Skip to Main Content
Jackson State Community College logo

Shakespeare History Plays

This topic guide is designed to assist students in Mr. Rafalowski's ENGL 2210 with writing about William Shakespeare's Historical Plays.

Recording of Reburial

Richard III Reign (1483-1485)

Shakespeare and the Remains of Richard III

This book explores how recollections and traces of the reign of Richard III survived a century and more to influence the world and work of William Shakespeare. In Richard III, Shakespeare depicts an era that had only recently passed beyond the horizon of living memory.

Richard III

Richard III ruled England for a mere twenty-six months, yet few English monarchs remain as compulsively fascinating, and none has been more persistently vilified. In his absorbing and universally praised account, Charles Ross assesses the king within the context of his violent age and explores the critical questions of the reign: why and how Richard Plantagenet usurped the throne; the belief that he ordered the murder of the Princes in the Tower'; the events leading to the battle of Bosworth in 1485; and the death of the Yorkist dynasty with Richard himself.

How Shakespeare Put Politics on the Stage: Power and Succession in the History Plays

A masterful, highly engaging analysis of how Shakespeare's plays intersected with the politics and culture of Elizabethan England With an aging, childless monarch, lingering divisions due to the Reformation, and the threat of foreign enemies, Shakespeare's England was fraught with unparalleled anxiety and complicated problems.

The Pragmatics of Early Modern Politics: Power and Kingship in Shakespeare's History Plays

This book paints a portrait of a successful politician according to early modern standards. Kingship is no longer understood as a divinely ordained institution but is defined as goal-oriented policy-making, relying on conscious acting and the theatrical display of power.

Joan of Arc and Richard III: Sex, Saints, and Government in the Middle Ages

Joan of Arc and Richard III loom large in the histories of their countries, but the myths surrounding them have always obscured just who they were and what they hoped to accomplish. In this book, medieval historian Charles Wood brings these fascinating figures to life through an original combination of traditional biography and wide-ranging discussion of the political and social world in which they lived.

For the Love of the Royal Family

Full of titillating trivia, little-known facts, bite-size biographies, and memorable quotations, it paints a colorful picture of how the kings and queens of this noble land have shaped the way we live today.