out of grief and melancholy, but another stated that the deposed king was 'put to death' It is possible that he was bludgeoned to death (when his body was later exhumed, it was found that his hair was matted with blood). One source claimed that he died out of grief and melancholy over his sonвЂ™s death, but another, the chronicler Warkworth, stated that the deposed king was вЂњput to deathвЂќ between 11pm and midnight. That night, Henry VI, still a prisoner in the Tower, was also killed. On Tuesday, Edward IV returned to London after the Lancastrian forces were defeated at the battle of Tewkesbury, in which HenryвЂ™s son had been killed. Fragile, powerless and meek as he was in his final days, Henry was still a threat to the York crown. However, imprisonment would not prove enough to dissuade devoted Lancastrians from trying to manoeuvre Henry back into power. He was deposed by the Yorkist faction of the Plantagenet line in 1461 and Edward IV took the crown, later imprisoning Henry. This combination made him a poor king and his reign unfortunate. Henry suffered bouts of mental illness, and he was also extremely pious and sensitive. More than half a century later, Henry VI was held prisoner in the Tower of London during the War of the Roses. The rise of one Lancastrian king was later followed by the fall of another. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images) Henry VI It is possible that Richard II was murdered under the orders of Henry of Bolingbroke. It is possible that he eventually starved to death, murdered under the orders of Henry of Bolingbroke, now the first Lancastrian king, Henry IV. Richard mysteriously died in 1400 behind the walls of the castle that Shakespeare dubbed вЂњbloody PomfretвЂќ. Furious that he was stripped of his vast inheritance, Henry of Bolingbroke returned from exile and deposed Richard, imprisoning him at Pontefract Castle. One of the lords was RichardвЂ™s cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, the son of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster (the most powerful magnate in the country and effective regent when Richard was a boy.) When Gaunt died in 1399, Richard seized his uncleвЂ™s lands and wealth, known as the Duchy of Lancaster. The final decade of Edward IIIвЂ™s reign had been chaotic, as he battled with the Lords Appellant вЂ“ men of esteemed nobility. However, after the death of his eldest son, the Black Prince, in 1376, and the kingвЂ™s own death in 1377, the crown fell to the Black PrinceвЂ™s only surviving son and heir, 10-year-old Richard (Richard II). (Photo by В© Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)вЂќД®dward III went on to have a long and successful reign. Gruesome though it is, however, this story is unlikely to be true and was probably fabricated from the story of the murder of a Saxon king known as Edmund Ironside, who met an unfortunate end, apparently while using the privy.ДЄ depiction of the arrest of Roger Mortimer. This very grisly story has endured and has become most famous alleged means by which Edward II was killed.

However, The Brut вЂ“ written around six years after the event вЂ“ stipulates the king was murdered by a red-hot copper poker being thrust through his innards via his backside, under personal order of Roger Mortimer. The Lichfield chronicle states вЂњiugulatusвЂќ вЂ“ strangulation Adam Murimuth (c1275вЂ“1347), author of the Continuatio Chronicarum, claims that the king was smothered to death. Some state he suffered ill health and died of natural causes, others that he was murdered. So, what happened to Edward II? There are a number of chronicle accounts that refer to the death of the king. 7 medieval kings of England you should know about.

Mortimer acted as a de facto king through the true heir to the throne, Edward and IsabellaвЂ™s son, Prince Edward (later Edward III). In September 1327, King Edward II was held as a prisoner at Berkeley Castle when he was allegedly murdered under order from Sir Roger Mortimer, the lover of EdwardвЂ™s wife, Queen Isabella. One of the most savage acts of regicide that took place in the Middle Ages was the purported murder of Edward II. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

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