Can modern police investigative methods solve the greatest cold cases in British history?
In short: Philippa Langley, the writer and producer who famously located the remains of Richard III in a Leicester car park, has turned her attention to the Princes in the Tower. By applying contemporary police methodology rather than traditional historical research, she claims to have finally solved the centuries-old disappearance.
Philippa Langley’s career as a researcher was transformed in 1998 after reading Paul Murray Kendall’s biography of Richard III. Diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, she left her marketing career to pursue a new path, eventually forming the Looking for Richard project in 2009. Her intuition led her to a specific spot in a Leicester car park, where she felt a strange sensation that the king’s body lay beneath. This conviction drove her to organize a crowdfunded excavation in 2012, which successfully uncovered the remains of Richard III, later confirmed by DNA analysis led by Professor Turi King.
The discovery brought Langley significant recognition, including an MBE in 2015, but it also sparked intense friction with the University of Leicester. Tensions centered on the narrative of the discovery, with Langley feeling sidelined during the university's official press presentation in 2013. These disagreements were later dramatized in the 2022 film The Lost King, which depicted Langley’s struggle for recognition against institutional corporatism. The film itself became the subject of a legal battle regarding the portrayal of academic Richard Taylor, which concluded in 2025 with a financial settlement and a clarifying statement added to the film.
Following the Richard III project, Langley launched The Missing Princes Project in 2015 to investigate the fate of Edward V and Richard, Duke of York. In 2023, she presented her findings in a documentary and book, arguing that the princes survived the reign of Richard III to challenge Henry VII. While her work has been praised for its compelling nature and won an AIB award, it has faced criticism from historians and researchers who argue that the archival evidence remains open to interpretation and falls short of definitive proof. Langley maintains that her police-style investigative approach provides sufficient evidence to conclude the mystery is solved.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Philippa Langley
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