Reading Order
Richard III Reading Order
Richard III (c. 1592–1593) by William Shakespeare is the culminating play in Shakespeare's first history tetralogy (Henry VI Parts 1, 2, and 3 → Richard III) and one of the most theatrically compelling of all his plays — the story of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who seizes the English crown through a campaign of murder, manipulation, and theatrical self-presentation, and is eventually overthrown by the Earl of Richmond (who becomes Henry VII). Richard is Shakespeare's most virtuosic villain: he opens the play announcing his intention to be a villain ('I am determined to prove a villain'), recruits the audience as his co-conspirators, murders his way to the throne (killing Henry VI, Clarence, the Princes in the Tower, Hastings, Anne, and Buckingham), and ultimately collapses at Bosworth Field — where his famous cry 'A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!' is one of the most quoted lines in Shakespeare. The play's relationship to historical reality is complicated: Shakespeare draws on Tudor historiography (primarily Thomas More and Holinshed) that presented Richard as a monster to legitimize the Tudor dynasty; modern historians, particularly following Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time (1951) and the Richard III Society, have questioned whether Richard actually killed the Princes in the Tower. What is not in doubt is that Ian McKellen, Laurence Olivier, Kevin Spacey, and Benedict Cumberbatch have all played Richard, and the role is one of the great actor's vehicles in the theatrical tradition.
Where to start
Richard III (c. 1592–1593) — any good scholarly edition. Best reading order: Laurence Olivier's 1955 film is the classic interpretation; Ian McKellen's 1995 film (set in a 1930s fascist England) is brilliant; for the text, the Arden Third Series is standard. The play can be read profitably alone; reading the Henry VI plays first adds context but is not necessary.
Complete Richard III Book List
- 1Buy
Richard III
William Shakespeare (Arden Third Series, ed. James R. Siemon)·2009·The definitive modern scholarly edition — Siemon's Arden text is the standard with comprehensive historical notes - 2Buy
Richard III
Ian McKellen (film)·1995·McKellen's film adaptation transposing the play to a 1930s fascist England — one of the great Shakespeare film adaptations; McKellen's Richard is charismatic and horrifying; the film makes the play's politics immediately visible to modern audiences - 3Buy
The Daughter of Time
Josephine Tey·1951·The detective novel in which Inspector Grant investigates Richard III from a hospital bed — Tey's argument that Richard was innocent of killing the Princes is the founding text of the Ricardian tradition; the most famous work of historical revisionism in English fiction - 4Buy
The White Queen
Philippa Gregory·2009·Gregory's historical novel about Elizabeth Woodville, Richard III's sister-in-law — the first in her Cousins' War series gives context for the Wars of the Roses that Shakespeare's histories dramatize; the most popular modern historical fiction set in this period - 5Buy
Wolf Hall
Hilary Mantel·2009·The Booker Prize-winning novel about Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor court — Mantel's world is the direct historical consequence of Richard III's defeat at Bosworth and Henry VII's founding of the Tudor dynasty that Shakespeare's play validates - 6Buy
The Wars of the Roses
Dan Jones·2014·The popular history of the dynastic conflicts that Richard III dramatizes — Jones's account of the Plantagenet-Lancaster-York struggle for the English throne provides the historical context for understanding what Richard's seizure of the crown meant in its historical moment
Richard III — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Richard III by Shakespeare about?
Richard III (c. 1592–1593) by William Shakespeare follows Richard, Duke of Gloucester — physically deformed and politically ruthless — as he schemes his way to the English throne by murdering or destroying everyone in his path: his brother Clarence, King Henry VI, the young Princes in the Tower, his wife Anne, and his ally Buckingham. Richard is Shakespeare's most theatrical villain: he opens the play recruiting the audience as co-conspirators ('I am determined to prove a villain') and maintains their complicity throughout his rise. He is finally defeated at the Battle of Bosworth Field by the Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII), dying with the famous line 'A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!' The play is the culmination of Shakespeare's first history tetralogy about the Wars of the Roses.
Did Richard III really kill the Princes in the Tower?
The historical question is genuinely unresolved. Shakespeare's Richard III follows Tudor historiography (particularly Thomas More's account) that portrayed Richard as a monster who murdered his nephews Edward V and Richard, Duke of York, to secure the throne. Josephine Tey's 1951 novel The Daughter of Time popularized the argument that the princes may have been killed by Henry VII (who had equally strong motive), and the Richard III Society has advocated for historical revisionism. When Richard III's skeleton was discovered under a Leicester car park in 2012 (confirmed by DNA analysis), it confirmed the scoliosis of his spine but shed no light on the murder question. Most historians consider it probable that Richard ordered the murders, but the evidence is circumstantial.
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