Like most people who know anything about Richard III, I got my first
impression about him from Shakespeare. For me, he was the arch villain I loved
to hate. And who could not love Laurence Olivier’s brilliant portrayal, or Ian
McKellen’s controversial one. They both brought Shakespeare’s villain to life
creating a man with whom the audience could even sympathize.
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| Richard III |
One day, about nine years ago, my mother asked me if I had ever read Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. I hadn’t, but since my mom has great
taste in books (I agree with her choices), I went to the library the next day
and borrowed this nearly thousand page historical fiction. I was spellbound
from the start. Penman introduces us to a seven year-old boy, who eventually
becomes the king of England—not through treachery and murder that Shakespeare
would have you believe—but through unwavering loyalty to his brother, Edward IV
and through a strange twist of fate. On his deathbed, Edward IV names his
brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, protector to his oldest son, Edward who
was still a minor. Richard was not there when Edward IV died, but only learned of
the events about a week after the fact. While serving as protector, Richard
learns from the Bishop of Bath that Edward IV had been previously married
before he had married the mother of his children, and that his first wife was
still alive at the time of the bigamous marriage. All Edward’s children were
legally declared bastards, thus unable to inherit title. Richard of Gloucester
was next in line.
I was so blown over by these and other revelations in Sunne in
Splendour, that I had to do my own research. I found Richard’s life so
compelling that I found I wanted to have a chat with him. The only way I could
think of doing that was to write him into the 21st-century. It
started small, but grew to three novels, the first two of which are published
and the third a work in progress.
