John Of Gloucester Intro

My name is John of Gloucester. I am the illegitimate son of Richard III.

As with the records of other lowborn folk, not much is known of me: my birthday is lost, as well as who my mother was. Some believe me to be the son of Alice Burgh, or Anne Herrington. Many believe me to be the son of Katherine Haute, after information surfaced in the mid-2010s suggesting so. When my father became King, I was promoted to Captain of Calais, and even attended my half brother’s investiture as Prince of Wales. I lived with my sister at Sheriff Hutton, where we stayed until Henry Tudor invaded England and killed our father.

After that, it is unclear what happened to me.


The infamous pretender Perkin Warbeck apparently declared in his confession that I was killed within the Tower of London, and Sir George Buck (father’s historian) also furthered that information. However, beyond the words of a liar, there is no proof that I died in my twenties. For all we know, I escaped and lived abroad. There is no death date for me, no body, no epitaph. If the years hadn’t been so long, one could have assumed I still lived. Yet, like my cousins, I went into the Tower of London, and never came out again.


Some might see that as divine justice for belief that my father killed them, yet one can never be too sure of things.