structural:reformatting
Conflicts and actions against opposing claims

Edward and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, who were still in residence in the Tower of London, had completely disappeared by the summer of 1483. The fate of the two princes following their disappearance remains a mystery to this day, however, the most widely accepted explanation is that they were murdered on the orders of Richard III.

Stripped of her family's influence at court, the widowed Elizabeth Woodville, along with Richard's disaffected former ally Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, allied themselves with Lady Margaret Beaufort, who began to actively promote her son, Henry Tudor, a great-great-great-grandson of Edward III and the closest male heir of the Lancastrian claim, as an alternative to Richard.

Woodville proposed to strengthen Henry's claim by marrying him to her daughter Elizabeth of York, the only living heir to Edward IV. Convinced of the need for Yorkist support, Henry promised his hand to Elizabeth well before his planned invasion of England, a factor which caused many Yorkists to abandon Richard. By September 1483, a conspiracy against Richard began to be formulated among members of the disaffected English gentry, many of whom had been staunch supporters of Edward IV and his heirs.