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LIFE • Party prince, usurper, warrior – Richard III remains a fascinating, often controversial, figure. Here, experts offer their takes on his life and character

THE LIFE OF RICHARD III • Chris Skidmore traces the key episodes in the rise and fall of this ambitious, controversial English king

ENGLAND’S ULTIMATE FAMILY DRAMA • Richard III was the final monarch in the remarkable Plantagenet dynasty, which was able to rule England for 331 years at a time when the political landscape could be transformed overnight

RICHARD GRABS THE THRONE • Richard’s reign began when b he deposed an innocent king – an act that the nation could never forgive. Christine Carpenter explains why this was the turning point of the late 15th century

Britain in the late 15th century • With Ireland and Wales affected by England’s political crisis, Scotland alone enjoyed relative peace

KING OF MORALS or incestuous hypocrite? • Richard III’s marriage to Anne Neville helped him gain the throne of England – but was it even legal? Michael Hicks explains why that union, and another he planned later, were incestuous

The ties that bind: how Anne and Richard were related • The four prohibited degrees

Inside the mind of Richard • What made England’s most controversial king tick? Was he vain, voluble, a spendthrift? And did he love his wife? Chris Skidmore, who has been investigating Richard’s secret life for a forthcoming book, reveals all

WHY WAS THEIR FATE NEVER EXPLAINED? • A deafening silence surrounded the disappearance of Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York. But why? As Leanda de Lisle writes, both Richard III and Henry Tudor had good reasons not to talk publicly about the princes

The players in the princes’ downfall

“Subtle, false and treacherous” • Paulina Kewes considers the sources used by William Shakespeare in his construction of the character of King Richard III as an arch-villain

Shakespeare’s source: Holinshed’s Chronicles

Richard III at his blackest

National identities • The big debate in Shakespeare’s England

Looking for Richard • A century of Shakespeare’s villain as portrayed on stage and screen

DOWNFALL • What really brought down Richard III? Explore the king’s final days – and discover how his death ushered in Henry VII and the Tudor dynasty

DID THE TUDORS INVENT THE WARS OF THE ROSES? • It was in Henry VII’s interests to play up the Wars of the Roses and the importance of Richard III’s defeat at Bosworth – and we’ve bought the lie

TREACHERY: WHAT REALLY BROUGHT DOWN RICHARD III • The king might well have won the battle of Bosworth – had he not been betrayed. David Hipshon shows how Richard’s intervention in a local power struggle led to his downfall

The battle of Bosworth Field • 22 August 1485

Timeline: Wars of the Roses

Richard’s chivalry • THE GALLANT EXPLOITS THAT KILLED A KING

THE DAWN OF THE TUDORS • From childhood imprisonment in Brittany to his unlikely victory over Richard III in a Leicestershire field, Henry Tudor’s passage to the throne was lengthy and labyrinthine. Chris Skidmore charts the origins of the Tudor dynasty

Timeline: Henry’s rise to power

Three notable figures in Henry VII’s life

BOSWORTH UNCOVERED • Bosworth is among the most famous lost battlefields in the world – or it was. Centuries of speculation, uncertainty and debate over the exact spot where Henry Tudor clashed with Richard III on 22 August 1485 were finally laid to rest in March 2009 when a team of archaeologists discovered the true site of the Wars of the Roses battle – in a location never before suggested. On the following pages Glenn Foard, the man who directed the...