Battle of Bosworth Field lead character, has been built up in the battles of Shakespeare's earlier play, "Henry VI, Part 3", as a "formidable swordsman and a courageous military leader"—in contrast to the dastardly means by which he becomes king in "Richard III". Although the Battle of Bosworth has only five sentences to direct it, three scenes and more than four hundred lines precede the action, developing the background and motivations for the characters in anticipation of the battle. Shakespeare's account of the battle was mostly based on chroniclers Edward Hall's and Raphael Holinshed's dramatic versions of history, which were sourced from Vergil's chronicle.
Ricardian (Richard III) of the White Boar was renamed The Richard III Society in 1959. In 1980, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, became the society’s Patron. (Richard III was Duke of Gloucester before ascending the throne, therefore he was before his accession (Prince) Richard, Duke of Gloucester). In 1986 the society established the Richard III and Yorkist History Trust, a registered charity, to advance research and publication related to the history of late medieval England. The society publishes a scholarly journal, The Ricardian. In 2012 the society, working in partnership with the University of Leicester and Leicester City Council, exhumed a skeleton at