Richard III, 1452–85, king of England (1483–85), younger brother of Edward IV Edward IV, 1442–83, king of England (1461–70, 1471–83), son of Richard, duke of York . He succeeded to the leadership of the Yorkist party (see Roses, Wars of the ) after the death of his father in Wakefield in 1460.
..... Click the link for more information. . Created duke of Gloucester at Edward's coronation (1461), he served his brother faithfully during Edward's lifetime—fighting at Barnet and Tewkesbury and later invading Scotland. On the death (Apr., 1483) of the king, Edward's eldest son, then only 12 years old, was proclaimed king as Edward V Edward V, 1470–83?, king of England (1483), elder son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. His father's death (1483) left the boy king the pawn of the conflicting ambitions of his paternal uncle, the duke of Gloucester (later Richard III ) and his maternal
..... Click the link for more information. .

Richard, aided by Henry Stafford Stafford, Henry, 2d duke of Buckingham, 1454?–1483, English nobleman. He was the grandson of Humphrey Stafford, the 1st duke, whom he succeeded in 1460.
..... Click the link for more information. , 2d duke of Buckingham, seized custody of the young king from Edward IV's widow, Elizabeth Woodville Woodville, Elizabeth, 1437–92, queen consort of Edward IV of England. She was the daughter of Richard Woodville (later the 1st Earl Rivers ). Her first husband, Sir John Grey, was killed fighting on the Lancastrian side at the battle of St.
..... Click the link for more information. , and her relatives, and was able to assume the protectorship. Soon afterward, apparently suspecting a conspiracy against himself, he arrested and summarily executed Lord Hastings, a leading member of the council. He followed this provocative move by having Parliament declare his brother's children illegitimate. Edward V and his brother were placed in the Tower of London, where they were almost certainly murdered. This was probably done on Richard's orders, though the evidence is inconclusive, and historians have suggested several other figures of the time who might have instigated the killing of the princes.

Richard had himself crowned king in July, 1483. A rebellion broke out in Oct., 1483, led by Richard's erstwhile supporter Buckingham, in favor of Henry Tudor (later Henry VII Henry VII, 1457–1509, king of England (1485–1509) and founder of the Tudor dynasty.

Claim to the Throne

Henry was the son of Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, who died before Henry was born, and Margaret Beaufort , a descendant of Edward
..... Click the link for more information. ). This revolt collapsed, and Buckingham was executed. In 1485, however, Henry landed in Wales, defeated and killed Richard in the battle of Bosworth Field Bosworth Field, Leicestershire, central England. It was the scene of the battle (1485) at which Richard III was killed and the crown was passed to his opponent, the earl of Richmond (Henry VII), first of the Tudors.
..... Click the link for more information. , and ascended the throne.

Despite his usurpation of the throne, Richard was not the total villain that tradition has made him. His evil reputation, perpetuated by Shakespeare's Richard III, was shaped at least in part by the efforts of Tudor propagandists to justify Henry VII's own usurpation. Richard was the last of the Yorkist kings, and, in retrospect, his death ended the Wars of the Roses Roses, Wars of the, traditional name given to the intermittent struggle (1455–85) for the throne of England between the noble houses of York (whose badge was a white rose) and Lancaster (later associated with the red rose).
..... Click the link for more information. .

Bibliography

See biographies by P. Kendall (1955, repr. 1972), C. Ross (1982), and R. Horrox (1989); E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century (1961).

Richard III

(born Oct. 2, 1452, Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, Eng.—died Aug. 22, 1485, Bosworth, Leicestershire) Last Yorkist king of England. He was made duke of Gloucester in 1461 after his brother Edward of York had deposed the weak Lancastrian king Henry VI and assumed power as Edward IV. Richard and Edward were driven into exile in 1470 but returned and defeated the Lancastrians in 1471. On Edward's death (1483), Richard became protector for Edward's son, the 12-year-old King Edward V, but he usurped the throne and confined Edward and his little brother to the Tower of London, where they were murdered. Henry Tudor (later Henry VII) raised an army against Richard, who was defeated and killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Later Tudor histories and William Shakespeare's play Richard III painted Richard as a monster and were gross caricatures motivated by the new dynasty's need to denigrate its predecessor.

Richard III

crook-back king. [Br. Lit.: Shakespeare Richard III]

See : Deformity

Richard III

visited by the ghosts of all his victims. [Br. Lit.: Shakespeare Richard III]

See : Ghost