Richard III of England: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 03:23, 31 January 2003

Revision as of 03:25, 31 January 2003

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On the death of his brother the king, Richard was entrusted with the role of protector to his young nephews, [[Edward V of England|Edward V]] and [[Richard, Duke of York]], but accepted the throne himself a little more than two months after Edward IV's death in [[1483]], after Parliament declared the [[Princes in the Tower|princes]] illegitimate and Richard the rightful heir in [[Titulus Regius]].

Lord Hastings, who had been a regular visitor to the young [[Edward V of England|Edward V]] at the [[Tower of London|Tower]] and who, with dowager queen [[Elizabeth Woodville]], was a leading member of the Lancastrian faction at court, was charged with treason, convicted, and executed in the [[Tower of London]]. Three other members of the conspiracy -- the queen's brother Lord Rivers, her second son [[Richard Grey]], and Edward V's chamberlain Sir Thomas Vaughn -- were also convicted and executed elsewhere. But [[Jane Shore|Jane (or Elizabeth) Shore]], who had been mistress of King Edward IV, and then of his older step-son [[Thomas Grey]] (Richard's older brother, who avoided prosecution in the conspiracy by going into [[sanctuary]] at [[Westminster Abbey|Westminster]] with his mother), and was now Hastings's mistress, was convicted of only lesser offenses and was made to do public penance and then imprisoned, until King Richard had her released.

When the members of Parliament met on [[June 25]] (although there was no king to convene a formal session), it heard the evidence of Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, that Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid, so their children were bastards. No records of that meeting survive, because [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]] ordered them destroyed as soon as he came to power two years later, but some of the language is believed to survive in [[Titulus Regius]], which Parliament issued some months later explaining [[Princes in the Tower|why it made that ruling]] and of which a single copy escaped destruction.