Richard III: The Crown Taken in the Dark (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798185666005)

Richard III did not seize the crown on a battlefield. He took it through custody, law, speed, pressure, and the language of necessity.

When Edward IV died in 1483, England was left with a boy king, a divided court, and a political class hardened by decades of civil war. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, appeared to be the obvious protector of his nephew Edward V. Within weeks, however, the protector had become king, the Woodvilles had been broken, Edward IV's children had been declared illegitimate, and the princes in the Tower had vanished into one of history's darkest mysteries.

Richard III: The Crown Taken in the Dark follows the last Plantagenet king from loyal brother and northern powerbroker to controversial monarch and defeated ruler at Bosworth. It examines the princes in the Tower, Buckingham's revolt, the rise of Henry Tudor, the collapse of Yorkist authority, and the political wound Richard left behind.

Was Richard a ruthless usurper, a necessary ruler in a dangerous age, or a king destroyed by suspicion before he had time to secure his crown?

Clear, dramatic, and accessible, this book tells the story of monarchy, legitimacy, civil war, and the crown taken in the dark.