History Theatre / RichardIII

The play opens as UsefulNotes/EdwardIV lies dying. Hoping to prevent the generation of dynastic warfare that ended with his (second) ascension to the throne from starting up again, Edward calls together all of England's powerful factions and makes them shake hands and promise to be nice to each other and his young son once he croaks.

* Margaret of Anjou, far from returning from her exile in France and being allowed to roam around the English court cursing people without check, lived as an impoverished relation of the French king for the rest of her life and actually died a year before Edward IV in 1482.

Creator/LaurenceOlivier directed and portrayed the title role in a 1955 film adaptation that incorporates a few scenes and speeches from ''Henry VI, Part 3''. Sir Creator/IanMcKellen played Richard III in a [[Film/RichardIII 1995 film adaptation]] that uses the Edward VIII abdication crisis as an AllohistoricalAllusion that allows for a SettingUpdate that was very well received by critics and audience alike.

** And "false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence" had been part of an armed rebellion against his brother Edward, among other increasingly lunatic stunts until his judicial murder of a servant woman he accused of poisoning his wife drove Edward IV to order his death. Richard argued ''against'' Clarence's execution despite his previous feuds with Clarence, and when the verdict was announced Richard left the court for his estate in Middleham, which is thought to be one of the reasons he was on such bad terms with the Woodvilles, blaming them for George's death and worried that they might try to get rid of him next. Contrary to the claims of the play, there was no belated commuting of the sentence -- Edward wanted Clarence dead, for reasons that had nothing to do with prophecies.

** When Richard refuses to reward Buckingham with the dukedom that he was promised, and since Buckingham's already seen him get rid of Hastings and is plotting to kill the two princes, Buckingham decides to defect to Richmond...though it doesn't do him any good in the long run, since he's soon captured and executed.

* BlatantLies: Richard says that Edward's wife and "that harlot strumpet Shore" used witchcraft to shrivel up his arm. The men hearing this claim know perfectly well that Richard's arm has always been that way.

** Mistress Shore.

* FlatCharacter: Richmond's characterization can be summed up as "being the opposite of Richard".

* HandicappedBadass: Richard

** And "false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence" had been part of an armed rebellion against his brother Edward, among other increasingly lunatic stunts until his judicial murder of a servant woman he accused of poisoning his wife drove Edward IV to order his death. Richard argued ''against'' Clarence's execution despite his previous feuds with Clarence, and when the verdict was announced Richard left the court for his estate in Middleham, which is thought to be one of the reasons he was on such bad terms with the Woodvilles, blaming them for George's death. Contrary to the claims of the play, there was no belated commuting of the sentence -- Edward wanted Clarence dead, for reasons that had nothing to do with prophecies.

* VillainousValor: Richard at the end of the play. [[TruthInTelevision This is actually accurate;]] even the most blatant Tudor propaganda acknowledged that the real Richard went down fighting.

** Richard also married Anne ''much'' earlier than the play suggests (at ages 18 and 16 respectively) and they had a ten-year-old son by the time Richard was crowned. They were also childhood friends, having grown up in the same household, and it may have even counted as a RescueRomance since a popular legend states that Clarence (who was married to Anne's sister) dressed Anne up as a servant to prevent Richard from marrying her. Richard was reported to have been sincerely grieved by her death and wept openly at her funeral - which was of natural causes, not of murder by him.

** And "false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence" had been part of an armed rebellion against his brother Edward, among other increasingly lunatic stunts until his judicial murder of a servant girl he accused of poisoning his wife drove Edward IV to order his death. Richard argued ''against'' Clarence's execution despite his previous feuds with Clarence, and when the verdict was announced Richard left the court for his estate in Middleham, which is thought to be one of the reasons he was on such bad terms with the Woodvilles, blaming them for George's death. Contrary to the claims of the play, there was no belated commuting of the sentence -- Edward wanted Clarence dead, for reasons that had nothing to do with prophecies.
** In the play, Clarence asks that his wife and children be spared from execution. In real life, his wife had already died by this point.

** A rather dodgy case in the claim that Richard "murdered" Anne's father and (former) husband. Neither was formally put to death, and there is no mention of Richard personally killing either of them. Warwick was likely killed with his army at Barnet without ever encountering either of the York brothers on the battlefield, and Edward of Westminster has two conflicting stories regarding his death at Tewkesbury. In one, he dies with his slaughtered army. In the other, he's brought before the Yorkists, mouths off to Edward IV, and is summarily put to death along with the captured Lancastrians by the king.
** Richard also married Anne ''much'' earlier than the play suggests -- they had a ten-year-old son by the time Richard was crowned. They also were childhood friends, having grown up in the same household, and he was reported to have been sincerely grieved by her death - which was of natural causes, not of murder by him.

* EvilCripple: Richard was born prematurely, with a gnarled spine and hunchback which makes him unappealing.

The play opens as Edward IV lies dying. Hoping to prevent the generation of dynastic warfare that ended with his (second) ascension to the throne from starting up again, Edward calls together all of England's powerful factions and makes them shake hands and promise to be nice to each other and his young son once he croaks.

Lord Hastings, under the impression that Richard was just going to chop the heads off of the Queen's relatives and leave it at that, is dismayed to find that Richard plans to have Edward's children declared illegitimate and to take the throne himself and refuses to go along.

And so, with the aid of Buckingham, Richard has Hastings' head chopped off too.

From there, Richard decides that the kids will be trouble as long as they're alive, and he might as well have them whacked too as long as he's got the ax out, but by this point [[EvenEvilHasStandards even Buckingham begins to get squeamish]] and, not having noticed the pattern, leads a failed rebellion and gets his head chopped off. (For those keeping score at home, add the princes to the body count at this point as well.)

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Where to begin? ([[WrittenByTheWinners Admittedly, Shakespeare really didn't know any better, or couldn't afford to write Richard more sympathetically...]])
** Edward, far from being the frail old man the play depicts, died unexpectedly aged 40. Richard admittedly did have [[DatedHistory scoliosis,]] but it only gave him a curved spine and wasn't nearly enough to be noticeable as a hunched back, and he wasn't even at court when Edward died. It also didn't stop him from being an accomplished soldier whose DyingMomentOfAwesome was well-known even at the time.

** In fact it's the very very late middle ages, for historians generally use the death of Richard III and accession of Henry VII as the boundary between the medieval and early modern periods in England.

* OpenShirtTaunt: In the original text, the stage directions explicitly say Richard "layes his brest open" [sic] - that is, he opens his shirt/jerkin for Anne to run him through with his sword, which he has given her for the express purpose after she says she wants to see him dead. She doesn't go through with it.

KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand: Richard uses a slightly modified version of this on Lady Anne, in order to convince her that [[BlatantLies he only killed her first husband because he loved her]]. "Take up the sword again, or take up me." He's a MagnificentBastard, so it works.

** Richard also married Anne ''much'' earlier than the play suggests -- they had a ten-year-old son by the time Richard was crowned. They also were childhood friends, having grown up in the same household, and he was reported to have been sincerely grieved by her death.

** Richard also married Anne ''much'' earlier than the play suggests -- they had a ten-year-old son by the time Richard was crowned. They also were childhood friends, having grown up in the same household.

** Edward, far from being the frail old man the play depicts, died unexpectedly aged 40. Richard admittedly did have [[DatedHistory scoliosis,]] but it only gave him a curved spine and wasn't nearly enough to be noticeable as a hunched back, and he wasn't even at court when Edward died.

** In the play, Clarence asks that his wife and children be spared from his fate. At the time of his execution, his wife had already died.

[[KillEmAll Yeah, okay, not so much.]]

* AdultFear: Queen Elizabeth isn't allowed to see her sons, and comes to realize they've been murdered. When she realizes Richard sees her daughters as threats, she desperately begs him to leave them alone and says [[MamasBabyPapasMaybe she'll even lie and claim they were born as the result of an affair]] if Richard won't kill them. Then, she finds out that Richard (who is their uncle) actually wants to ''marry'' the older girl.