Editing Richard III (play) (section)

==Historical inaccuracy==
<!---Editors, please note that this section is about known inaccuracies in Shakespeare's play, not about wider beliefs and theories.--->

Shakespeare, and the Tudor chroniclers who influenced him, had an interest in portraying the defeat of the Plantagenet [[House of York]] by the [[House of Tudor]] as good conquering evil. Loyalty to the new regime required that the last Plantagenet king, [[Richard III]], be depicted as a villain.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9809671/Richard-III-Visions-of-a-villain.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9809671/Richard-III-Visions-of-a-villain.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live| title=Richard III: Visions of a villain?| last=Smart| first=Alastair| newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=London| date=20 January 2013| access-date=16 May 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The historical inaccuracies in the play can be attributed partly to Shakespeare's sources, such as ''[[Holinshed's Chronicles]]'',<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10106855/Shakespeare-did-he-get-his-history-right.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10106855/Shakespeare-did-he-get-his-history-right.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Shakespeare: did he get his history right? |last=Jones |first=Dan |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=London |date=25 June 2013 |access-date=16 May 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref> the writings of [[John Rous (historian)|John Rous]], [[Polydore Vergil]] and [[Thomas More]], and partly to [[artistic licence]].<ref name="RingWatson2013">{{cite book| first1=Trudy| last1=Ring| author2=Noelle Watson| author3=Paul Schellinger| title=Northern Europe: International Dictionary of Historic Places| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yfPYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA114| date=28 October 2013| publisher=Routledge| isbn=978-1-136-63944-9| pages=114–}}</ref> Some of these inaccuracies are listed below in the order in which they either appear or are referred to in the play.

There is no evidence to suggest that Richard was personally responsible for the death of his wife's first husband, [[Edward of Westminster]] (the son of Henry VI), nor that of her father, the [[Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick|Earl of Warwick]] (and in ''[[Henry VI, Part 3]]'' Richard is not portrayed as being responsible for Warwick's death). Richard, then eighteen, took part in the battles in which Edward and Warwick were killed.<ref name=ross>{{cite book |first=Charles |last=Ross |author-link=Charles Ross (historian) |year=1974 |title=Edward IV |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |location=Berkeley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbmkggaM_k8C&q=Charles+Ross+(1974),+Edward+IV.|isbn=978-0520027817}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Paul Murray |last=Kendall |author-link=Paul Murray Kendall |title=Warwick the Kingmaker |location=London |publisher=Allen, & Unwin |year=1957 |page=372 |isbn=978-0-351-17096-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGQOAQAAIAAJ&q=richard+iii}}</ref> Shakespeare's sources do not identify Richard as being involved in the death of [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]], who was probably murdered on the orders of [[Edward IV]].<ref>Wolffe, Bertram (1981). Henry VI.</ref> Richard and his wife, [[Anne Neville]], had known each other for a long time before they married, having spent much of their childhood in the same household.<ref name=ross/> Henry VI's widow, [[Margaret of Anjou|Queen Margaret]], was not at court in the period covered by this play; she became Edward IV's prisoner and returned to France in 1475.<ref>Hartley, Cathy (2003). A Historical Dictionary of British Women.</ref> Richard's elder brother, [[George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence|Clarence]] (George, Duke of Clarence), was not on good terms with Richard,<ref>{{cite book|author=Michael A. Hicks|title=Richard III as Duke of Gloucester: a study in character|publisher=University of York|year=1986|isbn=9780900701627|page=11}}</ref> but was imprisoned by Edward IV and was executed for treason in 1478, when Richard was in the North of England, where he continued to live until Edward IV died five years later.<ref name=ross />

Richard returned from the North to fulfil Edward IV's wish that he rule as [[Lord Protector]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Carson |first=Annette |title=Richard Duke of Gloucester as Lord Protector and High Constable of England |year=2015 |publisher=Imprimis Imprimatur |location=UK |isbn=978-0-9576840-4-1}}</ref> It was the Plantagenet tradition that a future king (in this case [[Edward V]], the elder of the "[[princes in the tower]]") would stay in the royal apartments at the [[Tower of London]] while awaiting his coronation.<ref name=kendall1>{{cite book |ref=Kendall |title=Richard the Third |author-link=Paul Murray Kendall |last=Kendall |first=Paul Murray |publisher=[[W. W. Norton]] |year=1956|title-link=Richard III (biography) }}</ref> No one knows why the "princes in the tower" disappeared or what happened to them. Richard took the throne by an [[Titulus Regius|Act of Parliament]],<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Given-Wilson |editor-first=Chris |first1=Paul |last1=Brand |first2=Seymour |last2=Phillips |first3=Mark |last3=Ormrod |first4=Geoffrey |last4=Martin |first5=Anne |last5=Curry |first6=Rosemary |last6=Horrox |title=Parliament Rolls of Medieval England – Richard III: January 1484 |publisher=Institute of Historical Research |date=24 November 2014}}</ref> on the basis of testimony claiming that Edward IV's marriage to [[Elizabeth Woodville|Queen Elizabeth]] (Elizabeth Woodville) had been bigamous.<ref>{{cite book |last=de Commines |first= Philipe |title=The memoirs of Philip de Commines, lord of Argenton, Volume 1 |editor=H. G. Bohn |year=1855 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sstnAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> Contemporary rumours that Richard had murdered his own wife appear baseless;<ref name="Cheetham"/> she is thought to have died of [[tuberculosis]]. There is no surviving evidence to suggest that he planned to marry his niece, [[Elizabeth of York]], although rumours about this plan did circulate.<ref name="Cheetham">{{cite book |last1=Cheetham |first1=Anthony |last2=Fraser |first2=Antonia |author-link2=Antonia Fraser |title=The Life and Times of Richard III|date=1972 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|location=London|pages=175–176}}</ref> At the time he was also negotiating a marriage for Elizabeth with a Portuguese prince, Manuel, Duke of Beja (later [[Manuel I of Portugal]]).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Williams |first=Barrie |title=The Portuguese Connection and the Significance of the 'Holy Princess' |journal=The Ricardian |volume=6 |number=90 |date=March 1983}}.</ref>

At the [[Battle of Bosworth]] there was no single combat between Richard and [[Henry VII of England|Richmond]] (Henry Tudor).<ref name=jones>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Jones (historian) |title=Bosworth 1485: Psychology of a Battle |year=2003 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |isbn=978-1-84854-909-8}}</ref> Richard spotted Richmond in his rearguard surrounded by French pikemen and led a cavalry charge against him.<ref name=jones/> Richard was steered away from Richmond by Sir [[Rhys ap Thomas]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Ralph |last=Griffith |year=1993 |title=Sir Rhys ap Thomas and his family: a study in the Wars of the Roses and early Tudor politics |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn= 978-0-708-3121-86}}</ref> The Stanleys ([[Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby|Thomas, Lord Stanley]], and his younger brother, [[William Stanley (Battle of Bosworth)|Sir William Stanley]]) entered the fray in support of Richmond when they saw that Richard was vulnerable;<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chrimes |first1=Stanley Bertram |title=Henry VII |date=1972 |publisher=Eyre Methuen |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gillingham |first=John |author-link=John Gillingham |year=1981 |title=The Wars of the Roses: peace and conflict in fifteenth-century England |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson}}</ref> when he saw this, Richard cried "Treason".<ref name=kendall1/> Richard fell from his horse after it lost its footing in a marshy area; he was offered a new horse but declined.<ref name=jones/> 

The only contemporary reference to Richard having any deformities was the observation that his right shoulder was slightly higher than his left, which is now known to have been caused by his [[scoliosis]] of the spine. After the [[Exhumation and reburial of Richard III of England|discovery of Richard's remains in 2012]] it became clear that he might have been slightly hunched, though the degree and direction of the curvature was not as serious as that of what is now known as spinal [[kyphosis]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Langley |first1=Philippa |author-link1=Philippa Langley |last2=Jones |first2=Michael |author-link2=Michael Jones (historian) |year=2013 |title=The Search for Richard III, The King's Grave |isbn=978-1-8485-48-930 |publisher=John Marray}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Appleby |first1=Jo |last2=Mitchell |first2=Piers D. |last3=Robinson |first3=Claire |last4=Brough |first4=Alison |last5=Rutty |first5=Guy |last6=Harris |first6=Russell A |last7=Thompson |first7=David |last8=Morgan |first8=Bruno |title=The scoliosis of Richard III, last Plantagenet King of England: diagnosis and clinical significance |journal=The Lancet |volume=383 |issue=9932 |page=1944 |doi= 10.1016/s0140-6736(14)60762-5 |url=http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60762-5 |pmid=24881996 |year=2014|s2cid=44719129 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-close-was-shakespeares-portrayal-richard |title=How close was Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard III? |first=Turi |last=King |date=2 November 2016 |website=British Council |access-date=28 May 2018}}</ref>