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gilda_elise) wrote2020-05-28 10:42 am
gilda_elise) wrote2020-05-28 10:42 am
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Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me by Matthew Lewis
King Richard III remains one of the most controversial figures in English history. Matthew Lewis’s new biography aims to become a definitive account of his life by exploring what is known of his childhood and the impacts it had on his personality and view of the world around him. From a childhood of privilege, he would be cast into insecurity and exile only to become a royal prince, all before his 10th birthday.
This book seeks out the man behind the myths, not look to create the monster of Shakespeare that has clung to the popular imagination for centuries, nor to become lost in admiration. Returning to primary sources and considering the issues of evidence available, this new life aims to present a real man living in difficult times.
Lewis is a Ricardian, something he doesn’t try to hide. But at the same time, he strives to be as evenhanded as he can when it comes to what we know and what we don’t know about Richard III. There’s no “this happened,” or “this didn’t happen,” when there’s no proof either way that it did, or didn’t. The facts are presented, and it’s up to the reader to decide for herself.
He takes into account Richard’s scoliosis, something not possible before. He wonders how it might have affected how Richard saw the world, if it might have had something to do with his inclination to stand up for those of lower social standing, as when he found for those not under his protection, but rather for those who were in the right. And did his going against social norms later cause those in power to turn against him?
Lewis also touches on the “Princes in the Tower,” but comes to no conclusion as there’s no proof either way as to their fate. Instead, he gives examples of Richard’s character, in things that we know he did, to question if killing his own nephews was something he was capable of.
Though all of Richard’s life is covered, and much information given, it’s still a highly readable book. This is the first of Lewis’s that I’ve read. It most assuredly won’t be the last.
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. A Wicked War
2. The Grapes of Wrath
3. The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
4. Thera: Pompeii of the Ancient Aegean
5. Unbury Carol
6. The Institute
7. With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change
8. Elevation
9. The Remaking
10. The Great Lakes Water Wars
11. The Heresy of Dr Dee (John Dee Papers #2)
12. The Black Death
13. A Chain of Thunder (Civil War: 1861-1865, Western Theater #2)
14. American's Last Wild Horses
15. Children of Time (Children of Time #1)
16. Julius Caesar
17. The Elfstones of Shannara
18. Animal Farm
19. Bloody Mary
20. The Hercules Text
21. Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me
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