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Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third

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First published: 1768
Pages: 74

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About this book

Royal reputations depend on who records them, and Horace Walpole makes that problem the starting point of his inquiry into Richard III. First published in 1768, the book challenges received accounts of the English king by examining the authority of historical witnesses. Its preface describes how missing records, rumour and partisan loyalties can distort the past, particularly when later writers accept earlier accounts without testing them.

Walpole brings this criticism to the accounts of Sir Thomas More and Lord Bacon. In considering Richard's treatment of his nephew Edward, he proposes that the crown may have been intended as a temporary possession. He presents this as a hypothesis and supports it with details including a coronation record of clothing for the young prince. The book offers readers of royal history an example of historical argument built from disputed testimony, documentary traces and sharply expressed judgments.

About the author

Horace Walpole

Horace Walpole was an eighteenth-century British author, letter writer, art historian and printer associated with Strawberry Hill. A Letter from Xo Ho A Chinese Philosopher at London, issued in 1757 under a longer title, uses an imagined visitor’s perspective for political satire.