The fortunes of the House of Lancaster have now reached their lowest point. The young Prince of Wales, heir to Henry VI, has been brutally murdered before his mother's eyes at Tewkesbury, and in the Tower of London the pathetic Henry VI himself has been killed by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Edward IV, recently crowned in London, foresees a period of general peace and prosperity for the country under Yorkist rule - but his own security is already threatened by Gloucester's implacable determination to win the crown.

Nothing can now check Gloucester's devious and ruthless struggle to possess himself of the Crown. His brothers are dead, the Queen's party has been destroyed, and Richard, in his new guise as Lord Protector, has seized his two young nephews, Edward V and his small brother Richard of York, and imprisoned them in the Tower. With the powerful aid of the Duke of Buckingham, Richard is ready now to overthrow the last obstacles between himself and his Coronation.