Cultural depictions of Richard III of England

Late 16C portrait of Richard III (National Portrait Gallery, London), copied from an early 16C one in the Royal Collections. This version features in Josephine Tey's novel The Daughter of Time.

Richard III of England has been depicted in literature and popular culture many times. In the Tudor period he was invariably portrayed as a villain, most famously in Shakespeare's play Richard III, but also in other literature of the period. Richard's life was not much depicted again until the 20th century when the "Ricardian" movement sought to restore his reputation. Much of more recent creative literature has portrayed him in a positive light.[1] However his reputation as a hunchbacked villain has remained a familiar historical cliché within popular culture.

  1. ^ According to R. Gordon Kelly "Popular culture remains overwhelmingly pro-Ricardian". R. Gordon Kelly, "Josephine Tey and Others: The Case of Richard III", in Ray B. Browne, Lawrence A. Kreiser, Jr, et al (eds) The Detective As Historian: History and Art in Historical Crime Fiction, Volume 1, Popular Press, 2000, p.134.