As much fun I it would be for me to give my own summary of the life of King Richard III I fear my version would be too long, contain unnecessary details, and bore the crap out of you. Here is a lovely concise version I found online  at http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/timeline-of-king-richard-iii.htm. 

Timeline of Key Dates	Timeline of King Richard III Key events
r. 1483 -1485	Reigned as King of England: 26 June 1483 - 22 Aug,1485
1452	King Richard III was born on 2 October 1452 at Fotheringay Castle. He was the son of Richard, Duke of York (1411-1460) and Cecily Neville (1415-1495) and the brother of King Edward IV
1460	The Battle of Wakefield: Richard's father was killed in the battle. Richard spent his childhood at Middleham Castle under the tutelage of his uncle Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick ( the Kingmaker )
1461	Warwick was instrumental in deposing King Henry VI and replacing him with Richard's eldest brother, Edward on March 4: Edward of York was declared King Edward IV of England
1472	July 12, 1472: Richard married Anne Neville (c. 1456-1485) who was the younger daughter of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and Anne Beauchamp
1473	King Richard has a son: Edward of Middleham, also known as Edward Plantagenet (1473 - April 9, 1484) was born in 1473, he was the only son of King Richard III of England and his wife Anne Neville.
1482	Richard recaptured Berwick-upon-Tweed from the Scots
1483	Easter: King Edward IV fell ill during Easter 1483. He named his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester as Protector after his death and entrusted his young sons and little princes, Edward and Richard, to his care. Richard had always remained loyal to King Edward IV
1483	King Edward IV died: April 9, 1483 at Westminster. He was buried at Windsor Castle
1483	The young prince ascended the throne as Edward V when his father died in 9th April 1483. Edward V was joined by his brother Prince Richard at the Tower of London to await his coronation
1483	16th June 1483:  The coronation of Edward V was cancelled
1483	June 25 1483: Parliament declared the two little princes illegitimate and, as next in line to the throne, their uncle and Protector, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was declared the true King. The two little princes were never seen again
1483	26 June 1483: Richard, Duke of Gloucester was declared King Richard III
1483	July 6, 1483: Richard was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1484	April 9 1484: Edward of Middleham, also known as Edward Plantagenet the only son of King Richard III of England died suddenly, cause unknown
1484	March 16 1484: Anne Neville, the wife of King Richard III died of tuberculosis
1485	Battle of Bosworth Field 22 August 1485: King Richard III  was killed and his supporters defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field in Leicestershire against Lancastrian forces led by Henry Tudor
1485	Richard was the last king of the Plantagenet family, who had ruled over England for more than three hundred years. Richard's defeat at Bosworth Field by Henry Tudor ended the Plantagenet dynasty and the Wars of the Roses and heralded the Tudor dynasty

Here is a Google Maps shot of my first road trip. My sister lives in Weybridge and the Magna Carta was signed in Runnymede which is only 10 miles away from Weybridge and 20 miles away from the center of London.

Turns out we were not able to make it to Leicester. We ended up going to Runnymede, the location where the Magna Carta was signed by King John in 1215. A couple interesting facts about the Magna Carta...

1. It was not actually signed! It was sealed in wax by the King.  
2. More than one copy was produced and sent out to officials across the kingdom. 
3. The original Magna Carta had 63 clauses. Only three are still in use today.

• One defends the freedom and rights of the English Church
• Another confirms the liberties and customs of London and other towns
• The last one of the three is the most famous; it covers the court system and the rights guaranteed to the accused. These rights included what would later become known as trial by jury, the right to a government paid lawyer and other rights that contributed to our 6^th Amendment. 

     4. King John did not listen to the rules set out by the charter and faced a two year long rebellion. 

     5. There is more than one version of the Magna Carta. It was revised and set out in 1216, 1217, 1225,       and 1297. Each time clauses were removed and created by kings depending on the situation. 

Here is a picture of me at Runnymede in the field where the Magna Carta was sealed. As you can tell by my clothes it was raining when I left the house. And it was raining 10 minutes after this picture was taken. Thank you to the English weather gods for given me some sun for my photo shoot :) 

Now you may be asking yourself, what on earth does the Magna Carta have to do with Richard III. Well, the Magna Carta changed the course of history. It limited the power of the previously absolute monarchs of England and set into place the foundation for constitutional law as we know it. It paved the way for the first Parliament to meet in England under the reign of John's son, King Henry III in 1258. Parliament was the institution that declared Edward IV's children illegitimate and offered the throne to Richard III. Therefore if King John hadn't sealed the Magna Carta then there wouldn't have been a Parliament that created Richard as King of England. 

What was the War of Roses? I believe some background information is necessary for those of you with social lives who don't memorize the genealogy of English Kings for fun. The war can be traced back to King Edward III of England. He reigned for 50 years and helped create a strong and militaristic England that was the poster child for the medieval world. Edward and his decedents were technically all part of the House of Plantagenet but his sons' children would go on to create factions within the family. He had eight sons, five of whom lived long enough to amass power and pass large titles onto their heirs. These sons were Edward Duke of Cornwall, Lionel Duke of Clarence, John Duke of Lancaster, Edmund Duke of York, and Thomas Duke of Gloucester. John of Gaunt became the patriarch of the House of Lancaster when his son Henry usurped the throne from Richard II (son of Edward Duke of Cornwall) and became Henry IV. Edmund's son Richard married the great granddaughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence and founded the House of York. It was Edmund's Yorkist great grandson Edward that fought against the Lancaster king Henry VI and won the throne of England as Edward IV. The House of Lancaster divided even further to produce the House of Tudor. Lancastrian king Henry V married Catherine of Valois but died right after his son Henry VI was born. Catherine got remarried to a man named Owen Tudor and they had a son named Edmund Tudor. Edmund went on to marry John Duke of Lancaster's great granddaughter Margaret Beaufort and their son Henry VII became the first Tudor king. Confused yet? :) Basically one family, the Plantagenet family, divided into two factions Lancaster and York. Lancaster divided even further and produced the House of Tudor. So the line of kings went Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor. The red rose of Lancaster fought against the white rose of York and lost. These roses represented each family and that is why it is called the War of Roses. Tudor King Henry VII married the daughter of Yorkist King Edward IV and combined the red and white roses to create the Tudor Rose. Here is a picture for those of you who need a visual aid.


I hope this makes more sense now. Or not :) The family tensions and divisions resulted in one of the well known wars in history thanks to the fabrications of one William Shakespeare. 

I finally arrived in England today! I was thoroughly surprised by the lack of rain upon arrival and while it isn't sunny at the moment I would consider this a lovely day :)

Now on to the actual project. Before arriving in England I tried to do as much research as I could. I read novels that took various stances on Richard's reputation, watched movies that portrayed him in different lights, and read textbooks that showed what is written down in history and taught to schoolchildren. The novel I read was The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. A light read of 936 pages the book has all of the historical facts mixed in with  fascinating and interesting dialogue between main characters. The book also jumps around and is told from various characters points of view. I found it interesting to observe the same event from three or four different points of view. Overall I can say that I appreciate Ms. Penman's enthusiastic approach to trying and redeeming Richard's reputation. She put all of the issues he had to deal with into context and sheds light on what he was able to accomplish as king for only two years and two months. I own a textbook titled The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England. Written by Antonia Fraser the book is the straight facts with all the names and dates. This book helped me gain an understanding of the situation that Richard found himself in. I learned about the warring factions of the House of Plantagenet, the Lancasters, Yorks, and Tudors. The kings I examined were Henry VI (Lancaster), Edward IV, Edward V, Richard III (York), and finally Henry VII (Tudor). All of these men played an important role in the War of Roses and the book helped me grasp just how complex the monarchy of England was. Lastly, I watched three movies based on Richard III. I watched the Ian McKellen and Robert Downey Jr. 1995 version of Shakespeare's famous Richard III, Sir Laurence Olivier's 1955 version, and Al Pacino's 1996 version titled "Looking For Richard". Here are two links for the movies.

http://www.solarmovie.so/watch-richard-iii-1995.html

http://www.solarmovie.so/watch-looking-for-richard-1996.html

The original plan was that tomorrow we would head north to Leicester and visit the parking lot where Richard III's body was recently dug up. Before we headed up there without asking around I emailed Marian Mitchell, the Visits Officer of the Richard III Society. She responded quickly and with a lovely long note about how unfortunately the car park is not open to the public (thank God I asked before I went up there and embarrassed myself) but that there is a exhibit across the street. She was also nice enough to include a list of other places we could visit. We can not go tomorrow because something came up with my nephews. We will instead go next Tuesday. I am very excited about this project. Not only am I getting to research one of my favorite topics but I also get to visit my favorite country and test out writing a blog. Wish me luck!

Before I get to England and begin my project I think it would be best if declared the purpose of the project and set some goals. 

The main purpose of this project is to come to my own educated conclusion based on intense research on the topic of whether King Richard III of England was truly the villain William Shakespeare made him out to be. Through watching of movies, reading of novels, reading textbooks, resources available on the internet, and visiting the locations associated with Richard I hope to come to a concrete opinion of Richard's reputation. Here are some sources I plan on using. 

The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England by Antonia Fraser

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman

The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain

The Richard III Society

BBC's page on Richard III

My main goal is to update the blog at least once a day during my stay in England. I acknowledge that this may not be possible because of the long road trips that require sitting in traffic for hours on end. If I do not meet the quota for the day I plan on posting twice the next day. My second goal is to focus on the topic at hand. I tend to get distracted and the amount of information I will have to sift through will be very tempted to investigate further upon. My last goal is to have fun. Yes this is technically a school project but I get to travel to England (which just so happens to be my favorite country!), visit my sister, and research a topic that is an obsession of mine. I can't wait to see how the trip and project go. 

  

King Richard III. A hunchbacked villain who murdered his innocent nephews in order to ascend the throne of England.  Or did he? Shakespeare's play Richard III put forth this representation of Richard and the generations that followed believed that Richard truly was a murderous usurper to the throne. This distortion of Richard's image can be attributed to the victor of the Battle of Bosworth Fields, Henry VII. Henry was the Tudor claimant to the throne and he was pronounced king after Richard was slain on the battle field. The House of Tudor sought to strength their claim to the throne by ruining the image of the House of York and in doing so destroyed the reputation of the last Yorkish king, Richard III. He ruled for only two years and two months and yet he is one of the most hated kings in English history. Why? That is the purpose of my project. Through reading numerous sources, watching various depictions, and travelling to the places associated with King Richard III I hope to discover the true about the man. Was he hated as much by his contemporaries as he was by generations to follow or was it simply the Tudor's propaganda that destroyed his image? Only research can tell.