The Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) were a series of civil wars fought
over the throne of England between supporters of the House of
Lancaster, the Lancastrians, and supporters of the House of York, the
Yorkists. Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house and
were related through King Edward III.
The wars began for several reasons, and historians have debated the
one that was most important. King Henry VI was seen as a poor ruler by
many of his people because of his lack of interest in politics and
his mental illness (his French queen, Margaret of Anjou, often made key
decisions instead). Also, England's defeat in the Hundred Years' War in
France, money problems after the war and problems with the feudal
system of government were other causes.
The name of the Wars of the Roses, which was first used only in the 19th
century, comes from the white rose symbol for the House of York and the
red rose symbol for the House of Lancaster. However, the red rose
symbol was not used until after the wars had ended, and most soldiers
fought under the symbol of their local nobleman. At the time, they were
called the "Civil Wars". The houses were named after the cities
of Lancaster and York, but neither city played a big role during the war,
and both houses owned land all over England and Wales.
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Richard III Summary

After a long civil war between the royal family of York and the royal family
of Lancaster, England enjoys a period of peace under King Edward IV
and the victorious Yorks. But Edward’s younger brother, Richard, resents
Edward’s power and the happiness of those around him. Malicious,
power-hungry, and bitter about his physical deformity, Richard begins to
aspire secretly to the throne—and decides to kill anyone he has to in
order to become king.

Using his intelligence and his skills of deception and political

manipulation, Richard begins his campaign for the throne. He
manipulates a noblewoman, Lady Anne, into marrying him—even though
she knows that he murdered her first husband. He has his own older
brother, Clarence, executed, and shifts the burden of guilt onto his sick
older brother King Edward in order to accelerate Edward’s illness and
death. After King Edward dies, Richard becomes lord protector of
England—the figure in charge until the elder of Edward’s two sons grows
up.

Next Richard kills the court noblemen who are loyal to the princes, most
notably Lord Hastings, the lord chamberlain of England. He then has the
boys’ relatives on their mother’s side—the powerful kinsmen of Edward’s
wife, Queen Elizabeth—arrested and executed. With Elizabeth and the
princes now unprotected, Richard has his political allies, particularly his
right-hand man, Lord Buckingham, campaign to have Richard crowned
king. Richard then imprisons the young princes in the Tower and, in his
bloodiest move yet, sends hired murderers to kill both children.

By this time, Richard’s reign of terror has caused the common people of
England to fear and loathe him, and he has alienated nearly all the
noblemen of the court—even the power-hungry Buckingham. When
rumors begin to circulate about a challenger to the throne who is
gathering forces in France, noblemen defect in droves to join his forces.
The challenger is the earl of Richmond, a descendant of a secondary
arm of the Lancaster family, and England is ready to welcome him.

Richard, in the meantime, tries to consolidate his power. He has his wife,
Queen Anne, murdered, so that he can marry young Elizabeth, the
daughter of the former Queen Elizabeth and the dead King Edward.
Though young Elizabeth is his niece, the alliance would secure his claim
to the throne. Nevertheless, Richard has begun to lose control of events,
and Queen Elizabeth manages to forestall him. Meanwhile, she secretly
promises to marry young Elizabeth to Richmond.

Richmond finally invades England. The night before the battle that will
decide everything, Richard has a terrible dream in which the ghosts of all
the people he has murdered appear and curse him, telling him that he
will die the next day. In the battle on the following morning, Richard is
killed, and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII. Promising a new era of
peace for England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth in order
to unite the warring houses of Lancaster and York.

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 Richard III Opening speech

(from Richard III, spoken by Gloucester)

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
About a prophecy, which says that 'G'
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul: here
Clarence comes.

Richard III Characters

Richard
Also called the duke of Gloucester, and eventually crowned King Richard
III. Deformed in body and twisted in mind, Richard is both the central
character and the villain of the play. He is evil, corrupt, sadistic, and
manipulative, and he will stop at nothing to become king. His intelligence,
political brilliance, and dazzling use of language keep the audience
fascinated—and his subjects and rivals under his thumb.

Buckingham
Richard’s right-hand man in his schemes to gain power. The duke of
Buckingham is almost as amoral and ambitious as Richard himself.

King Edward IV
The older brother of Richard and Clarence, and the king of England at
the start of the play. Edward was deeply involved in the Yorkists’ brutal
overthrow of the Lancaster regime, but as king he is devoted to
achieving a reconciliation among the various political factions of his
reign. He is unaware that Richard attempts to thwart him at every turn.

George Clarence
The gentle, trusting brother born between Edward and Richard in the
York family. Richard has Clarence murdered in order to get him out of
the way. Clarence leaves two children, a son and a daughter.

Queen Elizabeth
The wife of King Edward IV and the mother of the two young princes (the
heirs to the throne) and their older sister, young Elizabeth. After
Edward’s death, Queen Elizabeth (also called Lady Gray) is at Richard’s
mercy. Richard rightly views her as an enemy because she opposes his
rise to power, and because she is intelligent and fairly strong-willed.
Elizabeth is part of the Woodeville family; her kinsmen—Dorset, Rivers,
and Gray—are her allies in the court.
Dorset, Rivers, and Gray
The kinsmen and allies of Elizabeth, and members of the Woodeville and
Gray families. Rivers is Elizabeth’s brother, while Gray and Dorset are
her sons from her first marriage. Richard eventually executes Rivers and
Gray, but Dorset flees and survives.

(In the film adaptation, Dorset and Gray are left out)

Anne
The young widow of Prince Edward, who was the son of the former king,
Henry VI. Lady Anne hates Richard for the death of her husband, but for
reasons of politics—and for sadistic pleasure—Richard persuades Anne
to marry him.

Duchess of York
Widowed mother of Richard, Clarence, and King Edward IV. The
duchess of York is Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, and she is very protective
of Elizabeth and her children, who are the duchess’s grandchildren. She
is angry with, and eventually curses, Richard for his heinous actions.

Margaret
Widow of the dead King Henry VI, and mother of the slain Prince
Edward. In medieval times, when kings were deposed, their children
were often killed to remove any threat from the royal line of descent—but
their wives were left alive because they were considered harmless.
Margaret was the wife of the king before Edward, the Lancastrian Henry
VI, who was subsequently deposed and murdered (along with their
children) by the family of King Edward IV and Richard. She is embittered
and hates both Richard and the people he is trying to get rid of, all of
whom were complicit in the destruction of the Lancasters.

(In the film adaptation, the Duchess of York and Margret are combined
into a single character)

The princes
The two young sons of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth, their
names are actually Prince Edward and the young duke of York, but they
are often referred to collectively. Agents of Richard murder these boys—
Richard’s nephews—in the Tower of London. Young Prince Edward, the
rightful heir to the throne, should not be confused with the elder Edward,
prince of Wales (the first husband of Lady Anne, and the son of the
former king, Henry VI.), who was killed before the play begins.

Young Elizabeth
The former Queen Elizabeth’s daughter. Young Elizabeth enjoys the fate
of many Renaissance noblewomen. She becomes a pawn in political
power-brokering, and is promised in marriage at the end of the play to
Richmond, the Lancastrian rebel leader, in order to unite the warring
houses of York and Lancaster.

Ratcliffe, Catesby
Two of Richard’s flunkies among the nobility.

Tyrrell
A murderer whom Richard hires to kill his young cousins, the princes in
the Tower of London.

Richmond
A member of a branch of the Lancaster royal family. Richmond gathers a
force of rebels to challenge Richard for the throne. He is meant to
represent goodness, justice, and fairness—all the things Richard does
not. Richmond is portrayed in such a glowing light in part because he
founded the Tudor dynasty, which still ruled England in Shakespeare’s
day.

Hastings
A lord who maintains his integrity, remaining loyal to the family of King
Edward IV. Hastings winds up dead for making the mistake of trusting
Richard.

Stanley
The stepfather of Richmond. Lord Stanley, earl of Derby, secretly helps
Richmond, although he cannot escape Richard’s watchful gaze.

Lord Mayor of London

A gullible and suggestible fellow whom Richard and Buckingham use as
a pawn in their ploy to make Richard king.