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Richard III of England

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain); Monarchs of Great Britain

   King Richard III of England
   By the Grace of God, King of England
   and France and Lord of Ireland
   Reign 20 June 1483– 22 Aug 1485

   2 years 2 months 2 days
   Coronation 6 July 1483
   Born 2 October 1452
   Fotheringay Castle
   Died August 22, 1485 (aged 32)
   Bosworth Field, Leicestershire
   Buried Greyfriars Abbey, Leicestershire,
   disinterred and body lost during
   the Dissolution of the Monasteries
   Predecessor Edward V
   Successor Henry VII
   Consort Anne Neville (c. 1456– 1485)
   Issue Edward, Prince of Wales
   ( 1473– 1484)
   Royal House York
   Father Richard, Duke of York ( 1411– 1460)
   Mother Cecily Neville ( 1415– 1495)

   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 uncle Richard Neville, 16th Earl
   of Warwick. He was involved in ongoing battles between various
   alliances of the House of Lancaster and the House of York factions
   during the last half of the 15th Century. At the time of the death of
   his father and older brother Edmund at the Battle of Wakefield, Richard
   was still a boy, and at that time he was taken into the care of
   Warwick, known to history as "The Kingmaker" because of his strong
   influence on the course of the Wars of the Roses. Warwick was
   instrumental in deposing Henry VI and replacing him with Richard's
   eldest brother, Edward. 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.

Marriage

   Following the decisive Yorkist victory over the Lancastrians at the
   Battle of Tewkesbury, Richard married the widowed Anne Neville, younger
   daughter of the late Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick. Anne's
   first husband had been Edward of Westminster, son of Henry VI.
   Following his death at the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, she disappears
   from the records for a while, her whereabouts unknown. It is popularly
   believed that she had fallen under the control of George Plantagenet,
   1st Duke of Clarence, who had an interest in preventing her from
   marrying again, because it gave him full control over the joint
   inheritance of Anne and her elder sister Isabella Neville, Duchess of
   Clarence, George's wife. Richard is said to have found Anne working as
   a scullery maid in a London chophouse and "rescued" her but the truth
   of the matter is not known. Their marriage took place on 12 July 1472.
   He was seen to have wept openly at her funeral in 1485, and there are
   no reports of open unhappiness in their marriage.

   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.

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.
         English Royalty
          House of York
   Armorial of Plantagenet
           Richard III
       Edward, Prince of Wales

   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 considered to be next in the
   order of succession. Appointed Lord Protector of the Realm in his
   brother's will, Richard was aware of a danger that the Woodvilles would
   isolate him and would use their influence over Edward V to consolidate
   their power at Richard's expense.

   When the boy King's retinue was on its way from Wales to London, for
   his coronation, Richard and Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
   joined them at Northampton. He 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, allegedly for planning to assassinate Edward V. Richard then
   took Edward to stay at the Tower of London (then a royal palace), a
   move widely supported since much of the country distrusted the former
   queen's family. Richard called himself Lord Protector and was also made
   Chief Councillor (head of government).

   John Morton, Bishop of Ely and later Archbishop of Canterbury under
   Henry VII, is considered by some to be an important source of the Tudor
   propaganda against Richard III. According to Sir Thomas More's History,
   which may be based in part on Morton's accounts, Lord Hastings (a
   regular visitor to the young Edward V in the Tower of London) was
   arrested for alleged treason on 13 June 1483 at a meeting of the Royal
   Council, at the Tower. A few minutes later, he is said to have been
   beheaded on Tower Green, a clear violation of his rights (i.e.,
   execution without due process) as a Peer guaranteed under Magna Carta.
   It has been argued that Hastings, whose execution was the first
   recorded at the Tower of London, was indeed arrested on 13 June, but
   later formally charged with treason, tried, convicted and sentenced,
   and legally executed on 18 June; no record of such proceedings
   survives. Edward's younger brother, Richard, was removed to the Tower
   on 16 June, with his mother's consent.

   It is thought that Hastings had allied himself with the Queen Dowager
   because of the rise in influence of Buckingham and what he saw as
   Richard's usurpation of the throne. Morton claimed to have been in the
   council room when Hastings was arrested, and may have been one of
   several men who were detained for participating in the conspiracy with
   Hastings.

   Three other members of the alleged conspiracy: the queen's brother Lord
   Rivers, her second son Richard Grey, and another chamberlain Sir Thomas
   Vaughan — were also convicted and executed elsewhere. Jane (or
   Elizabeth) Shore, who had been a mistress of King Edward IV, and then
   of his step-son Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset, and was now
   Hastings's mistress, was convicted of only lesser offences and was made
   to do public penance and briefly imprisoned. Thomas Grey avoided
   prosecution in the conspiracy by going into sanctuary at Westminster
   with his mother.

   Morton is also thought to be the source of other questionable
   accusations against Richard, notably:
     * the murder of Henry VI
     * the "private execution" of his brother George, Duke of Clarence
     * the murder of his wife's first husband, Edward of Westminster,
       Prince of Wales
     * forcing Anne Neville, to marry him against her will
     * killing Anne Neville so he could marry his niece, Elizabeth of York
     * accusing Jane Shore and Elizabeth Woodville of witchcraft in
       withering his arm
     * being illegitimate himself

   Each of these stories first appears in writing either in Sir Thomas
   More's The History of King Richard III, believed by some to be based on
   Morton's account, or on the writings of someone else who had heard the
   stories. Historians are divided on the issue of Morton's importance as
   a source, some pointing out that More's own father was an Edwardian
   loyalist and well-connected in the government of the City of London.
   The question of whether these stories were true was of great interest
   to neither Morton nor More, history at that time being regarded as a
   branch of literature. It was customary for histories to serve as
   propaganda on both sides, to support and strengthen the cause of a
   patron. Morton, having been arrested by Richard III, had fled to exile
   in Flanders. He only returned when Henry VII was on the throne and was
   quickly promoted.

   On June 22, 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. When the members of Parliament met on June 25,
   it apparently heard evidence from the Bishop of Bath that he had
   conducted a marriage or betrothal between Edward IV and one Lady
   Eleanor Talbot (or Butler) before his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville.
   Since even a betrothal was a legally binding "pre-contract" in the
   customs of the time, Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had
   been bigamous, therefore all their children were illegitimate. Some of
   the proceedings of that Parliamentary session survive in a document
   known as Titulus Regius, which Parliament issued some months later
   explaining its actions and of which a single copy escaped the
   destruction of all copies of the Titulus Regius later ordered by Henry
   VII. The identity of the priest in question — thought to have been
   Edward IV's sometime Chancellor, Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and
   Wells — is known from only one source, the French political
   commentator, Philippe de Commines. Titulus Regius also cited two
   further grounds upon which Edward IV's marriage had been invalid,
   namely that it was made "in a profane place" and that it was made
   "without the assent of the Lords".

   Despite rumours that Richard's claims were true, evidence was lacking
   and it was generally accepted that Richard's principal motive for
   taking the crown was that he felt that his own power and wealth would
   be threatened under Edward V, who was presumably sympathetic to his
   Woodville relatives. However, a recently published theory asserts that
   Edward IV was illegitimate — see Was Edward illegitimate? for details —
   but hard evidence is lacking.

   The disinherited Edward V and his brother Richard, who had joined him
   in the Tower of London, were never seen again after the summer of 1483.
   According to contemporary chroniclers, the two boys (known to history
   as "The Princes in the Tower") were already rumoured to be dead by the
   end of that year. Modern historians regard Richard III as the most
   likely culprit in the deaths of the princes, since they were under his
   care at the time of their disappearance and they presented a threat to
   his reign as long as they were alive, but the controversy continues to
   this day.

Coronation

   At the time of Richard's coronation, his three elder brothers were all
   dead. His elder brother George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence had
   been attainted in connection with a treason charge, and George's
   children Margaret and Edward, Earl of Warwick were therefore removed
   from the line of succession—although they were not personally accused
   of treason and were otherwise honoured.

   On July 6, 1483, Richard was crowned at Westminster Abbey. He was the
   last Plantagenet king. Except for three earls not old enough to
   participate and a few lesser nobles, the entire peerage attended his
   coronation.

Death at the Battle of Bosworth

   Richard was known to be a devout man and an efficient administrator.
   However, he was a Yorkist and heirless and had removed the Woodvilles
   and their allies: he was, therefore, vulnerable to political
   opposition. His supporter Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham turned
   against him and was executed late in 1483 after joining with Henry
   Tudor in a failed attempt to overthrow Richard by force.

   Thereafter, Richard's enemies united against him. According to local
   tradition in Leicester, Richard consulted a seer in the town before
   heading off for the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485 to meet
   Lancastrian forces led by Henry Tudor. 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; afterwards, 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. Henry Tudor succeeded Richard to become
   Henry VII, and cemented the succession by marrying the Yorkist heiress,
   Elizabeth of York. Legends notwithstanding, Richard was abandoned at
   Bosworth 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. Even Tudor
   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 surrounded and killed.

   It is said that Richard's naked body was 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. Skeletal
   remains recovered from the Soar and initially believed to be Richard's
   were later found to be those of an Anglo-Saxon warrior who died nearly
   500 years before Richard was killed. This conclusion was made through
   both radiocarbon dating and the size of the body and the thickness of
   the bones. Richard is described in contemporary accounts as being
   somewhat short and slim, conditions not matched by the bones. The
   greater probability is that Richard's remains are still buried at the
   original site, whereas his tombstone has been destroyed (see link
   below).

Succession

   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. Lesser nobility among the Plantagenets were cast aside when the
   Tudors came to power, including the Aston family, one of whose
   descendants, John Lathrop, became an ancestor of many famous Americans.
   Another of their descendants was restored as Lord Aston of Forfar after
   the Tudors had been succeeded by the Stuarts. 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.

Distortions of physical appearance

   Among other distortions, Richard was represented by Tudor historians 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.

   No substantive evidence exists for Richard having been hunchbacked.
   X-rays of a standard portrait of Richard revealed that the larger
   shoulder, suggesting a hunchback, had been added later. However, in
   order to participate in three of the major battles of the Wars of the
   Roses, Richard would have been clad in up to 80 lbs. (36 kgs.) of plate
   armour. This would have been almost impossible if he had been
   hunchbacked. Alternatively, it is possible that, as with other sons of
   the nobility or seasoned soldiers, Richard had practised swordsmanship
   from a very early age and had developed a great deal of muscularity in
   one or both shoulders .

Reputation

   Since his death, Richard III has become one of England's most
   controversial and maligned monarchs. Modern historians recognise the
   damage done to his reputation by historians of the following Tudor
   reigns and particularly by William Shakespeare.

   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?".

   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 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".

Ancestors

   CAPTION: Richard III's ancestors in three generations

   Richard III of England Father:
   Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York Paternal Grandfather:
   Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge Paternal
   Great-grandfather:
   Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Isabella of Castile, Duchess of York
   Paternal Grandmother:
   Anne de Mortimer Paternal Great-grandfather:
   Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
   Paternal Great-grandmother:
   Alianore de Holland
   Mother:
   Cecily Neville Maternal Grandfather:
   Ralph de Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland Maternal Great-grandfather:
   John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Maud Percy
   Maternal Grandmother:
   Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland Maternal Great-grandfather:
   John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster
   Maternal Great-grandmother:
   Katherine Swynford

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),
       and Richard Loncraine's adaptation (1995), starring Ian McKellen
       and set in a pre-WWII fascist England.
     * 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.

Fiction

     * 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.
     * 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.

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 the bumbling nobleman Edmund Blackadder ( Rowan
   Atkinson). His nephew, Richard of Shrewsbury, becomes "King Richard IV"
   ( Brian Blessed). 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.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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