Historical
and Commemorative Medals
Collection of Benjamin Weiss
RICHARD III DASSIER, Jean: England, 1731, Bronze, 41 mm Richard III (1452-1485), also called Richard Plantagenet,
was Duke of Gloucester from 1461-1483 and King of England from 1483-1485. He
was the youngest son of Richard, Duke of York. He was made Duke of
Gloucester after his eldest brother, Edward of York, deposed the Lancastrian
monarch Henry VI and assumed the throne as Edward IV. In 1470 Richard and
Edward were forced into exile by the Earl of Warwick, who reinstated Henry
VI. Richard returned to England, defeating Henry’s forces. Henry was
imprisoned and then murdered in the Tower of London, likely with the
complicity of Richard, thus securing Edward’s restoration. When Edward died,
Richard became protector of the realm for his 12-year nephew
Edward V and
gained custody of Edward V and Edward’s younger brother. Both of these
brothers were subsequently declared illegitimate and ineligible as heirs to
the crown. The two princes, Edward V and his younger brother, Richard of
York (shown on the reverse of this medal), were imprisoned in the Tower of
London, never to again emerge alive, and Richard of Gloucester was crowned
Richard III. In the decisive War of the Roses at the Battle of
Bosworth Field (alluded to on the reverse of this medal), pitting the
Yorkist Richard against the Lancastrian Henry Tudor (later Henry VII),
Richard was killed, making him the last of the Yorkist kings and ushering in
the era of the Tudors and, because of the cessation of the War of the Roses,
a more stable England. Richard III has been portrayed by historians and in the
literature, notably by Shakespeare, as a monster of unparalleled villainy,
although many maintain that his ignominy has been exaggerated.
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