Richard The Lionheart Research Paper

In this essay, I will identify, describe and explain causes as to why Richard III was known as a bad King. Many people think about him as an inadequate king, but was he really? And if so what made him so poorly thought of?

These traits that Richard displayed were not befitting to a king and a man who was suppose to lead. Rather than look out for the

According to the article History and Tragedy in Richard II, written by Elliot, he writes “Richard is a failure as a king not because he is immoral, nor because he is too sensitive and refined for the job, but because he misunderstands the nature of kingship (260)”. Richard’s downfall is not all his fault but as a king he should have understood the idea of what a great king needs to do to succeed in the life of royalty.

William Shakespeare’s Richard III is a historical play that focuses on one of his most famous and complex villainous characters. Richard III or The Duke of Gloucester, who eventually becomes king, is ambitious, bitter, ugly and deformed. He manipulates and murders his way to the throne and sets the tone for the whole play with his very first speech, which is the opening of the play.

Richard I reigned over England during the Middle Ages from 1189 to 1199 with great bravery and immense courage. Richard was born as the third legitimate son of King Henry II of England and never assumed that he would ever ascend to become the king. After leading his country in the Third Crusade, he gained the nicknames “the lionhearted” and “the absent king.” Through many heroic deeds while away at war, he deserved the nickname of “The Lionhearted” the most.

Ambition is an earnest desire for achievement. Both texts are self reflexive and emphasise Richard’s obsessive ambition, desire and longing for the throne. Each Richard strives towards capturing the throne regardless of consequences and bloodshed. Richard is depicted in both texts as an ambitious character who strives to gain power and independence through deception and self confessed villainy. ‘Since I cannot prove a lover. . . I am determined to prove a villain’ This obsession which drives Richard to commit horrific evils to gain and then protect his claim to the throne. His ambition, power and evil blinds him and inevitably is responsible for his downfall in both of the texts. A connection is formed between Looking for Richard and King Richard III in the final scenes Al Pacino’s interpretation and ‘Hollywood’ background influences an ending which can be interpreted as portraying Richmond as a coward. Elizabethan audiences

Richard the Lionhearted was not do much of anything for the people of England or for England in general. When he became king of England he devoted his life to the Third Crusade which was started because Saladin, the leader of the Muslim armies, captured and took over Jerusalem. He did not care about the future of England, and used all the money he could to buy things for the Crusade. He was also competing with French, German, and English powers for the title of getting Jerusalem back. People think that Richard the Lionhearted plotted Conrad’s, the German who was trying to get Jerusalem,

This image of Richard that is brought to the readers attention is somewhat exaggerated. Since this play was written during the rule of Queen Elizabeth I, who is from the house of Lancaster, Shakespeare had to make the play portray the York house as villainous. The exaggeration of Richard's true character seems to be more believable than most of the character's actions in the play. Richard is responsible for the following deaths: young prince Edward, Henry VI, Clarence, Rivers, Grey, Vaughan, Hastings, the two young princes, lady Anne, and Buckingham. After viewing this laundry list of corpses there are only two possible answers to the obvious question of how is all of this possible. Either Shakespeare created his own history of England for the play or Richard's skill of language is even better than what was first thought.

Richard was the third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and he was given the duchy of Aquitaine, his mother’s inheritance, at the age of 11 and was enthroned as duke at Poitiers in 1172. Richard possessed precocious political and military ability, he won fame for his knightly prowess, and quickly learned how to control the

Richard’s aspiration for power caused him to sacrifice his morals and loyalties in order to gain the throne of England. Shakespeare refers to the political instability of England, which is evident through the War of the Roses between the Yorks and Lancastrians fighting for the right to rule. In order to educate and entertain the audience of the instability of politics, Shakespeare poses Richard as a caricature of the Vice who is willing to do anything to get what he wants. As a result, the plans Richard executed were unethical, but done with pride and cunningness. Additionally, his physically crippled figure that was, “so lamely and unfashionable, that dogs bark at me as I halt by them,” reflects the deformity and corruption of his soul. The constant fauna imagery of Richard as the boar reflected his greedy nature and emphasises that he has lost his sense of humanity.

He was born in Bordeaux France on January 6, 1367. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince and the grandson of King Edward III. Richard succeeded to his grandfather's throne on June 22, 1377, at the young age of ten. Due to his young age the government continued to be run by nobles of the kingdom, in the same fashion it had been in the last years of his grandfather's reign. These nobles were dominated by his Uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.

Richard II is an authoritative and greedy king of England, and he is living in a period of transition that medieval knights who are swearing total loyalty to a king has been disappearing and an aristocracy starts to gain a power for their own good. However, Richard II keeps believing the power of kingship, and he also is too confident himself. He overestimates his authority and power; furthermore, he ignores the periodical change. Therefore, he speaks confidently how firm his position as king is to the people in Wales, but his attitude changes when he suffers a defeat by Henry Bolingbroke that he

Richard is truly a man fit for the medieval period, this being proved in the tournament he has Bolingbroke and Mowbray participate in. The scene starts with trumpets sounding and the king flourishing in; Bolingbroke and Mowbray are suited in armor. Richard begins the ceremony (for that's what it truly is) with formalities. "Marshal ask yonder knight in arms / Both who he is and why he cometh hither" (I.iii.28-29). Certainly this is redundant and reminiscent of modern-day courtroom behavior. But again there is a sense that Richard is resplendent in these royal formalities. He is the director and lead actor in his mind. Richard is creative, as not only his poetry demonstrates but also in his ability to bring to life his ceremonious ideals. "He enjoys playing king, delights in his caprious adjucation of the encounter between two peers...He knows that he is king by divine right...in a world permanently ordered by traditional loyalties..." (Cubeta 7).

This, of course, was not the first of John’s scheming, but Richard was always “liberal to the extent of folly” with his younger brother. The last straw for many regarding the reign of Richard was his capture by the Holy Roman Emperor upon his return from the crusade, in which his ransom was greater than what the English crown made in one year. Immediately, taxes were increased and collected to pay this ransom.

A general finish of most pundits is that Richard II is a play about the affidavit of a "frail and feminine" ruler. That he was a feeble ruler, will be yielded. That he was a mediocre individual, won't. The understanding to Richard's character and inspiration is to see him as a man reliably acting his way through life. Richard was a man who held extraordinary love for show and function. This peculiarity positively drove him to settle on choices as lord that were poor, and in actuality a maladroit ruler. Notwithstanding this imperfection in character, Richard could be seen as a clever, wise individual, yet illsuited for his acquired occupation.