Edward IV fathered the two young princes who disappeared in the Tower of London. His sons were Edward V, born in 1470, and Richard, Duke of York, born in 1473; together they are remembered as the Princes in the Tower.
Edward IV was the Yorkist king who seized the throne in 1461 after defeating the Lancastrians at the Battle of Towton. He later married Elizabeth Woodville, and their sons became central to the succession crisis following Edward’s death in April 1483. The elder boy, Edward, became king as Edward V, but he was never crowned.
The princes were taken into the Tower of London, supposedly to prepare for Edward’s coronation. Richard, Duke of Gloucester—later Richard III—soon declared that Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid, making their children illegitimate under the reasoning of the time. The boys disappeared from public view, and their ultimate fate remains unresolved. Richard III is often blamed, but no definitive proof identifies who ordered or carried out their deaths. Edward V is therefore not the father; he was one of the missing princes.