Richard III: his life and character reviewed in the light of recent research,

by Sir Clements. Markham

Richard His Life and Character (New Portway Reprints)

Genres: History, Nonfiction

1 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1905

Reviews

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

After rereading Josephine Tey’s book “The Daughter of Time” with my book club, I learned that it was this book which had inspired her to write her investigation into the case of Richard III and the claim that he murdered his nephews and stole the English crown.

It’s available from Project Gutenberg and well worth reading for anyone interested in the subject. As a firm supporter of Richard III as one of the more decent and honourable kings of England, I was of course biased in his favour. But Markham, while at times speculating on motives and feelings, has based his defence on a scrupulous assessment of the documents which have survived, and the known behaviours of the various major players.

An interesting book about an endlessly fascinating subject.

[Loreley Maidana · Rating 5 out of 5]

He was one of the first to stop and do a research on the actual nature of King Richard III both personally and and reign, he backs this up with evidence from contemporary records and sets the bar for the upcoming researchers who would follow his steps,
I don’t agree with the overall portrayal of Henry VII as, if I jump on the other side of the road, it feels a lot like the slander Richard suffered for more than 500 years, especially in the treatment of the missing princes, as we all know, there’s no evidence of what happened to them (for or against so far is circumstantial)
BUT because, also, so much has been investigated by historians since Sir Markham’s work, I am of course in a different point of history and I can see this in retrospective, thanks to the many historians who came after him and have done an amazing research job.
All his writing follows a very logical way of thinking and I agree with his points of view wholeheartedly.
Very good book in my opinion.

[Diana Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 1905, I thought the author did an excellent job in collecting and arranging the information that he was able to uncover relating to King Richard III. It does make a useful tool for those studying or seeking information about this period in the history of England. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of footnotes and also the index section at the end of the work. The author also presented a case to cause doubt (that Richard was guilty) in the deaths of the “Princes in the Tower” which I found extremely interesting.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for a thorough fact-based evaluation of many of the portrayals of Richard III. minus one for turning around and running the same hatchet job on Henry VII that had been used to malign Richard. Plus one just because RIII has really taken a lot of crap in the last 500 years and he really couldn't possibly have been any worse than any of the rest of them, and by most accounts seemed reasonably decent as an early Renaissance monarch.

[Oshun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful.