10 Average Questions about Richard III

Answer: False

The "hunchback" legend was started by Sir Thomas More under Henry VII, who defeated Richard in battle and succeeded him on the throne of England. Even Richard's enemies commended his prowess as a knight, but he could not have controlled a horse and used a battle axe - his favourite weapon - with a withered arm.

Answer: A white boar

The black bull was the badge of George, Duke of Clarence; the white lion belongs to Edward IV; and the white hart to Richard II.

Answer: Loyalty binds me

"Loyaulte me lie" was indeed Richard III's motto. "Comfort and joy (Comfort et liesse)" was the motto of Edward IV, the "Rose of Rouen". "Hope is my strength" was the motto of the Percy family, and "None other" was the motto of Edmund, the first Duke of York.

Answer: Tewkesbury

At the Battle of Tewkesbury the Lancastrian queen Margaret of Anjou was captured and her son Edward killed. The Battle of St. Albans took place in 1455, when Richard was two years old; his father and older brother Edmund were slain by the victorious Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, and Richard himself was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 at the age of 32.

Answer: They were cousins

Richard's mother Cicely Neville was an aunt of Anne's father Richard, Earl of Warwick. Richard's brother George, Duke of Clarence, faced the same problem when he wanted to marry Anne's older sister Isabel.

Answer: Sir James Tyrell

Sir James Tyrell served both Richard III and Henry VII. In 1502 he was arrested and executed on a charge of treason. His confession of the murder of the princes, on orders of Richard III, was made public after his death. Not all historians agree on the validity of this confession. Francis Lovell was a stern supporter of Richard, but has never been implicated in the fate of the princes. Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel were pretenders to the throne who challenged Henry VII's rule.

They claimed to be Richard, Duke of York (the younger of the princes) and Edward, the Duke of Clarence's son respectively.

Answer: Legal Aid

Richard III held only one parliament in his two-year reign. It introduced a form of legal aid with a Clerk of Requests and supplications who had to deal with cases of people too poor to go through the regular court system. Other statutes included bail, and protection of accused people's property prior to conviction.

The Star Chamber is associated with Henry VII's reign. Trial by jury was secured in the Magna Carta.

Answer: True

He is also considered to be the last medieval king of England, and he definitely was the last Plantagenet king.

Answer: He was "piteously slain and murdered"

The good citizens of York made this entry even though it could not have made them very popular with Henry VII.

Answer: Jane Austen

She was sixteen when she wrote: "The character of this prince has been in general very severely treated by historians, but as he was York, I am rather inclined to suppose him a very respectable man." It seems she liked her roses white!