Shakespeare's Kings (101 page)

It was this, above all else, that the Elizabethan audiences would carry home with them; it was to emphasize this that Shakespeare had been deliberately building up the character of Richard; and this that he was to make the theme of the last and greatest play of his series.

But to what extent was it justified historically? Was Richard really the ogre that we see before us on the stage? These questions have been asked for over four centuries, and are still being discussed today. The next two chapters of this book will attempt to answer them.

richard
.

Sweet Prince, the untainted virtue of your years

Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit,

Nor more can you distinguish of a man

Than of his outward show, which
–

God He knows -Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart:

Those uncles which you want were dangerous;

Your Grace attended to their sugar'd words,

But look'd not on the poison of their hearts.

God keep you from them, and from such false friends!

prince
.

God keep me from false friends - but they were none.

king
richard
iii

For the twelve years between the battle of Tewkesbury on Saturday
4
May
1471
and his death on Wednesday
9
April
1483,
King Edward IV ruled England wisely and well, while a prolonged period of internal peace allowed the country time to recover, at least in part, from its sufferings. True, in the summer of
1475
the King led an expeditionary force into France, terrifying Louis XI to the point where, according to the Milanese ambassador, 'he almost lost his wits'; but before a shot was fired Louis invited the entire English army to a three-day feast at Amiens, by the end of which the English soldiers were far too drunk to fight. He then met Edward at the nearby town of Picquigny, where the two Kings quickly reached agreement. In return for a down payment of
75,000
crowns and further annual payments of
50,000,
Edward undertook peaceably to leave French soil — and, incidentally, negotiated the ransom of Margaret of Anjou.

At home, such dissension as we know of seems to have been largely confined to the royal princes, C
larence and Gloucester. The two
brothers
-
now
by
far
the
most
powerful
magnates
in
the
realm
after the
King
himself
-
had
much
in
common.
In
the
first
twenty
years
of their
lives
they
had
known
nothing
but
war.
Both
had
experienced victory
and
defeat,
exile
and
betrayal;
both
had
killed
many
men
with their
own
hands,
in
hot
blood
and
in
cold;
both,
despite
their
high intelligence,
were
greedy
and
ambitious,
utterly
self-centred
and
devoid of
principle.
In
other
respects,
however,
they
were
very
different. Clarence
shared
the
magnificent
physique
and
outstanding
good
looks, as
well
as
the
easy
charm
and
eloquence,
of
his
brother
Edward. Gloucester,
for
his
part,
could
never
have
been
the
hunchback
that Shakespeare
suggests;
nor,
given
his
undoubted
prowess
on
the
battlefield,
could
he
have
had
a
left
arm
withered
'like
a
blasted
sapling'.
But contemporary
chroniclers
are
all
agreed
that
he
was
unusually
small
and at
least
slightly
deformed,
with
his
right
shoulder
higher
than
his
left; and
the
incident
during
the
meeting
of
13
June
1483
reported
by
Sir Thomas
More
¹
indicates
that
the
left
arm
must
certainly
have
been damaged
in
some
degree.
As
to
his
looks,
Polydore
Vergil
describes him
as
having
'a
short
and
sour
countenance'
-
though
he
too
could be
dangerously
charming
when
he
wished
to
be.
Between
such
men
it does
not
take
much
to
start
a
quarrel;
and
by
the
end
of
1471
they
were at
each
other's
throats
—
over
what
was,
by
any
standards,
a
very
major issue
indeed:
the
enormous
fortune
of
Warwick
the
King-maker.

Warwick,
dying
on
the
field
of
Barnet,
had
left
two
children,
both daughters.
Isabel,
the
elder,
was
the
wife
of
Clarence;
Anne,
three
years younger,
had
been
betrothed
to
Edward,
Prince
of
Wales,
but
he had
been
killed
at
Tewkesbury
before
they
could
be
married.
Though some
of
the
vast
estates
were
still
technically
the
property
of
Warwick's widow
-
who
had
taken
sanctuary
at
Beaulieu
Abbey
in
Hampshire
— Clarence
expected
eventually
to
inherit
them
all;
Ri
chard
now
decided to
dispute
this
inheritance
by
marrying
the
sixteen-year-old
Anne,
who had
been
captured
with
her
mother-in-law
Margaret
of
Anjou
after Tewkesbury.
On
hearing
of his
brother's
intentions
the
furious
Clarence determined
to
prevent
him,
taking
possession
of
his
sister-in-law
and concealing
her,
disguised
as
a
kitchen-maid,
in
the
house
of
one
of his
retainers;
but
Richard
found
her,
seized
her
back
and
removed
her
to sanctuary
in
the
church
of
St
Martin-le-Grand,
where
she
was
forced

1. See below, pp. 329-30
.

to
stay
for
several
months.
The
two
married
in
February
or
March
1472 —
without
the
papal
dispensation
necessary
for
a
marriage
between cousins
-
after
which
Richard
took
his
bride
off
to
his
favourite
northern residence:
Middleham
in
Yorkshire,
one
of
the
several
castles
formerly belonging
to
Warwick
which
the
King
had
made
over
to
him
in
the summer
of
1471.