Richard III (October 2, 1452 – August 22, 1485) was the King of England from 1483 until his death and the last king from the House of York. After the death of his brother Edward IV, Richard briefly governed as a regent for Edward's son Edward V, but he imprisoned Edward and his brother Richard in the Tower and acquired the throne for himself (crowned on July 6, 1483). A rebellion rose against Richard and he fell in the Battle of Bosworth Field, where he faced the Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII). Shakespeare's play Richard III has made his name particularly famous.
On the death of Edward IV, in April 1483, the king's sons (Richard's young nephews), Edward V, age 12, and Richard, Duke of York, age 9, were supposedly next in the order of succession. Appointed Lord Protector of the Realm in his brother's will, Richard was warned by Lord Hastings that the Woodvilles were intending to isolate Richard from the position and to consolidate their power at Richard's expense.
When the boy king's retinue was on its way from Wales to London, for his coronation, Richard and Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, joined them at Northampton. He had the king's guardian, Earl Rivers (brother of Elizabeth Woodville, Edward's queen consort) and other advisors arrested and taken to Pontefract Castle, allegedly for planning to assassinate Edward V. Richard then took Edward to stay at the Tower of London (then a royal palace), a move widely supported since much of the country distrusted the former queen's family. Edward was soon joined by Richard, Duke of York. Richard called himself Lord Protector and was also made Chief Councillor (head of government).
Bishop John Morton is thought to be the source of most of the Tudor propaganda against Richard III. According to Morton's History, Lord Hastings (a regular visitor to the young Edward V in the Tower of London) was arrested for alleged treason on June 13, 1483 at a meeting of the Royal Council, at the Tower. A few minutes later, supposedly, he was beheaded on Tower Green. It has been argued that Hastings, whose execution was the first recorded at the Tower of London, was indeed arrested on June 13, but later formally charged with treason, tried, convicted and sentenced, and legally executed on June 18; no record of such proceedings survives.
It is thought that Hastings had allied himself with the dowager queen because of the rise in influence of Buckingham and what he saw as Richard's usurpation of the throne. Morton claimed to have been in the council room when Hastings was arrested, and may have been one of several men who were detained for participating in the conspiracy with Hastings.
Richard was, at least outwardly, a devout man and an efficient administrator. However, he was a Yorkist and heirless, and had ruthlessly removed the Woodvilles and their allies; he was therefore vulnerable to political opposition. His apparently loyal supporter, Henry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, turned against him and was executed late in 1483.
Richard's enemies united against him. According to local tradition in Leicester Richard went to see a seer in the town before heading off for the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22 1485 to meet Lancastrian forces led by Henry Tudor. She told him "where your spur should strike on the ride into battle, your head shall be broken on the return." On the ride into battle his spur struck the bridge stone of the Bow Bridge; as he was being carried back over the back of a horse his head struck the same stone and was broken open. Tudor succeeded Richard to become Henry VII, and cemented the succession by marrying the Yorkist heir, Elizabeth of York. Legends notwithstanding, Richard was abandoned at Bosworth by the Lords William Stanley and Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland, Stanley switching sides, which severely depleted his army's strength.
It is said that Richard's body was dragged naked through the streets before being buried at Greyfriars Church, Leicester. According to one tradition, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries his body was thrown into the nearby River Soar, although other evidence suggests that this may not be the case and that his burial site may currently be under a car park in Leicester. There is currently a memorial plaque in the Cathedral where he may have once been buried.