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.
