2 October, 1452

Length of reign:

Two years and two months (June 1483 - August 1485).

Married Anne Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (otherwise known as the 'kingmaker') and widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, son of the Lancastrian king, Henry VI. The couple had one son, whom they named Edward. He died a year before his father, in 1484. His death devastated both parents; Richard's wife died less than a year later.

Richard was a strong and able ruler, but most of his best work was probably done before he became king. It is the way in which he became king and his treatment of his nephews, 'the Princes in the Tower', which often sours his reputation, but he was a gifted administrator and an effective leader.

He was highly trusted by his elder brother, Edward IV, who left the north of England mostly under his younger brother's command. Richard became known as 'Lord of the North'. He fought several campaigns against the Scottish king, James III, and in 1482 he was successful in regaining Berwick from the Scots. Richard at this time was highly regarded by the people and well rewarded by the king. 

When his elder brother died and the throne passed to his young son - Richard's nephew Edward V - Richard was made 'Lord High Protector of the Realm'. Edward V was only 12 and needed someone to help him rule. Richard, who had ruled the North in all but name during the reign of Edward IV, was the natural choice. 

Maybe Richard's subsequent actions were due to the fact that he wished to see continued stability in the kingdom. The House of York, under Edward IV, had defeated the last Lancastrian King (Henry VI) and claimed the throne. However, the War of the Roses had raged for over 100 years, with both the House of Lancaster and the House of York believing that it was they that should hold the throne. As a 12 year old boy, Edward V was not stable on the throne. There was now a race to control the boy king. Richard had been named as 'Lord High Protector', but the boy's maternal family also wished to be involved. The problem was that Edward V's mother was from a Lancastrian family which had fought against the Yorkist King Edward IV. Perhaps Richard feared that the young king's maternal family would try to claim the throne for the Lancastrians again. Richard's actions could possibly be seen as being in the best interests of the State as he saw them at the time.

Richard persuaded parliament that Edward V was illegitimate and therefore not able to come to the throne. On 25 June, it passed a law to that effect and on 26 June 1483, Richard was declared king. There is evidence that there were many who respected the new king. He is criticised for the supposed murder of the two Princes in the Tower and other political enemies. Although it seems likely that he was responsible for the murders of the Princes, there is no conclusive evidence.

There are many arguments against Richard III and history has not been kind to him. However, much of the damage to his reputation was inflicted during the Tudor period by men such as Shakespeare, whose play 'Richard III' depicted Richard as a ruthless hunchback. However, the Tudor house only existed because of Richard III's defeat, and it was keen to play down his hold on the throne, in case any of his heirs or relations threatened the new dynasty. By discrediting Richard's name, they were pushing the merits of the new House of Tudor which then held the English throne.

The popular view is that Richard murdered his nephews, illegally took the throne, argued with his nobles and was slain to much rejoicing by Henry Tudor in 1485. How much of this is true is open to debate, but Richard has never been easy to defend. On his brother, Edward IV's death, and his nephew Edward V's accession, he was appointed 'Lord High Protector of the Realm'. Within months, he had imprisoned the new king and his younger brother in the Tower of London, a move which, he claimed, was for their 'protection'.

Richard seized the throne, persuading Parliament that the marriage between Edward V's father and mother (King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville) was not legal, because Edward IV had supposedly agreed to marry someone else. If this was true, it meant that any child of King Edward IV and Elizabeth would be illegitimate and could not inherit the throne. Although Parliament ruled in his favour, there were many who regarded Richard as a usurper (one who had wrongly seized the throne).

Richard, it is alleged, then killed his two nephews.  There is no direct evidence: the Princes vanished and their whereabouts were never discovered. The bones of two young children were discovered in the Tower in 1694, and these are assumed to be the bones of the two boys, but it has never been proven. Many think it was Richard who murdered them because as long as they lived they represented a threat to his authority. 

King Richard III was the last English king to die on the battlefield - at Bosworth Field. He was defeated by Henry Tudor, who was crowned king. It appeared that Richard was deserted by many of his men at a crucial stage of the battle. These men transferred their loyalty to Henry Tudor. Many have argued that this desertion shows that Richard was an unpopular man and king.

The War of the Roses was a conflict between the descendants of King Edward III (1327 -1377). One of his sons was styled as Duke of York and another as Duke of Lancaster. The children of these two men both felt entitled to the throne. It was the descendants of the Duke of Lancaster who were initially successful. The House of Lancaster provided three kings all called Henry - King Henry IV, King Henry V and King Henry VI. King Henry VI ruled for many years, from 1422 - 1461, before he was defeated in battle by Edward, a descendant of the Duke of York. The House of York now claimed the throne. 

The House of York also consisted of three kings, Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III. The king who followed (Henry Tudor, who became King Henry VII) was actually a descendant of the House of Lancaster. He ended the War of the Roses by marrying a daughter of King Edward IV (a niece of King Richard III), from the York side of the family. Through this marriage, the Houses of Lancaster and York were united.

The battle that took place at Market Bosworth, near Leicester, in August 1485, is one of the most famous in British and English history. Had Richard won, he would have defeated the last challenger to his power, and then how might history have remembered him? In the end however, Henry Tudor was successful and Richard III was slain where he fought. It was the end of the Plantagenets and the beginning of the Tudor dynasty.