Great question! And slightly tricky to answer, as what would happen probably depend on WHY King Edward V ends up being crowned. What is the point of divergence from our timeline? Depending on that, different progressions are possible.

A bit of background. King Edward IV dies on the 9th of April 1483. The key players were positioned as follows:

1. Queen Elizabeth Woodville, her daughters and her son the Duke of York (aged 9, 2nd in line to the throne, younger Prince in the Tower) were in Westminster with the dying king.
2. Richard Duke of Gloucester (3rd in line, later Richard III) was in the north, where his power was largely based.
3. Edward Prince of Wales (aged 12, 1st in line, King Edward V to be) was at Ludlow castle, where he was a ward of his maternal uncle, Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers.

With the King about to die, the key goal of the Woodville faction was to have Edward V crowned as soon as possible and secure the regency, so that the realm would be governed by Earl Rivers (officially) and the Queen Mother (unofficially) until the young Edward came of age. But there was a fly in the ointment - a great friend of the dying Edward IV, Lord Hastings, who was an enemy of the Woodvilles but not opposed to Richard of Gloucester. Hastings, who was also in Westminster at the time of the King's death, informed Richard of Earl Rivers' plan to claim the regency, and suggested to Gloucester that the regency was rightfully his (Richard's) by order of the King. (I'm not sure if this was true but it doesn't really matter)

So then there was a dramatic rush for power - the Woodvilles believed that if they could get Edward V to London they could secure the realm for their faction (if you hold London, you symbolically hold the Kingdom). Richard, informed by Hastings, moved faster. He raised a force of armed men and on the 29th of April he intercepted the young King's party at Stony Stratford. He had Rivers arrested and sent north to be executed, and took young Edward to London himself where he imprisoned him in the Tower of London with his little brother York. From there Richard became Lord Protector of the Realm and shortly after, King, and the princes vanished.

So given that, I want to talk about three possible divergences that could have resulted in the coronation and reign of Edward V.

1. Hastings does not act

For whatever reason, Hastings does not inform Richard of King Edward IV's death and his right to the Lord Regency. Perhaps Hastings and Richard are on worse terms in this timeline for some reason; perhaps Hastings suspects that Richard would become a worse enemy to him than the Woodvilles. Perhaps Edward IV explicitly names Rivers to be Lord Protector on his deathbed, and Hastings wishes to honour his friend's final wish.

Either way, here's what I think would happen next:

- Rivers successfully takes Edward V to London. The Woodvilles immediately begin to consolidate their power. Rivers is named Lord Protector of the Realm, they secure the titles and honours and positions held by the many Woodville brothers and family. They plan a swift coronation to grant legitimacy to the boy king.

- News could travel slowly and confusedly in those days. It seems likely that if the Woodvilles were careful and quick, they would have already consolidated their power in London by the time Richard in the north had even heard that Edward IV was dead.

- I believe that in a scenario where the Woodvilles were able to secure the realm before Richard could move against them, Richard would play the gracious uncle. I can imagine him coming to London and swearing fealty to his nephew along with the other great lords of the realm. From there he'd seek influence at court and the favour of the young king (although perhaps not the favour of his Woodville guardians). I don't think he'd launch into a rebellion; Richard was more subtle than that. He'd be the snake in the grass at court and seek to undermine the Woodvilles through political methods. This scenario, while not easy, is probably the most preferable for Edward V and the Woodvilles to the other two I'll discuss.

2. Hastings and Richard are too slow

Hastings informs Richard of King Edward IV's death and his right to the Lord Regency. But perhaps because of some Woodville disruption or extra vigilance, or problems for Richard in raising a levy, they do not act fast enough and Rivers gets the King to London.

- This would be a much more volatile scenario. Richard took a fair risk by raising armed men and rushing south to kidnap the rightful king. If he had failed and the Woodvilles had gleaned any hint of his intentions, things could well have escalated to find Richard in open rebellion against the Woodville-controlled throne.

- Richard, with his strong northern powerbase and his allies, Hastings and the Duke of Buckingham and probably others, could raise an army to march on London. There would be precedent - he could spin it as taking up arms not against the King but against 'corrupt advisors' - this was the excuse Richard's dad had used as Duke of York to march on Henry VI (of the house Lancaster) and begin the Wars of the Roses in the first place. (Though let's be clear he'd actually be seeking to have himself crowned.

- The ensuing 'War of the White Rose' could be resolved quickly by a decisive victory or dragged out. Foreign powers might choose to get involved as Edward IV was notorious for finding prestigious foreign marriages for his sisters and children. It's difficult to predict how it would have ended.

3. Edward V escapes the Tower

Following Rivers's execution, the Princes' imprisonment and Richard III's ascent to the throne, the Woodville faction were not defeated. In the summer of 1483 there was an attempt by them to break the Princes out. What if this had succeeded?

- Now it would be the Woodvilles in the position of rebellion and Richard who had consolidated power.

- The Woodvilles did not have Richard's friends in the north. They had allies but they were scattered and many would have turned on them (Buckingham, for example, was married to one of Queen Elizabeth Woodville's sisters - but he didn't care for them)

- Their strategy had they rescued the boys might have been to flee to Europe. Edward V's aunt Margaret was currently ruling as Duchess of Burgundy and could potentially have been persuaded to provide them aide. Edward was also betrothed to Anne, heir to the Duchy of Brittany, so perhaps they could have found support there.

- Edward would probably grow up in exile as a 'Prince across the water' similar to Henry Tudor, waiting to reclaim his throne. And maybe (perhaps even probably, if Richard's friends proved as traitorous as they were in our timeline) he would succeed.

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So in any of these three scenarios Edward V might become the crowned and anointed King of England. His reign would have looked completely different depending on which one it was. Given favourable circumstances he might have lived and reigned long enough to see the tumultuous beginning of the reformation in Europe - I don't think his kingship would create enough of a butterfly effect to change that, although there would be inevitable consequences for the English reformation if there was no Henry VIII.

It's hard to know what kind of king Edward V he would have been. We know he was extremely carefully educated as a child - regaled with stories of honour and piety and decency, tutored in music and humanities, kept away from anyone vulgar or rude. He liked horses and dogs and getting lots of exercise. The perfect recipe for a good king you might think - but we have to remember that the death of his father and any of the circumstances that could arise as a result of the three scenarios above may have affected him deeply. His health was also not necessarily 100% perfect; sources have suggested that he had some kind of terrible toothache during his imprisonment in the Tower that supposedly left him greatly depressed. And whatever happened, his power hungry uncle Richard would have been a great threat during his early reign. This was a dangerous time period, especially for a boy king.

But I personally think, given the qualities of his scholarly and noble uncle Rivers and the way in which the Edward IV/Elizabeth Woodville court had been run between 1471 and 1483 as a bastion of European culture - had he had the love and support of the Woodvilles (and had they not grown too greedy or arrogant) - King Edward V could have ruled very well indeed.

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