The Prince and the Pauper

A procession is taking place that will lead Tom to Westminster Abbey, where he will be acclaimed king. As the procession again goes down the Thames on barges, Tom is happy to hear that he has the support of the people of London. Once they disembark, he mounts a warhorse and is followed by an honor guard and officials that accompany him through the streets of London.

Tom begins to think that being king is the best possible life, happily noting that the people he used to play court with are now part of the crowd that is celebrating him as the true king. While moving through the crowd, he scatters coins among them, until he and his mother notice each other. She rushes to him, knowing that he is Tom from a familiar hand gesture, but Tom denies that he knows her and moves past.

The guilt of this ruins the kingship for him. His sour mood is noticed by his advisors and the crowd, which leads the Earl of Hertford to compel him to scatter coins again. The earl promises that he will catch the woman who claimed to be Tom’s mother and have her punished. When Tom says she was his mother, the Earl of Hertford grows worried that the “madness” has come back.

The narrative flashes back to early that morning to describe Westminster Abbey’s preparations for the coronation. Guests pour in, even though the ceremony will not begin for another eight hours when Tom’s arrival will be announced by an artillery salute.

Tom arrives in his ceremonial robes, and the coronation begins. As the crown is lifted over his head, Edward arrives and interrupts the ceremony, declaring he is the king. As people rush to apprehend him, Tom stops them and confirms that Edward is speaking the truth. Tom goes to Edward, asking to be the first to swear fealty to the true king, and once they are together, people notice that they look identical.

Edward is questioned about matters only he should know about, but his ability to correctly answer these is not taken as sufficient proof. Hertford decides to ask about the Great Seal, which Edward claims is hidden in his cabinet. When St. John is sent to confirm this, he comes back saying that it was not there, which casts further doubts on Edward’s claims. However, with Tom’s prompting, Edward recalls that before he left the royal apartments, he moved the Great Seal to a hiding place within a suit of armor. Its retrieval from this location confirms to all that Edward is indeed the true king. Tom goes on to say that he knew of its location because he had used it to crack nuts. Tom is pardoned by Edward, and Edward is soon crowned king.

The narrative shifts to Miles, who has been unsuccessfully trying to find Edward. He hears that the coronation has happened and goes to sleep under a bush, thinking that the next morning he will begin his search again.

In the morning he goes to the palace, where he hopes to find Sir Humphrey Marlow, an old friend but runs into the royal whipping boy, whom he discovers is the late Sir Humphrey’s son. The whipping boy recognizes Miles from Edward’s description of him and goes to inform the king of Miles’s arrival. Miles is detained by guards until he is summoned into the throne room. Upon seeing Edward on the throne, he is shocked. No one in the court believes that Miles knows the king, so Miles proves it by grabbing a chair and sitting down in the king’s presence. This action is met with shock and condemnation by all other than Edward, who confirms that this is Miles’s legal right. The titles that Edward bestowed on him are again confirmed, and Hugh is stripped of his lands.

Afterward, Tom is brought in front of Edward, who thanks him for governing in his absence and promises to support his mother and sisters. Tom is given the title of King’s Ward and rushes to find his family to tell them this.

The concluding chapter summarizes the characters’ activities following the novel’s events. Edith confirms to Miles that Hugh threatened to have Miles killed unless she denied his identity. Hugh travels to Europe, where he soon dies. Miles, now Earl of Kent, and Edith get married.

John Canty is never heard from again, but Edward finds many of those he encountered on his journey. They are punished or rewarded depending on whether they were cruel or charitable when they met him.

Miles and Tom remain favorites of Edward, but Edward dies shortly into his reign. Miles sits in the royal presence only twice more; during the coronations of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Several generations of his descendants exercise this right until the last Earl of Kent dies in battle. Tom lives to be an old man, who gladly shares the stories of the time he was a royal.

The novel concludes by confirming that Edward’s reign was “singularly merciful” (269) despite being so short.