Richard III of England due to the fact that it helped to legitimise Henry VII's seizure of the throne. The Richard III Society contends that this means that 'a lot of what people thought they knew about Richard III was pretty much propaganda and myth building.' The Tudor characterisation culminated in the famous fictional portrayal of him in Shakespeare's play "Richard III" as a physically deformed, Machiavellian villain, ruthlessly committing numerous murders in order to claw his way to power; Shakespeare's intention perhaps being to use Richard III as a vehicle for creating his own Marlowesque protagonist. Rous himself, in his "History of the
Ricardian (Richard III) Ricardian (Richard III) Ricardians are people interested in altering the posthumous reputation of Richard III, King of England (reigned 1483–1485). Richard III has long been portrayed unfavourably, most notably in William Shakespeare's play "Richard III", in which Richard is portrayed as having murdered his nephew, the crown prince of England, a 12 year old child at the time, in order to secure the English throne for himself. Ricardians have worked in an effort to turn this around and to paint this portrayal, and the many other related assertions that followed, as most probably false politically motivated accusations. Ricardians accept as