When Marie, a school teacher, stood in the Tower of London one quiet evening, she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone—or something—was watching her. The air hummed with an eerie tension, as if the walls themselves held secrets from centuries past. It was as though the ghosts of history had paused, waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves.

In a room not unlike the one where Marie stood, two young boys had once sat, unaware of the fate that loomed over them. Edward V and his younger brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, were the sons of King Edward IV—future kings in waiting, yet trapped in the shadow of a kingdom’s uncertain future. They were never crowned, and their tragic end would become one of England’s most enduring mysteries.

It’s this moment, suspended in time, that the artist John Everett Millais captured in his 1878 painting The Princes in the Tower. A study of stillness and vulnerability, Millais’s portrayal of the young princes does not focus on the dramatic—the murder, the conspiracy, or the brutal end—but on the waiting. The empty silence before the storm. The tension in the room, where history’s inevitable movement presses upon two innocent lives.

Though the princes’ deaths have been speculated on for centuries, with no conclusive evidence ever proving what really happened to them, Millais’s painting invites us to feel the weight of this unresolved tragedy. It asks us to witness a moment before the world takes it away—the fleeting innocence of childhood before power and politics have their say.

In this episode, we delve into the haunting story behind The Princes in the Tower. We explore the enigmatic painting, the mystery of the princes’ disappearance, and what their tragic fate tells us about the nature of power, innocence, and history itself. Join us as we peel back the layers of silence, and uncover the truth that history has long kept hidden.