John Dighton

Also known as: Iohn Dighton · Role: murderer · First appears: Richard III 3

Life events

• c. 1483 · Miles Forrest and John Dighton murdered the two imprisoned princes by suffocation.(Richard III 3)
  • With: Miles Forrest
  • “Then all the other being remooued from them, this Miles Forrest, and Iohn Dighton, about midnight (the séelie children lieng in their beds) came into the chamber, & suddenlie lapping them vp among the clothes, so to bewrapped them and intangled them, kéeping downe by force the fether-bed and pillowes hard vnto their mouths, that within a while, smoothered and stifled, their breath failing, they gaue vp to God their innocent soules into the ioies of heauen, leauing to the tormentors their bodies dead in the bed.”
• c. 1483 · The murderers buried the princes beneath stones at the stair foot.(Richard III 3)
  • With: James Tyrrell Miles Forrest
  • “Which after that the wretches perceiued, first by the strugling with the paines of death, and after long lieng still, to be thoroughlie dead, they laid their bodies naked out vpon the bed, and fetched sir Iames to sée them; which vpon the sight of them, caused those murtherers to burie them at the staire foot, méetlie déepe in the ground, vnder a great heape of stones.”
• c. 1483 · James Tyrrell and John Dighton confessed the princes' murder during treason examinations.(Richard III 3 · 📍 Tower)
  • With: James Tyrrell Henry VII
  • “Verie truth is it, and well knowne, that at such time as sir Iames Tirrell was in the Tower, for treason committed against the most famous prince king Henrie the seauenth, both Dighton and he were examined, and confessed the murther in maner aboue written:”

Richard III 3

• with James Tyrrell (James Tyrrell joined John Dighton to the murder.) “To the execution whereof, he appointed Miles Forrest, one of the foure that kept them, a fellow fleshed in murther before time. To him he ioined one Iohn Dighton his owne horssekéeper, a big, broad, square, and strong knaue.”
• with Miles Forrest (They acted together as co-perpetrators.) “Then all the other being remooued from them, this Miles Forrest, and Iohn Dighton, about midnight (the séelie children lieng in their beds) came into the chamber”
• employer: James Tyrrell “To him he ioined one Iohn Dighton his owne horssekéeper, a big, broad, square, and strong knaue.”

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Extracted from the original text of Holinshed's Chronicles — the reigns Shakespeare dramatized. Made with Rho MD.