Richard III - Guilty or Innocent? Documentary

this video is sponsored by the great courses plus an on-demand learning service with lectures and courses from top university professors as well as experts from world-renowned institutions whether you're a student studying for exams or a history buff learning about days gone by the great courses plus has something for you with over 11,000 videos on a myriad of subjects from science to mathematics to architecture and literature one course we highly recommend covers the history of England from the Tudors to the Stuart's encompassing the downfall of King Richard the third to the rise of The Tudors under King Henry the seventh and beyond so if you love learning and want to watch as many lectures as you like on any topic you can think of join today and the great courses plus calm /the people profiles and start your free trial membership the great courses plus learn everything about anything [Music] [Music] [Music] the man known to history as King Richard the third of England was born on the 2nd of October 14 52 in fotheringay castle in the county of northampton share his mother Cecily Neville Duchess of York was the great-granddaughter of King Edward the third and was also the mother of two Yorkist kings of England King Edward the fourth and King Richard the third himself Richard's father Richard Plantagenet 3rd Duke of York was one of the most renowned and powerful noblemen of his age and was protector of the realm on various occasions during the reign of the Lancastrian King Henry the 6th and was also responsible for instigating the Wars of the Roses Richard was the youngest of the four surviving sons or Cecily and York meaning that he was unlikely to ever inherit his father's title let alone claim the throne but after years of civil war and a series of consequential events he was eventually crowned I would go on to become one of the most infamous rulers in English history young Richard grew up during one of the most famous and bloody conflicts of the medieval era that being the Wars of the Roses which was instigated by his father when he was just 2 years of age although the root cause of the conflict can be traced back to much earlier in the Plantagenet dynasty England had in the reign of King Edward the third emerged as one of the many evil superpowers of Europe as it had defeated the armies of France in various battles such as crécy and Poitier's meaning that by the time of Edward the thirds death the island nation dominated its continental rival however Edward the third son and heir Edward the Black Prince who was one of the most renowned and capable commanders in medieval Europe never got the opportunity to reign as King of England as he died of dysentery a year before his father in 1376 meaning that the throne then passed the black Prince's young son richard ii instead despite showing promise early on in his reign richard ii took after his great-grandfather edward ii much more than his father and grandfather as he was a weak tyrannical and cruel king who eventually alienated his nobles to the very point of rebellion richard was then overthrown imprisoned and starved to death by one of his cousins henry bolingbroke who was himself the son of John of Gaunt 1st Duke of Lancaster the third son of Edward the third whose descendants would later represent themselves under the red rose of Lancaster this act of regicide would in time cause a rift within the Plantagenet family and lead to the Wars of the Roses as Bolingbroke was not the next in line to the throne after richard ii and in killing an anointed monarch Bolingbroke had set a dangerous precedent for the future and eventually placed his descendants at odds with other branches of the Plantagenet family these rival branches were descended from the second surviving son of Edward the third Lionel of Antwerp first Duke of Clarence as well as the fourth surviving son of Edward the third Edmund of Langley 1st Duke of York who represented the House of York under the famous symbol of the white rose after the death of King Richard the second Henry Bolingbroke was crowned King Henry the fourth of England in 1399 and the House of Lancaster then controlled the country for the next 62 years which also included the reigns of King Henry the fifth and his son King Henry the sixth however the Lancastrian grip over England largely depended on the strength of the reigning monarch and this hold on power then evaporated during the reign of Bolingbroke's grandson King Henry the sixth who unlike his father henry v had no talent for warfare and was far more interested in the construction of churches and universities than in the maintenance of power Henry the sixth tenuous position was then further compounded by him suffering his first mental breakdown in 1453 possibly as a result of his armies final defeat against the French in the Hundred Years War resulting a year later in Richard the thirds father Richard Duke of York being a protector of the realm was the King was recovering York was the grandson of Edmund of Langley first Juke of York but his mother and Mortimer was herself the great-granddaughter of Edward the third second son the Duke of Clarence as her grandfather Edmund Mortimer 3rd Earl of March had married Clarence's only daughter Philippa York's power and influence then increased tenfold when he inherited the Duke of Clarence his claim to the throne through his mother Anne when her brother Edmund Mortimer 5th Earl of March died with no heirs in 1425 which effectively made him one of the country's richest landowners this maternal lineage formed the backbone of Richard Duke of York claimed the English throne and is the reason for the Wars of the Roses taking place as although he was the descendant of the fourth son of King Edward the third he was now also the heir of his second son Lionel of Antwerp the Duke of Clarence who had technically been next in line to the throne after Richard the seconds death York then sought to capitalize on Henry the six weakness by demanding that he be recognized as the rightful heir to the throne but he never tably faced opposition from the Kings Lancastrian supporters most notably his wife Queen Margaret of Anjou who wanted her infant son with Henry Edward of Westminster to succeed him as king outraged by York's actions Margaret then formed a powerful coalition against him with the support of other Lancastrian Nobles such as the Duke of Somerset and they then pressured the King to remove York from his role as protector of the realm Henry the sick then recovered from his illness in December of 14 54 and relieved York of his position after which Richard gathered his supporters and marched on London in the hope of a final reckoning with Henry's Lancastrian advisers the two factions then met on the 22nd of May 14:55 in what is regarded as the opening confrontation of the Wars of the Roses the first battle of st. Albans in which the Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians the Duke of Somerset was killed and Henry the sixth was taken prisoner after this York was once again named as protector of the realm but King Henry after recovering from another of his stress-related breakdowns removed him from his position once again largely at the Queen's per hessed which then prompted York to flee the country to Ireland as he now feared for his life whilst York was in Ireland his ally which Neville the 16th Earl of Warwick and constable of Calais used his power base in mainland France launched raids against trade shipments in the English Channel and he then after failing to link up with York in England in 1459 returned a year later captured London and defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Northampton in July 1460 after which Queen Margaret and her son Edward of Westminster fled to Scotland whilst King Henry was once again taken prisoner this time York made it clear that he wanted nothing less than to usurp Henry a become King himself but he could not obtain the backing of Parliament for such a measure and instead a compromise was struck in October 14 60 which is now known today as the act of Accord which stated that Henry the six would retain the throne until his death when it would pass to York in his heirs whilst the Queen was in Scotland rallying support Lancastrian Nobles including the new jerk of Somerset he was eager to avenge the death of his father at the First Battle of st. Albans rallied their forces in the north which eventually totaled around 15,000 men at arms a march south with the aim of defeating York and restoring Henry the sixth to the throne York then marched north himself along with his second son Edmund to confront the Lancastrians but he greatly underestimated the strength of his enemy's forces as his Yorkist host only consisted of around 8,000 men the two armies then met at the Battle of Wakefield on the 30th of December 1460 in which the Lancastrians were victorious and York and his son were slain after the victory over York Queen Margaret returned to England and along with her Lancastrian allies defeated the Earl of Warwick in the Second Battle of st. Albans on the 17th of February 1461 and following the engagement Henry the six was released from captivity after being found singing under a nearby tree following their victory the Lancastrians progressed to London but were barred from entering the city by its Yorkist supporting populace which resulted in Margaret making the fatal mistake of retreating to the north to consolidate her support base the Lancastrian withdrawal then allowed the late york's eldest son edward the new Duke of York who had 19 was already an experienced commander to return to London in the following weeks where he with the backing of the Earl of Warwick the church and the city's population proclaimed himself as King Edward the fourth of England on the 4th of March 14 61 this escalated the conflict to a whole new level as there were now two Kings in England and with the country now more divided than ever further hostilities were inevitable and as a result both sides now prepared themselves for a final showdown the young King then gathered his supporters and marched towards his family city of York which was now being occupied by the Lancastrians and the two armies then confronted one another on the 29th of March 1461 around 10 miles southwest of York in the most bloody battle in English history tauten the two armies which consisted of some 30,000 men on both sides then engaged in a snow storm and an impaired aloud slaughter ensued however the Yorkists aided by King Edward's brilliant leadership were eventually triumphant and after the carnage had died down the field was littered with the bodies of some 28,000 men whilst the Civil War was raging in England King Edward's younger brothers George and Richard had been staying in the relative safety of the Low Countries but after their brothers victory at Alton they returned home and took part in Edwards coronation after which George was given the title of Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Gloucester following the Yorkist seizure of power Clarence aged 12 and Richard aged 9 were placed in the care of the Earl of Warwick in his power base in the Yorkshire Dales where over the coming years both brothers were given an education and instructed in the art of warfare until they came of age indeed growing up during the Wars of the Roses helped to shape Richard into the man he would have actually become and as he spend the majority of his teenage years under the tutelage are one of the most capable commanders of his day in the shape of Warwick it is no surprise that by the time he reached maturity he had become a reputable leader in his own right at the age of 16 Richard began to attend court and began to assume the responsibilities of his estates however both he and his brother George's loyalty to King Edward would soon be tested as divisions were starting to form within the House of York and its support base the reasons for this was that Edward in his handling of the government had begun to ignore Warwick's advice and this division between them was then widened to breaking point when it was discovered that King Edward had married Elizabeth Woodville in May of 14 64 this clandestine marriage ruined Warwick's plan to marry Edward to Anne the eldest daughter of louis xi of france which the Earl had brokered in order to secure diplomatic relations between the two kingdoms and along with it England's remaining French territories on the continent Edwards reign thus far had been relatively secure but his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville elevated both her and her lowborn family to dominant positions within the Kings Court and they then over the coming years worked against the Earl of Warwick and weakened his position the Earl then withdrew from court to his Yorkshire estates in 1467 where he gathered his supporters against the king including Edward and Richards brother George Duke of Clarence who joined Warwick because Edward had not allowed him to marry the Earl's daughter and also as King Edward had no heirs at this stage Clarence hoped to claim the throne for himself as he was next in line Warwick and Clarence is rebellion then started in earnest two years later in 1469 when the Earl's rebel army defeated a loyalist army at the Battle of edge cot more on the 26th of July after which King Edward was taken into custody in Buckinghamshire as Warwick's prisoner but the earl's grip over the country did not last for long as he was unable to secure the backing of the nobility to replace Edward resulting in the king being released shortly afterwards and fearing reprisals the rebel leaders then fled to the continent in spring of fourteen seventy while in exile Warwick and Clarence formed an alliance with the deposed Queen Margaret of Anjou and they then launched a combined invasion of England in September fourteen seventy with the support of the French King meaning that Edward the fourth and his brother Richard were forced to flee the country themselves and seek protection in Flanders Warwick then reinstated Henry the sixth as King of England in what became known as the rien which later earned him the nickname of the kingmaker for his role in restoring the Lancastrians to power which is a title reserved for few men in the annals of history Edward the fourth who was now under the protection of his brother-in-law the Duke of Burgundy then returned to England along with the 18 year old Richard landing in York is supporting East Anglia on the 14th of March 14 71 with 1200 men after which they marched on to York which threw open its gates to greet them both Edward and Richard then progressed south gathering supporters as they went one of whom was their brother George Duke of Clarence who had been alienated by Warwick after he restored the Lancastrians to power the Yorkist army then engaged the Earl of Warwick at the Battle of Barnet on the 14th of April 1471 in which Richard Duke of Gloucester would come of age in the battle which was shrouded in mist the Lancastrians initially took the upper hand after their right flank led by John De Vere Earl of Oxford routed the Yorkist left under William Lord Hastings but even though Edward had lost a sizeable portion of his army both he and his brother Richard did not allow it to crumble and after Richard led his own attack on Warwick's left the line was stabilized then in a moment of confusion oxfords men who had returned to the fray lost their way in the fog and charged towards their own lines led by Warwick's brother John Neville who in turn mistook them for Edwards Yorkist reserves and ordered his men to fire a volley of arrows at the approaching cavalry in the hail of missiles Oxford's men then fled the field crying treachery after which Edward deployed his reserves to attack the Lancastrian left culminating in their remaining ranks being decimated and Warwick the kingmaker being unable to fend off an attack was cut down and killed Richard had played a significant role in the Yorkist victory at Barnet but almost immediately had another opportunity to display his talent for command against another Lancastrian army less than a month later in the Battle of Tewkesbury on may the 4th 1471 in the lead-up to the battle King Edward intercepted margaret of anjou who had gathered her remaining support in the West Country and was travelling onwards to Wales to join forces with the Welsh Noble Jasper Tudor brother of Edmund Tudor the father of Henry Tudor during the battle Edward and Clarence's formations were overcome by an attack from Edmund Duke of Somerset but were relieved by supporting cavalry which routed the Lancastrians after which Richard launched an attack on the Lancastrian center and forced the enemy back until their lines broke and a rout ensued the victory at Chuck spree proved to be a decisive battle in securing the crown for Edward the fourth has it all but eliminated the major Lancastrian claimants to the throne including Henry the sixth son Edward of Westminster the Prince of Wales who was killed and is the only heir apparent to ever die in a battle on English soil after the battle queen margaret was taken prisoner by the House of York and Richard along with John Howard Duke of Norfolk is said to have put the remaining Lancastrian Nobles to death despite them taking sanctuary in Tewkesbury Abbey this act of apparent murder was later used by his detractors in the following centuries to portray Richard as a lawless character but whether the monastery held sanctuary rights at the time has since been contested following Tewksbury a Lancastrian uprising was led by the late king makers cousin Thomas Neville which was defeated and afterwards King Henry the sixth was murdered in the Tower of London on the vigil of the Ascension between the 21st and 22nd of may 14 71 eliminating the final king of the Lancastrian era traditionally richard has been implicated in the death of Henry and some may say he even sanctioned his death but this again remains another matter of contention as there is no way of objectively clarifying who ordered his killing what is most likely however is that the late King died under Edward the force orders as he was after all the head of state and only he had the authority to sanction the killing of an anointed monarch by this stage the House of York was victorious as it had annihilated its rivals and effectively ended the conflict after which followed a period of peace although eventually the storm clouds of treachery and war would descend across England once again and in time lead to the downfall of the Yorkist Kings following the restoration of Edward the fourth in June 1461 Richard married and Neville the younger daughter of the late Warwick the kingmaker who was also the widow of Edward the sixth son Edward of Westminster who had died at the Battle of Tewkesbury this union would see Richard engage in a bitter land dispute with his brother Clarence who himself married Warwick's eldest daughter Isabel as it is possible that both were trying to gain control of the late Earl's lands in order to increase their own wealth and power however it is also possible that both marriages were born out of love as both men had known the Neville sisters since their time under their father's tutelage in his power base in Yorkshire during their adolescence and would later be crowned queen consort after Richards rise to power and would go on to give birth to their only son together Edward of Middleham Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester and Salisbury and the future Prince of Wales it was claimed that towards the end of Anne's life where she lay dying of tuberculosis in March of 1485 that Richard had her poisoned as he intended to marry his brother Edward the forced daughter Elizabeth of York but once again the accuracy of this claim is disputed and may as with so many of the events of Richard's life have been twisted for political means in addition to inheriting land in Wales and Northern England due to his marriage to Anne Richard was also responsible for the administrative body of the Council of the north and during his tenure he suppressed conflict in the region and brought the Earl's of Northumberland and Westmoreland under his influence this led over time in Richard becoming popular with the northern nobility and its population as he was responsible along with his brother King Edward the fourth in bringing prosperity and economic opportunities to the region which he continued to do after he became King by placing his northern Lords in positions of power which proved to be unpopular with some as he was accused of using them to bolster his position despite Richards chivalrous activities in the north of the country there are accounts which depict his disposition as malicious and callous which surround the trial and execution of his brother Clarence Clarence's wife Isabelle had died in mysterious circumstances in December 14 76 probably from consumption but Clarence maintained that she had been poisoned by one of her ladies-in-waiting who he had executed shortly afterwards after this Clarence sought to marry Mary Duchess of Burgundy but his brother King Edward refused him prompting Clarence to then leave the king's court in protest which ignited suspicions against him and shortly afterwards a number of his retainers were arrested tried and executed Clarence then appointed a former Lancastrian supporter dr. John Goddard to protest his retainers deaths in Parliament which in turn resulted in Edward having Clarence arrested and put on trial which his brother was not allowed to defend himself and after being found guilty Clarence was executed in the Tower of London on the 18th of February 1478 Richard was portrayed after his own death as greeting his brothers trial with approval as both he and his wife were the principal beneficiaries of Clarence's estates but there is no concrete evidence to link Richard with his brother's trial or execution and once again the responsibility must surely lie with the head of state Edward the fourth it is also claimed that Clarence died upon the instruction or influence of Edward the fourth wife Elizabeth Woodville and her family whose main aim was to ensure that her son the future Edward the fifth succeeded his father as Clarence had demonstrated in the past that he posed a threat to the crown and could have become a potential threat to the Prince of Wales in the future the real story behind Clarence's death may be forever lost to history but what is known is that the request of his mother Cecily Clarence did not face a traditional execution as the evidence of his exhumed remains suggests that he was not beheaded and popular myth states that he was instead drowned in a vat of wine by the late 1470s a confrontation was brewing with england's old enemy to the north the kingdom of Scotland and after war was declared in November 14 eighty Richard as warden of the West March led a successful campaign in the border region and eventually captured the city of barrack upon tweed in August of 1482 which was the final time the city changed hands between the two rival kingdoms during this campaign Richard also occupied Edinburgh for a short period but was unable to bring the Scottish King James the third to battle after he was kidnapped by his own Nobles to prevent any possible encounter with the invaders and afterwards the English were forced to return to barrack it is no exaggeration to say that Richards exploits in Scotland greatly impressed his brother as well as the English nobility and he was then rewarded with further lands and titles such as the high sheriff of Cumberland and it was also permitted to retain many of the lands he appropriated during his Scottish campaign then came the event that would change witch's life as well as the entire course of English history as around the time of Easter 1483 Edward the fourth began to fall ill until within a matter of weeks it was clear that the king was dying during his final days the King declared his 12 year old son Edward as his successor but also named his brother Richard as Lord Protector until the young king came of age King Edward the fourth then died at the age of 40 on the 9th of April 1483 and his remains were then taken and laid to rest at st. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle two days after his brother's death Richard took an oath of loyalty to his nephew Edward v but following the death of King Edward Richard faced opposition amongst the nobility such as the Woodville's who had grown into a powerful political force during the reign of the late King the Woodville still maintained a great deal of influence at the time of Edwards passing and we're now working to alienate Richard from the process of government but as the lowborn family were hated amongst the established nobility many of them threw their support behind the Lord Protector including loyal Yorkist Nobles such as William Hastings 1st Baron of Hastings who was the Lord Chamberlain to the old King Richard saw this withdrawal of support from the Woodville's as a sign of disrespect and he then responded by assuming responsibility of the young Edward v by seeking to place him under his protection as he was accountable for Edward safety as Lord Protector it should be noted also that Richard was not alone in this act nor was he the instigating party as it is stated in the Croydon chronicles written by Benedictine monk engulfed the Richard acted upon the instructions of Lord Hastings who informed him and his ally Henry Stafford the 2nd Duke of Buckingham that the Woodville's were planning on taking control of the country Richard then wrote to Northampton on the 29th of April 1483 an intercepted Elizabeth Woodville's brother Anthony Woodville the second Earl rivers who was escorting the young King to London for his coronation along with a heavily armed 2,000 strong bodyguard the young king however was not present when Richard arrived as he had been sent south of Northampton to the small town of Stoney Stafford before the Lord protect his arrival and after dining with rivers and his entourage Richard had them arrested under a charge of treason against him and then travelled to intercept the young king before escorting him for his own safety to Bishop Kemp's palace in London after which he was moved to the Royal Apartments at the Tower of London where Kings traditionally resided before being crowned following his return the King's Council officially proclaimed Richard as regent to his nephew and it was also decided that the coronation would be postponed for seven weeks and then later for three months after this on the 13th of June 1483 Richard along with the Duke of Buckingham turned on his old ally Baron Hastings during a council meeting at the Tower of London and accused him of plotting against his life with the Woodville's it is unclear what happened next but some accounts state that Hastings along with a number of his companions were dragged from the tower and summarily executed moments later even though he had previously been a loyal supporter of Richard in the past during this period Richard also attempted to place Earl rivers on trial for treason but was barred from doing so by the Kings Council but rivers was ultimately executed in Richard's stronghold of Pontefract castle in Yorkshire one day before he was proclaimed as king on the 25th of June 1483 upon hearing of the arrest of her brother the late King Edward the fourth wife Elizabeth Woodville had sought refuge in Westminster Abbey along with her children including the nine-year-old Richard of Shrewsbury Duke of York but then she handed over her son to the Archbishop of Canterbury thinking that he would be safe assuming that her eldest son's coronation was imminent after this a clergyman thought to have been the Bishop of bathroom wells his thought to have informed Richard that his brother Edward the fort's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was invalid as the late King had before their Union entered into a legal pre contract to marry the daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury Lady Eleanor Talbot although the marriage of Edward and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate by Richard and his supporters his sources accurate lady Tolbert died in June of 1468 and Edward v was born the second of November fourteen seventy meaning that he was not born during lady Tolbert's lifetime and even if the claims of Edward the force pre-contract are true and valid he was a widower two years before the birth of his heir on the other hand Richard and his supporters would argue that because Edward and Elizabeth had married four years before Lady Tolbert's death any children they had together would have been illegitimate there were also rumors during this period that King Edward the fourth himself was illegitimate and recent investigations have suggested that his father Richard Duke of York was not with his mother Cecily at the time of conception however there is no consensus regarding the validity of these claims as there is simply not enough evidence to conclusively state that they are true or not then on the 22nd of June 1483 a sermon was held outside the old st. Paul's Cathedral which stated that both Edward v and his brother the Duke of York were illegitimate as their parents marriage was invalid and afterwards a petition was drawn up which was signed by nobles and commoners alike that ours Richard to assume the throne and he subsequently agreed on the 26th of June indeed the validity of Richard's ascension has always been disputed as the parliament of 1483 had not yet officially convened although based on a precedent set by Edward in 1461 an informal gathering of officials satisfied legal requirements declare him King Richard Duke of Gloucester was then crowned King Richard the third of England at Westminster Abbey on the 6th of July 1483 and his ascendancy was then later ratified by an Act of Parliament could the titless Regius in 1484 which deemed him to be the rightful king this ratification of Richard as King has led some to argue that the label placed upon him as usurper is unwarranted but as the act was repealed and destroyed when King Henry the seventh took power the historical narrative regarding the motives and legitimacy of Richard's actions are clouded ambiguous and open to different interpretations among the guests at Richard's coronation were a number of former Lancastrian supporters including the mother of Henry Tudor Margaret Beaufort and her fourth husband Lord Thomas Stanley 1st Earl of Derby who would eventually play prominent roles in Richard's downfall during the summer of 1483 Richard secured London and suppress dissent with the aid of his troops during which time his men allegedly prevented an attempt to free the princes from the tower and shortly afterwards Richard left London and embarked on a tour of England at this time rumors started to circulate that the princes head wooden Richard had disappeared from the Tower of London and by the end of the summer of 1483 there were widespread suspicions that the boys were missing or dead the only concrete fact regarding their disappearance is that they were no longer seen after the summer of 1483 and the story surrounding what happened to them remains a mystery although alternative narratives have been suggested as to who may have killed the princes or even if they were killed at all it is said that until his death Richard did not attempt to defend himself regarding the whereabouts of the boys a remained silent on their fate for the rest of his life which some saw and still see as an admission of his guilt one of the few accounts of the princes disappearance comes from an Italian gentleman named Dominic Mann Cheney who visited England during the summer of 1483 in his report Mancini insisted that Richard was responsible for the princes death although his account has been questioned since as he relied on the testimony of a royal doctor John Argentine who was a loyal supporter of Edward the 4th and later Henry the 7th additionally Sir Thomas More atchoo to historian also claimed that Richard had ordered the princes to be killed and stated that one of his most trusted knights James Tyrell confessed to the murder in which the princes were suffocated in their beds by two of Tyrells men miles Forrest and John Dyson in contrast to this others have named Richard's Ally Henry Stafford 2nd Duke of Buckingham as the man behind the murders as he himself had a claim to the crown as a descendant of John of Gaunt and it is proposed that he may have intended to take the crown for himself and was not acting upon Richards authority other theories regarding the princes disappearance claim that Henry the seventh himself ordered their murder after coming to power although there is no evidence for this as if he had done so Henry could have produced the bodies as proof that Richard had been responsible later historical events also raised fresh doubts over the fate of the princes in the tower when Perkin Warbeck who claimed to be the younger Prince Richard Duke of York staged a coup against Henry the seventh in the 1490s what was ultimately imprisoned admitted to being an impostor and was then after a number of escape attempts hanged in 1499 once again the truth behind the boys deaths is lost in the mists of time but one possible clue to their fate was discovered during excavations around the Tower of London in 1674 which revealed a small wooden box containing the skeletons of two children however these remains have never been formally examined using modern technology as forensic investigations have not yet been authorized to determine if the bones of the period in question or share any DNA with Richard the Third's recently discovered remains what is certain is that the mother of the princes in the tower Elizabeth Woodville had just caused to blame Richard and his supporters for the disappearance of her sons as he after all had been charged by her late husband and with the fourth to ensure their safety which he innocent of their deaths or not failed to do this affair which remains one of the most notorious events in the history of the English monarchy inevitably forced Elizabeth Woodville into a clandestine alliance with Lady Margaret Beaufort who was the godmother of one of Elizabeth's daughters and whose stepson George Stanley heir of Lord Thomas Stanley was married to Elizabeth sister's daughter the Stanley's had originally been one of the earliest supporters of the first Lancastrian King Henry Bolingbroke but Thomas had since inheriting his father's lands and titles in 1459 showed an incredible talent in choosing the winning side in battles as he had previously refused to commit his troops in the Battle of Bloor Heath in September of 1459 even though he had been ordered to by the late Henry the sixth wife Queen Margaret of Anjou this pragmatism or disloyalty eventually resulted in Stanley becoming one of the richest and most powerful noblemen in the land as he had become a supporter of Edward the fourth during the middle stages of the Wars of the Roses and his position was then strengthened immeasurably by his marriage to the thrice widowed Lady Margaret Beaufort who had inherited her late father the Duke of Somerset lands as well as those of previous husbands before Lady Margaret had married Thomas Stanley she had in her second marriage been the wife of the Lancastrian supporter Edmund Tudor first Earl of Richmond whose father Owen Tudor had married King Henry the sixth mother Catherine of Valois after the death of her first husband the Lancastrian King Henry the fifth Edmund Tudor had himself been taken prisoner by the House of York in the early stages of the Wars of the Roses but died of the plague whilst imprisoned leaving pregnant Margaret widowed at the tender age of 13 in November of 14 56 and two months later she then gave birth to her only child Henry Tudor the future nemesis of Richard the third a Pembroke Castle in Wales Margaret then started to position her son as a candidate to lead the opposition to Richard the third and even though Henry was hardly a strong candidate in terms of his ancestry there were few other Lancastrian claimants left alive and as his mother's husband Lord Stanley was one of the most powerful Nobles in England and the Woodville's were eager to claim revenge on Richard Henry was the right man in the right place at the right time Henry Tudor's claim to the English throne derived from his mother Lady Margaret who was the great-granddaughter of the third son of Edward the third John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who had fathered four illegitimate children with his mistress and later wife Katherine Swynford one of whom was Margaret's grandfather John Beaufort Henry had spent most of his life away from England in exile in Brittany as he had fled the country after King Edward the fort's final victory over the House of Lancaster but despite him now being the most prominent Lancastrian claimant after the deaths of Henry the sick and his son neither Edward the fourth or Richard the third took his claim seriously enough to eliminate him which would prove to be a fatal mistake Lady Margaret and Elizabeth then concocted a brilliant plan which would see Henry Tudor Mary Elizabeth would eldest daughter Elizabeth of York and former union between the houses of Lancaster and York that would potentially attract supporters from both of the competing factions who were dissatisfied with Richard the thirds rule war this agreement then attracted many of the old King Edward the force York his supporters who to say the least were unhappy with Richard the thirds ascension to the throne as well as the disappearance of the princes and soon after the new Kings coronation in the late summer of 1483 a plot was well underway to depose him this culminated in Richard the thirds old ally the Duke of Buckingham as well as John Morton and Reginald Bray raising an army in support of Henry but after a great storm engulf the English Channel Judah was stranded off the south coast resulting in the buckingham rebellion as it is now known fizzling out after which Buckingham himself was captured and executed in November of 1483 after the failed Buckingham rebellion Richard sought an agreement with the officials of the Duke of Brittany to handover Henry to his custody but after chuder recieved word of these plans he escaped to France where he gained the backing of his hosts and in reen's Cathedral on Christmas Day 1483 Henry officially declared his intention to marry Elizabeth would Phil's daughter Elizabeth of York after which he stepped up his plans for a second invasion although Richard the thirds reign is arguably the most famous of le Plantagenet King he only sat on the English throne for just over two years but during this time he held his only parliament in 1484 which he negotiated the raising of funds in return for abolishing the benevolence levy which Kings had used in the past to raise money without Parliament's consent and also agreed to protect English merchants trade from their foreign competitors during this time Richard also extended power to the justices of the Peace by granting officials the authority to implement bail measures for today knees and also introduced legal protection for accused citizens which prevented illegal seizure a property as they awaited trial additionally the king introduced a system of legal representation named the court of requests for those who are unable to afford legal aid in which poorer citizens would petition the crown regarding disputes and Richard also oversaw a process by which the laws of the land were translated from the usual Latin or French into English so the commoners were better informed of their rights it could be said that many of these reforms fly in the face of the picture that has been handed down to us of Richard as he genuinely seems to have concerned himself with the lives of his subjects however the king would never get the chance to prove what kind of king he really was as the final battle of the Wars of the Roses was now fast approaching Richard had after the failed Buckingham rebellion confiscated the lands of Elizabeth Woodville who was still living in England at this time along with those belonging to Henry Chile's mother Lady Margaret as a punishment for their involvement but handed the latter's lands over to her husband Lord Stanley perhaps through fear of him officially joining his wife against him in many ways Lord Stanley was Richards biggest problem as his position had been greatly weakened by his perceived involvement in the disappearance of the princes in the tower which had in part led to the defection of many of his York his supporters during the Buckingham rebellion therefore he could not afford to lose the support of any more Nobles let alone one as powerful as Stanley in the meantime Henry Tudor's plans of launching a second invasion of England were gathering pace as he now gained the backing of the French Court who supported his invasion in order to prevent Richard from interfering with their own planned invasion of the Duchy of Brittany Judah was then forced to act quickly and hastened his departure after word reached him that Richard the thirds wife and Neville had died in March of 1485 and the king was now planning to marry Elizabeth Woodville's daughter Elizabeth of York himself which could have pretend she unraveled the fragile alliance Henry had with his former Yorkist supporters Richard the third position had also been greatly weakened in April of 1484 when his son and heir Edward the Prince of Wales died of unknown causes which was seen by many as divine retribution for his apparent involvement in the disappearance of the princes in the tower Henry Tudor then quickly gathered an army in France with the support of the French King Charles the eighth which totaled as many as 5000 professional mercenaries are possibly a small contingent of Scottish troops after which he set sail from half leur on the 1st of August 1485 and landed on the Welsh coast at Milford Haven on the 7th of August not far from his birthplace at Pembroke Castle after this henry's army progressed through southern and central wales gathering supporters as they went until it finally crossed the English border near Shrewsbury after which Henry held several secret meetings with his stepfather Lord Stanley who had gathered his own forces in the area and following this the two separate armies continued their march towards London Richard had heard of Henry Tudor's landing in Wales from the 11th of August and had since been gathering his supporters throughout the country had his rallying point in the city of Leicester after which he moved westwards in order to cut off shooters advance on London Richard then learned that Henry Tudor was himself marching towards Leicester has he had supporters in the area he hoped would join him there for the Yorkist army which consisted of between seven thousand five hundred and twelve thousand men then took up defensive positions on a hill roughly 15 miles west of Leicester and awaited their enemy's arrival although the site for the Battle of Bosworth Field has for centuries been thought to have taken place just south of Market Bosworth the actual site of the battle has recently been subject to debate as the earliest reference to the confrontation taking place near Bosworth was written 25 years after the event and historians now think that the real site of the battle to be nearly 2 miles southwest of the traditional site what is known is that on the morning of the 22nd of August 1485 Richard took up a defensive position on a hill to the east of the battlefield opposite Henry's army which now numbered in the region of five to eight thousand men whilst Lord Stanley took up a separate position to the south along with his host of around 5,000 men although the events of the day are debated one version of events is that the initial engagement occurred between the men of Richard's second-in-command John Howard 1st Duke of Norfolk on the Yorkist right and Henry's commander John de verre 13th Earl of Oxford who commanded the main body of the Lancastrian army these two contingents after a short artillery barrage then engaged one another whilst Henry looked on in the rear and after fierce hand-to-hand fighting the Lancastrian started to gain the upper hand to counter this Richard then ordered the commander of his left flank Henry Percy the Earl of Northumberland to attack the Lancastrians but Percy stood firm as he perhaps feared his men would be caught in the boggy ground in front of their position or possibly also feared being attacked in the rear by Lord Stanley's forces to the south Richard who was fast running out of options there made a decision that would change the course of English as well as world history seeing that Henry and his mounted bodyguard were exposed in front of him Richard on the spur of the moment ordered a massed cavalry charge to attack Judah in the hope of ending the battle the king and his men then thundered down the slope and crashed headlong into his enemy's bodyguard which Henry's standard bearer was killed and Richard himself came to within feet of his rival but this charge soon lost its momentum and then Lord Stanley who had been watching the fighting to the south ordered his brother William Stanley to attack Richards flank and shortly afterwards the king's men were falling all around him it is perhaps no surprise that Stanley came to the defense of his stepson Henry as he after all was married to his mother and as Richard had held his son George hostage during the battle and had even threatened to execute him if he did not receive support it is possible that Stanley took the opportunity to kill Richard in an act of revenge the king who had by this time been unhorsed then gathered his dwindling troops around him and supposedly after being compelled to retreat cried god forbid that I retreat one step I will either win the battle as a king or die as one Richard's men were then slain one by one around him until he was virtually the last man standing until finally a blow was delivered to his head which floored him and he was then surrounded and finished off by Henry's men later examination of King Richard's remains have confirmed that he received nine wounds to his head and no doubt countless more to the soft tissues of his body and it is a testament to his bravery that after the battle Henry Tudor's official historian Polydore Vergil said of his death King Richard alone was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies Henry Tudor was then declared King Henry the seventh on the battlefield by Lord Stanley and afterwards Richards corpse was brought to Leicester naked on horseback to prove that he was in fact dead and that Henry Tudor was triumphant King Richard the third was the last King of England to die on the battlefield when he was killed by the forces of Henry Tudor who afterwards soon established himself as the supreme ruler of the country and reigned as King Henry the seventh for just short of a quarter of a century in 1486 Henry the seventh fulfilled his promise a married Elizabeth of York which was intended to end the royal blood feud between the competing houses as he United the red rose of Lancaster with the White Rose of York which Henry would later merge to form the famous Tudor Rose for over 500 years the location of Richard the thirds body was thought to have been lost until in September of 2012 archaeologists announced that the foundations of the Greyfriars Church in Leicester have been located and remains of an adult male with the curved spine have been found under the choir of the old church in the coming months DNA tests were carried out with the help of descendants of Richard the third sister Anne of York and it was then confirmed in the 4th of February 2013 that the body was in fact that of the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and finally on the 26th of March 2015 Richard the third was given a burial fit for a king of England at Leicester Cathedral Richard the third is today regarded as being one of the most famous and notorious kings in English history as despite him ruling for a relatively short period of time the dramatic events surrounding his rise to power as well as his downfall have ensured his name remains a household word to this very day in many ways his life and death exemplifies the cruel and unpredictable nature of power politics in the late medieval era and his demise marked the end of what many consider to be the most turbulent a bloody conflict in English history although richard has largely been characterized as a villain in the century since his death mainly by his tudor enemies in their descendants there have been efforts in recent years to try and ascertain what the truth really is regarding his life and character and it is fair to say that he was certainly not the pantomime villain he was portrayed to be recent developments have also confirmed that he was not the sinister Hunchback monarch of Shakespeare's play but instead suffered from the fairly common complaint that his scoliosis or curvature of the spine which in the medieval period may have been seen as a sign of wickedness or evil nevertheless malevolence was something which was attributed to Richard after his death and is illustrated most in a contemporary painting by an unknown artist which was altered sometime after his demise to portray him as having looked sinister and more deformed than he really was it is certainly true that Richard was a capable ruler and was particularly popular in the north of England where he is said to have been a just and honorable Lord therefore it could be said he was not a tyrant or oppressive in his rule but as his reign was so short there is no certainty as to what kind of king he would have become had he have lived on the other hand Richard is accused of many crimes and in justices during his lifetime most notably the disappearance of the princes in the tower and despite there being many theories about this episode most widely accepted version states that they were murdered on Richards orders all those under him although as previously mentioned there is no concrete evidence to confirm that he was responsible and it is probably a subject that will forever be open to debate perhaps a fair assessment would be that Richard was a man of his time who grew up during one of the most destructive and brutal conflicts in English history where ruthlessness was essential in order to survive and as both sides inflicted in Justices on one another during the Wars of the Roses it is perhaps unfair as well as unwise to look at any person involved as being entirely good or bad what is certain is that King Richard the thirds life will forever be hotly debated amongst academics and the public at large as we will probably never know what kind of man he really was or what really happened during the penultimate years of the Wars of the Roses what do you think of rich third was he a sinister villain or the victim of Tudor propaganda let us know in the comments section and until next time thank you very much for watching [Music] you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: 0dmCNIk9sXA

Length: 59min 59sec (3599 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2019