CURRENT THINKING ON THE DEATHS OF THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER. THE DAUGHTER OF TIME was written in 1951. Where does the argument about the fate of the princes in the tower stand today? Did the arguments in THE DAUGHTER OF TIME have any effect? Apparently not much. There is some recognition in this wikipedia entry on bill of attainder, which does say that: “After defeating Richard III and replacing him on the throne of England, Henry VII had Parliament pass a Bill of Attainder against his predecessor.[citation needed] It is noteworthy that this bill made no mention of the Princes in the Tower.” However, it may very well be that the sentence was inserted in wikipedia by a devout Ricardian rather than a professional historian.
I spent some time checking out a youtube video which can be found here. It appeared on Channel 4 in Britain as part of a series on the recent discovery of Richard’s body. On the program, a number of scholars express opinions about the events surrounding the disappearance of the princes. None of the historians mentions the bill of attainder and all of them assume that the princes were murdered early in Richard’s reign, with the exception of one scholar who sensibly points out that death by natural causes is a possibility in that time period.
Here is an outline of Tey’s main arguments and here is a summary of some of the arguments on each side of the contested issues.