Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York

This article is about the son of King Edward IV who was imprisoned in the Tower of London. For the article about the father of King Edward IV and King Richard III see Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York.

Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York and 1st Duke of Norfolk (17 August 1473–1483?) was the second son of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville and, thus, the younger brother of King Edward V. In January 1478, when he was about 4 years old, he married the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, who had inherited the vast Mowbray estates in 1476.

King Edward V and the Duke of York in the Tower of London by Paul Delaroche

His father died on 9 April 1483. Thus his brother Edward, Prince of Wales, became King of England, and Richard his Heir Presumptive. This was not to last. Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, presented evidence that Edward IV had contacted a secret marriage to Lady Eleanor Talbot in 1461. Talbot was still alive when Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. The Regency council under Richard Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Gloucester, concluded that this was a case of bigamy, invalidating the second marriage and the legitimacy of all children of Edward IV by this marriage. Both Edward and Richard were declared illegitimate and removed from the line of succession on 25 June 1483. The Duke of Gloucester, as a surviving younger brother of Edward IV, became King Richard III. The Duke of York was sent to the Tower of London by King Richard in mid-1483. What happened to him and his brother—the Princes in the Tower—after that has been the subject of much speculation and debate. In the 1490s, Perkin Warbeck claimed to be Richard, Duke of York, but he was an imposter. Richard's might have been the smaller of two skeletons discovered in a chest in the Tower in 1674, but there is as yet no evidence one way or the other.

The comedy series The Black Adder features an alternative history where Richard succeeded his uncle to the throne as King Richard IV of England (reigned 1485–1498) before being poisoned and succeeded by King Henry VII.