Editing Richard III of England (section)

==Early life==
Richard was born on 2 October 1452, at [[Fotheringhay Castle]] in [[Northamptonshire]], the eleventh of the twelve children of [[Richard, 3rd Duke of York]], and [[Cecily Neville]], and the youngest to survive infancy.{{sfnp|Baldwin|2013|p=}} His childhood coincided with the beginning of what has traditionally been labelled the '[[Wars of the Roses]]', a period of political instability and periodic open civil war in [[England in the Middle Ages|England]] during the second half of the fifteenth century,{{sfnp|Pollard|2000|p=15}} between the [[Yorkists]], who supported Richard's father (a potential claimant to the throne of [[King Henry VI]] from birth){{sfnp|Ross|1974|pp=3–5}} and opposed the regime of Henry VI and his wife, [[Margaret of Anjou]],{{sfnp|Pollard|2008}} and the [[House of Lancaster|Lancastrians]], who were loyal to the crown.{{sfnp|Griffiths|2008}} In 1459, his father and the Yorkists were forced to flee England, whereupon Richard and his older brother [[George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence|George]] were placed in the custody of their aunt [[Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham]], and possibly of [[Cardinal Thomas Bourchier]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]].{{sfnp|Horrox|2013}}

When their father and elder brother [[Edmund, Earl of Rutland]], were killed at the [[Battle of Wakefield]] on 30 December 1460, Richard and George were sent by their mother to the [[Low Countries]].{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|pp=41–42}} They returned to England following the defeat of the Lancastrians at the [[Battle of Towton]]. They participated in the coronation of their eldest brother as [[King Edward IV]] on 28 June 1461, when Richard was named [[Duke of Gloucester]] and made both a [[Knight of the Garter]] and a [[Knight of the Bath]]. Edward appointed him the sole [[Commissioner of Array]] for the Western Counties in 1464 when he was 11. By the age of 17, he had an independent command.{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|p=40}}

[[File:MiddlehamCJW.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The ruins of the twelfth-century castle at [[Middleham Castle|Middleham]] in [[Wensleydale]], North Yorkshire, where Richard was raised]]

Richard spent several years during his childhood at [[Middleham Castle]] in [[Wensleydale]], Yorkshire, under the tutelage of his cousin [[Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick]], later known as 'the Kingmaker' because of his role in the Wars of the Roses. Warwick supervised Richard's training as a [[knight]]; in the autumn of 1465, Edward IV granted Warwick £1,000 for the expenses of his younger brother's tutelage.{{sfnp|Scofield|2016|loc=p. 216, n.6|ps=, quoting Tellers' Roll, Mich. 5 Edw. IV (no. 36), m. 2.}} With some interruptions, Richard stayed at Middleham either from late 1461 until early 1465, when he was 12{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|pp=34–44, 74}} or from 1465 until his coming of age in 1468, when he turned 16.{{refn|"From November 1461 until 1465 all references to Richard place him in locations south of the river Trent. It may have been partly to appease Warwick's injured feelings towards the rising influence of the king's new Woodville in-laws that he was given the honour of taking Richard into his household to complete his education, probably at some time in 1465".{{sfnp|Baldwin|2013|pp=36–37, 240}}|group=note}} While at Warwick's estate, it is likely that he met both [[Francis Lovell, 1st Viscount Lovell|Francis Lovell]], who was his firm supporter later in his life, and Warwick's younger daughter, his future wife [[Anne Neville]].{{sfnp|Ross|1974|p=9}}

It is possible that even at this early stage Warwick was considering the king's brothers as strategic matches for his daughters, [[Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence|Isabel]] and Anne: young aristocrats were often sent to be raised in the households of their intended future partners,{{sfnp|Licence|2013|p=63}} as had been the case for the young dukes' father, Richard of York.{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|pp=16–17}} As the relationship between the king and Warwick became strained, Edward IV opposed the match.{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|p=68}} During Warwick's lifetime, George was the only royal brother to marry one of his daughters, the elder, Isabel, on 12 July 1469, without the king's permission. George joined his father-in-law's revolt against the king,{{sfnp|Hicks|1980|p=45}} while Richard remained loyal to Edward, even though he was rumoured to have been having an affair with Anne.{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|p=522}}{{refn|1=As late as 1469 rumours were still linking Richard's name with Anne Neville's. In August of that year, by which time Clarence had married Isabel, an Italian observer in London mistakenly reported that Warwick had married his two daughters to the king's brothers (''Cal. Milanese Papers, I'', pp. 118–120).|group=note}}

Richard and Edward were forced to flee to [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]] in October 1470 after Warwick defected to the side of the former Lancastrian queen Margaret of Anjou. In 1468, Richard's sister [[Margaret of York|Margaret]] had married [[Charles the Bold]], the Duke of Burgundy, and the brothers could expect a welcome there. Edward was restored to the throne in the spring of 1471, following the battles of [[Battle of Barnet|Barnet]] and [[Battle of Tewkesbury|Tewkesbury]], in both of which the 18-year-old Richard played a crucial role.{{sfnp|Kendall|1956|pp=87–89}}

During his adolescence, and due to a cause that is unknown, Richard developed [[scoliosis]], a sideways curvature of the spine.<ref>{{cite web |title=Spine |url=http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/science/spine.html |website=The Discovery of Richard III |publisher=[[University of Leicester]] |access-date=5 February 2013 |quote=A very pronounced curve in the spine was visible when the body was first uncovered, evidence of scoliosis which may have meant that Richard's right shoulder was noticeably higher than his left....The type of scoliosis seen here is known as idiopathic adolescent onset scoliosis. The word idiopathic means that the reason for its development is not entirely clear, although there is probably a genetic component. The term adolescent onset indicates that the deformity wasn't present at birth, but developed after the age of ten. It is quite possible that the scoliosis was progressive...}}</ref> In 2014, after the discovery of Richard's remains, the [[osteoarchaeology|osteoarchaeologist]] Dr. Jo Appleby, of Leicester University's School of Archaeology and Ancient History, imaged the spinal column, and reconstructed a model using [[3D printing]], and concluded that though the spinal scoliosis looked dramatic, it probably did not cause any major physical deformity that could not be disguised by clothing.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--no credited author--> |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-27610788 |title=Richard III: Team rebuilds 'most famous spine' |publisher=[[BBC News]] |location=London |date=29 May 2014 |access-date=7 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Duffin |first=Claire |date=17 August 2014 |title=Richard III, the 'hunchback king', really could have been a formidable warrior... and his body double can prove it |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11038600/Richard-III-the-hunchback-king-really-could-have-been-a-formidable-warrior-...-and-his-body-double-can-prove-it.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11038600/Richard-III-the-hunchback-king-really-could-have-been-a-formidable-warrior-...-and-his-body-double-can-prove-it.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |publisher=<!--Telegraph Media Group (omitted as substantially similar to newspaper name)--> |location=London |access-date=24 November 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref>