Richard III of England: Difference between revisions

[[File:RichardOfGloucester.jpg|frame|"[[Richard III|And every tale condemns me for a villain]]."]]

 

Richard's traditional reputation was largely formed by Sir Thomas More's ''History of king Richard the thirde'', which (possibly based on the reminiscences of John Morton, Bishop of Ely) depicts Gloucester as a [[Red Right Hand|hunch-backed, withered-armed]] Machiavellian villain. More's account formed the basis for [[William Shakespeare (Creator)|William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Richard III (Theatre)|Richard III]]'', which has probably been the most influential account of Richard's life and character -- despite its obvious historical shortcomings -- and has indeed tended to color perceptions of the entire [[The Late Middle Ages|Late Mediaeval period]].

 

 

The fate of the Princes was never certainly established. The last sighting of the boys alive seems to have been around July, 1483, shortly before Richard's coronation. Stories of their death varied wildly: some said they had been poisoned, others drowned, others stabbed -- but the most accepted version was that attested by Thomas More, that the princes had been smothered and buried secretly under a staircase in the Tower. Bones found there in 1674 under a staircase (as More had said, though he also said he had heard that Richard had had them disinterred and buried elsewhere) were declared to be theirs by the then king, [[Charles II]]. The identification is by no means certain; the bones were last examined in 1934, and it was determined at that time that not all of them were even human. Their age, sex, and date of burial have been disputed (though most experts agree they are pre-pubertal); there has even been some [[Wild Mass Guessing|speculation]] that they're the remains of ceremonial sacrifices from Roman times. The dean and chapter of Westminster Abbey, where the bones are inurned, have refused to allow further testing, as has Queen Elizabeth II, who will not allow DNA analysis of the remains ''or'' of available remains of any known relatives of the Princes.

Popular depictions of Richard since Shakespeare's plays have generally veered back and forth from a [[Complete Monster]] depiction (Richard may be considered the patron saint of the [[Historical Villain Upgrade]]) to a revisionist version in which Richard, though appearing a somewhat cynical [[Deadpan Snarker]], is nevertheless a fundamentally decent human being -- often the only decent human being in what is otherwise a [[Deadly Decadent Court]].

 

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=== Works associated with Richard of Gloucester: ===

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Richardof Gloucester]]