Richard III

Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on March 26, 2015, Richard III of England (1452-1485) was reburied at Leicester Cathedral in England after having been discovered under a carpark in Leicester in 2012.

Richard III Documentary - Biography of King Richard III & the History of the Wars of the Roses
Richard III & Wars of the Roses Documentary. A biographical documentary on the life of Richard III & the history of the Wars of the Roses, the real Game of Thrones. Encompassing the origins of the conflict, to the power struggle between Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and King Henry VI, to the reign of Edward IV, the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower and the rise of King Richard III, to his downfall at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dmCNIk9sXA

Images
1. Skeleton of Richard III of England by R. Buckley, et al
2. Richard III of England
3. The Princes in the Tower by J. E. Millais
4. The death of Richard III artwork from The Battle of Bosworth by Graham Turner

Biographies:
1. ancient.eu/Richard_III_of_England/]
2. richardiii.net/2_1_0_richardiii.php#

1. Background from {[https://www.ancient.eu/Richard_III_of_England/]}
"Richard III of England
by Mark Cartwright
published on 10 February 2020
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Richard III of England ruled as king from 1483 to 1485 CE. Richard succeeded Edward V of England (r. Apr-Jun 1483 CE), the son of Edward IV of England (r. 1461-1470 CE & 1471-1483 CE) in mysterious circumstances. The young Edward V and his brother Richard were imprisoned in the Tower of London by their uncle Richard, Duke of Gloucester who was their guardian as Protector of the Realm. The Princes in the Tower, as they became known, were never seen again. Duke Richard made himself king in 1483 CE but, widely accused of murdering his nephews and unable to unite his barons behind the Crown, his reign would be short and troubled. The dynastic squabbles between the houses of York and Lancaster known to history as the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487 CE) finally came to an end, in terms of major events, with Richard’s death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 CE. Henry Tudor, a distant relation of Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE) and victor at Bosworth Field, would become King Henry VII (r. 1485-1509 CE). The Plantagenet line of kings, which had started with Henry II of England (r. 1154-1189 CE), was finally ended and the new Tudor Dynasty began.
Early Life & Family
Richard was born on 2 October 1452 CE at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, the son of Richard, Duke of York (1411-1460 CE) and Cecily Neville (1415-1495 CE). His older brothers included Edward who would become Edward IV of England and George, Duke of Clarence (l. 1449-1478 CE). Richard lived in exile in Burgundy after his father’s death in 1460 CE. When he returned to England the next year he lived with the family of the Earl of Warwick at Middleham Castle in the north of England.
WITH HENRY VI MURDERED, HIS QUEEN IMPRISONED & HIS SON KILLED IN BATTLE, IT LOOKED LIKE THE YORKS HAD WON THE WARS OF THE ROSES.
On 12 July 1472 CE Richard married Anne Neville (l. 1456-1485 CE), the daughter of the Earl of Warwick and widow of Henry VI of England’s son, Edward, Prince of Wales (l. 1453-1471 CE). This union meant that Richard acquired a sizeable chunk of the dead Earl of Warwick’s estates. The couple had one son, Edward of Middleham, born in 1473 CE (or 1476 CE) and made Prince of Wales in 1483 CE.

Wars of the Roses
In 1453 CE Henry VI of England (1422-1461 CE & 1470-1471 CE) suffered his first episode of insanity which made him so incapable of ruling that Richard, Duke of York was nominated as Protector of the Realm, in effect, regent, in March 1454 CE. The Duke of York was ambitious to become king and he did have a legitimate, if distant, claim to the throne as the great-grandson of Edward III of England and the nephew of the Earl of March who himself had claimed he was the legitimate heir to Richard II of England (r. 1377-1399 CE). Thus, a rivalry began between the house of York and that of Lancaster, of which King Henry VI was a member, a rivalry that became known as the Wars of the Roses.

Richard might have had the king in his pocket but he still had the formidable obstacle of Henry’s wife Queen Margaret (d. 1482 CE) and she led an army to victory against him at the Battle of Ludford Bridge on 12 October 1459 CE. The Duke of York fled to Ireland while Parliament, the 1459 CE ‘Parliament of Devils’, identified him as a traitor and disinherited his heirs. Richard’s son Edward then took up the cause with his chief ally Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick (1428-71 CE), the pair defeating Queen Margaret’s army at Northampton on 10 July 1460 CE and then capturing King Henry. The Duke of York was thus able to return from Ireland and he persuaded Henry, who was now in the Tower of London, to name him as the official heir to the throne, a decision ratified by the Act of Accord of 24 October. However, at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460 CE the Duke of York was killed and his army defeated by Henry VI loyalists led, once again, by the queen.
RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, HAD SHOWN HIMSELF AN ABLE COMMANDER & HIS LOYALTY TO HIS BROTHER EDWARD IV WAS RESOLUTE THROUGH TURBULENT TIMES.
The Duke of York’s son, now Edward of York, took up the Yorkist mantle from 1460 CE. Following his victory at the Battle of Towton on 29 March 1461 CE, Edward was crowned Edward IV on 28 June 1461 CE. There would be a brief interruption when his old ally the Earl of Warwick reinstated Henry VI in 1470 CE and Edward was obliged to flee in exile to France, accompanied by his brother Richard. Edward would soon win back his throne, though, again on the battlefield, this time at Barnet on 14 April 1471 CE. Henry VI was then murdered in the Tower of London on 21 May 1471 CE. With Henry’s young heir, Prince Edward, killed at the Battle of Tewkesbury on 4 May 1471 CE and Queen Margaret imprisoned, it looked like the Yorks had finally won the Wars of the Roses.

Duke of Gloucester
In 1472 CE Edward made his brother Richard the Duke of Gloucester in thanks for his successful command of divisions at the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury the year before. This was in addition to Richard’s other titles of Constable and Lord High Admiral (bestowed in 1471 CE). Richard had shown himself an able commander and his loyalty to his brother was resolute throughout the turbulent times of the Wars of the Roses.
As lord of vast estates, Richard showed himself a fine administrator and he was popular with both his peers and subjects. Richard was also surprisingly pious, the duke giving an endowment to Queen’s College, Cambridge so that prayers might be said for his fallen comrades at Barnet and Tewkesbury. Richard was interested in architecture and donated to both state and religious institutions, a trend he would continue as king, notably establishing the Royal College of Arms in 1484 CE which looked after all matters of medieval heraldry and which still continues to function today. Richard’s own heraldic device was a white boar.
Edward IV’s reign saw much more stability and a booming economy thanks to a peace treaty with France and the encouragement of cross-Channel trade. A peace treaty was signed with Louis XI of France (1461-1483 CE) in March 1475 CE after Edward and the Duke of Gloucester had led a large army to France. Another success was a sortie into Scotland in 1482 CE, led by the Duke of Gloucester, which occupied Edinburgh for a time. The campaign won back control of Berwick for the English Crown.
All was not well in England, though, and cracks soon began to appear in the relationship between the king and his brothers. Richard was not convinced that peace with France was the best policy and then, in February 1478 CE, the third brother, George, Duke of Clarence, was imprisoned and executed on charges of treason. Richard perhaps felt that Edward’s wife, Elizabeth Woodville (l. c. 1437-1492 CE), was to blame for dividing the York family and favouring her own relatives. After this episode, Richard concentrated on his land in the north of England and stayed away from the royal court in London. Still, the Scottish campaign gained Edward’s gratitude and Richard was made Warden of the West March by parliament in 1483 CE and given sovereign powers over that territory.

The Princes in the Tower
Edward IV turned out to be rather too fond of his favourite foods and wines as he reached middle age, and he became seriously overweight. The king died, perhaps of a stroke, at Westminster on 9 April 1483 CE, aged just 40. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward, then only 12 years old (b. 1470 CE). Too young to rule on his own, Edward IV had already nominated his regent, the boy's uncle Richard, who was now given the impressive title of Lord High Protector of the Realm.
In May, Edward V and his younger brother Richard (b. 1473 CE) were imprisoned in the Tower of London where they became known as the ‘Princes in the Tower’. The boys were never seen outside the castle again. According to later historians and Tudor propaganda, the boys were put there and murdered by Richard. This is also the view of William Shakespeare (1564-1616 CE) in his famous play Richard III. What we do know is that the two princes did spend time in the Tower - which was not merely a prison for important figures but a royal residence - and that they were seen by witnesses playing in the gardens there. Richard may have confined them there to forestall Queen Elizabeth’s plan to hold an early coronation for Edward in June. A coronation could well have meant Richard’s title and function as Protector of the Realm was withdrawn.

THE SUPPOSED MURDER OF THE PRINCES IN THE TOWER RESULTED IN THE FINGER OF SUSPICION POINTING AT RICHARD.
The duke’s first tactic was to discredit the legitimacy of the two princes by claiming that Edward IV had already been tied by a marriage agreement to one Lady Eleanor Butler, daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury before he married Elizabeth Woodville. The late king’s promiscuity was well known, and this at least allowed enough doubt in the case that Parliament declared Edward V and his younger brother illegitimate. Consequently, Edward was deposed on 25 June 1483 CE and Richard was nominated as the legitimate heir to the throne. The Duke of Gloucester, aged 30, was then crowned king on 6 July 1483 CE in Westminster Abbey, thereby becoming Richard III.
Then, sometime in the late summer of 1483 CE, the princes disappeared from the Tower and history, their obvious murder resulting in the finger of suspicion pointing at Richard. Curiously, Richard had been on duty in the Tower of London the night of Henry VI’s murder and he was suspected of having done many other dark deeds to progress his career. Nevertheless, the deaths of the princes still remains a mystery. As a footnote to this grizzly episode, two skeletons of youths were discovered in a chest buried near the White Tower when the forebuilding was demolished in 1674 CE and these remains, identified then as the two princes, were reinterred in Westminster Abbey. The remains were re-examined in 1933 CE and confirmed as young males of similar age to the princes. Whoever killed the boys, Richard undoubtedly had most to gain by their deaths. Edward V was certainly the unlucky 13th king in the Plantagenet line.

Henry Tudor
There were some voices of protest, even from Yorkist supporters, regarding Richard’s cavalier attitude to royal succession but these were dealt with in time-honoured fashion via land confiscation and executions. However, trouble of a much greater significance was stirring. The Lancastrians were weak, but the family had not gone away entirely, and they were now led by the exiled Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (b. 1457 CE). Henry was, through the illegitimate Beaufort line, a descendant of John of Gaunt, a son of Edward III. It was not much of a royal connection but it was the best the Lancastrians could hope for after Henry VI had left no surviving heir.
Henry Tudor allied himself with the alienated Woodvilles, such powerful lords as the Duke of Buckingham who were not happy with Richard’s distribution of estates, and anyone else keen to see Richard III receive his just deserts. These allies included the new king across the Channel, Charles VIII of France (r. 1483-1498 CE). The first move by the rebels proved premature and poorly planned so that Henry’s invasion fleet was put off by bad weather and Buckingham was captured and executed in November 1483 CE.
The next twist in the Wars of the Roses was the death of Edward, Richard III’s son and heir on 9 April 1484 CE, and once more the Lancastrians saw a glimmer of opportunity. Richard was dealt another blow in March 1485 CE when his queen, Anne Neville, died after a long illness. The king’s detractors spread rumours that Anne had been murdered - presumably by a slow-working poison - so that Richard could be free to marry the eldest daughter of Edward IV, his own niece, and so prevent Henry Tudor from doing so and strengthening his own royal links.

Government & Administration
Meanwhile, Richard had been attempting to cement his kingship by travelling extensively around his kingdom, and in July 1484 CE he created the Council of the North which had full powers to govern that region in the king’s name. Another new body was the Council of Requests and Supplications, created to give poor people greater access to the justice system. The king also made the collection of royal incomes more efficient, one of the problems Edward IV had been advised to deal with urgently. Finally, Richard encouraged the only Parliament he called, in January 1484 CE, to enact new laws which sought to reduce corruption by local officials and courts, end the practice of forced loans and make the selection of jurors a stricter process. All of these measures indicate the king may have developed into a good one for his people if he were given time. Unfortunately, time was not on Richard’s side as Henry Tudor now made his gamble for the throne.

Bosworth Field & Death
On 8 August 1485 CE, the Wars of the Roses reached boiling point when Henry Tudor landed with an army of French mercenaries at Milford Haven in South Wales, a force perhaps no bigger than 5,000 men. Henry’s army swelled in numbers as it marched to face the king’s army at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire on 22 August 1485 CE. Richard, although commanding an army of some 8,000-12,000 men, was, at the last moment, deserted by some of his key allies, and the Earl of Northumberland even refused to engage his troops until he had a clear idea which side was going to win the day. Nevertheless, the king fought bravely and perhaps a little foolishly in his efforts to kill Henry Tudor with his own sword. Richard, although managing to strike down Henry’s standard-bearer, had his horse cut from under him - hence, Shakespeare’s famous line "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" (Act 5, Scene IV) - and the king was killed. Richard was the last English monarch to fall on the battlefield. The dead king's body was displayed naked except for a piece of cloth in the Church of Saint Mary in Newarke near the battleground and then buried at Greyfriars Abbey, Leicester.
Richard III has gone down in history as possibly England’s most villainous and despised king. A large contribution to this dark portrait was Shakespeare’s Richard III where the king is an unprincipled hunchback and given lines like "I am determined to prove a villain" (Act 1, Scene 1) and "Thus I clothe my naked villany. With odds old ends stol'n forth of holy writ, And seem a saint when most I play the devil" (Act 1, Scene 3). The king is even visited by a long succession of ghosts, the restless spirits of all the significant people Richard had supposedly killed.
The Tudor historians also put it about that Richard was favoured by the Devil, which explained why he came out of his mother’s womb feet first, was born with teeth already, had a couple of fingers missing and developed a taste for murder. These stories do not match Richard’s contemporary portraits or the trust and goodwill extended to him by Edward IV and many of the people who were governed by him in the north of England. Finally, it is a possibility that the Princes of the Tower episode, Richard's most infamous crime, were actually still alive after the Battle of Bosworth Field and it was Henry Tudor who had them killed. Certainly, if Edward V had been still alive then he would have been a serious obstacle to Henry’s claim to be king.
The victorious Henry Tudor, according to legend, was given Richard’s crown, found by Lord Stanley beneath a hawthorn bush at Bosworth Field. The new king was crowned Henry VII of England (r. 1485-1509 CE) on 30 October 1485 CE and, marrying Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV in 1486 CE, the two rival houses were finally united and a new one created: the Tudors. The battles of the Wars of the Roses were (almost) over, half the English barons had been killed in the process, but England was at last united as it left the Middle Ages and headed into the modern era.
Richard III was not quite finished with the history books, though. In 2012 CE archaeologists in Leicester excavated the site where they believed the ruins of Greyfriars Abbey were now buried. Digging down from what was on the surface a car park, they revealed a skeleton which was male, had many marks of sword or dagger injuries and, most intriguingly, had suffered from curvature of the spine. Curiously, the skeleton, found beneath the choir of the ruined friary, had been directly below a reserved parking space in the modern-day car park on which was marked the letter R. Researchers at the University of Leicester conducted DNA testing and confirmed that, with a probability of 99.9%, this was the skeleton of Richard III. The remains were eventually reinterred in a new purpose-built tomb in Leicester Cathedral."


2. Background from {[http://www.richardiii.net/2_1_0_richardiii.php#]}
The Richard III Society
Promoting research into the life and times of Richard III since 1924
Patron: HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO

Caveat
The Richard III Society was founded to promote research into the life and times of Richard III, confident that reasoned debate and scrupulous research would reveal a very different character from the evil caricature of Tudor propaganda. This belief has proved well founded.
Of the six major ‘crimes’ imputed to Richard III by Shakespeare, it is now widely agreed that Richard was certainly innocent of four and that the other two cannot be proved conclusively: the deaths of Henry VI and George duke of Clarence were the responsibility of Edward IV; no contemporary source links Richard with Edward of Lancaster’s death at Tewkesbury; Anne Neville died of natural causes; insufficient evidence survives to be certain whether Edward V was legitimate (and therefore the legal king) or to know what happened to Edward V and his brother after Richard’s accession. Even the ‘hunchback’ of popular myth has now been debunked by the discovery of the king’s remains: his scoliosis would have been barely discernible, except, perhaps, when his naked body was thrown forwards across a horse after his death. Importantly too, more recognition is now given to Richard’s achievements both as duke and king.
It is not the Society’s purpose to ‘whitewash’ Richard’s reputation; it is to achieve a fair and balanced assessment of his life and character. Its members hold a wide variety of views on how the contemporary evidence can most accurately be judged and we aim to reflect this in the balance of articles on this website. A number of articles have been composed by members of the Research Committee and are periodically updated. Others have been written by named individuals, generally acknowledged experts in the relevant field, some of whom would identify themselves as Ricardians, and others who would not.
The views and conclusions expressed are those of the authors of the individual articles, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Society as a whole. This means that some articles will, at points, interpret the evidence differently to others. Readers must decide for themselves which they find most plausible. We hope that you will be inspired by this to look further and find out more.

A Brief Biography and Introduction to Richard's Reputation
by Wendy E.A. Moorhen
What follows is a brief factual biography of Richard III which provides links to more in-depth articles and papers on his life, career and reputation.

Boyhood
Richard Plantagenet was born on 2 October 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, the youngest son of Richard, Duke of York, and his wife, the former Cecily Neville. York, a cousin to the reigning King Henry VI, held senior government positions but was unpopular with the Lancastrian regime. York's disputes led to his early death at the Battle of Wakefield on 30 December 1460. His eldest son, Edward, seized the throne of England in March the following year and defeated the Lancastrians at Towton on 29 March.
The young king Edward IV now assumed responsibility for the upbringing of his younger siblings who had hitherto experienced an unsettled childhood. The elder son, George, was created duke of Clarence and the younger, Richard, was created duke of Gloucester at the age of eight and entered the household of his cousin, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, to begin his education as a nobleman. This took place primarily at the earl's Yorkshire estates of Middleham and Sheriff Hutton.
Meanwhile, King Edward clandestinely married a Lancastrian widow in 1464 and thus began to alienate Warwick, his most powerful ally, who had favoured a political match with a European princess. Over the next five years the relationship between king and 'over-mighty' earl deteriorated until civil strife was resumed in 1469 and the following year Edward was driven into exile. One of the causes of their dispute was the marriage of Warwick's elder daughter to Clarence without the king's permission.

The Young Duke
Richard accompanied Edward to the continent and on their return to England in 1471 the eighteen-year-old duke was given command of the vanguard at the Battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury. These battles were resounding Yorkist victories and both Warwick and the Lancastrian heir, Prince Edward of Wales, were killed. The former king, Henry VI, died a few days later in London.
Richard now assumed the responsibilities of his position. He had been admiral of England since 1461 and he was now appointed constable. King Edward granted Richard many of Warwick's forfeited estates and the following year the duke married Warwick's younger daughter Anne, who was the widow of Prince Edward who was killed at Tewkesbury.
The couple took up residence in the north of England, which King Edward effectively entrusted to his brother, and Richard was created Warden of the West Marches of Scotland. Richard took his duties seriously and held the north against any Scottish incursions. In 1476, Duchess Anne gave birth to their only child, who became known as Edward of Middleham.

During the remaining years of his brother's reign, Richard of Gloucester rarely left the north. Two such occasions included the invasion of France in 1475 and attending the parliament of 1478 when their brother Clarence was attainted for treason and privately executed. In the summer of 1482, Richard invaded Scotland at King Edward's behest. He was accompanied by the Scots king's brother, the duke of Albany. Richard and Albany marched as far as Edinburgh before Richard strategically withdrew over the border.

April - July 1483
On 9 April 1483 King Edward died, a few days short of his forty-first birthday. There had been no time to prepare for a transition of power and the heir, another Edward, was twelve years old. Factions were immediately formed, each believing that they had an important role to play in the government of England. There was the queen and her extensive family; the old nobility, represented in the former king's Council, which included the late king's friend and chamberlain, William, Lord Hastings; and his surviving brother, Richard, who was appointed the lord protector.
At the time of his father's death, the new king was at Ludlow under the tutelage of his maternal uncle, Earl Rivers. The queen sent for them to come to London and for the king to be crowned without delay. Lord Hastings possibly sent messengers north to inform Richard of his brother's death and urge that he come immediately to London. Richard was joined on his journey south by the duke of Buckingham, a distant cousin. At Northampton, Richard and his followers met and arrested Earl Rivers. Richard then moved on to Stony Stratford where the king was resting, made three further arrests and escorted his nephew to London.
The queen, on hearing of these events, withdrew to sanctuary in Westminster Abbey with her family. Edward V arrived in London on 4 May, the day for which his coronation had been planned, and the event was rescheduled for 22 June. Richard and the Council continued with the preparations for the coronation and with the governance of the country, but on 13 June Richard announced that a plot against him had been discovered and accused Lord Hastings of being the instigator. The latter was immediately executed and Archbishop Thomas Rotherham, Bishop John Morton and Thomas, Lord Stanley, were arrested.
On 16 June the young king's brother, Richard, Duke of York left sanctuary in Westminster Abbey and joined his brother in the royal apartments at the Tower. On 22 June Dr Ralph Shaa, brother of the mayor, declared to the citizens of London, that King Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was illegal. This was because of a pre-contract of marriage between Edward IV and Lady Eleanor Butler and the clandestine nature of the king's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. The children of the marriage were declared illegitimate, and therefore barred from succession to the throne of England. Within four days Richard was acclaimed king of England.

Richard the King
King Richard III was crowned, together with his wife Anne, on 6 July at Westminster Abbey. Shortly afterwards the couple began a progress around the country which ended in York with the investiture of their son Edward as prince of Wales. In the autumn of 1483, however, King Richard suffered a serious set-back. His former supporter, the duke of Buckingham, became involved in a rebellion, based primarily in the west country and Kent. Although swiftly repressed, the effects were far-reaching and King Richard now began to rely more on his northern supporters, placing them in the offices left vacant by the rebels.
The rebellion had been supported by a scion of the House of Lancaster, the exiled Henry Tudor, a descendant of King Edward III through his son John of Gaunt's legitimised Beaufort family. Tudor had assumed the role of representative of the Lancastrian line and had become the focus for disaffected English nobles and gentry.
On Christmas Day 1483, in Rennes Cathedral, Henry Tudor declared his intention of marrying King Edward IV's eldest daughter, the Lady Elizabeth, when he became king of England. He then spent the next eighteen months planning his invasion.
King Richard meanwhile called his first, and only, parliament in January 1484. The legislation covered three main areas, the ratification of Richard as king, the passing of acts of attainder against the October rebels and the passing of a number of acts designed to reform part of the legal system.
King Richard's reign was overshadowed by the threat of Tudor's invasion and by personal loss. Near the anniversary of the death of his brother, King Edward, Richard's son died and the king and queen shut themselves in their apartments at Nottingham Castle to mourn their loss. Richard's queen died less than a year later on 16 March 1485.
The long-awaited invasion came on 7 August 1485 when Tudor landed at Milford Haven in Wales. King Richard mobilised his forces and on 22 August king and invader joined battle at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire. Despite Richard's superior army, the battle was lost when the king was slain after Sir William Stanley turned traitor in favour of his step-nephew, Henry Tudor, and led his forces into the battle on Tudor's side. Richard Plantagenet was the last king of England to die on the battlefield.

Reputation
The victor of Bosworth was to establish his own dynasty but his genealogical claim to the throne was both tenuous and cadet. It may also have been illegal without an act of parliament to amend Henry IV's legitimisation of his Beaufort siblings who were barred, together with their descendants, from inheriting the throne. Tudor wisely decided to claim the throne by right of conquest but was cognizant of the need to take every opportunity of enhancing his own reputation at the expense of his predecessor. Richard's actions and behaviour were the subject of attention and scrutiny and were presented, in the weeks and years after his death, as those of a wicked and unscrupulous tyrant.
During his own lifetime, however, Richard's reputation was high, the loyal brother of Edward IV who administered the north of the realm and defended the country against the Scots. The premature death of Edward IV led to a national crisis in which Richard emerged as king. With the benefit of hindsight, historians have generally interpreted the fateful events of 1483 in the light of Richard being a calculating usurper. There are, of course, some contemporary criticisms and rumours about Richard but these are inevitable in view of his high profile. The decisive arrests of Rivers and others thus appear as pre-emptive acts to gain control of Edward V. The fact was that Richard had not been officially informed of his brother's death and that his sister-in-law sought to crown her son with unseemly haste, an act which would have reduced Richard's power to rule the king despite his appointment as Protector. Once crowned, Edward V would have ruled through his Council, the composition and performance of which could be manipulated by the Woodville faction.
Richard's next decisive act was based on the revelation of a plot and the execution of its alleged leader, Hastings. Traditional historians have accused Richard of inventing the plot in order to rid himself of Edward V's staunchest supporter. However, documents are extant which demonstrate that Richard was aware of the conspiracy before taking action, sought to obtain re-enforcements to support his protectorship and conducted a mop-up operation to neutralise other conspirators, all of which suggest that Richard was suppressing a genuine plot. The declaration of the illegality of Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville has been interpreted as a convenient excuse for Richard to overturn his nephew's succession and it was indeed a timely discovery. However, the legality of Richard's actions and of the 'precontract' dispute are still the subjects of academic debate.
Once Richard was crowned and his nephews bastardised, the young princes were no longer an important factor at the Ricardian court. Their 'disappearance', however, led to the greatest controversy surrounding King Richard - did he kill his nephews?

Accusations of infanticide, however, were not enough for the historians seeking to defame the dead king. The death of Richard's own wife came under suspicion with hints of him murdering her with poison, of murdering her former husband after the battle of Tewkesbury, of murdering King Henry VI, and even of his own brother Clarence, despite his treason being confirmed by the act of attainder passed by King Edward IV's own parliament. By the time the Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare penned what was to become one of his most popular and frequently performed plays, The Tragedy of King Richard III, the works of the anonymous Croyland Chronicler, John Rous, Bernard André, Polydore Vergil, Sir Thomas More, Edward Hall, Richard Grafton and Raphael Holinshed had been written. Shakespeare followed their tradition and presented his anti-hero as the murderous, deformed tyrant so well known to theatre, television and cinema audiences.
Within a few years of its first production a backlash against the 'traditionalist' version of King Richard's history was written by Sir George Buck although it remained unpublished for some years. Later in the sixteenth century, Richard's fate as the archetypal villain was sealed when John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough is reputed to have said 'I take my history from Shakespeare' despite the fact that Richard's villainy was so over the top that the character has failed to gain acceptance as a real and identifiable person with many audiences.
The Great Debate, as the study of Richard's reputation became known, truly began in the seventeenth century when Horace Walpole wrote his Historic Doubts and rattled the cages of the traditionalists. That debate is not yet over, with the majority of the British historical academic community still promoting Richard as an infanticide. Some academics have acknowledged that Richard was a talented administrator and that he cannot be held responsible for the deaths of Henry VI and his son, but their overall assessment is still that of an evil and avaricious man. This shift in his reputation has now led to new claims of avarice, in that his motivation for taking the throne is said to be found in his fear of losing the Neville inheritance.
Gaining a re-evaluation of Richard's reputation entails the painstaking task of examining the primary and Tudor sources and assessing his actions, both as duke and king, against the background of his times, his contemporaries, his predecessors and his successors. The art of rhetoric, so beloved of one of Richard's greatest critics, Sir Thomas More, comes into play as the interpretation of his actions, such as his 1484 legislation, which has been described as either 'enlightened' or 'divisive', depends on the writer's orientation. There is no clear evidence that Richard was guilty or innocent of his so-called 'crimes', but historians, whether detractors or sympathisers, must work with the information derived from the sources and endeavour to present a balanced view of this controversial figure.

The most comprehensive study of Richard's posthumous reputation has been carried out by the Society's former chairman, the late Jeremy Potter, and published as Good King Richard?

His Personal Interests
by Dr Livia Visser-Fuchs
Guns

Artillery. From The Battle of Bosworth by Graham Turner
© Osprey Publishing Ltd. http://www.ospreypublishing.comA number of pieces of direct evidence survive for Richard III's personal interests, the 'things he liked'. Most personal of all, perhaps, is his 'confession' in his letter to Louis XI, King of France, who had presented him, in 1480 when he was still duke of Gloucester, with a 'great bombard', the largest and most expensive gunpowder weapon available at the time. Richard thanked the king in a letter and added 'I have always taken and still take great pleasure in artillery and I assure you it will be a special treasure to me'. There was, of course, nothing unusual in a twenty-six-year-old nobleman being fascinated by such weapons: they were part of the most up-to-date military technology of the day.
Crusade
We gain intimate information of a different nature about Richard's interests from the account of the Silesian traveller, Nicolas von Popplau, who met the king in the spring of 1484. Von Popplau reports how Richard was able to express admiration at his guest's mastery of the Latin tongue; praises the choir employed by the king as 'the sweetest music he had ever heard', describes the magnificence of the king's meal and the great ceremony that accompanied it, but also his graciousness to his guest. Their conversation, which almost made the king forget to eat, was wide ranging: it went from the Latin origin of the name of Pontefract to the exact date of the annual ceremony of feet washing on Maundy Thursday. The king asked von Popplau about continental princes and their affairs, and about the Turks in particular. Having been told how the king of Hungary had recently gained a great victory over them, Richard enviously exclaimed: 'I would like my kingdom and land to lie where the land and kingdom of the king of Hungary lies, on the Turkish frontier itself', and continued: 'Then I would certainly, with my own people alone, without the help of other kings, princes or lords, completely drive away not only the Turks, but all my enemies and opponents!'. His enthusiastic remark shows his confidence in his own military abilities as well as his awareness of the international situation, which made it impossible to create an alliance between the ever-squabbling princes of western Europe and organise a concerted attack on the Turks. The general impression of Richard that we get from von Popplau's account is that of a magnificent and thoughtful princely host, who took a great interest in many, diverse matters.
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Jewellery

The Middleham JewelAnother indication of what Richard liked can be found in the will of Sir John Pilkington, a long standing servant of the house of York. He left a special bequest to Richard of his 'great emerald set in gold' which, during Sir John's lifetime, Richard had admired so much that he offered 100 marks (£66 13s. 4d.) for it. In the same context should be mentioned one of those prejudices, or rather 'myths', about Richard III which have sprung up over the years: the curious idea that he was a 'fop', a dandy. This is based on the misunderstanding, by several generations of historians, of the contents of the surviving Great Wardrobe accounts, which list among other things the materials needed for the robes worn by the fifteenth-century kings. These may appear unusually sumptuous but in fact merely illustrate the standard norms of a medieval court and its splendours.
Books

Richard's Religious BooksFinally and most importantly there is Richard's undoubted liking for books. His surviving 'library' is a remarkable collection, covering most medieval interests and fields of knowledge, except medicine, law, and theology. Striking is the fact that he put his name in his books, not as common a practice in his day as one might think. The bias of his collection, if there is one, is towards history and the history books together covered nearly everything from mythical beginnings to his own day: the story of Troy by Guido delle Collone and the lives of the British kings by Geoffrey of Monmouth, both in Latin (St Petersburg, Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library MS Lat. F IV 74 and 76), a chronicle of England, in Latin, covering the period from the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to the coronation of King John in 1199 (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 96), and a history of France, in French, covering the period 1270-1380. Five of his books were religious/devotional: his book of hours (London, Lambeth Palace Library MS 474), a collection of Old Testament stories in verse (Longleat House, Library of the Marquess of Bath, MS 257), the New Testament in English translation, an unusual book for a prince to own at the time (New York, Public Library, MS De Ricci 67), a life of St Katherine in Latin by the Italian Pietro Carmeliano (Richard's own copy does not survive) and the English translation of work of St Mechtild of Hackeborn, which may have been his wife's (London, British Library, MS Egerton 2006). On military and chivalric matters he had an English translation of Vegetius' De re militari, a standard work on the training of soldiers and warfare in general (British Library, MS Royal 18 A xii), Ramon Lull's Order of Chivalry, a manual on knighthood translated and printed by William Caxton in 1484, William Worcester's Boke of Noblesse and his Documents on the War in France, a treatise and a set of documents advertising the renewal of the war in France (British Library MS Royal 18 B xxii, and Lambeth Palace Library MS 506), and several rolls of arms. To these can be added a number of genealogical rolls and the most famous of medieval 'mirrors for princes' Giles of Rome's De regimine principum in Latin (Lambeth Palace, MS Arc. L 40.2 / L 26). Unusual texts, probably owned by Richard, were a collection of letters on statecraft ascribed to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, edited by Pietro Carmeliano (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 429).
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Manuscript and Print
There are several interesting general aspects to Richard's collection of books: he had no preference for manuscript over print, and did not demand that all his books were new, or sumptuously decorated. Through the quirks of survival his collection includes one of merely two surviving copies of the English translation of Mechtild of Hackeborn's Book of Special Grace, the only extant copy of a prose translation of the romance of Ipomedon (Library of the Marquess of Bath, MS 257), the only manuscript copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regum Britanniae known to have belonged to a medieval king of England, and one of the two surviving texts of the Prophecy of the Eagle with a particular Commentary, which was added to the Historia. The proportion of romances in Richard's collection was unusually high: Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, Chaucer's Knight's Tale and Clerk's Tale, the Prose Ipomedon, (all in the marquess of Bath's ms.) the Prose Tristan in French (British Library, MS Harley 49).
Caxton was at the height of his production during Richard's brief reign and dedicated his Order of Chivalry to the king, and most important of all in the context of printing: when Richard's parliament took measures to control alien workers and their goods in England, books and their makers were specifically exempted. There can be little doubt that among the kings of England, of any period, Richard's interest in books and the booktrade is unusual and remarkable.
Sources
• Anne F. Sutton, '"A Curious Searcher for our Weal Public": Richard III, Piety, Chivalry and the Concept of the "Good Prince"', in Richard III. Loyalty, Lordship and Law, ed. P.W. Hammond, London 1986, repr. 2000.
• Anne F. Sutton, 'The Court and its Culture', in John Gillingham, ed., Richard III. A Medieval Kingship, London 1993.
• Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III's Books. Ideals and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince, Stroud 1997.

Richard by his Contemporaries
Richard's Military Reputation
In 1471 King Edward was determined to regain his throne and he joined battle against his cousin and former ally, the earl of Warwick, at Barnet. The vanguard was led by the eighteen-year-old Richard and his success was recorded in the poem On the Recovery of the Throne by Edward IV:
The duke of Glocetter, that nobill prynce,
Yonge of age and victorius in batayle,
To the honour of Ectour [Hector] that he myghte comens,
Grace hym folowith, fortune, and good spede.

In 1475 King Edward mounted an expedition to France but quarrelled with his ally and brother-in-law, the duke of Burgundy, and made peace with the French king. Richard appeared to have hoped for a glorious campaign on the lines of Henry V's in 1415 and it was recorded that:
Original artwork by Gerry Hitch
'king of England was accommodated by the King of France with whatever he wanted, even to the very torches and candles. The Duke of Gloucester, the King of England's brother, and some other persons of quality, were not present at this interview, as being averse to the treaty; but they recollected themselves afterwards, the Duke of Gloucester waited on the king our master at Amiens.'

Following Richard's campaign to Scotland in 1482, his brother, King Edward IV, wrote to Pope Sixtus IV thus:
'Have resolved to state what was achieved this summer in Scotland, that the truth may be known. Thank God, the giver all good gifts, for the support received from our most loving brother, whose success is so proven that he alone would suffice to chastise the whole kingdom of Scotland. This year we appointed our very dear brother Richard Duke of Gloucester to command the same army which we ourselves intended to have led last year, had not adverse turmoil hindered us. … The noble band of victors, however, spared the supplicant and prostrate citizens, the churches, and not only the widows, orphans, and minors, but all persons found there unarmed.'
Richard as 'Good Lord'

From the Mayor and the Council of the city of York (1476) for his support:
'The saide day and tyme by the forsaide Maire and Counsaile it was holie agreed and assented that the Duk of Gloucestre shall for his grete labour of now late made unto the kinges good grace for the conservacion of the liberties of this Citie, that he shalbe presented at his commyng to the citie with vj swannes and vj pikes'.

In his role as a 'good lord' Richard would have been asked to act as an executor. One such example is found in the will of Sir John Pilkington who came from an influential northern family:
'… Item I will that my son Edward beforwith after my dethe be had to my lorde of Gloucestre and my lorde Chambrelane, hertly beseching thame as they will in my name sesuch [beseech] the king is goode grace that myn executors may have the wardeshipp and mariege of my said son … I lowly and hertly besuche my lorde of Gloucestre and my lorde Chambrelane, that they will, at the reverence of God, by myn executors …'
Richard's Reaction on the Death of George, Duke of Clarence
In 1478 Richard's brother George, duke of Clarence, was arrested by the king and tried for treason, found guilty and privately executed. Dominic Mancini, an Italian who visited England in 1483, wrote about Richard's reaction:
'At that time Richard, duke of Gloucester, was so overcome with grief for his brother, that he could not dissimulate so well, but that he was overheard to say that he would one day avenge his brother's death.'

Following Richard's royal progress after his coronation, Thomas Langton, Bishop of St David's, wrote:
'I trust to God sune, by Michelmasse, the Kyng shal be at London. He contents the people wher he goys best that ever did prince; for many a poor man that hath suffred wrong many days have be relevyd and helpyd by hym and his commands in his progresse. And in many grete citeis and townis wer grete summis of mony gif hym which he hath refusyd. On my trouth I lykyd never the condicions of ony prince so wel as his; God hathe sent hym to us for the wele of us al …'

John Rous of Warwick recorded in the Rous Roll:
'The moost myghty prynce Rychard … all avarice set asyde, rewled hys subiettys in hys realme ful commendabylly, poneschynge offenders of hys lawes, specially extorcioners and oppressors of hys comyns, and chereschynge tho that were vertues, by the whyche dyscrete guydynge he gat gret thank of God and love of all his subiettys ryche and pore and gret laud of the people of all othyr landys a bowt hym.'
Richard was concerned about justice, both for the individual and its administration. A Year Book reports one of his most famous acts, when he called together all his justices and posed three questions concerning specific cases. This record provides an idea of Richard's comprehension of and commitment to his coronation oath to uphold the law and its proper procedures.
The second question was this. If some justice of the Peace had taken a bill of indictment which had not been found by the jury, and enrolled it among other indictments 'well and truly found' etc. shall there be any punishment thereupon for such justice so doing? And this question was carefully argued among the justices separately and among themselves, … And all being agreed, the justices gave the King in his Council in the Star Chamber their answer to his question in this wise: that above such defaults enquiry ought to be made by a commission of at least twelve jurors, and thereupon the party, having been presented, accused and convicted, shall lose the office and pay fine to the King according to the degree of the misprision etc.'
William Caxton, the printer, dedicated his translation of Raymond Lull's Order of Chivalry to King Richard:
' … And thus thys lytyl book I presente to my redoubted, naturel and most dradde soverayne lord, kyng Rychard kyng of Englond and of Fraunce, to thende that he commaunde this book to be had and redde unto other yong lordes, knyghtes and gentylmen within this royame, that the noble ordre of chyvalrye be herafter better used & honoured than hit hath ben in late dayes passed. And herin he shalle do a noble & vertuouse dede. And I shalle pray almyghty God for his long lyf & prosperous welfare, & that he may have victory of al his enemyes, and after this short & transitory lyf to have everlasting lyf in heven where as is joy and blysse, world without ende, Amen.'
Richard's death was poignantly recorded in the minutes of the Council of York:
' … king Richard late mercifully reigning upon us was thrugh grete treason of the duc of Northfolk [sic] and many other that turned ayenst hyme, with many other lordes and nobilles of this north parties was piteously slane murdred to the grete hevynesse of this citie …'
A Posthumous Accolade

This accolade for Richard comes from an unexpected source. In 1513 Lord Dacre, Warden of the Western Marches, wrote a letter which was summarised in the Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. Dacre seemed to feel intimidated by the reputations of Richard and the earl of Northumberland resulting from a raid they had made into Tevydale in the 1480s, which Dacre was expected to repeat. Nine years later, he is still concerned at their exploits in a letter to Wolsey who responds that, as they took effectual measures to punish and repress offenders, he hopes Dacre will obey his wholesome and friendly admonition and acquire, 'as good a character as they did'.

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I read about this some time ago, amazing that they forgot where he was buried.

I can imagine lands like found this is all over this world