Plantagenet petition : the missing link of a dynasty

Angers has recently caught the attention of French and foreign medias, above all UK medias, since its town council sponsored on the town website a claim demanding the return in the capital of Anjou of the jewels of the British crown. That is aimed to compensate the murder of Edward Plantagenet, pretender to the throne and last heir of the Plantagenet, by Henry VII in 1499.

Henry VII was the first king from the Tudor dynasty. He became the England sovereign in 1485 after he defeated Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England. Richard III had himself deposed Edward V, his predecessor in 1483. Edward V has probably the shortest reign of England history : two months and 16 days. He died at the age of 13 in uncertain circumstances. He was the son of Edward IV, king of England from 1461 to 1483.

According to Channel 4 theory, that king was not legitimate. Born in april of 1442, he shoud have been conceived in August 1441. But according to a document discovered, by chance, in the Rouen cathedral by an English historian, the official father of Henry IV, Richard Plantagenet, was far from his wife at the time of the child conception... If that theory is true, all the monarchs descendants from Edward IV are not legitimate... But who is? That's the point tackeld by the English reader of Angers Daily News.


[From top to bottom : Edward Plantagenet, Edward IV and Henry VII (National Gallery)]