Following in the Footsteps of the Princes in the Tower
by
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
