Richard III of England

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"Richard III" redirects here. For the Shakespeare play, see Richard III  (play). For other
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Richard III

Earliest surviving portrait, c. 1520

King of England, Lord of Ireland 

(more...)

Reign 26 June 1483 – 22 August 1485

Coronation 6 July 1483

Predecessor Edward V

Successor Henry VII

Born 2 October 1452

 Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, England

Died 22 August 1485 (aged 32)

Bosworth Field, Leicestershire, England

Burial 25 August 1485[1]

 Greyfriars, Leicester

26 March 2015

 Leicester Cathedral
Anne Neville
Spouse

(m. 1472; died 1485)

Issue  Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales

Detail  John of Gloucester (ill.)

 Katherine, Countess of Huntingdon (ill.)

House York (Plantagenet)

Father Richard, 3rd Duke of York

Mother Cecily Neville

Religion Roman Catholicism

Signature

Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of

Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of
York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battle of
Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of
the Middle Ages in England.
Richard was created Duke of Gloucester in 1461 after the accession of his brother King
Edward IV. In 1472, he married Anne Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of
Warwick. He governed northern England during Edward's reign, and played a role in
the invasion of Scotland in 1482. When Edward IV died in April 1483, Richard was
named Lord Protector of the realm for Edward's eldest son and successor, the 12-year-
old Edward V. Arrangements were made for Edward V's coronation on 22 June 1483.
Before the king could be crowned, the marriage of his parents was
declared bigamous and therefore invalid. Now officially illegitimate, their children were
barred from inheriting the throne. On 25 June, an assembly of lords and commoners
endorsed a declaration to this effect, and proclaimed Richard as the rightful king. He
was crowned on 6 July 1483. Edward and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury,
Duke of York, called the "Princes in the Tower", were not seen in public after August,
and accusations circulated that they had been murdered on King Richard's orders, after
the Tudor dynasty established their rule a few years later.
There were two major rebellions against Richard during his reign. In October 1483, an
unsuccessful revolt was led by staunch allies of Edward IV and Richard's former
ally, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Then, in August 1485, Henry Tudor and
his uncle, Jasper Tudor, landed in southern Wales with a contingent of French troops,
and marched through Pembrokeshire, recruiting soldiers. Henry's forces defeated
Richard's army near the Leicestershire town of Market Bosworth. Richard was slain,
making him the last English king to die in battle. Henry Tudor then ascended the throne
as Henry VII.
Richard's corpse was taken to the nearby town of Leicester and buried without
ceremony. His original tomb monument is believed to have been removed during
the English Reformation, and his remains were wrongly thought to have been thrown
into the River Soar. In 2012, an archaeological excavation was commissioned by
the Richard III Society on the site previously occupied by Grey Friars Priory.
The University of Leicester identified the skeleton found in the excavation as that of
Richard III as a result of radiocarbon dating, comparison with contemporary reports of
his appearance, identification of trauma sustained at the Battle of Bosworth Field and
comparison of his mitochondrial DNA with that of two matrilineal descendants of his
sister Anne. He was reburied in Leicester Cathedral on 26 March 2015.

Contents

 1Early life
 2Marriage and family relationships
 3Reign of Edward IV
o 3.1Estates and titles
o 3.2Exile and return
o 3.31471 military campaign
o 3.41475 invasion of France
o 3.5The North, and the Council in the North
o 3.6War with Scotland
 4Lord Protector
 5King of England
o 5.1Buckingham's rebellion of 1483
o 5.2Death at the Battle of Bosworth Field
 6Issue
 7Legacy
o 7.1Reputation
 o 7.2In culture
 8Discovery of remains
o 8.1Reburial and tomb
 9Titles, styles, honours and arms
o 9.1Arms
 10Family trees
 11See also
 12Explanatory notes
 13References
o 13.1Citations
o 13.2General and cited sources
 14Further reading
 15External links

Early life[edit]
Richard was born on 2 October 1452, at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, the
eleventh of the twelve children of Richard, 3rd Duke of York, and Cecily Neville, and the
youngest to survive infancy.[2] His childhood coincided with the beginning of what has
traditionally been labelled the 'Wars of the Roses', a period of political instability and
periodic open civil war in England during the second half of the fifteenth century,
[3]
 between the Yorkists, who supported Richard's father (a potential claimant to the
throne of King Henry VI from birth),[4] and opposed the regime of Henry VI and his
wife, Margaret of Anjou,[5] and the Lancastrians, who were loyal to the crown.[6] In 1459,
his father and the Yorkists were forced to flee England, whereupon Richard and his
older brother George were placed in the custody of their aunt Anne Neville, Duchess of
Buckingham, and possibly of Cardinal Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury.[7]
When their father and elder brother Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were killed at the Battle of
Wakefield on 30 December 1460, Richard and George were sent by their mother to
the Low Countries.[8] They returned to England following the defeat of the Lancastrians
at the Battle of Towton. They participated in the coronation of their eldest brother
as King Edward IV on 28 June 1461, when Richard was named Duke of Gloucester and
made both a Knight of the Garter and a Knight of the Bath. Edward appointed him the
sole Commissioner of Array for the Western Counties in 1464 when he was 11. By the
age of 17, he had an independent command. [9]

The ruins of the twelfth-century castle at Middleham in Wensleydale where Richard was raised

Richard spent several years during his childhood at Middleham
Castle in Wensleydale, Yorkshire, under the tutelage of his cousin Richard Neville, 16th
Earl of Warwick, later known as 'the Kingmaker' because of his role in the Wars of the
Roses. Warwick supervised Richard's training as a knight; in the autumn of 1465,
Edward IV granted Warwick 1,000 pounds for the expenses of his younger brother's
tutelage.[10] With some interruptions, Richard stayed at Middleham either from late 1461
until early 1465, when he was 12[11] or from 1465 until his coming of age in 1468, when
he turned 16.[note 1] While at Warwick's estate, it is likely that he met both Francis Lovell,
who was his firm supporter later in his life, and Warwick's younger daughter, his future
wife Anne Neville.[13]
It is possible that even at this early stage Warwick was considering the king's brothers
as strategic matches for his daughters, Isabel and Anne: young aristocrats were often
sent to be raised in the households of their intended future partners, [14] as had been the
case for the young dukes' father, Richard of York. [15] As the relationship between the king
and Warwick became strained, Edward IV opposed the match. [16] During Warwick's
lifetime, George was the only royal brother to marry one of his daughters, the elder,
Isabel, on 12 July 1469, without the king's permission. George joined his father-in-law's
revolt against the king,[17] while Richard remained loyal to Edward, even though he was
rumoured to have been sleeping with Anne.[18][note 2]
Richard and Edward were forced to flee to Burgundy in October 1470 after Warwick
defected to the side of the former Lancastrian queen Margaret of Anjou. In 1468,
Richard's sister Margaret had married Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, and the
brothers could expect a welcome there. Edward was restored to the throne in the spring
of 1471, following the battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury, in both of which the 18-year-
old Richard played a crucial role.[19]
During his adolescence, and due to a cause that is unknown, Richard developed a
sideways curvature of the spine (Scoliosis).[20] In 2014, after the discovery of Richard's
remains, the osteoarchaeologist Dr. Jo Appleby, of Leicester University's School of
Archaeology and Ancient History, imaged the spinal column, and reconstructed a model
using 3D printing, and concluded that though the spinal scoliosis looked dramatic, it
probably did not cause any major physical deformity that could not be disguised by
clothing.[21][22]

Marriage and family relationships[edit]

Contemporary illumination (Rous Roll, 1483) of Richard, his wife Anne Neville, and their son Edward
Following a decisive Yorkist victory over the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury,
Richard married Anne Neville on 12 July 1472.[23] By the end of 1470 Anne had
previously been wedded to Edward of Westminster, only son of Henry VI, to seal her
father's allegiance to the Lancastrian party. [24] Edward died at the Battle of Tewkesbury
on 4 May 1471, while Warwick had died at the Battle of Barnet on 14 April 1471.
[25]
 Richard's marriage plans brought him into conflict with his brother George. [26] John
Paston's letter of 17 February 1472 makes it clear that George was not happy about the
marriage but grudgingly accepted it on the basis that "he may well have my Lady his
sister-in-law, but they shall part no livelihood". [27] The reason was the inheritance Anne
shared with her elder sister Isabel, whom George had married in 1469. It was not only
the earldom that was at stake; Richard Neville had inherited it as a result of his marriage
to Anne Beauchamp, 16th Countess of Warwick. The Countess, who was still alive, was
technically the owner of the substantial Beauchamp estates, her father having left no
male heirs.[28]
The Croyland Chronicle records that Richard agreed to a prenuptial contract in the
following terms: "the marriage of the Duke of Gloucester with Anne before-named was
to take place, and he was to have such and so much of the earl's lands as should be
agreed upon between them through the mediation of arbitrators; while all the rest were
to remain in the possession of the Duke of Clarence". [29] The date of Paston's letter
suggests the marriage was still being negotiated in February 1472. In order to win
George's final consent to the marriage, Richard renounced most of the Earl of
Warwick's land and property including the earldoms of Warwick (which the Kingmaker
had held in his wife's right) and Salisbury and surrendered to George the office of Great
Chamberlain of England.[30] Richard retained Neville's forfeit estates he had already been
granted in the summer of 1471:[31][32] Penrith, Sheriff Hutton and Middleham, where he
later established his marital household.[33]

Stained glass depiction of Richard and Anne Neville in Cardiff Castle

The requisite papal dispensation was obtained dated 22 April 1472. [34] Michael Hicks has
suggested that the terms of the dispensation deliberately understated the degrees of
consanguinity between the couple, and the marriage was therefore illegal on the ground
of first degree consanguinity following George's marriage to Anne's sister Isabel.
[24]
 There would have been first-degree consanguinity if Richard had sought to marry
Isabel (in case of widowhood) after she had married his brother George, but no such
consanguinity applied for Anne and Richard. Richard's marriage to Anne was never
declared null, and it was public to everyone including secular and canon lawyers for 13
years.[35]
In June 1473, Richard persuaded his mother-in-law to leave the sanctuary and come to
live under his protection at Middleham. Later in the year, under the terms of the 1473
Act of Resumption,[36] George lost some of the property he held under royal grant and
made no secret of his displeasure. John Paston's letter of November 1473 says that
King Edward planned to put both his younger brothers in their place by acting as "a
stifler atween them".[37] Early in 1474, Parliament assembled and Edward attempted to
reconcile his brothers by stating that both men, and their wives, would enjoy the
Warwick inheritance just as if the Countess of Warwick "was naturally dead". [38] The
doubts cast by George on the validity of Richard and Anne's marriage were addressed
by a clause protecting their rights in the event they were divorced (i.e. of their marriage
being declared null and void by the Church) and then legally remarried to each other,
and also protected Richard's rights while waiting for such a valid second marriage with
Anne.[39] The following year, Richard was rewarded with all the Neville lands in the north
of England, at the expense of Anne's cousin, George Neville, 1st Duke of Bedford.
[40]
 From this point, George seems to have fallen steadily out of King Edward's favour, his
discontent coming to a head in 1477 when, following Isabel's death, he was denied the
opportunity to marry Mary of Burgundy, the stepdaughter of his sister Margaret, even
though Margaret approved the proposed match. [41] There is no evidence of Richard's
involvement in George's subsequent conviction and execution on a charge of treason. [42]

Reign of Edward IV[edit]

Estates and titles[edit]
Richard was granted the Duchy of Gloucester on 1 November 1461, [43] and on 12 August
the next year was awarded large estates in northern England, including the lordships
of Richmond in Yorkshire, and Pembroke in Wales. He gained the forfeited lands of the
Lancastrian John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, in East Anglia. In 1462, on his birthday,
he was made Constable of Gloucester and Corfe Castles and Admiral of England,
Ireland and Aquitaine[44] and appointed Governor of the North, becoming the richest and
most powerful noble in England. On 17 October 1469, he was made Constable of
England. In November, he replaced William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, as Chief
Justice of North Wales. The following year, he was appointed Chief Steward and
Chamberlain of Wales.[45] On 18 May 1471, Richard was named Great Chamberlain
and Lord High Admiral of England. Other positions followed: High Sheriff of
Cumberland for life, Lieutenant of the North and Commander-in-Chief against the Scots
and hereditary Warden of the West March. [46] Two months later, on 14 July, he gained
the Lordships of the strongholds Sheriff Hutton and Middleham in Yorkshire
and Penrith in Cumberland, which had belonged to Warwick the Kingmaker. [47] It is
possible that the grant of Middleham seconded Richard's personal wishes. [note 3]
Exile and return[edit]
During the latter part of Edward IV's reign, Richard demonstrated his loyalty to the king,
[49]
 in contrast to their brother George who had allied himself with the Earl of Warwick
when the latter rebelled towards the end of the 1460s. [50] Following Warwick's 1470
rebellion, before which he had made peace with Margaret of Anjou and promised the
restoration of Henry VI to the English throne, Richard, the Baron Hastings and Anthony
Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers, escaped capture at Doncaster by Warwick's brother, John
Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu.[51] On 2 October they sailed from King's Lynn in two
ships; Edward landed at Marsdiep and Richard at Zeeland.[52] It was said that, having left
England in such haste as to possess almost nothing, Edward was forced to pay their
passage with his fur cloak; certainly, Richard borrowed three pounds from Zeeland's
town bailiff.[53] They were attainted by Warwick's only Parliament on 26 November.
[54]
 They resided in Bruges with Louis de Gruthuse, who had been the Burgundian
Ambassador to Edward's court,[55] but it was not until Louis XI of France declared war on
Burgundy that Charles, Duke of Burgundy, assisted their return, [56] providing, along with
the Hanseatic merchants, 20,000 pounds, 36 ships and 1,200 men. They
departed Flushing for England on 11 March 1471.[57] Warwick's arrest of local
sympathisers prevented them from landing in Yorkist East Anglia and on 14 March, after
being separated in a storm, their ships ran ashore at Holderness.[58] The town
of Hull refused Edward entry. He gained entry to York by using the same claim as Henry
of Bolingbroke had before deposing Richard II in 1399; that is, that he was merely
reclaiming the Dukedom of York rather than the crown. [59][60] It was in Edward's attempt to
regain his throne that Richard began to demonstrate his skill as a military commander. [61]
1471 military campaign[edit]
Once Edward had regained the support of his brother George, he mounted a swift and
decisive campaign to regain the crown through combat; [62] it is believed that Richard was
his principal lieutenant[25] as some of the king's earliest support came from members of
Richard's affinity, including Sir James Harrington[63] and Sir William Parr, who brought
600 men-at-arms to them at Doncaster.[64] Richard may have led the vanguard at the
Battle of Barnet, in his first command, on 14 April 1471, where he outflanked the wing
of Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter,[65] although the degree to which his command was
fundamental may have been exaggerated.[66] That Richard's personal household
sustained losses indicates he was in the thick of the fighting. [67] A contemporary source is
clear about his holding the vanguard for Edward at Tewkesbury, [68] deployed against the
Lancastrian vanguard under Edmund Beaufort, 4th Duke of Somerset, on 4 May 1471,
[69]
 and his role two days later, as Constable of England, sitting alongside John
Howard as Earl Marshal, in the trial and sentencing of leading Lancastrians captured
after the battle.[70]
1475 invasion of France[edit]
At least in part resentful of King Louis XI's previous support of his Lancastrian
opponents, and possibly in support of his brother-in-law Charles the Bold, Duke of
Burgundy, Edward went to parliament in October 1472 for funding a military campaign,
[71]
 and eventually landed in Calais on 4 July 1475.[72] Richard's was the largest private
contingent of his army.[73] Although well known to have publicly been against the
eventual treaty signed with Louis XI at Picquigny (and absent from the negotiations, in
which one of his rank would have been expected to take a leading role), [74] he acted as
Edward's witness when the king instructed his delegates to the French court, [75] and
received 'some very fine presents' from Louis on a visit to the French king at Amiens.
[76]
 In refusing other gifts, which included 'pensions' in the guise of 'tribute', he was joined
only by Cardinal Bourchier.[77] He supposedly disapproved of Edward's policy of
personally benefiting—politically and financially—from a campaign paid for out of a
parliamentary grant, and hence out of public funds. [74] Any military prowess was therefore
not to be revealed further until the last years of Edward's reign. [7]
The North, and the Council in the North[edit]
Richard was the dominant magnate in the north of England until Edward IV's death.
[78]
 There, and especially in the city of York, he was highly regarded;[79] although it has
been questioned whether this view was reciprocated by Richard. [note 4] Edward IV
delegated significant authority to Richard in the region. Kendall and later historians have
suggested that this was with the intention of making Richard the Lord of the North;
[81]
 Peter Booth, however, has argued that "instead of allowing his brother Richard carte
blanche, [Edward]] restricted his influence by using his own agent, Sir William
Parr."[82] Following Richard's accession to the throne, he first established the Council of
the North and made his nephew John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln, president and
formally institutionalised this body as an offshoot of the royal Council; all its letters and
judgements were issued on behalf of the king and in his name. [83] The council had a
budget of 2,000 marks per annum and had issued "Regulations" by July of that year:
councillors to act impartially, declare vested interests and to meet at least every three
months. Its main focus of operations was Yorkshire and the north-east and its
responsibilities included land disputes, keeping of the king's peace and punishing
lawbreakers.[84]
War with Scotland[edit]
Richard's increasing role in the north from the mid-1470s to some extent explains his
withdrawal from the royal court. He had been Warden of the West March on the Scottish
border since 10 September 1470,[85] and again from May 1471; he used Penrith as a
base while 'taking effectual measures' against the Scots, and 'enjoyed the revenues of
the estates' of the Forest of Cumberland while doing so. [86] It was at the same time that
the Duke of Gloucester was appointed sheriff of Cumberland five consecutive years,
being described as 'of Penrith Castle' in 1478. [87] By 1480, war with Scotland was
looming; on 12 May that year he was appointed Lieutenant-General of the North (a
position created for the occasion) as fears of a Scottish invasion grew. Louis XI of
France had attempted to negotiate a military alliance with Scotland (in the tradition of
the "Auld Alliance"), with the aim of attacking England, according to a contemporary
French chronicler.[88] Richard had the authority to summon the Border Levies and issue
Commissions of Array to repel the Border raids. Together with the Earl of
Northumberland, he launched counter-raids, and when the king and council formally
declared war in November 1480, he was granted 10,000 pounds for wages. The king
failed to arrive to lead the English army and the result was intermittent skirmishing until
early 1482. Richard witnessed the treaty with Alexander, Duke of Albany, brother of
King James III of Scotland.[13] Northumberland, Stanley, Dorset, Sir Edward Woodville,
and Richard with approximately 20,000 men took the town of Berwick almost
immediately. The castle held until 24 August 1482, when Richard recaptured Berwick-
upon-Tweed from the Kingdom of Scotland. Although it is debatable whether the
English victory was due more to internal Scottish divisions rather than any outstanding
military prowess by Richard,[89] it was the last time that the Royal Burgh of Berwick
changed hands between the two realms.[90]

Lord Protector[edit]
On the death of Edward IV on 9 April 1483, his 12-year-old son, Edward V, succeeded
him. Richard was named Lord Protector of the Realm and at Baron Hastings' urging,
Richard assumed his role and left his base in Yorkshire for London. [91] On 29 April, as
previously agreed, Richard and his cousin, Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham,
met Queen Elizabeth's brother, Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, at Northampton. At the
queen's request, Earl Rivers was escorting the young king to London with an armed
escort of 2,000 men, while Richard and Buckingham's joint escort was 600 men.
[92]
 Edward V had been sent further south to Stony Stratford. At first convivial, Richard
had Earl Rivers, his nephew Richard Grey and his associate, Thomas Vaughan,
arrested. They were taken to Pontefract Castle, where they were executed on 25 June
on the charge of treason against the Lord Protector after appearing before a tribunal led
by Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland. Rivers had appointed Richard as executor
of his will.[93]
After having Rivers arrested, Richard and Buckingham moved to Stony Stratford, where
Richard informed Edward V of a plot aimed at denying him his role as protector and
whose perpetrators had been dealt with.[94] He proceeded to escort the king to London.
They entered the city on 4 May, displaying the carriages of weapons Rivers had taken
with his 2,000-man army. Richard first accommodated Edward in the Bishop's
apartments; then, on Buckingham's suggestion, the king was moved to the royal
apartments of the Tower of London, where kings customarily awaited their coronation.
[95]
 Within the year 1483, Richard had moved himself to the grandeur of Crosby Hall,
London, then in Bishopsgate in the City of London. Robert Fabyan, in his 'The new
chronicles of England and of France', writes that "the Duke caused the King (Edward V)
to be removed unto the Tower and his broder with hym, and the Duke lodged himselfe
in Crosbyes Place in Bisshoppesgate Strete." [96] In Holinshed's Chronicles of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, he accounts that "little by little all folke withdrew from the Tower,
and drew unto Crosbies in Bishops gates Street, where the Protector kept his houshold.
The Protector had the resort; the King in maner desolate." [97]
On hearing the news of her brother's 30 April arrest, the dowager queen fled to
sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Joining her were her son by her first
marriage, Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset; her five daughters; and her youngest
son, Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York.[98] On 10/11 June, Richard wrote to Ralph,
Lord Neville, the City of York and others asking for their support against "the Queen, her
blood adherents and affinity" whom he suspected of plotting his murder. [99] At a council
meeting on 13 June at the Tower of London, Richard accused Hastings and others of
having conspired against him with the Woodvilles and accusing Jane Shore, lover to
both Hastings and Thomas Grey, of acting as a go-between. According to Thomas
More, Hastings was taken out of the council chambers and summarily executed in the
courtyard, while others, like Lord Thomas Stanley and John Morton, Bishop of Ely, were
arrested.[100] Hastings was not attainted and Richard sealed an indenture that placed
Hastings' widow, Katherine, under his protection.[101] Bishop Morton was released into the
custody of Buckingham.[102] On 16 June, the dowager queen agreed to hand over the
Duke of York to the Archbishop of Canterbury so that he might attend his brother
Edward's coronation, still planned for 22 June. [103]

King of England[edit]

Silver groat of Richard III

Detail from the Rous Roll (1483) showing Richard with a sword in his right hand, a globus cruciger in his left, a
white boar (his heraldic badge) at his feet, framed by the crests and helms of England, Ireland,
Wales, Gascony-Guyenne, France and St. Edward the Confessor.[104]

Bishop Robert Stillington, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have informed
Richard that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid because of
Edward's earlier union with Eleanor Butler, making Edward V and his siblings
illegitimate. The identity of Stillington was known only through the memoirs of French
diplomat Philippe de Commines.[105] On 22 June, a sermon was preached outside Old St.
Paul's Cathedral by Ralph Shaa, declaring Edward IV's children bastards and Richard
the rightful king.[106] Shortly after, the citizens of London, both nobles and commons,
convened and drew up a petition asking Richard to assume the throne. [107] He accepted
on 26 June and was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 6 July. His title to the throne
was confirmed by Parliament in January 1484 by the document Titulus Regius.[108]
The princes, who were still lodged in the royal residence of the Tower of London at the
time of Richard's coronation, disappeared from sight after the summer of 1483.
[109]
 Although after his death Richard III was accused of having Edward and his brother
killed, notably by More and in Shakespeare's play, the facts surrounding their
disappearance remain unknown.[110] Other culprits have been suggested, including
Buckingham and even Henry VII, although Richard remains a suspect. [111]
After the coronation ceremony, Richard and Anne set out on a royal progress to meet
their subjects. During this journey through the country, the king and queen
endowed King's College and Queens' College at Cambridge University, and made
grants to the church.[112] Still feeling a strong bond with his northern estates, Richard later
planned the establishment of a large chantry chapel in York Minster with over 100
priests.[113] He also founded the College of Arms.[114][115]
Buckingham's rebellion of 1483[edit]
Further information: Buckingham's rebellion
In 1483, a conspiracy arose among a number of disaffected gentry, many of whom had
been supporters of Edward IV and the "whole Yorkist establishment". [116][117] The
conspiracy was nominally led by Richard's former ally, the Duke of Buckingham,
although it had begun as a Woodville-Beaufort conspiracy (being "well underway" by the
time of the Duke's involvement).[118][note 5] Davies has suggested that it was "only the
subsequent parliamentary attainder that placed Buckingham at the centre of events", to
blame a disaffected magnate motivated by greed, rather than "the embarrassing truth"
that those opposing Richard were actually "overwhelmingly Edwardian loyalists". [120] It is
possible that they planned to depose Richard III and place Edward V back on the
throne, and that when rumours arose that Edward and his brother were dead,
Buckingham proposed that Henry Tudor should return from exile, take the throne and
marry Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV. It has also been pointed out that as this
narrative stems from Richard's parliament of 1484, it should probably be treated "with
caution".[121] For his part, Buckingham raised a substantial force from his estates
in Wales and the Marches.[122] Henry, in exile in Brittany, enjoyed the support of the
Breton treasurer Pierre Landais, who hoped Buckingham's victory would cement an
alliance between Brittany and England.[123]
Some of Henry Tudor's ships ran into a storm and were forced to return to Brittany or
Normandy, while Henry anchored off Plymouth for a week before learning of
Buckingham's failure.[124][125] Buckingham's army was troubled by the same storm and
deserted when Richard's forces came against them. Buckingham tried to escape in
disguise, but was either turned in by a retainer for the bounty Richard had put on his
head, or was discovered in hiding with him.[126] He was convicted
of treason and beheaded in Salisbury, near the Bull's Head Inn, on 2 November.[127] His
widow, Catherine Woodville, later married Jasper Tudor, the uncle of Henry Tudor.
[128]
 Richard made overtures to Landais, offering military support for Landais's weak
regime under Francis II, Duke of Brittany, in exchange for Henry. Henry fled to Paris,
where he secured support from the French regent Anne of Beaujeu, who supplied
troops for an invasion in 1485.[129]
Death at the Battle of Bosworth Field[edit]
Main articles: Battle of Bosworth Field and Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of
England

Former memorial ledger stone to Richard III in the choir of Leicester Cathedral, since replaced by his stone
tomb (as illustrated further below)

On 22 August 1485, Richard met the outnumbered forces of Henry Tudor at the Battle
of Bosworth Field. Richard rode a white courser (an especially swift and strong horse).
[130]
 The size of Richard's army has been estimated at 8,000 and Henry's at 5,000, but
exact numbers are not known, though the royal army is believed to have "substantially"
outnumbered Henry's.[131] The traditional view of the king's famous cries of "Treason!"
before falling was that during the battle Richard was abandoned by Baron
Stanley (made Earl of Derby in October), Sir William Stanley, and Henry Percy, 4th Earl
of Northumberland.[132][133] The role of Northumberland is unclear; his position was with the
reserve—behind the king's line—and he could not easily have moved forward without a
general royal advance, which did not take place. [134] The physical confines behind the
crest of Ambion Hill, combined with a difficulty of communications, probably physically
hampered any attempt he made to join the fray.[135] Despite appearing "a pillar of the
Ricardian regime" and his previous loyalty to Edward IV, Baron Stanley was the
stepfather of Henry Tudor and Stanley's inaction combined with his brother's entering
the battle on Tudor's behalf was fundamental to Richard's defeat. [136][137][138][139] The death of
Richard's close companion John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, may have had a
demoralising effect on the king and his men. Either way, Richard led a cavalry charge
deep into the enemy ranks in an attempt to end the battle quickly by striking at Henry
Tudor.[140]
18th-century illustration of the death of Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field

All accounts note that King Richard fought bravely and ably during this manoeuvre,
unhorsing Sir John Cheyne, a well-known jousting champion, killing Henry's standard
bearer Sir William Brandon and coming within a sword's length of Henry Tudor before
being surrounded by Sir William Stanley's men and killed. [141] Polydore Vergil, Henry VII's
official historian, recorded that "King Richard, alone, was killed fighting manfully in the
thickest press of his enemies".[142] The Burgundian chronicler, Jean Molinet, states that a
Welshman struck the death-blow with a halberd while Richard's horse was stuck in the
marshy ground.[143] It was said that the blows were so violent that the king's helmet was
driven into his skull.[144] The contemporary Welsh poet Guto'r Glyn implies a leading
Welsh Lancastrian, Rhys ap Thomas, or one of his men killed the king, writing that he
"killed the boar, shaved his head".[143][145][146] The identification in 2013 of King Richard's
body shows that the skeleton had 11 wounds, eight of them to the skull, clearly inflicted
in battle and suggesting he had lost his helmet. [147] Professor Guy Rutty, from the
University of Leicester, said: "The most likely injuries to have caused the king's death
are the two to the inferior aspect of the skull—a large sharp force trauma possibly from
a sword or staff weapon, such as a halberd or bill, and a penetrating injury from the tip
of an edged weapon."[148] The skull showed that a blade had hacked away part of the
rear of the skull. Richard III was the last English king to be killed in battle. [149] Henry
Tudor succeeded Richard as King Henry VII. He married the Yorkist heiress Elizabeth
of York, Edward IV's daughter and Richard III's niece.
After the Battle of Bosworth, Richard's naked body was then carried back to Leicester
tied to a horse, and early sources strongly suggest that it was displayed in the
collegiate Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke,[150] prior to being
hastily and discreetly buried in the choir of Greyfriars Church in Leicester.[151][152][153] In
1495, Henry VII paid 50 pounds for a marble and alabaster monument. [152] According to a
discredited tradition, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, his body was thrown into
the River Soar,[154][155] although other evidence suggests that a memorial stone was visible
in 1612, in a garden built on the site of Greyfriars. [152] The exact location was then lost,
owing to more than 400 years of subsequent development, [156] until archaeological
investigations in 2012 revealed the site of the garden and Greyfriars Church. There was
a memorial ledger stone in the choir of the cathedral, since replaced by the tomb of the
king, and a stone plaque on Bow Bridge where tradition had falsely suggested that his
remains had been thrown into the river. [157]
According to another tradition, Richard consulted a seer in Leicester before the battle
who 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 Bow
Bridge in the city; legend states that as his corpse was carried from the battle over the
back of a horse, his head struck the same stone and was broken open. [158]

Issue[edit]
Richard and Anne had one son, Edward of Middleham, who was born between 1474
and 1476.[159][160] He was created Earl of Salisbury on 15 February 1478,[161] and Prince of
Wales on 24 August 1483, and died in March 1484, less than two months after he had
been formally declared heir apparent.[162] After the death of his son, Richard appointed
his nephew John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, as Lieutenant of Ireland, an office
previously held by his son Edward.[163] Lincoln was the son of Richard's older
sister, Elizabeth, Duchess of Suffolk. After his wife's death, Richard commenced
negotiations with John II of Portugal to marry John's pious sister, Joanna, Princess of
Portugal. She had already turned down several suitors because of her preference for
the religious life.[164]
Richard had two acknowledged illegitimate children, John of Gloucester and Katherine
Plantagenet. Also known as 'John of Pontefract', John of Gloucester was appointed
Captain of Calais in 1485. Katherine married William Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, in
1484. Neither the birth dates nor the names of the mothers of either of the children is
known. Katherine was old enough to be wedded in 1484, when the age of consent was
twelve, and John was knighted in September 1483 in York Minster, and so most
historians agree that they were both fathered when Richard was a teenager. [165][166] There
is no evidence of infidelity on Richard's part after his marriage to Anne Neville in 1472
when he was around 20.[167] This has led to a suggestion by the historian A. L.
Rowse that Richard "had no interest in sex". [168]
Michael Hicks and Josephine Wilkinson have suggested that Katherine's mother may
have been Katherine Haute, on the basis of the grant of an annual payment of 100
shillings made to her in 1477. The Haute family was related to the Woodvilles through
the marriage of Elizabeth Woodville's aunt, Joan Wydeville, to William Haute.[169] One of
their children was Richard Haute, Controller of the Prince's Household. Their daughter,
Alice, married Sir John Fogge; they were ancestors to Catherine Parr, sixth wife of King
Henry VIII.[170] They also suggest that John's mother may have been Alice Burgh.
Richard visited Pontefract from 1471, in April and October 1473, and in early March
1474, for a week. On 1 March 1474, he granted Alice Burgh 20 pounds a year for life
"for certain special causes and considerations". She later received another allowance,
apparently for being engaged as a nurse for his brother George's son, Edward of
Warwick. Richard continued her annuity when he became king. [171][172] John Ashdown-
Hill has suggested that John was conceived during Richard's first solo expedition to the
eastern counties in the summer of 1467 at the invitation of John Howard and that the
boy was born in 1468 and named after his friend and supporter. Richard himself noted
John was still a minor (not being yet 21) when he issued the royal patent appointing him
Captain of Calais on 11 March 1485, possibly on his seventeenth birthday. [165]
Both of Richard's illegitimate children survived him, but they seem to have died without
issue and their fate after Richard's demise at Bosworth is not certain. John received a
20 pound annuity from Henry VII, but there are no mentions of him in contemporary
records after 1487 (the year of the Battle of Stoke Field). He may have been executed
in 1499, though no record of this exists beyond an assertion by George Buck over a
century later.[173] Katherine apparently died before her cousin Elizabeth of York's
coronation on 25 November 1487, since her husband Sir William Herbert is described
as a widower by that time.[165][7] Katherine's burial place was located in the London parish
church of St James Garlickhithe,[note 6] between Skinner's Lane and Upper Thames Street.
[175]
 The mysterious Richard Plantagenet, who was first mentioned in Francis
Peck's Desiderata Curiosa (a two-volume miscellany published 1732–1735) was said to
be a possible illegitimate child of Richard III and is sometimes referred to as "Richard
the Master-Builder" or "Richard of Eastwell", but it has also been suggested he could
have been Richard, Duke of York, one of the missing Princes in the Tower. [176] He died in
1550.[177]

Legacy[edit]
Richard's Council of the North, described as his "one major institutional innovation",
derived from his ducal council following his own viceregal appointment by Edward IV;
when Richard himself became king, he maintained the same conciliar structure in his
absence.[178] It officially became part of the royal council machinery under the presidency
of John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln in April 1484, based at Sandal Castle in Wakefield.
[83]
 It is considered to have greatly improved conditions for northern England, as it was
intended to keep the peace and punish lawbreakers, as well as resolve land disputes.
[84]
 Bringing regional governance directly under the control of central government, it has
been described as the king's "most enduring monument", surviving unchanged until
1641.[84]
In December 1483, Richard instituted what later became known as the Court of
Requests, a court to which poor people who could not afford legal representation could
apply for their grievances to be heard.[179] He also improved bail in January 1484, to
protect suspected felons from imprisonment before trial and to protect their property
from seizure during that time.[180][181] He founded the College of Arms in 1484, [114][115] he
banned restrictions on the printing and sale of books, [182] and he ordered the translation
of the written Laws and Statutes from the traditional French into English. [183] During his
reign, Parliament ended the arbitrary benevolence (a device by which Edward IV raised
funds),[184][185] made it punishable to conceal from a buyer of land that a part of the
property had already been disposed of to somebody else, [186] required that land sales be
published,[186] laid down property qualifications for jurors, restricted the abusive Courts of
Piepowders,[187] regulated cloth sales,[188] instituted certain forms of trade protectionism,[189]
[190]
 prohibited the sale of wine and oil in fraudulent measure, [190] and prohibited fraudulent
collection of clergy dues,[190] among others. Churchill implies he improved the law of
trusts.[191]
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.[192] The last legitimate male
Plantagenet, Richard's nephew Edward, Earl of Warwick (son of his brother George,
Duke of Clarence), was executed by Henry VII in 1499. [193]
Reputation[edit]

Late 16th-century portrait, (oil on panel, National Portrait Gallery, London)

There are numerous contemporary, or near-contemporary, sources of information about

the reign of Richard III.[194] These include the Croyland Chronicle, Commines' Mémoires,
the report of Dominic Mancini, the Paston Letters, the Chronicles of Robert Fabyan and
numerous court and official records, including a few letters by Richard himself.
However, the debate about Richard's true character and motives continues, both
because of the subjectivity of many of the written sources, reflecting the generally
partisan nature of writers of this period, and because none was written by men with an
intimate knowledge of Richard.[195]
During Richard's reign, the historian John Rous praised him as a "good lord" who
punished "oppressors of the commons", adding that he had "a great heart". [196][197] In 1483,
the Italian observer Mancini reported that Richard enjoyed a good reputation and that
both "his private life and public activities powerfully attracted the esteem of strangers". [198]
[199]
 His bond to the City of York, in particular, was such that on hearing of Richard's
demise at the battle of Bosworth the City Council officially deplored the king's death, at
the risk of facing the victor's wrath.[200]
During his lifetime he was the subject of some attacks. Even in the North in 1482, a man
was prosecuted for offences against the Duke of Gloucester, saying he did "nothing but
grin at" the city of York. In 1484, attempts to discredit him took the form of hostile
placards, the only surviving one being William Collingbourne's lampoon of July 1484
"The Cat, the Rat, and Lovell the Dog, all rule England under a Hog" which was pinned
to the door of St. Paul's Cathedral and referred to Richard himself (the Hog) and his
most trusted councillors William Catesby, Richard Ratcliffe and Francis, Viscount Lovell.
[201]
 On 30 March 1485 Richard felt forced to summon the Lords and London City
Councillors to publicly deny the rumours that he had poisoned Queen Anne and that he
had planned a marriage to his niece Elizabeth, [202] at the same time ordering the Sheriff
of London to imprison anyone spreading such slanders. [203] The same orders were issued
throughout the realm, including York where the royal pronouncement recorded in the
City Records dates 5 April 1485 and carries specific instructions to suppress seditious
talk and remove and destroy evidently hostile placards unread. [204][205]
As for Richard's physical appearance, most contemporary descriptions bear out the
evidence that aside from having one shoulder higher than the other (with chronicler
Rous not able to correctly remember which one, as slight as the difference was),
Richard had no other noticeable bodily deformity. John Stow talked to old men who,
remembering him, said "that he was of bodily shape comely enough, only of low
stature"[206] and a German traveller, Nicolas von Poppelau, who spent ten days in
Richard's household in May 1484, describes him as "three fingers taller than
himself...much more lean, with delicate arms and legs and also a great heart." [207] Six
years after Richard's death, in 1491, a schoolmaster named William Burton, on hearing
a defence of Richard, launched into a diatribe, accusing the dead king of being "a
hypocrite and a crookback...who was deservedly buried in a ditch like a dog." [208]
Richard's death encouraged the furtherance of this later negative image by his Tudor
successors due to the fact that it helped to legitimise Henry VII's seizure of the throne.
[209]
 The Richard III Society contends that this means that "a lot of what people thought
they knew about Richard III was pretty much propaganda and myth building." [210] The
Tudor characterisation culminated in the famous fictional portrayal of him in
Shakespeare's play Richard III as a physically deformed, Machiavellian villain, ruthlessly
committing numerous murders in order to claw his way to power; [211] Shakespeare's
intention perhaps being to use Richard III as a vehicle for creating his
own Marlowesque protagonist.[212] Rous himself in his History of the Kings of England,
written during Henry VII's reign, initiated the process. He reversed his earlier position,
[213]
 and now portrayed Richard as a freakish individual who was born with teeth and
shoulder-length hair after having been in his mother's womb for two years. His body was
stunted and distorted, with one shoulder higher than the other, and he was "slight in
body and weak in strength".[214] Rous also attributes the murder of Henry VI to Richard,
and claims that he poisoned his own wife.[215] Jeremy Potter, a former Chair of the
Richard III Society, claims that "At the bar of history Richard III continues to be guilty
because it is impossible to prove him innocent. The Tudors ride high in popular
esteem."[216]
Polydore Vergil and Thomas More expanded on this portrayal, emphasising Richard's
outward physical deformities as a sign of his inwardly twisted mind. More describes him
as "little of stature, ill-featured of limbs, crook-backed ... hard-favoured of visage".
[197]
 Vergil also says he was "deformed of body ... one shoulder higher than the right".
[197]
 Both emphasise that Richard was devious and flattering, while planning the downfall
of both his enemies and supposed friends. Richard's good qualities were his cleverness
and bravery. All these characteristics are repeated by Shakespeare, who portrays him
as having a hunch, a limp and a withered arm. [217][218] With regard to the "hunch",
the second quarto edition of Richard III (1598) used the term "hunched-backed" but in
the First Folio edition (1623) it became "bunch-backed". [219]

A statue of Richard III now outside Leicester Cathedral

Richard's reputation as a promoter of legal fairness persisted, however. William

Camden in his Remains Concerning Britain (1605) states that Richard, "albeit he lived
wickedly, yet made good laws".[220] Francis Bacon also states that he was "a good
lawmaker for the ease and solace of the common people". [221] In 1525, Cardinal Wolsey
upbraided the aldermen and Mayor of London for relying on a statute of Richard to
avoid paying an extorted tax (benevolence) but received the reply "although he did evil,
yet in his time were many good acts made." [222][223]
Richard was a practising Catholic, as shown by his personal Book of Hours, surviving in
the Lambeth Palace library. As well as conventional aristocratic devotional texts, the
book contains a Collect of Saint Ninian, referencing a saint popular in the Anglo-Scottish
Borders.[224]
Despite this, the image of Richard as a ruthless tyrant remained dominant in the 18th
and 19th centuries. The 18th-century philosopher and historian David Hume described
him as a man who used dissimulation to conceal "his fierce and savage nature" and
who had "abandoned all principles of honour and humanity". [225] Hume acknowledged
that some historians have argued "that he was well qualified for government, had he
legally obtained it; and that he committed no crimes but such as were necessary to
procure him possession of the crown", but he dismissed this view on the grounds that
Richard's exercise of arbitrary power encouraged instability. [226] The most important late
19th century biographer of the king was James Gairdner, who also wrote the entry on
Richard in the Dictionary of National Biography.[227] Gairdner stated that he had begun to
study Richard with a neutral viewpoint, but became convinced that Shakespeare and
More were essentially correct in their view of the king, despite some exaggerations. [228]
Richard was not without his defenders, the first of whom was Sir George Buck, a
descendant of one of the king's supporters, who completed The history of King Richard
the Third in 1619.[229] The authoritative Buck text was published only in 1979, though a
corrupted version was published by Buck's great-nephew in 1646. [230] Buck attacked the
"improbable imputations and strange and spiteful scandals" related by Tudor writers,
including Richard's alleged deformities and murders. He located lost archival material,
including the Titulus Regius, but also claimed to have seen a letter written by Elizabeth
of York, according to which Elizabeth sought to marry the king. [231] Elizabeth's supposed
letter was never produced. Documents which later emerged from the Portuguese royal
archives show that after Queen Anne's death, Richard's ambassadors were sent on a
formal errand to negotiate a double marriage between Richard and the Portuguese
king's sister Joanna,[7] of Lancastrian descent,[232] and between Elizabeth of York and
Joanna's cousin Manuel, Duke of Viseu (later King of Portugal).[165]
Significant among Richard's defenders was Horace Walpole. In Historic Doubts on the
Life and Reign of King Richard the Third (1768), Walpole disputed all the alleged
murders and argued that Richard may have acted in good faith. He also argued that any
physical abnormality was probably no more than a minor distortion of the shoulders.
[233]
 However, he retracted his views in 1793 after the Terror, stating he now believed that
Richard could have committed the crimes he was charged with, [234] although Pollard
observes that this retraction is frequently overlooked by later admirers of Richard.
[235]
 Other defenders of Richard include the noted explorer Clements Markham,
whose Richard III: His Life and Character (1906) replied to the work of Gairdner. He
argued that Henry VII killed the princes and that the bulk of evidence against Richard
was nothing more than Tudor propaganda.[236] An intermediate view was provided by
Alfred Legge in The Unpopular King (1885). Legge argued that Richard's "greatness of
soul" was eventually "warped and dwarfed" by the ingratitude of others. [237]
Some 20th-century historians have been less inclined to moral judgement, [238] seeing
Richard's actions as a product of the unstable times. In the words of Charles Ross, "the
later fifteenth century in England is now seen as a ruthless and violent age as concerns
the upper ranks of society, full of private feuds, intimidation, land-hunger, and
litigiousness, and consideration of Richard's life and career against this background has
tended to remove him from the lonely pinnacle of Villainy Incarnate on which
Shakespeare had placed him. Like most men, he was conditioned by the standards of
his age."[239] The Richard III Society, founded in 1924 as "The Fellowship of the White
Boar", is the oldest of several groups dedicated to improving his reputation. Other
contemporary historians still describe him as a "power-hungry and ruthless politician"
who was still most probably "ultimately responsible for the murder of his nephews." [240][241]
In culture[edit]
Main article: Cultural depictions of Richard III of England

Cover of the 1594 quarto of the anonymous play, The True Tragedy of Richard III.

Richard III is the protagonist of Richard III, one of William Shakespeare's history/tragedy
plays. Apart from Shakespeare, he appears in many other works of literature. Two other
plays of the Elizabethan era predated Shakespeare's work. The Latin-language
drama Richardus Tertius (first known performance in 1580) by Thomas Legge is
believed to be the first history play written in England. The anonymous play The True
Tragedy of Richard III (c. 1590), performed in the same decade as Shakespeare's work,
was probably an influence on Shakespeare. [242] Neither of the two plays places any
emphasis on Richard's physical appearance, though the True Tragedy briefly mentions
that he is "A man ill shaped, crooked backed, lame armed" and "valiantly minded, but
tyrannous in authority". Both portray him as a man motivated by personal ambition, who
uses everyone around him to get his way. Ben Jonson is also known to have written a
play Richard Crookback in 1602, but it was never published and nothing is known about
its portrayal of the king.[243]
Marjorie Bowen's 1929 novel Dickon set the trend for pro-Ricardian literature.
[244]
 Particularly influential was The Daughter of Time (1951) by Josephine Tey, in which a
modern detective concludes that Richard III is innocent in the death of the Princes. [245][246]
[247]
 Other novelists such as Valerie Anand in the novel Crown of Roses (1989) have also
offered alternative versions to the theory that he murdered them. [248] Sharon Kay
Penman, in her historical novel The Sunne in Splendour, attributes the death of the
Princes to the Duke of Buckingham.[249] In the mystery novel The Murders of Richard
III by Elizabeth Peters (1974) the central plot revolves around the debate as to whether
Richard III was guilty of these and other crimes.[250] A sympathetic portrayal is given
in The Founding (1980), the first volume in The Morland Dynasty series by Cynthia
Harrod-Eagles.[251]
One film adaptation of Shakespeare's play Richard III is the 1955 version directed and
produced by Laurence Olivier, who also played the lead role.[252][253] Also notable are
the 1995 film version starring Ian McKellen, set in a fictional 1930s fascist England,[254]
[255]
 and Looking for Richard, a 1996 documentary film directed by Al Pacino, who plays
the title character as well as himself.[256][257] The play has been adapted for television on
several occasions.[258][259][260]

Discovery of remains[edit]
Main article: Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England
On 24 August 2012, the University of Leicester, Leicester City Council and the Richard
III Society, announced that they were going to look for the remains of King Richard. The
search was managed by Philippa Langley of the Society's Looking For Richard Project
with the archaeology run by University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS).[261][262]
[263][264][265]
 The participants looked for the lost site of the former Greyfriars Church
(demolished during Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries) to find his remains.[266]
[267]
 By comparing fixed points between maps in a historical sequence, the church was
found, where Richard's body had been hastily buried without pomp in 1485, its
foundations identifiable beneath a modern city centre car park. [268] In 1975 Audrey
Strange of the Richard III Society predicted that the lost grave lay beneath one of the
three car parks that partly cover the site of the former Grey Friars Priory. [269] A decade
later, in the mid 1980s, academic David Baldwin, a medieval historian formerly of
Leicester University, concluded that the burial site lay further to the east, beneath the
northern (St Martin's) end of Grey Friars Street, or the buildings that face it on either
side.[154][270]

Site of Greyfriars Church, Leicester, shown superimposed over a modern map of the area. The skeleton of
Richard III was recovered in September 2012 from the centre of the choir, shown by a small blue dot.
The diggers found Greyfriars Church by 5 September 2012 and two days later
announced that they had found Robert Herrick's garden, where the memorial to Richard
III stood in the early 17th century.[271][272] A human skeleton was found beneath the
Church's choir.[273]
Improbably, the excavators found the remains in the first dig at the car park.[274][275][276]

Skeleton as discovered

On 12 September, it was announced that the skeleton discovered during the search
might be that of Richard III. Several reasons were given: the body was of an adult male;
it was buried beneath the choir of the church; and there was severe scoliosis of the
spine, possibly making one shoulder[271] higher than the other (to what extent depended
on the severity of the condition). Additionally, there was an object that appeared to be
an arrowhead embedded in the spine; and there were perimortem injuries to the skull.
These included a relatively shallow orifice, which is most likely to have been caused by
a rondel dagger, and a scooping depression to the skull, inflicted by a bladed weapon,
most probably a sword.
Further, the bottom of the skull presented a gaping hole, where a halberd had cut away
and entered it. Forensic pathologist Stuart Hamilton stated that this injury would have
left the individual's brain visible, and most certainly would have been the cause of death.
Jo Appleby, the osteo-archaeologist who excavated the skeleton, concurred and
described the latter as "a mortal battlefield wound in the back of the skull". The base of
the skull also presented another fatal wound in which a bladed weapon had been thrust
into it, leaving behind a jagged hole. Closer examination of the interior of the skull
revealed a mark opposite this wound, showing that the blade penetrated to a depth of
10.5 centimetres (4.1 in).[277]
In total, the skeleton presented ten wounds: four minor injuries on the top of the skull,
one dagger blow on the cheekbone, one cut on the lower jaw, two fatal injuries on the
base of the skull, one cut on a rib bone, and one final wound on the pelvis, most
probably inflicted after death. It is generally accepted that postmortem, Richard's naked
body was tied to the back of a horse, with his arms slung over one side and his legs and
buttocks over the other. This presented a tempting target for onlookers, and the angle of
the blow on the pelvis suggests that one of them stabbed Richard's right buttock with
substantial force, as the cut extends from the back all the way to the front of the pelvic
bone and was most probably an act of humiliation. It is also possible that Richard and
his corpse suffered other injuries which left no trace on the skeleton. [278][279][280]
British historian John Ashdown-Hill had used genealogical research in 2004 to
trace matrilineal descendants of Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter, Richard's elder
sister.[281][282][283][284] A British-born woman who emigrated to Canada after the Second World
War, Joy Ibsen (née Brown), was found to be a 16th-generation great-niece of the king
in the same direct maternal line.[285][286] Her mitochondrial DNA was tested and belongs
to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup J, which by deduction, should also be the
mitochondrial DNA haplogroup of Richard III. [165][287] Joy Ibsen died in 2008. Her
son Michael Ibsen gave a mouth-swab sample to the research team on 24 August 2012.
His mitochondrial DNA passed down the direct maternal line was compared to samples
from the human remains found at the excavation site and used to identify King Richard.
[288][289][290][291]

On 4 February 2013, the University of Leicester confirmed that the skeleton was beyond
reasonable doubt that of King Richard III. This conclusion was based on mitochondrial
DNA evidence,[292] soil analysis, and dental tests (there were some molars missing as a
result of caries), as well as physical characteristics of the skeleton which are highly
consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance. [293] The team
announced that the "arrowhead" discovered with the body was a Roman-era nail,
probably disturbed when the body was first interred. However, there were numerous
perimortem wounds on the body, and part of the skull had been sliced off with a bladed
weapon;[210] this would have caused rapid death. The team concluded that it is unlikely
that the king was wearing a helmet in his last moments. Soil taken from the remains
was found to contain microscopic roundworm eggs. Several eggs were found in
samples taken from the pelvis, where the king's intestines were, but not from the skull
and only very small numbers were identified in soil surrounding the grave. The findings
suggest that the higher concentration of eggs in the pelvic area probably arose from a
roundworm infection the king suffered in his life, rather than from human waste dumped
in the area at a later date, researchers said. The mayor of Leicester announced that the
king's skeleton would be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral in early 2014, but a judicial
review of that decision delayed the reinterment for a year. [294] A museum to Richard
III was opened in July 2014 in the Victorian school buildings next to the Greyfriars grave
site.[282][292][295]
On 5 February 2013 Professor Caroline Wilkinson of the University of
Dundee conducted a facial reconstruction of Richard III, commissioned by the Richard
III Society, based on 3D mappings of his skull.[296] The face is described as "warm,
young, earnest and rather serious".[297] On 11 February 2014 the University of Leicester
announced the project to sequence the entire genome of Richard III and one of his
living relatives, Michael Ibsen, whose mitochondrial DNA confirmed the identification of
the excavated remains. Richard III thus became the first ancient person of known
historical identity whose genome has been sequenced. [298]
In November 2014, the results of the DNA testing were published, confirming that the
maternal side was as previously thought.[287] The paternal side, however, demonstrated
some variance from what had been expected, with the DNA showing no links between
Richard and Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort, a purported descendant of
Richard's great-great-grandfather Edward III of England. This could be the result of
covert illegitimacy that does not reflect the accepted genealogies between Edward III
and either Richard III or the 5th Duke of Beaufort. [287][299][300]
Reburial and tomb[edit]

Tomb of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral, with his motto Loyaulte me lie (loyalty binds me) at right

After his death in battle in 1485, Richard III's body was buried in Greyfriars Church in
Leicester.[7] Following the discoveries of Richard's remains in 2012, it was decided that
they should be reburied at Leicester Cathedral, [301] despite feelings in some quarters that
he should have been reburied in York Minster. [302] Those who challenged the decision
included fifteen "collateral [non-direct] descendants of Richard III", [303] represented by
the Plantagenet Alliance, who believed that the body should be reburied in York, as they
claim the king wished.[304] In August 2013, they filed a court case in order to contest
Leicester's claim to re-inter the body within its cathedral, and propose the body be
buried in York instead. However, Michael Ibsen, who gave the DNA sample that
identified the king, gave his support to Leicester's claim to re-inter the body in their
cathedral.[304] On 20 August, a judge ruled that the opponents had the legal standing to
contest his burial in Leicester Cathedral, despite a clause in the contract which had
authorized the excavations requiring his burial there. He urged the parties, though, to
settle out of court in order to "avoid embarking on the Wars of the Roses, Part Two". [305]
[306]
 The Plantagenet Alliance, and the supporting fifteen collateral descendants, also
faced the challenge that "Basic maths shows Richard, who had no surviving children but
five siblings, could have millions of 'collateral' descendants" [303] undermining the group's
claim to represent "the only people who can speak on behalf of him". [303] A ruling in May
2014 decreed that there are "no public law grounds for the Court interfering with the
decisions in question".[307] The remains were taken to Leicester Cathedral on 22 March
2015 and reinterred on 26 March.[308]
His remains were carried in procession to the cathedral on 22 March 2015, and reburied
on 26 March 2015[309] at a religious re-burial service at which both Tim Stevens,
the Bishop of Leicester, and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated.
The British royal family was represented by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and
the Countess of Wessex. The actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who later portrayed him
in The Hollow Crown television series, read a poem by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy.[260]
[310]

Richard's cathedral tomb was designed by the architects van Heyningen and Haward.
[311]
 The tombstone is deeply incised with a cross, and consists of a rectangular block of
white Swaledale fossil stone, quarried in North Yorkshire. It sits on a low plinth made of
dark Kilkenny marble, incised with Richard's name, dates and motto (Loyaulte me lie –
loyalty binds me). The plinth also carries his coat of arms in pietra dura.[312] On top is a
funeral crown commissioned specifically for the reinterment, and made by George
Easton.[313] The remains of Richard III are in a lead-lined inner casket, [314] inside an
outer English oak coffin crafted by Michael Ibsen, a direct descendant of Richard's sister
Anne, and laid in a brick-lined vault below the floor, and below the plinth and tombstone.
[312]
 The original 2010 raised tomb design had been proposed by Langley's "Looking For
Richard Project" and fully funded by members of the Richard III Society. The proposal
was publicly launched by the Society on 13 February 2013 but rejected by Leicester
Cathedral in favour of a memorial slab. [315][316][317] However, following a public outcry, the
Cathedral changed its position and on 18 July 2013 announced its agreement to give
King Richard III a raised tomb monument. [318][319]

Titles, styles, honours and arms[edit]

Bronze boar mount found on the Thames foreshore, and thought to have been worn by a supporter of Richard
III.[320]

Arms as duke

On 1 November 1461, Richard gained the title of Duke of Gloucester; in late 1461, he
was invested as a Knight of the Garter.[321] Following the death of King Edward IV, he
was made Lord Protector of England. Richard held this office from 30 April to 26 June
1483, when he became king. During his reign, Richard was styled Dei Gratia Rex
Angliae et Franciae et Dominus Hiberniae (by the Grace of God, King of England and
France and Lord of Ireland).
Informally, he may have been known as "Dickon", according to a sixteenth-century
legend of a note, warning of treachery, that was sent to the Duke of Norfolk on the eve
of Bosworth:
Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold,
For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold. [322]

Arms[edit]
As Duke of Gloucester, Richard used the Royal Arms of England quartered with
the Royal Arms of France, differenced by a label argent of three points ermine, on each
point a canton gules, supported by a blue boar.[323][324] As sovereign, he used the arms of
the kingdom undifferenced, supported by a white boar and a lion. [324] His motto
was Loyaulte me lie, "Loyalty binds me"; and his personal device was a white boar.[325]

Family trees[edit]
show

 v
 t
 e
 Family tree of
the Dukes of
Gloucester, Dukes
of Edinburgh, and
the Dukes of
Gloucester and
Edinburgh

show

 v
 t
 e
English
royal
families in
the Wars
of the
Roses

See also[edit]
 King Richard III Visitor Centre, Leicester
 Ricardian (Richard III)
 Richard III Museum, York

Explanatory notes[edit]
 1. ^ "From November 1461 until 1465 all references to Richard
place him in locations south of the river Trent. It may have
been partly to appease Warwick's injured feelings towards the
rising influence of the king's new Woodville in-laws that he
was given the honour of taking Richard into his household to
complete his education, probably at some time in 1465". [12]
2. ^ As late as 1469 rumours were still linking Richard's name
with Anne Neville's. In August of that year, by which time
Clarence had married Isabel, an Italian observer in London
mistakenly reported that Warwick had married his two
daughters to the king's brothers (Cal. Milanese Papers, I, pp.
118–120).
3. ^ Says Kendall, "Richard had won his way back to Middleham
Castle". However, any personal attachment he may have felt
to Middleham was likely mitigated in his adulthood, as
surviving records demonstrate he spent less time there than
at Barnard Castle and Pontefract." "No great magnate or royal
duke in the fifteenth century had a 'home' in the twentieth-
century sense of the word. Richard of Gloucester formed no
more of a personal attachment to Middleham than he did to
Barnard Castle or Pontefract, at both of which surviving
records suggest he spent more time."[48]
4. ^ Hanham has raised "the charge of hypocrisy", [80] suggesting
"that Richard would 'grin' at the city", and questioning whether
he was either as popular or as devoted to the region as
sometimes thought.[80]
5. ^ Rosemary Horrox notes that "Buckingham was an exception
amongst the rebels as, far from being a previous favourite, he
'had been refused any political role by Edward IV'." [119]
6. ^ Specifically, in the Vinter's Hall, Thameside.[174]

References[edit]
Citations[edit]
1. ^ Carson, Ashdown-Hill, Johnson, Johnson & Langley, p. 8.
2. ^ Baldwin (2013).
3. ^ Pollard (2000), p. 15.
4. ^ Ross (1974), pp. 3–5.
5. ^ Pollard (2008).
6. ^ Griffiths (2008).
7. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Horrox (2013).
8. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 41–42.
9. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 40.
10. ^ Scofield (2016), p. 216, n.6, quoting Tellers' Roll, Mich. 5
Edw. IV (no. 36), m. 2.
11. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 34–44, 74.
12. ^ Baldwin (2013), pp. 36–37, 240.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b Ross (1974), p. 9.
14. ^ Licence (2013), p. 63.
15. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 16–17.
16. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 68.
17. ^ Hicks (1980), p. 45.
18. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 522.
19. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 87–89.
20. ^ "Spine".  The Discovery of Richard III.  University of
Leicester. Retrieved  5 February  2013. A very pronounced
curve in the spine was visible when the body was first
uncovered, evidence of scoliosis which may have meant that
Richard's right shoulder was noticeably higher than his
left....The type of scoliosis seen here is known as idiopathic
adolescent onset scoliosis. The word idiopathic means that
the reason for its development is not entirely clear, although
there is probably a genetic component. The term adolescent
onset indicates that the deformity wasn't present at birth, but
developed after the age of ten. It is quite possible that the
scoliosis was progressive...
21. ^ "Richard III: Team rebuilds 'most famous spine'".  BBC
News. London. 29 May 2014. Retrieved  7 December  2014.
22. ^ Duffin, Claire (17 August 2014).  "Richard III, the 'hunchback
king', really could have been a formidable warrior... and his
body double can prove it". The Daily Telegraph.
London. Archived from the original on 10 January 2022.
Retrieved 24 November 2018.
23. ^ "Timeline".  Richard III: Rumour and Reality. Institute for the
Public Understanding of the Past,  University of York.
Retrieved 8 July  2014.
24. ^ Jump up to:a b Hicks (2006).
25. ^ Jump up to:a b Ross (1981), p. 21.
26. ^ Ross (1974), p. 27.
27. ^ Hicks (1980), p. 115. The East Anglian Paston family have
left historians a rich source of historical information for the
lives of the English gentry of the period in a large collection of
surviving letters.
28. ^ Hicks (2009), pp. 81–82.
29. ^ Riley (1908), p. 470.
30. ^ Kendall (1956).
31. ^ Baldwin (2013), p. 58.
32. ^ "Northern Properties and Influence".  Richard III: Rumour
and Reality. Institute for the Public Understanding of the
Past, University of York. CPR 1467–77, p. 260. Retrieved 7
September  2014.
33. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 128.
34. ^ Clarke (2005), p. 1023. "In fact, [Richard and Anne] had
sought a dispensation to marry from the penitentiary in early
1472, for it was granted on 22 April that year, and they
probably married shortly afterwards."
35. ^ Barnfield (2007), p. 85.
36. ^ Cobbett (1807), p. 431.
37. ^ Ross (1974), p. 190.
38. ^ Ross (1981), p. 30.
39. ^ Given-Wilson et al. (2005), "Edward IV: October 1472,
Second Roll", items 20–24.
40. ^ Ross (1981), p. 31.
41. ^ Hicks (1980), p. 132.
42. ^ Hicks (1980), p. 146.
43. ^ Ross (1981), p. 6.
44. ^ Ross (1981), p. 9.
45. ^ Ross (1974), p. 136.
46. ^ Hicks (2001), p. 74.
47. ^ Hicks (2001), p. 82.
48. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 125.
49. ^ Hicks (2009), p. 75.
50. ^ Hicks (2004). "After 1466 Clarence was not the ally for
which Edward IV had presumably hoped. He embroiled
himself in a dangerous feud in the north midlands and
associated himself politically with Warwick, who graduated
from direction of Edward's affairs in the early 1460s to outright
opposition."
51. ^ Ross (1974), p. 152.
52. ^ Ross (1981), p. 19.
53. ^ Lulofs (1974).
54. ^ Ross (1974), p. 155.
55. ^ Ross (1974), p. 153.
56. ^ Ross (1974), p. 159.
57. ^ Ross (1974), p. 160.
58. ^ Ross (1974), p. 161.
59. ^ Ross (1974), p. 163.
60. ^ Ross (1981), p. 20.
61. ^ Hicks (2009), p. 98.
62. ^ Gillingham (1981), p. 191.
63. ^ Horrox (1989), p. 41.
64. ^ Ross (1974), p. 164.
65. ^ Kinross (1979), p. 89.
66. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 93–99.
67. ^ Ross (1981), p. 22.
68. ^ Gillingham (1981), p. 206.
69. ^ Ross (1981), p. 22, citing 'The Arrivall'.
70. ^ Ross (1974), p. 172.
71. ^ Ross (1974), p. 206.
72. ^ Ross (1974), p. 223.
73. ^ Grant (1993), p. 116.
74. ^ Jump up to:a b Ross (1981), p. 34.
75. ^ Ross (1974), p. 230.
76. ^ Ross (1974), p. 233.
77. ^ Hampton (1975), p. 10.
78. ^ Hicks (2009), p. 57.
79. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 132,133,154.
80. ^ Jump up to:a b Hanham (1975), p. 64.
81. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 156.
82. ^ Booth (1997).
83. ^ Jump up to:a b Ross (1981), p. 182.
84. ^ Jump up to:a b c Ross (1981), p. 183.
85. ^ Scofield (2016), p. 534.
86. ^ Ferguson (1890), p. 238.
87. ^ Lysons & Lysons (1816), "Parishes: Newton-Regny –
Ponsonby", pp. 142–150.
88. ^ Ross (1974), p. 278, citing Phillipe de Commynes
89. ^ Ross (1981), p. 143, n. 53. However, Ross cites a letter
from Edward IV in May 1480, the letter of appointment to his
position as Lieutenant-General referred to his "proven
capacity in the arts of war".
90. ^ Ross (1981), pp. 44–47.
91. ^ Baldwin (2013), p. 95.
92. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 207–210.
93. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 252–254.
94. ^ Baldwin (2013), p. 96citing Mancini.
95. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 162–163.
96. ^ "Robert Fabyan: 'The Concordaunce of Hystoryes' | Richard
III Society – American Branch". Retrieved  13 May  2020.
97. ^ "The history of Crosby Place | British History
Online".  www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
98. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 212–213.
99. ^ Baldwin (2013), p. 99.
100. ^ Horrox (2004).
101. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 209–210.
102. ^ Chrimes (1999), p. 20.
103. ^ Baldwin (2013), p. 101.
104. ^ Rous (1980), p. 63.
105. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 215–216.
106. ^ Hicks (2001), p. 117.
107. ^ Wood (1975), pp. 269–270, quoting a letter of instruction
sent to Lord Mountjoy two days following Richard's
assumption of the throne. Wood goes on to observe that "the
impressions conveyed by this document are in many respects
demonstrably false."[better  source  needed]
108. ^ Given-Wilson et al. (2005), "Richard III: January 1484",
item 5.
109. ^ Grummitt (2013), p. 116.
110. ^ Ross (1981), pp. 96–104.
111. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 487–489.
112. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 290.
113. ^ Jones (2014), pp. 96–97.
114. ^ Jump up to:a b Wagner (1967), p. 130.
115. ^ Jump up to:a b "History". College of Arms. Archived from
the original on 1 June 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2018.  In
1484 [the Royal heralds] were granted a charter of
incorporation by Richard III, and given a house in
Coldharbour in Upper Thames Street, London to keep their
records in.
116. ^ Ross (1981), p. 105.
117. ^ Hicks (2009), p. 211.
118. ^ Ross (1981), p. 111.
119. ^ Horrox (1989), p. 132.
120. ^ Davies (2011).
121. ^ Horrox (1989), p. 153.
122. ^ Ross (1981), pp. 105–119.
123. ^ Costello (1855), pp. 17–18, 43–44.
124. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 274.
125. ^ Chrimes (1999), p. 26, n. 2.
126. ^ Chrimes (1999), p. 25, n. 5.
127. ^ Chrimes (1999), pp. 25–26.
128. ^ Davies (2011). "Following Bosworth, Katherine Stafford
was married, by 7 November 1485, to the new king's 55-year-
old bachelor uncle, Jasper Tudor, now duke of Bedford."
129. ^ Chrimes (1999), pp. 29–30.
130. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 365.
131. ^ Jones (2014).
132. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 367.
133. ^ Chrimes (1999), p. 55.
134. ^ Ross (1981), p. 218. "Northumberland's rearguard was
never seriously engaged, nor could be, whatever the
proclivities of its commander".
135. ^ Ross (1981), p. 222.
136. ^ Bennett (2008).
137. ^ Bennett (2008). "Sir William Stanley was among the first
to rally to Edward, and he may have brought [Thomas
Stanley]'s good wishes with him ... Appointed steward of the
king's household late in 1471, [Thomas Stanley] was
thenceforward a regular member of the royal council.
138. ^ Ross (1981), p. 186.
139. ^ Gillingham (1981), p. 244.
140. ^ Ross (1981), pp. 218, 222.
141. ^ Ross (1981), pp. 223–224.
142. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 368.
143. ^ Jump up to:a b Griffiths (1993), p. 43.
144. ^ Penn (2013), p. 9.
145. ^ Rees (2008), p. 211. "The original Welsh is 'Lladd y
baedd, eilliodd ei ben'. The usual meaning of eilliodd is
'shaved', which might mean 'chopped off' or 'sliced'"
146. ^ Thomas, Jeffrey L. (2009). "Sir Rhys ap
Thomas". Castles of Wales Website.  Archived  from the
original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
147. ^ Watson, Greig (4 February 2013). "Richard III dig: Grim
clues to the death of a king".  BBC News. London.
Retrieved 3 December 2014.
148. ^ "Richard III died in battle after losing helmet, new
research shows". The Guardian. London. Press Association.
16 September 2014. Retrieved  18 September 2018.
149. ^ "King Richard III killed by blows to skull". BBC News.
London. 17 September 2014. Retrieved  3 December  2014.
150. ^ Ashdown-Hill et al. (2014).
151. ^ Ashdown-Hill (2013), p. 94.
152. ^ Jump up to:a b c Baldwin (1986), pp. 21–22.
153. ^ Schürer, Kevin. "The King in the Car Park: The Discovery
and Identification of Richard III - Professor Kevin
Schürer".  Youtube. Retrieved  7 May 2022.  22:53-23:33
154. ^ Jump up to:a b Baldwin (1986).
155. ^ "'Strong evidence' Richard III's body has been found –
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156. ^ Baldwin (1986), p. 24.
157. ^ Ashdown-Hill (2015).
158. ^ "Legends about the Battle of Bosworth". Richard III
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159. ^ Ross (1981), p. 29, n. 2. "1476".
160. ^ Pollard (2004). "Although [Edward's date of birth] is
usually attributed to 1474, the Tewkesbury chronicle records
the birth of an unnamed son at Middleham in 1476."
161. ^ Ross (1981), p. 33.
162. ^ Pollard (2004). "The child Edward ... was created prince
of Wales on 24 August [1483]. ... He was formally declared
heir apparent to the throne in parliament in February 1484. ...
by the end of March 1484 the prince was dead."
163. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 349–350, 563.
164. ^ Williams (1983).
165. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Ashdown-Hill (2013).
166. ^ Baldwin (2013), p. 42.
167. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 387.
168. ^ Rowse (1966), p. 190.
169. ^ "Haute, William (d.1462), of Bishopsbourne,
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170. ^ Paget (1977).
171. ^ Hicks (2009), pp. 156–158.
172. ^ Wilkinson (2008), pp. 228–229, 235–254.
173. ^ Given-Wilson & Curteis (1984), p. 161.
174. ^ Barron (2004), p. 420.
175. ^ Steer (2014).
176. ^ Baldwin (2007).
177. ^ Andrews (2000), p. 90.
178. ^ Ross (1981), p. 181.
179. ^ Kleineke (2007).
180. ^ Ross (1981), p. 188.
181. ^ Higginbotham, Susan (16 December 2008).  "Richard III
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182. ^ Woodger, Douglas (September 1997). "The Statutes of
King Richard III's Parliament". Richard III Society of Canada.
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183. ^ Cheetham & Fraser (1972).
184. ^ Maureen Jurkowski; Carrie L. Smith; David Crook
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185. ^ Hanbury (1962), p. 106.
186. ^ Jump up to:a b Kendall (1956), p. 340.
187. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 341.
188. ^ Hanbury (1962), p. 109.
189. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 343.
190. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hanbury (1962).
191. ^ Churchill (1956), pp. 360–361.
192. ^ "Who Was Richard III?".  The Discovery of Richard
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193. ^ Chrimes (1999), p. 92. "Tudor reason of State had
claimed the first of its many victims."
194. ^ "Back to Basics for Newcomers". Richard III Society,
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195. ^ Hanham (1975).
196. ^ John Rous in Hanham (1975), p. 121.
197. ^ Jump up to:a b c Ross (1981), pp. xxii–xxiv.
198. ^ Langley & Jones (2013).
199. ^ Kendall (1956), pp. 150–151, quoting from Mancini's De
Occupatione Regni Anglie per Riccardum Tercium: "After the
death of Clarence, he [Richard] came very rarely to court. He
kept himself within his own lands and set out to acquire the
loyalty of his people through favours and justice. The good
reputation of his private life and public activities powerfully
 attracted the esteem of strangers. Such was his renown in
warfare, that whenever a difficult and dangerous policy had to
be undertaken, it would be entrusted to his direction and his
generalship. By these arts Richard acquired the favour of the
people and avoided the jealousy of the queen, from whom he
lived far separated."
200. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 444. "The day after the battle, John
Sponer galloped into York to bring news of King Richard's
overthrow...to the Mayor and Aldermen hastily assembled in
the council chamber", "it was showed by...John Spooner...that
king Richard, late mercifully reigning upon us, was through
great treason piteously slain and murdered, to the great
heaviness of this City". York Records, p. 218.
201. ^ Hicks (2009), pp. 237–238.
202. ^ Cheetham & Fraser (1972), pp. 175–176.
203. ^ Kendall (1956), p. 395, quoting from the court minutes of
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204. ^ Hicks (2009), pp. 238–239.
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Why, Love forswore me in my mother's womb,

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remains of King Richard III".  Nature Communications.  5. Article
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5631.  Bibcode:2014NatCo...5.5631K.  doi:10.1038/ncomms6631. PMC 
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 Kinross, John (1979).  The Battlefields of Britain. Newton Abbot,
England: David & Charles.  ISBN  9780882544830.
 Kleineke, Hannes (2007).  "Richard III and the Origins of the Court of
Requests"  (PDF).  The Ricardian. 17: 22–32.
 Langley, Philippa & Jones, Michael (2013).  The King's Grave: The
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Richard III. Vol. 1. London: Ward & Downey. Retrieved 7
December 2018 – via the  Internet Archive.
 Licence, Amy (2013).  Anne Neville: Richard III's Tragic Queen. Stroud,
England: Amberley.  ISBN  9781445611532.
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9–11.
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145.  JSTOR  43796785.
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Further reading[edit]
  Bowen, Marjorie (2014) [1st pub. 1929].  Dickon. Project
Gutenberg Australia. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
 Carson, Annette (2009).  Richard III: The Maligned King. Stroud,
England: History Press. ISBN 9780752452081.
 Carson, Annette (2015).  Richard Duke of Gloucester as Lord
Protector and High Constable of England. Horstead, England:
Imprimis Imprimatur.  ISBN  9780957684041.
 Dockray, Keith (1997). Richard III: A Sourcebook. Stroud,
England: Sutton. ISBN 978-0750914796.
 Dockray, Keith; Hammond, Peter W. (2013).  Richard III: From
Contemporary Chronicles, Letters and Records (rev.  ed.). Stroud,
England: Fonthill Media.  ISBN  9781781553138.
 Drewett, Richard; Redhead, Mark (1984). The Trial of Richard III.
Stroud, England: Sutton. ISBN 9780862991982.
 England, Barbara, ed. (1986).  Richard III and the North of
England. University of Hull. ISBN 978-0859580311.
 Fields, Bertram (1998). Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery
of the Princes. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060392697.
 Greyfriars Research Team;  Kennedy, Maev;  Foxhall,
Lin  (2015). The Bones of a King: Richard III Rediscovered.
Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781118783146.
 Hammond, Peter W.; Sutton, Anne (1985). Richard III: The Road
to Bosworth Field. London: Constable.  ISBN  978-0094661608.
 Hancock, Peter A. (2011).  Richard III and the Murder in the
Tower  (reprint ed.). Stroud, England: History
Press. ISBN 9780752457970.
 Horspool, David  (2015). Richard III: A Ruler and his Reputation.
London: Bloomsbury Press.  ISBN  978-1620405093.
 Kendall, Paul Murray  (1992). Richard III: The Great Debate. New
York: W. W. Norton.  ISBN  978-0393003109.
 Lamb, V. B. (2015).  The Betrayal of Richard III. Revised by
Hammond, Peter W. Stroud, England: History
Press. ISBN 9780750962995.
 Markham, Clements R. (1906).  Richard III: His Life and
Character, Reviewed in the Light of Recent Research. London:
Smith, Elder.  OCLC 3306738. OL  6982482M. Retrieved  4
December 2018 – via the  Internet Archive.
 Seward, Desmond (1997).  Richard III: England's Black Legend.
London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0140266344.
 Sutton, Anne.  "Richard III: His Parliament". Richard III Society.
Retrieved 11 December 2018.
 Sutton, Anne; Hammond, Peter W. (1984). The Coronation of
Richard III: The Extant Documents. New York: St
Martin's.  ISBN  978-0312169794.
 Sutton, Anne; Visser-Fuchs, Livia (1997).  Richard III's Books.
Stroud, England: Sutton. ISBN 978-0750914062.
 Weir, Alison (1995). The Princes in the Tower. New York:
Ballantine Books.  ISBN  978-0345391780.
 Wood, Charles T. (1991). Joan of Arc and Richard III: Sex, Saints,
and Government in the Middle Ages. Oxford University
Press. ISBN 978-0195069518.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Richard III of England.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Richard III of England.

 King Richard III Visitor Centre, Leicester

 The Richard III Society website
 The Richard III Society, American Branch website
 Information about the discovery of Richard III  from
the University of Leicester
 Portraits of Richard III at the Wayback
Machine (archived 20 July 2006), with commentary
by Pamela Tudor-Craig

Richard III of England

House of York
Cadet branch of the House of Plantagenet
Born: 2 October 1452 Died: 22 August 1485

Regnal titles
King of England
Preceded by Succeeded by
Lord of Ireland
Edward V Henry VII
1483–1485

Military offices
Preceded by Lord High Admiral Succeeded by
The Earl of Kent 1462–1470 The Earl of Warwick
Preceded by Lord High Admiral Succeeded by
The Earl of Warwick 1471–1483 The Duke of Norfolk

Political offices
Preceded by Lord High Constable Succeeded by
The Earl Rivers 1469–1470 The Earl of Oxford
Preceded by Lord High Constable Succeeded by
The Earl of Oxford 1471–1483 The Duke of Buckingham

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