Richard III: His Life & Character, Reviewed in the Light of Recent Research

Sir Clements Robert MarkhamProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3

Word count: 627K words
Chapters: 63

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Richard III: His Life & Character, Reviewed in the Light of Recent ResearchAuthor: Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert), Sir, 1830-1916,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Jun 17, 2011

Editor's review

Written by the late nineteenth-century British scholar Sir Clements Markham, this book re-examines the life and character of Richard III in light of the historical sources and research then newly available, and belongs to the early popular-scholarly strand of the movement to rehabilitate this controversial monarch. Its value lies not in offering the latest conclusions of present-day scholarship but in displaying the methods and preoccupations of Victorian historical writing: how the author weighs chronicles against archives, and how he responds to the tyrant image shaped by Shakespeare. Reading it makes plain the tension between argument and evidence, and reveals the shift in British historiography from moral judgment to source criticism. For the general reader the narrative is relatively plain, following the course of its subject's life, and serves as an accessible introduction to the changing image of Richard III; for the specialist it is a primary text for the study of Richard III's reception history. Note that some of its judgments have been corrected by later research and are best read alongside modern works.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General history readers interested in late medieval England and the Wars of the Roses
Undergraduates and graduate students studying the evolution of Richard III's image and historiography
Readers who want to understand nineteenth-century British historical writing methods
Those who have read Shakespeare's Richard III and want to compare it with the historical record

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking the latest conclusions of contemporary scholarship
Readers accustomed only to modern popular history writing and unused to nineteenth-century prose
Complete beginners unfamiliar with English dynastic politics and family lineages

Reading tips

Read one chapter first to grasp the author's position, then read it against contemporary studies of Richard III.
Note the sources the author cites as you read, and watch for leaps between evidence and conclusion.
Read it alongside passages from Shakespeare's Richard III to observe the differences between literary and historical portrayals.
If time is limited, prioritize the core chapters on character and the disputed events.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Do this book's conclusions still hold today?

The book was published in the late nineteenth century, and some of its judgments have been corrected by later archival research, so it should not be taken as current consensus. Its main value lies in showing how scholars of the time defended Richard III and what materials and reasoning they relied on; it is best read as material for historiography and reception history.

Can I understand it without a background in English history?

The book is dense with people and events, and readers lacking knowledge of dynastic lineages will find it hard going. It is advisable to learn the basic outline of the Wars of the Roses and the main family relationships first, or to consult a chronology as you read, before entering the main text.

What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?

This is a public-domain e-book, set mainly in plain text, so notes and the index may appear differently than in a print copy. Use reading software that supports annotation, and jot down personal and place names as you go for easy cross-reference, to avoid confusion caused by spelling variations.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Sir Clements Robert Markham Author · British · 1830–1916

Sir Clements Robert Markham (1830–1916) was a British geographer, explorer and writer, born in Yorkshire. He served the Royal Geographical Society for many years, as Secretary from 1863 to 1888 and as President from 1893 to 1905, and he organised the British National Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1904. Five of his works are held here, spanning South American and European history: they include Apu Ollantay, a transcription of an Inca drama, and travel accounts such as Travels in Peru and India, as well as a biographical study of Richard III that re-examines the king in the light of recent research, and works on Edwin the Great and on the history of Majorca and Minorca. His writing is distinguished by careful use of historical sources and geographical observation. He died in London in 1916.