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.