On this day in history, a Shakespearean icon was born.
In the cold chambers of Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire, England, Richard Plantagenet was born as the youngest of the Duke of York’s eleven children. Although his first title was the Duke of Gloucester, history remembers him by his future one: Richard III.
His birth occurred at the beginning stages of the War of the Roses, a conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster for the control of England. Richard’s brother, Edward IV, became king in the end, but when he died in 1483, Richard took the throne.
For his level of iconography, one would assume his reign was long, but it lasted a mere two years. During that time, Richard gained his reputation for being the most wicked of all English kings, fueled by court intrigue and rebellion by his lords. The most famous of Richard III’s actions are the mysterious ones that tie him to the Princes in the Tower mystery.
Before he died in 1482, Edward IV had named his son, the 12-year-old Edward V, as heir. Edward IV’s brother, the 9-year-old Richard, was named Lord Protector. When Richard III assumed the throne, he desired to eliminate all threats to his power, and thus imprisoned the young boys in the Tower of London in 1483. In all senses, the princes disappeared, never to be glimpsed nor heard of again. Many believed that Richard III ordered the princes’ murder to secure his claim to the throne.
In 1674, two skeletons were found buried under a staircase in the Tower, but no definitive answer was given as to either their identities or Richard III’s affiliation with them. Nonetheless, it is generally agreed that Richard III was the iron hand that struck down the young princes.
Despite his less-than-stellar reputation, Richard III lives on most notably through the aptly-named Shakespearean play, “The Tragedy of Richard III.” From that, we get many of the attributes commonly given to the king— having a crookback, a villainous presence, and a dynastic end at the hands of Henry Tudor.
Richard III died in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field, with his remains going missing until 2012, when his skeleton was exhumed from a parking lot in Leicester, England. He was the last English king to be killed in battle.
