King Richard Iii William Shakespeare Hdt What? Index
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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN “POISONOUS BUNCH-BACKED TOAD” WALDEN: Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber. It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark colored and saturated with water. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man’s discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. KING RICHARD III WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III 1452 October 2, Saturday: Richard Plantagenet of the House of York was born in Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire (the royal infant was not defective). 1464 May 1, Sunday: This may be the day on which King Edward IV got married with Elizabeth Woodville (in violation, it would be made to appear, of some sort of “precontract” that he was to get married with Lady Eleanor Butler). 2 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III 1465 The Tower of London became the venue for a lavish court when King Henry VI became a prisoner in the royal accommodations there, with his throne usurped by King Edward IV (this Henry would be restored as a puppet monarch in 1470 but eighteen days after a battle at Tewkesbury in which his only child, Edward, would get killed, he would die at the Tower). “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 3 HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III May 26, Friday: King Edward IV’s wife Elizabeth Woodville, a commoner, was crowned as his Queen Consort. At some point during his adolescence, which would have begun in about this timeframe, the king’s brother Richard Plantagenet of the House of York would develop idiopathic scoliosis. A person with this sort of deformity lives day to day with pain. 1471 April 1, Saturday: After the battle at Tewkesbury in which King Edward IV of the House of York defeated Queen Margaret of the House of Lancaster, wife of King Henry VI, a battle in which his only child, Prince Edward, was killed, King Henry VI was committed to Wakefield Tower of the Tower of London. George Neville, Archbishop of York, was also sent to the royal residences in the Tower (after a couple of months the Archbishop would be released, but would then secretly be arrested with his lands forfeited — he would be taken to the Castle of Guynes and would die there in 1476). 4 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III April 11, Tuesday: King Henry VI of England, who actually had been a resident of the Tower of London since 1465, was formally deposed when it became clear that his House of Lancaster was losing a war of the roses. Mem: Try not to lose any wars over roses. May 4, Thursday: King Edward IV of the House of York, after defeating and killing Richard, Earl of Warwick, at Barnet, was able to make his triumphal entry to London. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 5 HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III May 21, Sunday: Eighteen days after his queen had been defeated and his only child, Edward, killed in battle, by order of King Edward IV, King Henry VI was murdered at the Tower of London. Now there is an annual commemoration of this murder, the Ceremony of Lilies and Roses. 1472 Richard Plantagenet of the House of York was appointed by his brother King Edward IV as the initial Lord President of a new “Council of the North,” to administer for him the whole of northern England. This council was to meet each three months. King Edward IV required that British merchants import four yew bowstaves for every ton of other goods they carried into England. Most of this vital war material was coming from Portugal (which helps us understand the historic ties between the British and Portuguese governments). 1483 April 9, Monday: Edward IV of England died. Before Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard Plantagenet of the House of York), his brother who up to this point had managed the entire north of England for him, could take the crown as King Richard III of England, and hold his major celebrations at the Tower of London, he had an obstacle he needed to overcome, which obstacle was that two of the sons of his predecessor King Edward IV were still alive: Prince Edward V (age 12) and Prince Richard, Duke of York (age 9). Since the heir to the throne was a mere lad, his uncle Richard temporarily assumed the role of Lord Protector. Soon after their father the king died on this day, this Protector would escort Prince Edward V to the royal accommodations at the Tower where he would be told he was to await his coronation as King of England. On June 13, 1483, while this coronation was being prepared by many Lords including his trusted friend William, Lord Hastings, this Protector would rush in and amongst cries of treason have William, Lord Hastings taken to the courtyard and 6 Copyright 2013 Austin Meredith HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III instantly beheaded. Three days later this Protector would persuade the Queen to send Prince Richard, Duke of York to stay with his brother Prince Edward V in the Tower, and for awhile the two lads would be observed at play in the gardens within the wall. The final days of the princes would be described by Sir Thomas More, his account being of two assassins despatched to the Garden Tower by Sir James Tyrell, a friend of their Protector’s, to smother the lads in their beds. Their bodies would be buried in the precincts and in 1674, while workmen would demolish a stone staircase on the south side of the White Tower, two childsize skeletons would be discovered in a chest. King Charles II would order that the skeletons be interred in Innocents’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Garden Tower, where the princes had played, has come to be known as Bloody Tower. LONDON Well, but the entirety of the above may be a historical lie. In fact it can be made to seem that Richard’s primary agenda as Lord Protector would be to protect the lad from the House of Lancaster family of his own mother, Queen Mother Elizabeth Woodville, for the Queen Mother and her daughters had taken sanctuary with and allied themselves with William, 1st Baron Hastings in opposition to him. As 12-year-old King Edward V journeyed from Ludlow to LondonLONDON , Lord Protector Richard Plantagenet of the House of York met and escorted him to the royal residence in the Tower of London. He would be joined there by his 9-year-old brother Richard of Shrewsbury. Arrangements would be made for his coronation to take place on June 22, 1483, but by that date his father King Edward IV’s marriage to his mother Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville would have been declared to have been invalid, rendering their offspring illegitimate, and ineligible for the throne of England. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: KING RICHARD III June 13, Wednesday: While the coronation of Prince Edward V as King of England was being prepared by many Lords including his trusted friend William, 1st Baron Hastings, his uncle the Lord Protector Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Richard Plantagenet of the House of York), rushed in or the preparations at the Tower of London and amongst cries of treason had Lord Hastings taken out to the courtyard — and immediately beheaded. HEADCHOPPING June 16, Saturday: Lord Protector Richard, Duke of Gloucester, persuaded the Queen Mother to send Prince Richard, Duke of York, to stay with his brother Prince Edward V at the royal residence in the Tower of London — and for awhile the young brothers would be observed safely at play in the gardens within the wall. June 22, Friday: This was the day on which it had been planned for the coronation of the elder of King Edward IV’s sons as King Edward V. Outside Old St. Paul’s Cathedral in LondonLONDON , however, a sermon was preached in which all the previous king’s children by Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville were denounced as bastards — plus, the dead king’s brother Richard Plantagenet of the House of York was proclaimed as England’s rightful monarch.