'Richard III' (
2 October 1452 –
22 August 1485) was
King of
England from
1483 until his death. He was the last king from the
House of York, and his defeat at the
Battle of Bosworth marked the culmination of the
Wars of the Roses and the end of the Plantagenet dynasty. After the death of his brother
King Edward IV, Richard briefly governed as regent for Edward's son
King Edward V with the title of
Lord Protector, but he placed
Edward and his brother
Richard in the
Tower (see
Princes in the Tower) and acquired the throne for himself, being crowned on
6 July 1483.
Two large-scale rebellions rose against Richard. The first, in 1483, was led by old die-hard opponents of Edward IV and, most notably, Richard's own 'kingmaker',
Henry Stafford,
Duke of Buckingham. The revolt collapsed and Buckingham was executed at
Salisbury, near the Bull's Head Inn. However, in 1485, another rebellion arose against Richard, headed by
Henry Tudor, 2nd Earl of Richmond (later King Henry VII) and his uncle
Jasper. The rebels landed troops and Richard fell in the
Battle of Bosworth Field, then known as Redemore or Dadlington Field, as the last
Plantagenet king and the last English king to die in battle.
Childhood
Richard was born at
Fotheringay Castle, the eighth and youngest, and fourth surviving, son of
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (who had been a strong claimant to the throne of
King Henry VI) and
Cecily Neville. Richard spent much of his childhood at
Middleham Castle in
Wensleydale, under the tutelage of his cousin
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick (known to history as "The Kingmaker" because of his strong influence on the course of the
Wars of the Roses).
At the time of the death of his father and older brother
Edmund at the
Battle of Wakefield, Richard - who was still a boy - was taken into the care of Warwick. While Richard was at Warwick's estate, he developed a close friendship with
Francis Lovell, a friendship that would remain strong for the rest of his life. Another child in the household was Warwick's daughter
Anne Neville, whom Richard would later marry.
Reign of Edward IV
During the reign of his brother,
King Edward IV, Richard demonstrated his loyalty and skill as a military commander. He was rewarded with large estates in
northern England, awarded the title
Duke of Gloucester and appointed as Governor of the North, becoming the richest and most powerful noble in England and a loyal aide to Edward IV. In contrast, the other surviving brother,
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, was executed by Edward for
treason.
Richard controlled the north of England until Edward IV's death. In 1482 Richard recaptured
Berwick-upon-Tweed from the
Scots, and his administration was regarded as being fair and just, endowing
universities and making grants to the church.
Accession to the Throne
On the death of Edward IV, on
9 April 1483, the late King's sons (Richard's young nephews),
King Edward V, aged 12, and
Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, aged 9, were next in the
order of succession. Richard, however, had the king's guardian,
Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, (brother of
Elizabeth Woodville, Edward's Queen Consort) and other advisors arrested and taken to
Pontefract Castle, where they were later executed, allegedly for planning to
assassinate Edward V. He then took Edward and his younger brother to the
Tower of London.
Over the course of the following months, a number of regular visitors to Edward in the Tower were arrested for alleged
treason and executed. And on
22 June 1483, outside
St Paul's Cathedral, a statement was read out on behalf of Richard declaring for the first time that he was taking the throne for himself on the grounds that Edward IV's marriage had been illegitimate and that, in consequence, the true heir to the throne was Richard and not Edward V. This proclamation was then supported by a bill passed by Parliament on the evidence of a bishop who testified to having married Edward to
Lady Eleanor Butler, who was still living when he married to Elizabeth Woodville.
On
6 July 1483, Richard was crowned at
Westminster Abbey.
Although Richard III is popularly supposed to have killed Edward V and his brother, there is some controversy among historians about the actual circumstances of the boys's deaths: see
Princes in the Tower for full coverage, and possible reasons for the support for Richard's accession.
Death at the Battle of Bosworth
On 22 August 1485 Richard met the Lancastrian forces of Henry Tudor at the
Battle of Bosworth Field. During the battle Richard was abandoned by Lord
Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, Sir
William Stanley, and
Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. The switching of sides by the Stanleys depleted severely the strength of Richard's army and had a material effect on the outcome of the battle. Accounts note that Richard fought bravely and ably during the battle, unhorsing a well-known champion, killing Henry's standard bearer and nearly reaching Henry himself before being finally surrounded and killed.
Richard's naked body was then paraded through the streets before being buried at Greyfriars Church, Leicester. According to one tradition, during the
Dissolution of the Monasteries his body was thrown into the nearby
River Soar, although other evidence suggests that this may not be the case and that his burial site may currently be under a car park in Leicester. There is currently a memorial plaque on the site of the Cathedral where he may have once been buried.
According to another tradition, Richard consulted a
seer in the town of
Leicester before the battle and the seer foretold that "where your spur should strike on the ride into battle, your head shall be broken on the return." On the ride into battle his spur struck the bridge stone of the Bow Bridge; legend has it that, as his dead body was being carried from the battle over the back of a horse, his head struck the same stone and was broken open
[1].
Henry Tudor succeeded Richard to become
Henry VII, and cemented the succession by marrying the Yorkist heiress,
Elizabeth of York.
Succession
Following the decisive Yorkist victory over the Lancastrians at the
Battle of Tewkesbury, Richard had married the widowed
Anne Neville, younger daughter of the Earl of Warwick. Anne's first husband had been
Edward of Westminster, son of Henry VI. Their marriage took place on
12 July 1472.
Richard and Anne had one son, Edward Plantagenet (also known as
Edward of Middleham,
1473 –
9 April 1484), who died not long after being created
Prince of Wales. Richard also had a number of illegitimate children, including
John of Gloucester and a daughter named Katharine—married to
William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. It has been thought that their mother may have been one Katherine Haute, who is mentioned in household records. Both of these children survived Richard. Neither apparently left any descendant. The mysterious
Richard Plantagenet (Richard of Eastwell), is also a possible offspring of Richard III.
At the time of his last stand against the Lancastrians, Richard was a widower without a legitimate son. After his son's death, he had initially named his nephew,
Edward, Earl of Warwick, Clarence's young son and the nephew of Queen Anne Neville, as his heir. After Anne's death, however, Richard named another nephew,
John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, as his heir.
Legacy
Richard's death at Bosworth resulted in the end of the
Plantagenet Dynasty, which had ruled England since the succession of
Henry II in 1154. The last male Plantagenet,
Edward, Earl of Warwick (son of Richard III's brother Clarence) was executed by Henry VII in 1499.
Richard's
Council of the North greatly improved conditions for
northern England, as
commoners of that region were formerly without any substantial economic activity independent of
London. Its descendant position was
Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
Controversy and reputation
Much that was previously considered 'fact' about Richard III has been rejected by modern historians. For example, Richard was represented by Tudor writers as being physically deformed, which was regarded as evidence of an evil character. However, the withered arm, limp and crooked back of legend are nowadays believed to be fabrications, possibly originating from the questionable history by
Thomas More, which made a deep impression upon
William Shakespeare, and was long taken as the authoritative history of events.
The
Richard III Society was established in the 20th century and has gathered considerable research material about his life and reign. Its aim is summed up by its Patron, the present
Richard, Duke of Gloucester:
"… the purpose and indeed the strength of the Richard III Society derive from the belief that the truth is more powerful than lies - a faith that even after all these centuries the truth is important. It is proof of our sense of civilised values that something as esoteric and as fragile as reputation is worth campaigning for."
The American Branch of the Richard III Society carries out its own review of all the suspects in the case of Richard III, in the on-line library "Whodunit?".
[1]
The Society of Friends of King Richard III was also set up in the 20th century in order to rehabilitate Richard and to honour his memory. The society is based in the city of
York, where following his death in 1485 it was proclaimed, that "King Richard, late reigning mercifully over us, was.... piteously slain and murdered, to the great heaviness of this city".
Richard III was found not guilty in a mock trial presided over by three Justices of the United States Supreme Court in 1997. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen G. Breyer, in a 3-0 decision, ruled that the prosecution had not met the burden of proof that "it was more likely than not" that the Princes in the Tower had been murdered; that the bones found in 1674 in the Tower were those of the Princes; and that Richard III had ordered or was complicitous in their deaths.
Richard III appears in the 2002 List of "
100 Great Britons" (sponsored by the
BBC and voted for by the public), alongside such others as
David Beckham and
Johnny Rotten. The ''BBC History Magazine'' lists him under "doubtful entrants, based on special interest
lobbying or
'cult' status", and comments: "On the list owing to the Ricardian lobby, but a minor monarch".
In spite of dying so young, he's often depicted as being considerably older.
Basil Rathbone and
Peter Cook were both forty-six when they played him,
Vincent Price was fifty-one, and
Ian McKellen was fifty-six.
Legitimist evidence at Rouen
In 2007 the BBC broadcast a documentary which included an interview with
Dr. Michael Jones. Jones showed the camera a chapter book of
Rouen cathedral, with the pages that mentioned the birth of
Edward IV in 1442 and prayers said for his
father Richard in 1441 when on a visit to
Pontoise. While rumour had linked Edward's mother romantically with an archer named Blabourne, the dates of the entries suggest that Edward was conceived around 1 August 1441 and that Richard of York returned to Rouen on about 21 August. Dr. Jones also noticed that the Yorks' christening service at Rouen for Edward was modest compared with the lavish service for their second child. This suggests that Richard's claim in June 1483 to be the legitimate king had a sound basis, and that he had a dynastic, if not a moral, reason to kill his nephew
Edward V.
Ancestors
Richard III in popular culture
Theatre and film
★ The foremost work of literature regarding Richard III is Shakespeare's
eponymous play.
★ Films based on the play include
Laurence Olivier's
version (1955),
Richard Loncraine's
adaptation (1995), starring
Ian McKellen and set in a pre-
World War II fascist England, and ''
Looking for Richard'', a 1996 documentary directed by and starring
Al Pacino.
★ Shakespeare's play is also the basis for one of the earliest American feature films, ''Richard III'' (1912), starring
Frederick Warde in the title role.
★
''Tower of London'' (1939) has
Basil Rathbone as Richard and
Boris Karloff his (fictional) evil henchman.
★
''Tower of London'' (1962) directed by
Roger Corman stars
Vincent Price as Richard III.
★ Dickon by
Jack Pulman (1979) Premiered by the John Lewis Partnership Dramatic Society. Directed by Michael Deacon, starring Alan Patient as Richard III.
Literature
★
Sharon Kay Penman's ''The Sunne in Splendor'' gives a comprehensive account of the Wars of the Roses. However, the author has made additions and minor adjustments to enrich the story.
★ Anne Easter Smith's ''A Rose for the Crown'' reconstructs the life of the woman who bore Richard's illegitimate children. Historians think this may have been Katherine Haute, who is mentioned in household records: this book is an attempt to create her story.
★
Sandra Worth's award-winning ''The Rose of York: Love & War'' (2003) presents the account of Richard III from the Ricardian viewpoint.
★
Rosemary Hawley Jarman's novel ''We Speak No Treason '' (1971) is another account from the Ricardian viewpoint, told through three courtiers.
★ The best-known treatment of the subject is
Josephine Tey's ''
The Daughter of Time'' (1951), which looks at the evidence on all sides relating to the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower.
★ The
fantasy series by
George R. R. Martin, ''
A Song of Ice and Fire'', takes place in a situation similar to Richard III's reign, but transposes the characters of that time. In this account, the deaths of Richard's nephews are faked. It represents a fantastical but parallel line, with many of the same names and circumstances.
★
Posie Graeme-Evans' trilogy about the later Plantagenet kings features a young Richard III.
★ In
Robert Louis Stevenson's '' a young Richard III is a significant secondary character, as "Richard Crookback".
★ In
Jasper Fforde's
Thursday Next series, the Shakespeare play
Richard III is treated in the same way as
The Rocky Horror Show is treated in our real world, with regular audiences dressing up as characters from the play, stepping in to take part in it, and regular, evolutionary
audience participation.
Television
A comic "
secret history" of Richard III is presented in the British historical
sitcom ''
Blackadder''. In the series'
pilot episode, Richard III (played by
Peter Cook) defeats Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field, but is accidentally killed by bumbling noble
Edmund (
Rowan Atkinson), son of the adult Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York (
Brian Blessed). The Duke ascends the throne and is crowned "
King Richard IV", and Edmund, now prince, rechristens himself as the Black Adder. When the entire royal family dies in the series' final episode, Henry Tudor usurps the throne and rewrites history as it is known today.
Other
★ Richard III has the dubious distinction of being immortalised in cockney rhyming slang, Richard the Third meaning
turd.
★
Britpop band
Supergrass have a song titled
Richard III on their album ''
In It for the Money''.
★
Richard Lawrence, who tried but failed to assassinate U.S. President
Andrew Jackson in 1835, was under the delusion that he was actually King Richard III.
Bibliography
Source material on all aspects of Richard's reign is neatly and impartially brought together by Keith Dockray in ''Richard III: A Reader in History'' (Sutton, 1988).
★ ''The Trial of Richard III'' by
Richard Drewett &
Mark Redhead (ISBN 0-86299-198-6)
★ ''Royal Blood'' by
Bertram Fields (ISBN 0-06-039269-X)
★ ''Richard III: The Road to Bosworth Field'' by
Peter W. Hammond &
Anne Sutton (ISBN 0-09-466160-X)
★ ''Richard the Third'' by
Michael Hicks (Tempus, 2001) (ISBN 0-7524-2302-9)
★ ''Richard III: A Study in Service'' by
Rosemary Horrox (ISBN 0-521-40726-5)
★ ''Richard III and the North'' edited by Rosemary Horrox (ISBN 0-85958-066-0)
★ ''Bosworth 1485'' by
Michael K. Jones, Tempus Publishing, 2002
[2]
★ ''Richard III: The Great Debate'' edited by
Paul Murray Kendall (ISBN 0-393-00310-8)
★ ''Richard the Third'' by Paul Murray Kendall (ISBN 0-393-00785-5)
★ ''The Betrayal of Richard III'' by V.B. Lamb (ISBN 0-86299-778-X)
★ ''Richard III and the Princes in the Tower'' by
A.J. Pollard (ISBN 0-312-06715-1)
★ ''Good King Richard?'' by
Jeremy Potter (ISBN 0-09-464630-9)
★ ''Richard III'' by
Charles Ross (Methuen, 1981) (ISBN 0-413-29530-3)
★ ''Richard III: England's Black Legend'' by
Desmond Seward (ISBN 0-14-026634-8)
★ ''The Coronation of Richard III: The Extant Documents'' by Anne Sutton & Peter W. Hammond (ISBN 0312169795)
★ ''Richard III's Books'' by Anne Sutton &
Livia VIsser-Fuchs (ISBN 0-7509-1406-8)
★ ''The Princes in the Tower'' by
Alison Weir (ISBN 0-345-39178-0)
★ ''Joan of Arc and Richard III'' by
Charles Wood (ISBN 0-19-506951-X)
★ ''History of the English Speaking Peoples'' by
Winston Churchill, Vol. 1, The Birth of Britain
External links
★
Richard III Chronology World History Database
★
Richard III Society,England
★
Richard III Society, American Branch—includes links to online editions of many primary texts and secondary sources
★
The Richard III Society of Canada
★
Richard III Society of New South Wales
★
Richard III article at dmoz.org
★
The Wars of the Roses Information on Richard and Bosworth
★ http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/leicester/article_1.shtml about his final resting place
★
Illustrated history of King Richard III
★
Portraits of Richard III. with commentary by Pamela Tudor-Craig,
★
A Rose for the Crown, an historical novel featuring Richard III, largely while still Richard of Gloucester, and the mistress who may have been the mother of his (known) pre-marriage illegitimate children.
References
1. http://www.r3.org/bookcase/whodunit.html
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