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History of King Richard III

Thomas More

Sir Thomas More's unfinished biography, which created the enduring image of Richard III as a deformed, murderous tyrant.

More's history, written under the Tudors, created the lasting image of Richard III as a murderous, deformed tyrant.

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Dark green cloth book cover with a white rectangular library label in the upper left reading 'UC-NRLF' above a barcode and the number 'B 4 009 742'.
Thomas More, History of King Richard III. Later printed edition.

About this source

What it is

This is a printed edition of Sir Thomas More's unfinished history of King Richard III, written in the early 1500s by the English statesman and scholar Thomas More. The scanned copy shown here is a later library edition, not the original manuscript.

Why it matters

More wrote decades after Richard's death, during the reign of the Tudor dynasty that had replaced him. His account portrayed Richard as physically deformed and responsible for murdering his nephews. This version became the basis for later Tudor histories and for Shakespeare's famous play, shaping how generations have imagined Richard III, even though More was not a witness to the events he described.

Look closer

  • Why might a writer living under the Tudor dynasty describe the Tudors' defeated rival in a negative light?
  • How can a history written after someone's death still influence how we picture them centuries later?
  • What questions would you want answered about More's sources before trusting his account?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Richard III on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Page 173 of an old printed book showing the title 'The Tragedy of Richard the Third' with a decorative border, the subtitle about the landing of Earle Richmond and the battle at Bosworth Field, and the opening 'Actus Primus. Scena Prima' in two columns of dense black-letter-style text.Book

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Richard III (1452–1485)

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Exhumation of Richard III of England

2012

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