Think your family has a few skeletons in the closet? Well, chances are they've got nothing
on the British royals and their ancestors. From long-lost pretenders to secret affairs — and
even treason — these are the most bizarre unsolved mysteries of the British royal family.
The most infamous mystery in British royal history is still unsolved to this day — although one
man has been the prime suspect for over 500 years. In 1483, Edward IV died unexpectedly,
putting his 12-year-old son, Edward V, in line for the throne. However, before his coronation,
Edward V was abducted by his father's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
The Duke moved Edward V and his younger brother Richard, Duke of York, to the Tower of London,
supposedly for their protection. Less for their protection, he also had them declared illegitimate
and crowned himself Richard III. The last recorded sighting of the boys was on June 16th.
In the medieval era, bumping off your rivals was just part of being royal:
Edward IV and Richard III had already killed Henry VI and their other brother,
George, Duke of Clarence. But murdering children was beyond the pale even back then.
Nonetheless, many people believe that Richard III ordered the executions of his nephews to
strengthen his claim to the throne. Richard stood to benefit the most and had access to the boys
in the Tower. But there's no concrete evidence confirming his guilt. Indeed,
many of the accounts pointing the finger at him came under Henry VII and his descendants,
whose shaky claim to the throne hinged on Richard III being a usurper.
Today, the vast majority of historians conclude that, while Richard III is suspect number one,
we'll probably never know what happened to the princes in the tower.
The mysterious disappearance of the princes caused trouble for Richard III's usurper,
Henry VII. Henry had only a tenuous claim to the throne, and one of the most significant
threats against him was a man who turned up in Ireland in 1491. Likely to everyone's surprise,
this man claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the two princes in the tower.
This so-called "Richard" went on a tour of Europe, drumming up support from continental courts,
including that of Margaret of Burgundy, Richard's own aunt. It's unclear whether they believed
he was the real prince, however, or whether they simply wanted to destabilize Henry VII.
Over the next six years, "Richard" tried unsuccessfully to invade England multiple times.
He was eventually captured in 1497, at which point he confessed that his name was Perkin Warbeck,
and that he was a commoner from modern day Belgium. Henry showed mercy and put Warbeck
under house arrest, but after Warbeck escaped and was recaptured, Henry imprisoned him at the
Tower — in a cell next to the Earl of Warwick, Richard's nephew, whom Warbeck had also attempted
to impersonate. After another failed coup, in 1499, Warbeck was hanged and Warwick was beheaded.
It's widely believed that Warbeck was a fraud. But without hard evidence either way, some still
believe there's a chance — however slim — that he may just have been one of the long-lost princes.
In August 2012, researchers unearthed a mysterious skeleton beneath a parking lot in Leicester.
DNA tests on matrilineal descendants found that the body was that of Richard III — but
further tests raised more questions than answers. In 2014, researchers compared Richard
III's DNA to that of five living descendants of Richard's great-great-grandfather, Edward III.
They specifically looked at a gene that is passed down on the Y chromosome.
Theoretically, it should be the same among all the biologically male descendants of Edward III,
including Richard. But there was no match between Richard and those five people, meaning,
at some point, a son was born with a father other than the one on the official family tree.
"Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"
The antics didn't end there, though. A year later, a patrilineal descendant of Edward III's
great-great-great-grandfather Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, came forward to compare his Y chromosome
with Richard III's. If it matched, that meant the break in the male line came at some point
after Richard. If it matched those of the five descendants, it meant they were the ones connected
to Geoffrey and therefore also to Edward III — and Richard III wasn't related to either. Confusingly
enough, it actually matched neither, meaning there was another break somewhere along the line.
Historians aren't too concerned that these revelations could undermine the
current royal family's claim to the throne, though. After all, it's hard
enough to overthrow a monarchy even when your evidence doesn't take a doctorate to understand.
In 1560, Elizabeth I faced a political and personal crisis when her favorite courtier
and rumored lover Robert Dudley was accused of killing his wife so he could marry the queen.
So did Elizabeth I — supposedly the Virgin Queen — actually have an affair with Dudley?
Well yes, probably to some degree. The two had been close since childhood and that
relationship continued once Elizabeth became queen. She actually moved Dudley's bedroom
next to her rooms, even though he was already married to rich and beautiful Amy Robsart.
By September 8th, 1560, Robsart was in poor health, possibly due to cancer. That day,
with her husband in court with Elizabeth, she sent all her servants to a village fair.
Hours later she was found dead at the bottom of a set of stairs, with a broken neck.
An inquest ruled Robsart's death an accident, but rumors swirled that she
had either died by suicide or had been killed. Dudley was the prime suspect:
people believed he'd wanted his wife out of the way so he could marry Elizabeth. However,
the public reaction forced Elizabeth to distance herself from him.
After failing to convince her to marry him, Dudley started an affair with one of her
ladies in waiting, whom he secretly married when she became pregnant — a move that,
understandably enough, enraged the so-called Virgin Queen.
To say Mary, Queen of Scots was unlucky in love would be something of an understatement.
Her first husband — the sickly French king Francis II — died when he was
16 and she was 18. Mary's second husband, her cousin Lord Darnley, was an arrogant,
violent womanizer who wanted her throne. When Mary was six months pregnant with their son,
he even had her friend brutally killed right in front of her.
Darnley didn't exactly get away with it, though. On the night of February 9th,
1567, Mary and her baby were staying in Holyrood House,
Edinburgh, while Darnley was on the other side of the city in a house called Kirk o' Field.
At around 2am, a huge explosion ripped through Kirk o' Field. Darnley and his servant were
found dead in a nearby field — but, curiously enough, they had actually been strangled to death.
Although many people had motive to kill the widely hated Darnley, Mary was immediately suspected of
arranging it. The extent of her involvement is still unknown, but she proved hesitant
to prosecute the suspects. The main suspect was James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell. Bothwell had been
a staunch supporter of Mary, and after Darnley's death, he kidnapped Mary and forced her to marry
him. The controversial marriage ultimately saw Mary lose her throne — and later her head.
George III is Britain's third-longest-reigning monarch, behind his granddaughter Queen Victoria
and great-great-great-great-granddaughter Elizabeth II. But his 59-year rule is best
remembered for two not-so-great things — from Britain's perspective, anyway. First, losing
America as a colony, and second, the madness that required his son to step in as regent.
Another fairly scandalous thing George III may have done was secretly marry a Quaker woman,
Hannah Lightfoot, when he was still Prince of Wales. Hannah was the commoner daughter of a
shoemaker, and the couple had three children together. Then, in 1761, George was forced to
make a political marriage to Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, but supposedly failed to
dissolve his first marriage to Hannah. This would make the marriage of George and Charlotte illegal,
and their descendants — including every monarch since Queen Victoria — illegitimate.
"Boom."
Given the cataclysmic impact this would have on the royal family, it's not surprising that they
have refused to grant access to documents that could potentially prove the marriage took place.
Famously, Queen Victoria was so devastated by the loss of her husband Prince Albert in 1861 that
she mourned him openly the rest of her life. But that may not be the full story. After Albert died,
Victoria found consolation with another man, one considered much less suitable for a queen.
John Brown was the son of a small-time Scottish farmer who had joined the Royal
Household as a servant in 1851. He mainly served Albert, but after Albert's death,
the emotional support he provided the widowed queen saw him promoted to her Personal Attendant.
Whether this relationship was romantic has been debated, and letters and diaries that
could have provided evidence have been burned or edited. There were rumors of a secret marriage,
however, bolstered slightly in 2003 when contemporary diaries were published in which
the author claimed fourth-hand knowledge of a reverend's confession to marrying the couple.
What is clear is that Victoria loved Brown deeply, romantically or otherwise.
When she died — in 1901, 18 years after him — she was buried with mementoes from
both Albert and Brown, including the latter's mother's wedding ring.
It's been more than 130 years since the London serial killer known as Jack the Ripper claimed
his first known victim, the homeless woman Mary Ann Nicholls, on August 31st,
1888. Since the killer's identity has never been confirmed, new suspects are
still cropping up to this day. But probably the most famous of all is Prince Albert Victor,
known as Eddy, the grandson of Queen Victoria and second in line to the British throne.
At the time, Eddy was not a suspect. His name was only raised in 1970, thanks to a cryptic journal
article written by surgeon Dr. Thomas Sewell. In the article, Sewell only wrote that he suspected
the killer was, quote, "of a noble family": though he later specifically disputed accusations against
Eddy. Nonetheless, so-called Ripperologists have been throwing Eddy's name around ever since.
Their only other "evidence" was that a tall, aristocratic person had been seen
near one of the crime scenes. Eddy was, indeed, tall as well as aristocratic.
But he was also reportedly in Balmoral, Scotland, when the crimes took place.
Of all the royal mysteries out there, this one has the simplest conclusion.
But unfortunately for the prince, unless we somehow find out who the killer really was,
he'll forever be associated with Britain's most famous murder mystery.
Edward VIII is perhaps most famous for abdicating the throne to marry
American divorcee Wallis Simpson, but he's also become infamous for
his vocal support of the 20th century's greatest villains.
"Nazis. I hate these guys."
In July 1933, Edward commented that the British government shouldn't get involved in German
affairs, including in their persecution of Jewish people. In 1937, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
took a two-week trip to Germany, where they returned the cheering crowds' Nazi salutes,
met with high-ranking Nazis, and visited Hitler in the Bavarian Alps. Even after
Britain declared war on Germany, Edward VIII was accused of making pro-Nazi statements in public.
It's clear that the Duke and Duchess were Nazi cheerleaders, but what's not so certain is
exactly how far they were willing to go in their support. In 1957,
telegrams were published that revealed a 1940 German plot to kidnap the pair and reinstate
them as puppet rulers after the Nazis had taken over Britain. The telegrams claimed
that the Duke and Duchess were aware of the plans and even took them into consideration.
For what it's worth, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Eisenhower both
concluded that the telegrams exaggerated the Duke and Duchess's knowledge of the plot,
and the Duke himself denied all knowledge. But his Nazi sympathies, at least, were very real indeed.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Grunge videos about your favorite historical mysteries are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.