Author’s Note

If I have created a living, breathing protagonist out of the thousands of pages about Richard I have read during fifty years of trying to understand why this man, who only reigned for two years, has been one of the most divisive historical figures in English history, then I can perhaps now put this obsession to rest!

But first, I must acknowledge the liberties I took with my story before those readers who may be far better versed in the period than I jump up and down and point them out. As with all my books, I am painstaking in my research and only set a scene between characters in a certain time and place that might have been plausible. If there is nothing in the historical record to say it didn’t take place, then I can take the plunge.

For example, one of the most fascinating mysteries of our history is what happened to the princes in the Tower. I have been consistent in my take throughout my six books, and I lay the blame on Buckingham because of a chronicled event in the summer of 1483. Buckingham did not go with Richard on his progress in July, despite being the king’s BFF at the time. However, when Richard got to Gloucester, it is recorded that Buckingham arrived and a very short time later was seen riding fast out of town and onto the road to Wales, where his chief residence of Brecknock was located. He never reunited with Richard for the rest of the progress, and the next time we learn of him from the records is that he joined with the Lancastrians and rebelled against Richard. I, of course, invented the conversation/argument Richard and Buckingham had during the “very short time” in Gloucester, but I think it is very plausible that Harry eagerly gave Richard news of the princes’ demise and was met with fury by their uncle. Richard did indeed write of him: “…the most untrue creature living.”

So much more is known about Richard from his bones—mostly physical—and I have incorporated those findings in creating my character. It goes without saying the most crucial was the debilitating scoliosis. I am indebted to Dominic Smee for allowing me a glimpse into the psychological side of his own life given that the young man is living with the same degree of scoliosis as Richard’s. Dominic is convinced that, like him, Richard tried to hide his affliction and thus trusted only a very few good friends after the onset in his late teens. The bones also revealed that Richard had consumed wine rather heavily in the last two years of his life. What a fascinating tidbit! And I take full advantage of the fact by allowing it to support my theory all along that Richard was a reluctant king and was in a spiral of depression from the Fall of 1483 when Buckingham turned traitor until he died at Bosworth. He drank to drown his dark, depressive thoughts.

The most fully realized fictional character in the book is my Kate Haute. Richard did have two, and possibly three illegitimate children. Katherine did marry Pembroke, and John of Gloucester was captain of Calais, and both were integrated into Richard’s household during his marriage to Anne. Dickon, also known as Richard of Eastwell, is very much more conjecture than fact, but until someone proves otherwise, I think he was Richard’s son (of a mistress, who could have been Kate!). No one knows who the mother of Richard’s bastards was, but when I discovered from Rosemary Horrox’s Study in Service that one Katherine Haute had received an annuity from Richard while he was still duke of Gloucester, I conjectured, as did Horrox, that she might have been his mistress.

April to July 1483 is one of the most complicated few months in English history, and as well as the fate of the darling little princes, no one quite knows why Richard turned on Will Hastings and so hastily executed him. Passionate about the law, Richard’s denying poor Will a trial will always be fodder for Richard detractors. I have spent many an hour pondering what could have made Richard so angry, and my explanation is, I hope, plausible.

We do not know how Katherine Plantagenet died, but the records show the earl of Pembroke was a widower not long after Bosworth, and so I invented the manner of her death to coincide with the new “sweating sickness” that appeared in the summer of 1485. Losing his brother, his heir, his wife, and then Katherine in the space of two years seems to me to be more than one man could bear, given the enormous burden of kingship also thrust upon him unexpectedly. And no, I do not think Richard usurped the crown. That was Henry Tudor’s road to the throne, not Richard’s!

Some may question my depiction of the animosity between Richard and George, but from all I have read, the two brothers could not have been more different, and the angry in-fighting over the Warwick inheritance is well documented. George’s denial of permission to wed Anne is fact, and George did hide her from Richard. It was the climax of Richard’s antagonism towards George from childhood and served as the main source of conflict in this book. However, George’s many treasonous actions toward Edward would certainly have turned the loyal Richard against his brother even without the Anne debacle. George was simply a bad lot.

Many of the scripted documents I include during Richard’s time as protector and king are written verbatim, including his words after the royal oath—if a little 15th-century stilted.

Shakespeare, in his play Richard III, depicted Richard as culpable of several deaths, only one of which can in fact solely be attributed to him: Will Hastings’. The others are Tudor historians’ and Shakespeare’s conjectures. In my first draft, I had Richard present at the “execution” of Henry VI—at Edward’s command. As I was rereading the scene, something made me decide to have Richard actually commit the murder, leading to the resulting darker side in this book. Richard was not a saint, as many Ricardians would have him be, and I believe he was a man of his violent time and cognizant of the dangers he faced being noble. The killing of the saintly Henry made Richard, for my purposes, a far more complex character, even though we still do not know exactly how Henry died.

I am choosing not to include a bibliography, because those readers who know me know that I am dedicated to as much truth as fiction allows. I love the details, like the fact the city of Gloucester did refuse the grateful gift Richard offered the citizens. New readers will find many of my resources cited in my other five books: A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, The King’s Grace, Queen by Right, and Royal Mistress.

—Anne Easter Smith, Newburyport MA