Stained glass image of Edward V in the Evans chapel at Coldridge Church. Image has been verified as being of Edward V by stained glass experts Brooks and Cherry as well as the Keeper of Ceramics at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Photo Photo Dale Cherry
Here is a link to an interesting article in the Telegraph. For those unable to access the article it’s also available on Yahoo News. Following my posts – A Portrait of Edward V and Perhaps Even a Resting Place – St Matthew’s Church Coldridge and a guest post – A PORTRAIT OF EDWARD V AND THE MYSTERY OF COLDRIDGE CHURCH Part II – by John Dike a Coldridge resident and who has been leading Philippa Langley’s The Missing Princes Project team in Devon, I am very happy to see this very plausible theory getting the publicity it deserves. Bill Gardner is Deputy News Editor of the Telegraph, and whose interest first being piqued by the Missing Princes Project, decided to have a catchup and recently travelled down to Coldridge to interview John Dike and to take a look around the church. The resultant article was published in the Telegraph on the 29 December 2021. I think its exciting and hopefully an indication that this theory – which is up to now one of the most plausible – of what became of one of the sons of Edward IV will become more widely known about and a refreshing antidote to the relentless, tedious and monotonous stories that the ‘Princes in the Tower’ were murdered.
A reminder of some of the clues in Coldridge Church : 
Yorkist emblems. Here a White Rose of York and a Sunne in Splendour.. Photo Dale Cherry
Sunne in Splendour effigy. Photo John Dike.
The open crown above the image of Edward V but which originally would have been in a different window – possibly the Chantry over a royal coat of arms. Note the deer in the ermine instead of the usual stoats tails. Surely a nod to John Evans as Parker at Coldridge Deer Park?
St Matthews Church, Coldridge beneath a glowering Devon sky. Could this be the burial place of John Evans who possibly was Edward V, son of Edward IV who lived out his life incognito in Coldridge.
Footnote. Another thought is that Edward V could have been present at the Battle of Stoke 16th June 1487. A young lad had been crowned King Edward in Dublin on the 24th May 1487 by die hard Yorkists. This ‘King Edward’ was found after the battle but the heralds recorded that although the young King Edward was taken, his real name was ‘John’ ‘And there was taken the lade that his rebelles called King Edwarde (whoos name was in dede John) – by a vaylent and a gentil esquire of the kings howse called Robert Bellingham’ (1). Is it possible that this ‘John’ was John Evans of Coldridge who in actual fact was Edward V. Is it also possible that this young man was badly wounded especially around the face, or even had his face purposefully disfigured and then returned to live out his life in Coldridge? This would explain why the face of the older man in the window at Coldridge appears to be badly scarred?
The face in the window of the mature man who appears to be scarred around the mouth and an opaque eye. Carries a crown and wearing ermine. Could this be John Evans – who in his life as Edward V was wounded at the Battle of Stoke?
- Chroniques de Jean Molinet ed. G Doutrepont and O Jordogne Brussells 1935. Translation taken from Michael Bennett’s Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke. See also Heralds’Memoir 1486-1490 pp.116-17 E. Cavell.
Links to other posts with links to Coldridge.
1. THE MYSTERIOUS DUBLIN KING AND THE BATTLE OF STOKE
2. MARKENFIELD HALL & THE MARKENFIELD BROTHERS, THOMAS AND ROBERT
3. A PORTRAIT OF EDWARD V AND THE MYSTERY OF COLDRIDGE CHURCH…Part II A Guest Post by John Dike.
4. A Portrait of Edward V and Perhaps Even a Resting Place?- St Matthew’s Church Coldridge
5. PERKIN WARBECK AND THE ASSAULTS ON THE GATES OF EXETER
6. Lady Katherine Gordon – Wife to Perkin Warbeck
A MEDIEVAL POTPOURRI 
Hi Amma, Yes I am very, very excited that at last the Coldridge theory, which yes I have been banging on about for eons, has now appeared in the British Press. This is no mean feat. And now it appears in the USA wowsers. What we need now is a massive, massive stroke of luck that can prove that our speculations and are correct. Im not sure if this is going to be possible tbh. Possibly the only way to prove it would be if JE’s body was discovered and DNA tests carried out. That I can tell you is hardlly likely to happen. But onwards and upwards. The Missing Princes Project team, Im one of them, have made some new little discoveries recently in the church so you never know what may turn up. All the best. sparky😊
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Yes Amma. We have to keep going. I too am thrilled with the breakthough in getting the message out there. I can tell you that this blog went manic yesterday. The stats tell me that sparkypus had 2,260 visiters who took 4,201 views and today 605 visiters who took 1,214 views. The views were nearly all for the Coldridge posts and those relating to it such as the perkin warbeck one. Have you ever thought about joining the UK Missing Princes project. There are only a very few of us and I think with all your knowledge you would be able to enhance our little group. Who knows one day in the future you may even be able to pay a visit to Coldridge. I cant at the moment because of Covid. But one of these days…. I wondering where do we go from here now. DNA would prove the story true or put it to bed once and for all. But I cant see that happening any time soon.
Im interested in what your thoughts are regarding Hastings. Certainly things may have turned out different at Bosworth if Hastings had remained loyal to Richard but who knows with these 15th century nobles. They chopped and changed their coats like noone knows. The only one I really admire is John Howard. Now there’s a man. To think how his son went to the dark side….
I have no idea who the mother/s of Richard’s illigitimate children were. I have heard it said one of them was a Harrington.
Yes so much to this story. But as they say the victor gets to write the history. This is our problem.
Take care…. and thanks for your support. It means such a lot…sparky.
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At the danger of betraying my ignorance – i am not a researcher and my hunch is only from what i’ve gleaned from trawling the net since Daily Mail ran this story – can I suggest alternatively that this John Evans might actually be Richard’s own son Edward Middleham Duke of Cornwall?
This childi is supposed to have died in Spring 1484 which exactly corresponds to the mysterious trip of Richard’s Courtier Markenfield from Yorks to Devon. It has always been taken as fact that the child died, but from internet I read that Croyde chronicle source for this claim was written in Henry Bosworth’s reign. Additonally although for much rof the ecent past it was believed that his tomb was at Sheriff Hutton. Modern forensic assessment is that the costumes, hairstyles on the effigy show it to be e tomb of the an earlier period.
Given that Henry’s first plot was the Buckingham fiasco oft the previous autumn ’83 (when the rumours of the killings were first instigated) I think it understandable for Richard to have got edgy about the safety of his own son and looked to hide somewhere until calm was restored. Maybe the forceful way Henry dealt wiht warbeck Warwick De la pole etc meant tnere was no way back for Middleham?
This child was the Prince of Wales heir apparent so his death would’ve been a huge matter and would surely have entailed a major and laveish state funeral. And some whacking great tomb at the Minster – West or York?
Turning to the Princes in the Tower I can’t see any shrewd reason why Richard would have them killed. He had them in the Tower totally neutralised. Sometime later Elizbeth I kept Kahterine Grey the rival claimant to the Crown in custody there for years. It just seems half-baked idiocy for him to have killed his nephews and not paradee the bodies to give his bark bite.
I can’t see what Richard had to gain from their demise (certianly not at the point they are supposed to have disappeared). Clearly once Henry wore the Crown all bets were off.
I find the Simnel and Warbeck cliaims quite convincing just because I have respect for the perspicacity of the people of this era to recognise a legitmate claimant. Surely they can’t have bee as gullible as the current social media crowd? The Irish seemed to have been quite sure that they were crowning Edward V.. Also Richard’s nephew De La Pole had a decent enough claim to the thrrone himself so why would he promote some Peasant boy fraud ahead of himself? Makes no sense.
Anyway that’s my suggestion everyone is speculating about the boys from the Tower, but what about the other prince? Nobody seems to be wondeing about him.
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sorry should have subbed it. apologies for all the typos and spelling errors.
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Hi.. thank you for your interest in my little blog. I will answer your more fully later but can I just briefly say the best way to read the Telegraph article is to access it via Yahoo news. Here is the link. https://news.yahoo.com/richard-iii-may-not-killed-191506549.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=ma The problem is the Mail have basically lifted the article from the Telegraph and added bits and pieces which I’m not comfortable with. Best regards sparky…
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Thanks for this wonderful reply Amma. I have sent a reply via the email address you have posted above. Im very happy you want to join our little Devon team. As I said on the email I will ask Philippa what the procedure is. I presume you still want to correspond via this blog and not just via the email. Let me know. sparkypus …
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I’m really sorry to be a wet blanket, and I know this will not make me popular, but I feel I have to put the case for the opposition. Iam not going to dispute the identification of the king in the window as Edward V, but I would strongly question the assumption (and that is what it seems to me to be) that his image, and the other glass with Yorkist imagery, was put in and paid for by John Evans.
Coldridge was part of the inheritance of Cecily Bonville, who married Edward V’s half-brother, the Marquess Dorset.In her widowhood she lived in Devon and spent a fortune on improvements to the churches on her manors there. The Yorkist and EV imagery is surely far more likely to have been the work of either Dorset (extolling the memory of his royal brother) or his widow. Apparently Cecily was very proud of her York royal connections and even asked to be buried either beside Elizabeth of York in Westminster Abbey or in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, rather than by Dorset – she did not get her way but that was her wish.
Also, there may be at least one other stained-glass image of Edward V in a SW-English parish church, and that is in Fairford in Gloucestershire, where it has been suggested that various Old Testament figures have been modelled on contemporary royals, and King Solomon is shown rather incongruously as a blond boy:
https://sparkypus.com/2021/01/29/st-marys-church-fairford-royal-portraits/
Do we know that glass and the Evans chantry originally had any connection with each other?To my eye the whole window looks to have been reformed from damaged pieces, and given the status of the royal imagery probably originally sat in the great east window, which now has only plain glass (so far as I can see from images online), but which must once have had the best stained glass in the house.
Is there not also a possibility that John Evans’ family took over an existing chantry chapel for his tomb, or that his tomb was moved into said existing chantry at a later stage?
I’m also sorry to say that I can’t see that the tails in the ermine have necessarily been made to resemble deer – I’m afraid I could as easily be persuaded they were meant to be giraffes or jellyfish. As Wikipedia shows, ermine tails were shown in a rich variety of shapes in medieval times: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ermine_(heraldry) .
As regards the popular theory that the Simnel pretender may have been Edward V, we should remember that it has been demonstrated now that he was crowned in Dublin as Edward VI.
I shall now duck for cover.
There are Evanses in the Coldridge parish registers, once they start, so perhaps some modern-day descendants of John Evans could be verified who could be used as a match to Richard’s y-chromosome DNA??
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There is no need for you to duck for cover maryeflowre.- your thoughts and views on the theory are very welcome. It’s good to discuss …☺️ Afaik the Evans family had all left Coldridge by the 16th century so no luck with that I’m afraid up to now.
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Sorry maryeflowre..but I wanted to add a little further to my reply to you. I think the most intriguing, and for me convincing, stuff is the emergence of EW from Cheyneygates coinciding with Robert Markynfield being sent to Coldridge by Richard. And then of course we have Sir Henry Bodrugan who had been given Coldridge by Richard about that time. Sir Henry, who was a rogue but I like him a lot, was then present at the ‘coronation’ in Dublin. This was a lightbulb moment for me – a very strong connection between Coldridge and the Dublin King. The last post I have written covers Sir Henry if you have the time to read. 😊.
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