Sir William Capell and A Royal Chain: The Afterlives (and Death) of King Edward V

Abstract

It is generally assumed that the memory of Edward V, king of England, was an important part of the politics and culture of the century following his disappearance and probable murder in 1483. This article considers the material culture associated with Edward and contributes to an understanding of his fate and how it was viewed in the reigns of Richard III, Henry VII, and beyond. In stark contrast to the experience of other elite figures in the period, Edward's memory was not promoted and supported through any of the potential lieux de mémoire which might have been preserved, created, or adapted for the purpose. The decades to the middle of the sixteenth century saw little if anything by way of an emerging tradition of visual presentations of the king. There was no indication of the emergence of physical locations in which his memory might be cultivated, and textual references remain sparse. A previously overlooked reference to Edward's chain, in the possession of the Capell family early in the sixteenth century, illustrates the remarkably limited interest in Edward as a personality and in his fate in the years after his disappearance. And while there is a clear possibility that the chain came to the Capell family in some neutral way, as the king's property was distributed in the aftermath of Edward's disappearance, there is also the possibility that it came as a result of his murder – and through the Capells’ connection with the alleged murderer, Sir James Tyrell.