A photograph of an adult man and two children posing in a scene from Richard III. A small boy sits on a chaise-longue in a white night-shirt, his hands clasped in prayer and his gaze directed heavenward. On the floor in the foreground, a girl, slightly older, kneels on a fur rug; she wears a cloak with voluminous sleeves, and is also praying, but her gaze is directed outwards toward the viewer. On the right, a white bearded man in black tunic, boots, and hat is pulling back a brocade curtain. There is a cross on the back wall.

Prince Arthur and Princess Margaret of Connaught as the Princes in the Tower

Charles Albert Wilson (1864-1958)

1888

Albumen print

10.0 x 14.0 cm

RCIN 2980009

Image credit: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021

Tableaux-vivants were a regular royal pastime in the late nineteenth century: elaborate still performances of scenes from history and literature.

The Princes in the Tower (featuring two of Queen Victoria's grandchildren) was one of a series of tableaux staged in 1888 to celebrate the thirtieth birthday of Prince Henry of Battenberg.

The choice shows the royal family’s continued fascination with this period of history and Shakespeare’s depiction of it. In this case, the story was a vehicle for a moral about the innocence of children - as well as an oblique reference to Richard's villainy. As Queen Victoria herself had remarked in her diary fifty years earlier: 'Richard was a very bad man [...] there is no doubt that he murdered those two young Princes'.

With this tableau vivant, the royal family came full circle: from perpetuating the Shakespearean version of Richard to acting it out themselves.

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Princes in the Tower

After Princess Victoria (1840-1901)

c. 1860

Princess Victoria Princes in the Tower

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