I wrote this for my college English lit research paper (for which I received an A+!)...I still find Richard's story fascinating. Given our modern media's propensity to "slant a story," it shouldn't surprise me that the same could be true hundreds of years ago. I hope you enjoy...
Richard
III: Historical Enigma
"I
am a villain: yet I lie, I am
not...every tongue brings in a different tale, and every tale condemns me for a
villain. Perjury, in the highest degree."
So
speaks Shakespeare's King Richard in the most famous characterization of the
Yorkist king who ruled England
from 1483 to 1485. Richard III's short
reign, however, is not the reason for his fame.
Richard is best remembered as a diabolical hunchback who murdered his
way to the throne. The question of
Richard's guilt or innocence in the alleged murder of his nephews has been
argued for centuries. On one hand, loyal
Ricardians staunchly maintain Richard's innocence. Yet on the other, history books still refer
to Richard as the most probable perpetrator in the disappearance and likely
murders. Researchers have been unable to
uncover any contemporary evidence.
Richard
Plantagenet, Duke of Gloucester, was an excellent administrator and soldier, a
fact acknowledged by historians certain of Richard's guilt in addition to
defenders of his innocence. A loyal
subject who supported his brother, King Edward IV, even to the point of sharing
his exile.
Richard's
brother, Edward IV, ruled during civil war -- the War of the Roses. The Plantagenets were Yorkists, whose coat of
arms depicted white roses. The
Lancastrian dynasty represented by roses of red. Edward IV reigned during this turbulent
period striving to resume peace and unity during his 22 years on the
throne. England embraced the blonde
six-foot 'Sun of York' king with open arms and hearts.
Three
Yorkist brothers hold a unique notoriety in English history. Edward, the eldest, was a renowned ladies'
man; George, Duke of Clarence and the middle brother, remembered for drowning
in a vat of ale. And Richard, the youngest,
remembered as a murderous uncle.
The
defamation of Richard's character can be traced to historians and chroniclers
under Tudor reign. Shakespeare's famous
tragedy was written in 1597 -- 112 years after Richard's death. Shakespeare's characterization was based upon
Sir Thomas More's The Life and Reign of Richard the Third. Sir Thomas More was five years old at the
time of Richard's death in the Battle of Bosworth and a protege of Richard's
worst enemy.
Edward
secretely married Elizabeth Woodville, an older, ambitious widow regarded as an
upstart by peers of the realm. After he
made every effort to lure her, she admitted she was not good enough to be his
queen, but protested she was far too good to become his mistress. With Edward's reputation, it is surmised that
the blue-eyed enchantress fended off Edward's amorous advances until he offered
marriage and fulfilled his promise on May 1, 1464.
This
Queen Elizabeth exercised considerable influence over her husband. Edward frequently detained his brother,
George of Clarence, for overstepping the bounds of familial tolerance. Edward eventually arrested Clarence for
subtle and overtly treasonable acts.
Elizabeth Woodville's power was significant; it is probable Clarence was
put to death at her insistence.
Richard
married Anne Neville in 1472, after securing her sanctuary from his brother
Clarence. Married to Anne's sister,
Clarence's interest in who married his sister-in-law centered on the Neville
sisters' inheritance. King Edward
interceded between George and Richard; Clarence agreed Richard could marry his
sister-in-law provided Clarence did not have to share the Neville estates. To the king's relief Richard accepted.
The
twenty-year-old bridegroom and his sixteen-year-old second cousin seemed compatible
as they departed from court life. In
1473, Anne gave birth to a son, whom they named Edward, doubtless in honor of
his uncle. It appears Richard's marriage
was happy, that he gave Anne Neville his heart as well as his name.
The
drama of Richard's alleged treachery arose after the death of Edward, whose
indulgent lifestyle eventually took its toll.
At his
deathbed, Edward summoned his court's two rival factions, but not his
Queen. Edward addressed those assembled
with the authority not of a king, but of the dying. Without love between them, his son, the
kingdom and his court would all be brought to ruin. They were moved to tears as Edward sighed and
dismissed them. The strength which the
kingdom and his sons needed did not lie in these men. There was only one man capable of ordering the
realm and subduing the actions which split the court. A man he loved well and who, he knew, loved
him... Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
Edward
summoned his executors. Lord Stanley was
added to the king's will; the queen Elizabeth dropped. With real humility, the weakening King asked
his executors to pay his debts and distribute a good portion to the poor. Then, aware his last minutes were numbered,
he added the important codicil to his will, bequeathing his boy heir and his
realm to the protection of his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester.. Richard's
popularity gave Edward more than one reason to trust his remaining brother
whose political allegiance, unlike that of Clarence, had not wavered.
Edward
IV died on April 9, 1483, three weeks before his forty-first birthday.
On
learning of the death of his brother and liege, Richard hastened to London from the North in
mourning attire. Richard wrote letters
to console the queen and assured all duty, fealty, and due obedience to his new
king and lord, Edward the fifth. Richard
journeyed to York
with a small retinue of knights where he performed a solemn funeral service and
the accompanying nobility took oaths of fealty to the late king's son. Taking the oath first was Richard
himself. Upon reaching the young king, Richard greeted him with
affection and respect, kneeling to him as a king. Edward V announced his impending departure so
he could be crowned in all haste.
Arrangements
were made for Edward's funeral. He lay
in state for eight days attired in red leather shoes and wrapped in a white
robe, watched over night and day until his burial on Sunday, April 20th.
Custom
required Parliamentary sanction of the Council's arrangements to govern the
realm during Edward V's minority. The
English people were not entirely pleased by the prospect of another child-king
and Richard made some effort to postpone the coronation. The Council debated two options: That Richard govern because Edward had so
directed or that the government be carried on by many with the duke as
chief. The latter was chosen.
Richard
postponed the coronation until June 22nd.
On June 21, Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, revealed to
Richard that the children of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward were
illegitimate because the King had been betrothed to another when he secretly
married Elizabeth.
In
medieval times, a betrothal contract was as binding as marriage vows. Stillington officiated a ceremony in which
Edward plighted his troth to an earl's daughter; therefore committed to marry
her. And so, the king's subsequent
marriage to another woman was unlawful and their offspring illegitimate. As Protector of the Realm and next of kin
among Edward's legitimate family, Richard was within his rights in assuming the
crown.
Bishop
Stillington was not a crony of Richard's, divulging his tale at a suspiciously
opportune time. Edward IV's amorous
propensities were notorious enough to make Stillington's claim credible. Stillington was closely associated with
Richard's brother, the proverbial bad-penny-Clarence. Shortly after Clarence's execution,
Stillington was detained. He paid a
heavy fine and received a royal pardon upon his release in 1478. His offense?
Uttering prejudicial words to the king and his state.
It
seems quite probable that Stillington let the precontract between Edward and
Lady Eleanor slip to Clarence. The
king's coveting sibling likely intimidated Edward with this dangerous
knowledge. Perhaps this was the true
reason for Clarence's execution and Elizabeth's interest in his punishment. Although pardoned and released, Stillington
was held the Woodvilles' enmity.
Stillington explained to Richard that the betrothal was a secret
undertaking which he alone witnessed.
On June
22, 1483, Richard rode to hear Friar Ralph Shaa, who announced, "Bastard
slips shall not take root". Friar
Shaa went on to say that by God's law as well as by worth, Richard was entitled
to the crown as Edward's heir apparent was illegitimate due to the precontract
with Lady Eleanor. Thus, King Edward's
offspring put aside and the Duke of Clarence's son disabled by Clarence's
attainder, Richard of Gloucester was the true heir of York and rightful king.
On
Thursday, 26 June, Richard the Protector was offered a petition to become
King. Parliament's acceptance of
Stillington's claim was incorporated into a statute entitled Titulus Regius
which proclaimed Edward's children illegitimate and declared Richard the king
of England. After Richard agreed to accept the kingship,
he rode to Westminster,
beginning his reign the same day.
Richard's
short reign was fraught with intrigue.
He repressed an uprising in the favor of Henry Tudor, an heir to the
house of York
on the wrong side of the blanket many times over. Preoccupied with matters of state, Richard
endeavored to fulfill his promise to Elizabeth Woodville to see to the welfare
of Edward's children. Edward's sons, Edward and Richard, were seen playing in the
Tower as late as the summer of 1483.
Although
Richard's military and administrative campaigns proved successful, his personal
life crumbled. In April 1484, a messenger informed Richard and Anne that their
little son was dead. Queen Anne did not
outlive her son a year; her sorrow compounded by her inability to bear other
children. A solar eclipse occurred on
the exact date of Anne's death, blotting out the light of the sun as Anne's
demise darkened Richard's life.
On August
22, 1485, atop a white destrier in full armor, Richard and his troops rode to Bosworth Field to meet Henry Tudor in battle. Richard wore his crown upon his helmet to
demonstrate to friend and foe alike that a King rode into battle.
Although
Richard's men outnumbered Henry's, two allies withheld their assistance until
Richard rode into the fray. Henry Tudor
stayed behind his force. There may be
factual foundation for the Shakespearean line, "A horse! A horse!
My kingdom for a horse!" as Richard's courser may have floundered
in the marsh before Richard was struck down and killed.
Richard's
crown landed upon a thornbush where it was retrieved and placed on Henry's
head. Richard's battered body stripped
bare and slung over the back of a horse, he is the only English monarch since
1066 whose remains do not rest in a royal tomb.
Henry
Tudor became King Henry VII by force of arms.
As a great-grandson of an illegitimate son of a younger son of a king,
Henry's claim to the throne was precarious.
To strengthen his claim and unite the houses of York and Lancaster,
Henry married Edward's daughter, Elizabeth, in 1486. But as a bastard herself, she was not worthy
of being queen. Henry repealed Titulus
Regius to re-legitimize his prospective bride. If the young princes were alive at that time,
they were more of a threat to Henry than they had ever been to Richard. By repealing Titulus Regius, Henry
made the older boy king.
How
true were Shakespeare's lines, "I must be married to..." [Elizabeth]
"...murder her brothers and then marry her" and "If I did take
the kingdom from your son, to make amends, I'll give it to your
daughter". Although attributed to
Richard, this speech would have been more appropriately consigned to Henry.
No one
knows the fates of the princes in the Tower.
Henry VII released the information that Sir James Tyrrel and a servant
named Dighton confessed to the murder of the princes and their subsequent
burial in the Tower. But his action came
only after Tyrrel's execution in 1502 -- almost twenty years after the supposed
crime. Only when threatened by Perkin
Warbeck, posturing as Richard's nephew and namesake, did Henry acknowledge the
boys' deaths.
In the
Tower for treason against Henry, It is suspicious that Henry gave Tyrrel a
general pardon on June 16, 1486. Even
more incriminating, a scant month later, Henry gave Tyrrel a second general
pardon.
The
Shakespearean-Tudor myth persists...perhaps an achievement in art, but an
apparent travesty to historical justice.
Works
Cited
Armstrong, C.A.J., ed.
The Usurpation of Richard III.
New York:
Oxford University
Press, 1969.
Brandewyne, Rebecca.
Rose of Rapture. New York: Warner Books,
1984.
Chrimes, Stanley
Bertram. Lancastrians, Yorkists, and
Henry VII.
New York: St. Martin's Press,
1964.
Clark, Sir George.
English History. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1971.
Costain, Thomas B.
The Last Plantagenets.
Garden City, New York:
Doubleday
& Co., Inc., 1962.
Hanham, Alison. Richard
III and His Early Historians, 1483-1535.
London: Oxford University
Press, 1975.
Kendall, Paul Murray.
Richard the Third. New York: W.W. Norton
&
Co., Inc., 1956.
Murph, Roxane C. Richard
III: The Making of a Legend. Metuchen,
New Jersey: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1984.
Polley, Jane, ed.
Quest for the Past. Pleasantville, New
York:
The
Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1984.
Ross, Charles. Richard
III. Los Angeles: University
of California
Press, 1981.
Seward, Desmond. Richard
III, England's
Black Legend. New York:
Franklin
Watts, 1984.
Shakespeare, William.
King Richard III. London: J.M. Dent & Sons
Ltd., 1935.
St. Aubyn, Giles.
The Year of the Three Kings, 1483. New
York.
Atheneum, 1983.
Tey, Josephine.
[Mackintosh, Elizabeth]. The Daughter of Time.
New York: Pocket Boods/MacMillan Publishing Co.,
Inc., 1977.
Williamson, Audrey.
The Mystery of the Princes, An Investigation into a Supposed Murder. Totowa, New
Jersey: Rowman
and Littlefield, 1978.
