To a content, more people know Richard III as the hunchback villain of Shakespeare's play than the real Richard.
"As king, Richard brings many beneficial changes to England- (Spinak). Historically proven, he was a king who really cared for the education of his country. Richard III prohibited taxing the importation of books and commanded that laws be written in English so everyone could understand. He initiated a relay postal system. Gave money to poor students, and started the bailing system. As for any king would indeed, Richard trampled over personal tragedy. But overall, he was not an evil ruler. The fictional images of Richard being a villain was actually both the combined efforts of Sir Thomas More' s History of Richard III and of Shakespeare's Tragedy of King Richard III. The portrayal of his characteristics was heighthen and rewritten so that Henry Tudor would become the savor of England from disorder since his reign was weak. "Uncertain way of gain! But I am in so far in blood that sin will pluck on sin- (Richard, 4.2.64-65). Thanks mainly to Shakespeare, Richards is known in the popular imagination of being a wicked protagonist.
Not just only a great king, Richard was actually a great lover. "Some historians speculate that Richard and Lady Anne had something of a childhood romance' long before they were married- (Spinak). After many legal struggle, Richard was able to marry Anne, Warwick's' daughter, and gave birth to a son named Edward. Sadly, Anne died of tuberculosis. Changing history, Richard played the role of a villainous lover who wood Lady Anne over the dead body of her husband Henry VI. "Was ever women in this humor woo'd?/Was ever women in this humor won?/I'll have her, but I will not keep her long- (Richard, 1.2.227-229). Anne then died mysteriously and without any sorrow, Richard plans to merry his niece, Elizabeth of York, for alliance and protection of his throne. Richard's fictional description introduces the theme of Richard's "war with women- where he had all sorts of cursing from all the royal ladies especially his mother the Duchess of York.
