Propaganda in 'Richard III'

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer demonstrates that Shakespeare's 'Richard III' is a propaganda play. The writer maintains that, written in the aftermath of the victory over the Spanish, the play is clearly intent on glorifying the victorious Tudors over the Lancastrian Plantagenets whom they succeeded. By painting the last Plantagenet monarch as a villain, Shakespeare intends to strengthen the Tudor claim to the throne. The essay examines historical evidence to show to what extent Shakespeare manipulates facts, and in many instances twists them completely around, to achieve the purposes of propaganda.

From the Paper:

"The first thing to note is that the claim of Henry Tudor to the English throne was a tenuous one. It was he who defeated and slew Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth Field to ascend to the throne in 1485, and thereby beginning the Tudor dynasty. He was so slight a pretender that he was compelled to marry the daughter of the Yorkist king Edward IV immediately after coming to the throne, to bolster his royal credentials. This was only the first step, for the history of the Tudors shows that they were constantly in agitation in order to prove themselves to the people, or to hold on to power. The nervous energy of the Tudors brought about great upheavals during their reign, among them the 1534 Act of Supremacy by Henry VIII, which severed England from Catholic hegemony and gave birth to the first great Protestant nation. Propaganda was particularly an instrument in this regard. In 1506 Henry VII appointed the Italian scholar Polydore Vergil to compose an official account of the War of the Roses."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cahn, Victor L. Shakespeare the Playwright: A Companion to the Complete Tragedies, Histories, Comedies, and Romances. Westport CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996.
• Fields, Bertram. Royal Blood: King Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes. London: HarperCollins, 1998.
• Keyes, Ralph. The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and When. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2006.
• Shakespeare, William. "Richard III." Shakespeare's Histories. Ed. Peter Alexander. London and Glasgow: Collins, 1966.

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