Richard III: England's Most Controversial King

by Chris Skidmore Narrated by Steven Crossley

Overview

From acclaimed historian Chris Skidmore comes the authoritative biography of Richard III, England's most controversial king, a man alternately praised as a saint and cursed as a villain.



Richard III is one of English history's best known and least understood monarchs. Immortalized by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked murderer, the discovery in 2012 of his skeleton in a Leicester parking lot re-ignited debate over the true character of England's most controversial king.



Richard was born into an age of brutality, when civil war gripped the land and the Yorkist dynasty clung to the crown with their fingertips. Was he really a power-crazed monster who killed his nephews, or the victim of the first political smear campaign conducted by the Tudors?



In the first full biography of Richard III for fifty years, Chris Skidmore draws on new manuscript evidence to reassess Richard's life and times. Richard III examines in intense detail Richard's inner nature and his complex relations with those around him to unravel the mystery of the last English monarch to die on the battlefield.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

02/19/2018
Skidmore (Bosworth: The Birth of the Tudors) successfully creates a balanced biography of the famously complicated last king of the Yorkist line. This well-researched chronological narrative searches for something close to the objective truth, navigating between the subsequent Tudor dynasty’s once widely accepted disparagement of Richard as a deceitful, murderous man, and the smaller but fervently devoted Richard III Society’s defense of him as pious and kind. Richard’s sense of loyalty receives full attention; first to his brother and predecessor, Edward IV, and then to his supporters in the north of England. Notably, the recent finding and exhumation of Richard’s body allows Skidmore to buttress his argument that, contrary to Shakespeare’s version, the king spent his final hours fighting bravely, without hope of victory, against the forces of the man who took the throne from him, the future Henry VII. However, unlike some full-fledged Richard III apologists, Skidmore does not discount the possibility that Richard, during his reign, murdered his young nephews, Edward V and Prince Richard. While the label of “most controversial king” remains arguable, this carefully researched biography effectively captures Richard’s turbulent reign and intense personality up to the violent end. (Apr.)

From the Publisher

“This highly readable chronicle comprises vaulting ambition, familial betrayal, moral corruption, high politics, foul murder and a beautiful queen lusting for revenge. Shakespeare can hardly be blamed for a little exaggeration.” —Wall Street Journal

“A bold and fresh new biography of one of the most enduringly fascinating monarchs in all of British history, steeped in the latest research and majestically narrated.” —Dan Jones, award-winning historian and bestselling author of The Plantagenets

"Thrillingly paced, meticulously researched, refreshingly free of psychological speculations, Skidmore's supremely insightful biography is a joy to read." —John Guy, award-winning historian and bestselling author of Queen of Scots

"[Skidmore's] portrayal of Richard is balanced; his narrative detailed and engaging. For those familiar with Richard’s life, this will be a refreshing read; for those not, this will be an excellent introduction."—Historical Novel Society

"Sharp writing and a marvelously exhaustive command of contemporary documentary sources ... In the author’s hands, there’s no lack of thrilling details in Richard’s saga ... [Skidmore's] biography bids fair to become the definitive account for the 21st century." —Washington Independent Review of Books

"Exhaustively researched, scrupulously evenhanded and a genuinely fresh approach to one of the most ploughed-over and controversial reigns in English history. . . . a detailed and persuasive narrative of what Richard actually did—and, at least as importantly, what he was thought to have done." —David Starkey

"A gripping, vivid, fresh portrait of Richard III who is not just chilling, ruthless, and terrifying, but also a practical politician in a brutal age — a man of his time." —Simon Sebag Montefiore

"With forensic detail, Skidmore looks at sources as well as rumors to build a picture of the last Plantagenet monarch, who took murderous decisions in life; but died a hero." —Philippa Gregory

"A portrait that chills you to the bone." —The Times of London

Library Journal

11/01/2017
People are talking again about hunchbacked Richard III ever since the 2012 discovery of his skeleton beneath a Leicester parking lot. Now it's time for a reassessment, offered here by Skidmore, an MP who had a double first in history at Christ Church, Oxford.

Kirkus Reviews

2018-02-20
A new biography of the alternately reviled and beloved king and his times.Skidmore (The Rise of the Tudors: The Family that Changed English History, 2014, etc.) draws from excellent resources, including the contemporary Croyland Chronicle, a firsthand account of Italian traveler Dominic Mancini, and The Great Chronicle of London, which was written around 1513 and "provides us with near-contemporary evidence of the reign from a London perspective." In what was a continuation of the War of the Roses, Richard's brother Edward defeated King Henry VI's forces and took the crown. Edward IV's reign could have been successful but for his favoritism toward Queen Consort Elizabeth Woodville's considerable relatives. Her family garnered titles and lands while she exalted herself as queen, demanding obeisance. Edward's partiality drove Warwick, the kingmaker, and his brother, Clarence, to rebel 10 years into his reign. Edward fled to Burgundy with Richard, gathered an army, and returned to defeat them at Tewkesbury. Warwick died in battle and Clarence famously died in the Tower of London. Edward rewarded Richard handsomely for his loyalty with lands and a palatinate in northern England and all he could conquer in Scotland. This was to become his power base, his strength, and, in the end, his downfall. With Edward's death, Richard seized his son, Edward V, and named himself protector and then king. His sister-in-law, Elizabeth, took herself into sanctuary at Westminster, but the Woodvilles' strength came from Edward, so they had no power base. Their attachment to Henry Tudor proved to be the undoing of Richard and the marriage of the two warring houses. The author properly places the characters in their 15th-century time frame, when loyalties could be bought, sold, and switched. Much of the story is well-known, but Skidmore brings a fresh approach.One of the least biased accounts of Richard III; the author acknowledges his subject's faults without justifying them.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171130152
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	11/27/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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