Richard III: Good Guy or Evil Putz?
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Who were the hosts of this episode and what is their background?
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Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too, and that makes this a good old-fashioned episode of Stuff You Should Know.
That's right. This is where we don't debate because we don't really do that. We're going to talk about the merits of Richard III and the people that say that Richard III was a lousy king and terrible person. And other people will say, no, that was rewritten by people who didn't like him. And he was actually a pretty great king.
And we'll get into all that right now. Wow, that's a great intro. So Richard III, his name may ring a bell if you're not already familiar with him because there's a very, very famous play by Shakespeare called The Tragedy of Richard III. And in this play, Richard III has a hunchback. He has a withered arm. He has a... Horrible, dark soul at his core. He's a terrible person, a murderer of children, a usurper to the throne. And because this is Shakespeare, you know Shakespeare, that's how everybody's thought of Richard III publicly or popularly for hundreds of years. Yeah. Yeah, like Shakespeare wouldn't do a hit piece on somebody, right? No way. If there was even one Shakespeare. I was thinking back to our episode on... I think it was like, did Shakespeare really write all that stuff? That is one of my all-time favorite episodes because I knew nothing about it, and yet there's this huge, rich subculture of people who like... talk about this and investigate it and debate it. I love that one.
Totally.
But Shakespeare did basically write this play probably at least in part to flatter Queen Elizabeth, who was the reigning monarch at the time, and he was a very loyal subject of hers. Queen Elizabeth was related to the guy who took over from Richard III after Richard III was killed before that guy's very eyes.
That's right. And this story will get a little confusing as we go back and go through it because there's a lot of Richards. There's a lot of Edwards. Yeah. But it's not the hardest thing to keep straight. We're going to do our best. But in order to talk about Richard III, we have to talk a little bit about the War of the Roses.
What is the War of the Roses and how does it relate to Richard III?
which were these bloody civil wars fought over the 1400s, basically in England, like, hey, who's in control here? Which family has a right to the British throne? Most of it was between the House of York and the House of Lancaster, whose symbols were the white rose for York and the red rose for Lancaster. There we go. War of the Roses, white versus red.
Yes. That also explains that movie with Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito and Kathleen Turner.
One of my favorite all-time movies.
That is a great movie.
It is great and holds up.
Does it? I haven't seen it in a while.
It's still so very funny.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who were the hosts of this episode and what is their background?
1:06–3:45
2
What is the War of the Roses and how does it relate to Richard III?
3:45–10:08
3
How did Richard III come to power and what were the controversies?
10:08–18:18
4
What happened to the Princes in the Tower and why is it a mystery?
18:18–22:56
5
Did Richard III murder the princes and what evidence exists?
22:56–29:42
6
What are the historical challenges in understanding Richard III’s legacy?
29:42–32:46
7
What kind of king was Richard III and how was his reign challenged?
32:46–37:29
8
How did Richard III die and what happened after his death?
37:29–53:19
Speakers
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