R I C H A R D I I I 1471-1485 / Wars of the Roses 1455-1485 NOTES ON KEY CHARACTERS

HOUSE OF LANCASTER (Red Rose)

King Henry VI: (Murdered before the start of the play.) Former King imprisoned in the prior to the Battle at Tewkesbury and murdered by Richard prior to the start of the play; last Lancastrian King of the War of the Roses; “a wise man in the wrong place”; ”better fitted to be a monk than to rule.:

Queen Margaret: Widow of King Henry VI; surprisingly still at court, she acts as a dark chorus in the play; “foul, wrinkled witch” Richard; “remember Margaret was a prophetess” (Buckingham) ten of her eleven prophesies in Act I, Sc 3 come true in the play.

Edward, : (Slain before the start of the play.) King Henry VI’s eldest son; Richard and Clarence “stab the Prince of Wales to death on the battlefield at Tewkesbury.

Lady Anne: Widow of Edward, Prince of Wales, daughter-in-law of King Henry VI of which she was especially fond; seduced more through fear than lust by Richard over the coffin of King Henry en route to the funeral; later marries Richard to become Queen Anne and gives birth to one son who dies at age eleven.

HOUSE OF YORK (White Rose)

Duchess of York: Mother to King Edward IV, Clarence and Gloucester; very protective of her young grandchildren – the young son and daughter of Clarence and the two sons of King Edward IV: Edward the Prince of Wales and Richard, of York – the “young princes” murdered most probably by Richard in the Tower of London.

King Edward IV: Eldest son of Plantagenet Richard, and presumptive usurper of the throne following the execution of Lancastrian King Henry VI and the battlefield murder of his successor, Edward, Prince of Wales; “the wanton Edward” (Margaret); “weakened by gluttony and debauchery” he died of natural causes at age forty thus clearing the way for Richard’s brutal journey to the throne.

Queen Elizabeth: Widow of King Edward IV and mother to the “young princes” along with five daughters including her eldest, also Elizabeth, who later marries the new King Henry VII (former Earl of Richmond) ending the War of the Roses; Queen Elizabeth is the sister of Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers and the mother of two sons from a prior marriage to John Grey: the Marquis of Dorset and Lord Grey; although a loyal & fruitful wife, the King had a whole series of mistresses, mostly arranged by William, Lord Hastings who was eventually imprisoned in the Tower by the Queen and her Woodville family; Richard harbors anti-Woodville venom & considers the family dangerous to his rise to the throne.

George, : The “middle” brother of the trio George “was ambitious and faithless, having deserted Edward and siding with forces against Edward at one point and then launching a second double-cross later by returning to his Yorkist brother when he felt the opposition was set to loose; with some of the characteristics in reality that Richard was later slanderously described as having, it proved easy for Richard to turn Edward against their brother, sending him to the Tower and soon thereafter his murder and drowning in a barrel of sweet malmsey wine; George’s dream of his own death is the most poetic section of the play.

Richard, : “Misshapen in body as in mind, but facially handsome and sinister” Richard started a young age to covet the throne and upon the death of his brother, King Edward IV in 1483, Richard at age thirty-one knew that his way forward was blocked by six rightful successors each of which he managed to ruthlessly and usurp the throne in short order only to meet his death at the hands of Richmond thus ending the York dynasty and indeed the thirty-year War of the Roses.

Lady Anne: (See above) Edward, Prince of Wales: The eldest son of King Edward IV and at age thirteen at the time of his father’s death was first in line to succeed to the throne; once assigned by Edward to be Protector of his two young sons, Richard accompanied Edward to London, lured his younger brother away from the Queen their mother and “housed” both young princes in the royal apartment in the Tower of London “awaiting the coronation of the new King Edward V; both princes were never seen again, assumed by the court and the populace to have been murdered by Richard due to his lack of response to the popular claims but subject to some historical blame on other parties including the new King Henry VII two years later.

Richard, Duke of York: At age eleven the younger of two sons of the dead King Edward. (See directly above).

Edward, : The young son of George, Duke of Clarence, and despite his young age of three, was another in the line of succession to the throne; Richard imprisoned the young Earl of Warwick and, sadly, kept him there throughout his reign; historians claim that it was “the habit of the time” and that “Richard was merely a realistic politician, and not an unusual monster, for doing as others did.”

Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury: The older sister at age five of Edward, Earl of Warwick and the children of the murdered George, Duke of Clarence, bother of King Edward and his brother-murderer Richard; she is not referenced again in the play except as one of the “brats of Clarence”.

Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers: Brother of Queen Elizabeth forever loyal to King Edward IV but hated by Richard for joining with the Queen imprisoning William, Lord Hastings, mainly for his role as middleman to the King to satisfy his propensity for mistresses throughout his reign; eventually he was murdered by order of Richard.

Marquis of Dorset: The older son of the Queen from her first marriage and a member of the “Woodville clan” of which Richard was both suspicious and venomous; eventually he was murdered with his uncle, Anthony Woodville, by order of Richard.

Lord Grey: The younger son of the Queen from her first marriage, Lord Grey managed to escape from Richard’s clutches; his disappearance (probably to France) proved to be the one of eleven grim prophesies of old Queen Margaret which did not come to fruition (she prophesied that both sons would die.)

Duke of Buckingham: A key figure in the play is “the deep-revolving, witty Buckingham” (IV.2) who helps Richard to the throne, is warned of Richard’s probable malice, grows angry with Richard over a broken promise of the return of rightful estates, raises a Welsh army to combat Richard, returns in failure to Richard in hopes of retaining his position, is held and finally executed by Richard – a man dying too early to impart his revenge. (It is the second longest role in the play.)

William, Lord Hastings: The slippery Lord Chamberlain – also referred to as a “pursuivant, follower, Officer of the – Hastings is most center stage as the middleman to the King to satisfy his propensity for mistresses throughout his reign; eventually he was murdered by order of Richard.

Sir James Tyrrel: The “discontented gentleman” who obtains the murder of the two young Princes and heirs to the throne of the dead King Edward IV; his soliloquy quoting one of the murderers who described the children as they lay in each other’s arms is especially moving; Tyrrel was most probably murdered after reporting to Richard….by Richard’s own order. (But, DID Richard order them killed? (See “Grain of Salt” document for some historical doubt.)

HOUSE OF TUDOR (Combined the Houses of the Red Rose & The White Rose)

King Henry VII: The former Earl of Richmond who defeats Richard III on the battlefield at Bosworth Field thus ending the War of the Roses he is the “Tudor equivalent of St George destroying the dragon”; it was a prophesy from the former King Henry VI that Richmond would “someday be king” that most frightened Richard; after the decisive battle at Tewksbury, Lancastrian Richmond fled to Brittany in northern France; upon his landing in Wales he was easily successful in mounting an army “round him all the Lancastrian remnant had rallied and, further, all those who had been Yorkists but who for one reason or another opposed Richard III.; bad weather had aborted his first attempt with Buckingham to topple Richard so the stakes were much higher on this second more vehement attempt. Richmond the Lancastrian was crowned King Henry VII at age twenty-six. Queen Elizabeth: The oldest of five daughters of Yorkist King Edward IV and Queen Elizabeth, young Elizabeth’s marriage to Richmond succeeded in ending the generation-long War of the Roses by bringing the two long-battling Houses together and launch the new Tudor Age!!