The Life and Death of King Richard III

With a new introduction and concluding chapter from bestselling medieval author Dan Jones.

Richard III is one of the most mysterious figures in English history, and as such is the source of perennial fascination. Comparatively little is known of his early life, his appearance, his interests, for up to 1483 he played second fiddle to his more glorious older brothers, Edward ’this sun of York’, and the feckless Clarence.

Anthony Cheetham cuts through the legend and the propaganda to try to retrace the life of Richard, the neglected years before he assumed the throne, and thus to place in context the twenty six stormy months of his reign before the last of the Plantagenets died on Bosworth Field. He considers three critical questions in particular. Did he really believe his brother and nephews were illegitimate? Why did he seize the throne? What happened to the princes in the tower?

This new edition of a classic royal biography includes an account of the discovery of Richard’s remains in a Leicester car park in September 2012 and what his skeleton revealed about the physical condition of the last Plantagenet and the manner of his death. First published in 1972, and acknowledged as the inspiration behind Philippa Gregory’s portrayal of Richard in her bestselling The White Queen, this new edition brings the story of England’s most infamous monarch fully up to date.

Anthony Cheetham read history at Balliol College, Oxford. A founder of Century, Abacus, Orion, Quercus and Head of Zeus, he has worked in the publishing industry for more than fifty years.