Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Richard III.

RICHARD III., King of England; son of Richard, Duke of York, a descendant of Edmund, Duke of York, fifth son of Edward III.; born in Fotheringay Castle, Oct. 2, 1452. After the defeat and death of his father in 1460 he was sent, along with his brother George, to Utrecht for safety, but returned to England after his eldest brother Edward won the crown (1461). Two years later he was created Duke of Gloucester, his brother George being made Duke of Clarence. In the final struggle between the York and Lancaster factions he took an active share; he led the van at the battle of Barnet, rendered valuable aid in winning the fight of Tewkesbury, and is believed, on fairly good evidence, to have had a hand in the murder of Prince Edward, son of Henry VI., who was slain after that battle. All through the reign of Edward IV. he gave valuable and faithful support to his brother, and was rewarded by him with every confidence, and with numerous high offices. He was believed to have been concerned in the murder of Henry VI. in the Tower on May 21, 1471; but the evidence, though strongly pointing in that direction, is not conclusive.

In the following year he married Anne, the younger daughter of Warwick the Kingmaker, who had been betrothed to the murdered Prince Edward. This alliance was greatly resented by Clarence, who had married the elder sister, and wished to keep all of Warwick's vast possessions in his own hands. Clarence quarreled, too, with King Edward, who in 1478 procured his impeachment by Parliament. The refractory duke was put to death privately in the Tower on Feb. 18. Of this judicial murder Gloucester is likewise accused; but the evidence for his complicity is very slight. In 1482 he was put in command of the army that invaded Scotland. Along with the Duke of Albany he entered Edinburgh; but his one warlike achievement was the capture of Berwick town and castle. In the following year, while still in Yorkshire, he heard of King Edward's death (April 9), and

RICHARD III.

learned that he himself had been named guardian and protector of his son and heir, Edward V., then aged 13. On his way S. the Protector arrested Earl Rivers and Lord Richard Grey, the uncle and step-brother of the young king, and confined them in his castles. All who were of the old nobility, and resented the rise of the Woodvilles, rallied round Richard. From this time Richard of Gloucester schemed for the crown, and by craft, boldness, and utter unscrupulousness carried his project into execution.

The arrest of Rivers and Grey had put the king entirely into his hands, for the queen-mother had hastened to take sanctuary at Westminster. On June 13 Gloucester suddenly accused Lord Hastings, an influential member of the council, of treason, arrested him there and then, and had him instantly beheaded. The "crime" for which Hastings died was changing sides from Richard to the Woodville party. On June 16 the queen-dowager was induced to give up, at the demand of Richard and the council, her other son, the little Duke of York. He was put into the Tower to keep his brother, the king, company. On the Sunday following (22d) a certain Dr. Shaw preached at St. Paul's cross that the children of Edward IV. were ille- gitimate, nay, that Edward IV. himself and his brother Clarence were both born out of lawful wedlock. Three days later the Parliament desired Richard to as- sume the crown; on the next day (June 26, 1483) he declared himself king, and on July 6 was crowned in state by Car- dinal Bourchier. Rivers and Grey were executed at Pontefract on June 25. In point of form Richard was a duly elected king, and Edward V. had not yet been crowned; all the same, his accession was de facto a usurpation. Richard's prin- cipal supporter all through, from the date of Edward IV. 's death, had been the Duke of Buckingham, a descendant of the Duke of Gloucester, who was priv- ily slain at Calais when Richard II. was king.

Shortly after his coronation Richard set out on a tour through the kingdom, and during the course of it he was sur- prised by the intelligence that Bucking- ham was plotting with the friends of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (after- ward Henry VII.), the chief representa- tive of the House of Lancaster, to effect his overthrow and proclaim Henry king. But the pttempted rising soon collapsed, and Buckingham was taken and (Nov. 2, 1484) executed. It seems to have been shortly before this that Richard con- trived the murder of his nephews in the Tower. The deed was done so secretly by Sir James Tyrrell, one of Richard's devoted followers, and a couple of hire- lings, that the nation did not know of it till some time after (see Edward V.).

During the remainder of his short reign Richard directed all his energies to baffling the plans of Richmond, and to making preparations to meet the inva- sion which he saw to be imminent. But he was rapidly losing his hold on the nation, alarming and horrifying it by his crimes and tyrannous acts. Henry of Richmond at length landed at Milford Haven on Aug. 7, 1485. Richard met him at Bosworth in Leicestershire on the 22d, and there lost his kingdom and his life, fighting bravely like a king, crown on head, in the midst of his foes (see Henry VII.). The body of the slain king was subjected to great indignities, carried to Leicester, and there, after be- ing exposed for two days, was buried in the Grey Friars churchyard.

Richard's was a strangely mixed char- acter. Its ruling passion was an inor- dinate craving for power, to gratify which he stopped at no crime, however heinous. He possessed many of the typi- cal qualities of the best of the Plantag- enets — a skilful soldier, of great ability and energy, brave, bold, reckless of con- sequences, fond of display, yet not in- capable of nobler impulses.

He unquestionably had great charm of manner, and knew how to inspire confi- dence even in those who had the best reasons for distrusting him. He was liberal, too, and, where his own personal ambition was not directly concerned, just and generous. He was also swayed by a lively sense of divine justice, and more than one religious institution owed its foundation to his bitter remorse for the murder of his nephews. In person Richard was short of stature and slight of build, with one shoulder slightly higher than the other; but there is no evidence that he was a hunchback.