Richard III is one of the most mysterious figures of 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. He appears to have been content in this role, for he was foremost a soldier and an administrator, preferring to govern the marches of the North than to caper 'nimbly in a lady's chamber'. But the untimely death of Edward IV forced Richard into the limelight, where he has remained ever since. The last three years of his life have taken on the character of a detective story--did Richard really believe his brother and nephews were illegitimate? Why did he seize the throne? What did happen to the Princes in the Tower? Naturally Henry Tudor ensured that Richard should be held responsible for every possible heinous deed. But later historians have swung violently in the other direction, whitewashing Richard to proffer him as the most ill-used and glorious monarch of the period. Anthony Cheetham has cut through the legend and the propaganda to try to retrace the life of Richard, the forgotten years before he assumed the throne, and thus to place the focus of those final hectic years before the last of the Plantagenets died on Bosworth Field.
