The Black Adder TV - Mystery Files TV - Michael K Jones - Janina Ramirez - David Starkey - Robert Bartlett TV - Thomas Penn TV - Chris Everard - Richard III: The Princes in the Tower TV - Anne Carson - Bertram Fields - Michael Hicks - Peter Ackroyd - Philippa Gregory TV - Lucy Worsley TV - Richard III: The New Evidence TV - Dan Jones TV -
History has known many great liars. Copernicus. Goebbels. St Ralph the Liar. But there have been none quite so vile as the Tudor King, Henry VII. It was he who rewrote history to portray his predecessor, Richard III, as a deformed maniac who killed his nephews in the Tower. But the real truth is that Richard was a kind and thoughtful man who cherished his young wards, in particular Richard, Duke of York, who grew into a big, strong boy. Henry also claimed he won the Battle of Bosworth Field and killed Richard III. Again, the truth is very different; for it was Richard, Duke of York, who became king after Bosworth Field, and reigned for thirteen glorious years. As for who really killed Richard III and how the defeated Henry Tudor escaped with his life, all is revealed in this, the first chapter of a history never before told: the history of ... the Black Adder. The Black Adder: The Foretelling, opening commentary, BBC 1983
The disappearance of the two sons of Edward IV, successors to his throne, is the most infamous unsolved mystery in British royal history. Since his death, King Richard III has been accused of their murders and vilified by the monarchs who succeeded him. Even William Shakespeare immortalises Richard as a deformed usurper seizing the Crown of England amidst an ocean of blood included that of his nephews. But modern historians confess that this portrayal is riddled with inaccuracies. Mystery Files: Princes in the Tower, National Geographic 2010
Published accounts accusing Richard don’t start to appear until about fifty years after his death. Sir Thomas More, a statesman and lawyer, formulates the charge in his book History of King Richard III. ibid.
Once Richard has taken the throne, in a strictly legal sense the Princes in the Tower are no longer a threat to him, because as bastards they have become irrelevant to the succession. Michael K Jones, author Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle
The caricature of this evil hunchback, this dark bent character who willingly wants these young boys dead, I think that is so far from the truth. Dr Janina Ramirez
He was crowned King Richard III at Westminster on July 6th with the full blessing of parliament … Opposition to Richard was growing. Monarchy by David Starkey s2e1: The Crown Imperial, Channel 4 2005
1483: He behaves with total impeccable conventional loyalty. Dr David Starkey
The persistent charge that is made against him is one of duplicity. Dr David Starkey
Henry had deposed Richard and installed himself as King ... Plantagenet turned against Plantagenet. Robert Bartlett, The Plantagenets III, BBC 2014
1485: Yorkist King Richard III had been on the throne for two years. But the fragile peace is about to be shattered. Our history is about to change forever. Thomas Penn, Henry VII: Winter King, BBC 2013
One of the most disgusting double murders at the hands of British royalty befell the young princes Edward and Richard who were imprisoned and eventually stabbed to death by order of King Richard III in 1483. Chris Everard, Illuminati III
More than five hundred years ago two princes vanished. The summer of 1483 the heir to the throne Edward and his younger brother Richard Duke of York were spotted playing outside the Tower of London. They were never seen again. It’s the greatest murder mystery in British history. Richard III: The Princes in the Tower, BBC 2015
He seized the throne from Edward and made himself Richard III. But was Richard guilty? No smoking gun has been found. ibid.
The first man to comprehensively pin the murders on Richard was the Tutor historian Thomas More. ibid.
More and Shakespeare portrayed Richard as a ruthless, power hungry villain. But critics of Thomas More believe he created a deliberately distorted caricature. ibid.
Prince Edward was the focus of a deadly power struggle. ibid.
Buckingham is a convincing alternative suspect. ibid.
Three great power blocks: Richard, the Woodvilles, and Hastings eyed each other nervously. ibid.
Hastings was executed without trial just like Thomas More said. ibid.
What if the princes weren’t murdered at all? ibid.
When it comes to matters in which he had some control, such as legislation brought before Parliament, his record has been recognized over the centuries as significant and enlightened. By contrast with kings before and after him, he indulged in no financial extortion, no religious persecution, no violation of sanctuary, no burning at the stake, no killing of women, no torture or starvation and no cynical breach of promise, pardon or safe-conduct in order to entrap a subject. Anne Carson, Richard III: The Maligned King, 2009
Richard’s Parliament ... passed considerable sound and beneficial legislation. One such act freed juries from intimidation and tampering. Another protected buyers of land from secret defects in title. Still another made bail available to persons accused of crimes ... For the first time, Parliament's acts were published in English, so they could be understood by at least that part of the population that was literate, rather than being confined to churchmen, educated nobles and the few others who could read Latin. Bertram Fields, Royal Blood, 1998
Richard’s selfishness denotes both exceptional egotism and individualism. Whereas other magnates thought in the long-term, seeking to maintain the family estates and to foster the interests of future generations of their dynasty, Richard gave priority to his own good, his immediate political needs and the eventual salvation of his soul. He was concerned only secondarily with the long-term interests of his heirs, whom he disinherited by his alienations in mortmain and otherwise. If Richard’s career as Duke of Gloucester fails to make sense, it is because his aims were different from those of other magnates. Both as duke and king, Richard appreciated that heirs strengthened his own position by giving permanence to his tenure, but he did not acknowledge any obligation to give priority to their interests over his own. One wonders whether his sentimental attachments to the houses of York and Neville were sincere or were merely further expressions of Richard’s self-interest. Certainly his seizure of the crown sacrificed the interests of his wider kindred to himself and led ultimately to the destruction of the royal house to which they all belonged. Michael A Hicks, Richard III as Duke of Gloucester, 1986
Throughout the period, [Thomas] More was well aware of human frailty; he was engaged on the ‘history’ of Richard III, the usurper of evil countenance through whose brief reign More himself had lived. It is a ‘history’ in the loosest possible sense, even by the historiographical standards of the early sixteenth century, and has variously been described as drama, biography or propaganda. Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More p153
July 6th 1483 and Westminster Abbey was packed tight for the coronation of one of England’s most controversial kings – Richard III … The Wars of the Roses when the rivalry between two great dynasties tore the nobility apart. Philippa Gregory, The Real White Queen and Her Rivals I, BBC 2016
As the daughter of the most powerful noble in the realm Anne was destined for greatness from birth … Margaret Beaufort – the second most important woman in the country … Elizabeth was the commoner queen – an English beauty who had enchanted a king. This is my chronicle of these three women. ibid.
Margaret Beaufort was an heiress to valuable lands … Margaret and all her possessions were transferred to Henry Tudor … ibid.
But the enchanted Edward was sure of his choice, and Elizabeth’s transformation was complete. ibid.
Edward IV was forced to abandon his throne and the Yorkist cause and flee England. The Lancastrian King, Henry VI, was restored in his place. With her husband on the run, Elizabeth Woodville, the former Queen of England, was now in grave danger. ibid.
1471: A new England is being forged in the fire of civil war. Philippa Gregory, The Real White Queen and Her Rivals II
They are the founders of our nation just as much as their more-famous men. ibid.
‘She [Margaret] plays the game of divided loyalties very effectively: she’s protected by her Yorkish husbands and is at the same time covertly working for her Lancastrian son. But King Edward’s victory was a disaster for her. Forcing her son, Henry Tudor, to flee into exile in France.’ ibid. Lisa Hilton
The York dynasty had an extraordinary capacity for self-destruction. And its downfall would begin with Anne Neville. ibid.
It looks as though Elizabeth had no option but to release her child into the hands of her enemies … I think she handed over a servant boy muffled up in a scarf. ibid.
The two boys in the tower were never seen again. ibid.