Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Audiobook17 hours
Richard III: England's Most Controversial King
Written by Chris Skidmore
Narrated by Steven Crossley
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
From acclaimed historian Chris Skidmore comes the authoritative biography of Richard III, England's most controversial king, a man alternately praised as a saint and cursed as a villain.
Richard III is one of English history's best known and least understood monarchs. Immortalized by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked murderer, the discovery in 2012 of his skeleton in a Leicester parking lot re-ignited debate over the true character of England's most controversial king.
Richard was born into an age of brutality, when civil war gripped the land and the Yorkist dynasty clung to the crown with their fingertips. Was he really a power-crazed monster who killed his nephews, or the victim of the first political smear campaign conducted by the Tudors?
In the first full biography of Richard III for fifty years, Chris Skidmore draws on new manuscript evidence to reassess Richard's life and times. Richard III examines in intense detail Richard's inner nature and his complex relations with those around him to unravel the mystery of the last English monarch to die on the battlefield.
Richard III is one of English history's best known and least understood monarchs. Immortalized by Shakespeare as a hunchbacked murderer, the discovery in 2012 of his skeleton in a Leicester parking lot re-ignited debate over the true character of England's most controversial king.
Richard was born into an age of brutality, when civil war gripped the land and the Yorkist dynasty clung to the crown with their fingertips. Was he really a power-crazed monster who killed his nephews, or the victim of the first political smear campaign conducted by the Tudors?
In the first full biography of Richard III for fifty years, Chris Skidmore draws on new manuscript evidence to reassess Richard's life and times. Richard III examines in intense detail Richard's inner nature and his complex relations with those around him to unravel the mystery of the last English monarch to die on the battlefield.
Author
Chris Skidmore
Rt Hon. Chris Skidmore OBE MP was appointed chair of the UK’s independent review of net zero in September 2022 and published Mission Zero in January 2023. He was the UK’s Minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (attending Cabinet) when he signed the UK’s net zero commitment into law in June 2019 – making the UK the first G7 country to do so. He also secured the UK’s presidency of the UN COP26 conference in Glasgow. Previously, he has served in five government departments, including twice as Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation between 2018 and 2020. He is a senior fellow (2021–23) at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and a professor of practice, focusing on net zero policy, at the University of Bath.
Related to Richard III
Related audiobooks
King John: Treachery and Tyranny in Medieval England: the Road to Magna Carta Richard III: The Self-Made King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Behind the Palace Doors: Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Queens: The Provencal Sisters Who Ruled Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Sisters: The Women Behind the Wars of the Roses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Black Prince: England's Greatest Medieval Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King of the North Wind: The Life of Henry II in Five Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tudor: Passion. Manipulation. Murder. The Story of England's Most Notorious Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Dudley: A New History of Tudor England Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Society's Queen: The Life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Ladies: The Forgotten Witnesses to the Lives of Tudor Queens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Magnificent Obsession: Victoria, Albert, and the Death That Changed the British Monarchy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Queen: The Life & Tragedy of the Prince Regent's Daughter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lancaster and York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britain's Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great Harry: A Biography of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Tudor Princess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Monarchy: From the Middle Ages to Modernity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Elizabeth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Her Little Majesty: The Life of Queen Victoria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
European History For You
The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter: From the Battle for Moscow to Hitler's Bunker Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Catherine de Medici: Renaissance Queen of France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Richard III reconsidered: Historian and politician Chris Skidmore discusses his major new biography of the Yorkist king, offering his take on pivotal moments such as Richard’s seizing of the throne, his death at Bosworth and the disappearance of the princes in the tower 100% found this document usefulMargaret of Anjou: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Queen of England at the start of the Wars of the Roses 100% found this document usefulThe Crécy Campaign (with Dan Jones) 0% found this document useful211: War of the Roses 3: The Romantic Queen and the Monkish King: Owen says, "Nah" 0% found this document useful
Related articles
The Controversial King Discover BritainArticle
The Controversial King
Jan 7, 2022
5 min readPrinces In The Tower Are History’s Greatest Mystery BBC History MagazineArticle
Princes In The Tower Are History’s Greatest Mystery
Aug 6, 2020
2 min readTIMELINE Mary’s Turbulent Life BBC History MagazineArticle
TIMELINE Mary’s Turbulent Life
Mar 19, 2020
1 min readRichard Iii’s Last Stand History RevealedArticle
Richard Iii’s Last Stand
Sep 30, 2021
3 min readHero Of The Highlands BritainArticle
Hero Of The Highlands
Aug 14, 2020
4 min readThe Young Pretender Discover BritainArticle
The Young Pretender
Mar 6, 2020
5 min read7 Things You (probably) Didn’t Know About samuel pepys History RevealedArticle
7 Things You (probably) Didn’t Know About samuel pepys
Sep 29, 2022
6 min readA Medieval King… As You’ve Never Seen Him Before BBC History MagazineArticle
A Medieval King… As You’ve Never Seen Him Before
Jun 11, 2020
9 min readWhat the Queen’s Funeral Taught Me About Britain The AtlanticArticle
What the Queen’s Funeral Taught Me About Britain
Sep 19, 2022
6 min readJeffrey Hudson The Queen’s Dwarf BBC History MagazineArticle
Jeffrey Hudson The Queen’s Dwarf
Dec 27, 2019
4 min readThe Loyal rebel History ScotlandArticle
The Loyal rebel
Feb 8, 2020
17 min readThe Making Of A Monarch History RevealedArticle
The Making Of A Monarch
Nov 24, 2022
6 min readA Centuries-old Tradition the Accession king Charles Is Formally Proclaimed Monarch HELLO magazineArticle
A Centuries-old Tradition the Accession king Charles Is Formally Proclaimed Monarch
Sep 19, 2022
3 min readCity Of A Scandal Country LifeArticle
City Of A Scandal
Jan 4, 2023
5 min readCelebrated By Those He Loved And Inspired the Duke Of Edinburgh the Queen Is Joined By Guests Including Family And European Royals At Thanksgiving Service HELLO magazineArticle
Celebrated By Those He Loved And Inspired the Duke Of Edinburgh the Queen Is Joined By Guests Including Family And European Royals At Thanksgiving Service
Apr 4, 2022
8 min readThe GREATEST KING who NEVER WAS Discover BritainArticle
The GREATEST KING who NEVER WAS
Jan 5, 2024
6 min readIn The Court Of The Playboy King History RevealedArticle
In The Court Of The Playboy King
Nov 24, 2022
3 min readA Royal Treasure Trove MoneyWeekArticle
A Royal Treasure Trove
May 5, 2023
2 min readRuling WITHOUT ROYALTY BritainArticle
Ruling WITHOUT ROYALTY
Jun 7, 2019
4 min readMoseley Old Hall Period LivingArticle
Moseley Old Hall
Apr 4, 2024
6 min readThe King’s Spy All About HistoryArticle
The King’s Spy
Feb 25, 2021
1 min readLetters BBC History MagazineArticle
Letters
Dec 28, 2022
I was intrigued by the short story in the November issue's Anniversaries section regarding the peaceful transfer of power from Henry III to his son Edward I –the first such occasion in English history. I wanted to know more about why this particular
4 min readLet’s Hear It For The King Country LifeArticle
Let’s Hear It For The King
Nov 9, 2022
8 min readTHE CORONATION of KING CHARLES III and QUEEN CAMILLA LONG LIVE THE KING! The Australian Women's WeeklyArticle
THE CORONATION of KING CHARLES III and QUEEN CAMILLA LONG LIVE THE KING!
May 17, 2023
10 min readGod Save The King Who Do You Think You Are?Article
God Save The King
May 2, 2023
2 min readThe Dutiful King: George VI Finest HourArticle
The Dutiful King: George VI
May 2, 2019
8 min readFortean Traveller Fortean TimesArticle
Fortean Traveller
Oct 6, 2022
Following the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, thousands of people will make a pilgrimage to Windsor to pay their last respects to a muchloved monarch. My own journey began a few years earlier, just after King Richard III turned up in a Lei
7 min readKings And Queens History RevealedArticle
Kings And Queens
Dec 21, 2023
5 min readLong Live The King! Australian Women’s Weekly NZArticle
Long Live The King!
May 17, 2023
10 min readThank you, Your Majesty The Australian Women's WeeklyArticle
Thank you, Your Majesty
Jun 15, 2022
5 min read
Reviews for Richard III
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I knew nothing about English royalty, now I know a little. Written for the reader familiar with English geography and royal titles but vexing to the colonial. Worthwhile, nonetheless.