Richard III: England’s Black Legend by Desmond Seward (PDF)

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User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Very pleased with purchase. Arrived as advertised and well worth what I pad!!

⭐I love the book and find that I have read it before. I agree that Richard III has to be the one culpable for the deaths of the Princes, and I have no problem with that as Richard was a man of his time and day and age. To make him not is what I feel others try to do with Richard instead of promoting him as a man of his time. Edward IV was not perfect as Henry VI, Edward of Lancaster, the Neville brothers, and countless of Lancastarian nobility suffered loses from Edward’s seizure of the throne both in 1461 and again in 1471. If Richard III had lived, he probably would have provided a very solid government for England building on what his older brother Edward IV had built. A quick and fun read on the life of Richard III.

⭐While I have always wanted Richard III to be cleared of all wrong-doing, this well-written and well-researched book convinced me he was a typical ruler of his time. He may not have been as evil as the Tudor’s portrayed him but close enough. The only downside is remembering that people have titles like earl and duke that do not relate to their first name and last names. Like Neville to Warrick. I enjoyed the social history that put the story in context. I am reading a biography of his successor, Henry VII and he was as ruthless as Richard. Tough times in 15th century England!

⭐While Seward makes some convincing arguments and successfully rebuts some Ricardian explanations, he does so in a horribly pretentious manner. He makes the constant claim that Richard was unpopular, which may have been so, but he does not bother to use reliable sources to prove it. He is also guilty of using the words ‘obviously’ and ‘plainly’ while not giving the reader any inication why he thinks these things are so obvious and plain. An example of this is found when Seward states, “When speaking of Richard, Commynes uses the word ‘proud’ more than once. Plainly he employs it in the sense of vain glory or self delusion. Had he known the word ‘hubris’ he would have used that too.” Be that as it may, Seward does not offer any proof as to why he believes the word ‘proud’ is used to mean self delusion, and his assumption that the writer would have used ‘hubris’ hints of Seward’s own pride and arrogance. This neglect to explain basic charges runs throughout the entire book, which makes it an almost unbearable read to one simply trying to find out the truth, rather than wallow in anti-Ricardian sentiment. Almost all historians of Richard III are guilty of writing from bias, but it is not usually so suffocating as this.

⭐A good, comprehensive look at Richard’s life and reign, also the changes in how history and popular culture have viewed Richard since then. Did he or didn’t he kill the Princes in the Tower? Sorry, fans. While Richard III was far from the scenery-chewing maniac Shakespeare portrayed, he so completely did.

⭐I just got the book delivered and started reading non stop. Easy to read and understand. Richard III’s family tree in the book gives the reader a clearer idea of the story. As you go along you may get lost in terms of family sequence and synchronology, that’s when i use the family tree which has helped me tremendously to keep track of each of the names in the biography. It’s by far the best book of Richard III i have read. I recommend it. Get the hardcover, beautiful printing and cover.

⭐Great insight into a very confusing, at least for me, period. I wish the author, actually all authors of British history, had been a little more consistent in names, often jumping back and forth between given name and title. That aside, a good read.

⭐I have studied the history of Richard the Third for years and have always been fascinated. This book is extremely well researched and well written. I had to read it slowly since the history of the Wars of the Roses is so complex. This is not an easy read but I highly recommend it to any medievalist or historian of English history of this period. Definitely five stars.

⭐Excellent

⭐Excellent product and service – recommended

⭐An excellent read.

⭐In rather self-defeating style, Desmond Seward writes indecisively, almost as if he himself cannot believe the certainty of `England’s Black Legend,’ even though here he superficially attempts to corroborate Shakespeare’s sycophantic composition for Queen Elizabeth I, whilst at the same time offering the most vindictive and personally-damaging portrait of Richard III. Seward’s writing style is satisfying enough, but always it carries the undertone of an uncertainty sustained by vagueness and ambiguity. Occasionally he gives the reader the feeling that he, the author, cannot make up his mind as to what actually happened during Richard’s short reign. This observation is supported by Seward’s occasional lapses into near-fulsome sympathy for Richard’s ill-starred and seemingly unmanageable royal predicaments. This can be seen, for example, in how Seward writes when describing events related to the deaths of Richard’s wife and son – he invites the reader’s empathy for an embattled king with a vision of Richard as a haunted figure facing a depressingly desolate choice of who would be his Plantagenet successor. Additionally, Seward relies heavily on `knowledge’ supplied by Sir Thomas More (Sir Thomas certainly being no unbiased angel, as history demonstrates) and so the book’s core integrity is gravely and consistently weakened. This is very uninspiring, especially as Seward offers no substantive comment on the other possible, plausible, and probable theories and evidences which do exist which amply demonstrate that numerous others could well have been responsible solely (or in part) for all that Richard is accused of. Having said all this, I feel that it remains a book that should be read by all who are genuinely interested in Richard III, as this narrative demonstrates very well the absolute folly and uncertainty when attempting to definitively apportion personal blame for the ghastly events occurring during Richard III’s ill-fated reign. I believe Desmond Seward has achieved something that probably he never intended – a palliative that somewhat reassures all who prefer to believe in the evidences which point to Richard’s innocence. Richard’s guilt has certainly not been proven by this volume.

⭐The book is well written and is an easy read with good background information given about Richard and his times. However, the big turn off for me in this book was that the author states at the beginning that he is out to disprove the pro-Richard camp and prove that Richard III was indeed the bad guy that Shakespeare wrote about in the Tudor era. He writes convincingly about his sources but to my mind everything written during those times can be interpreted any way the reader so chooses. Some have chosen to believe there was good in Richard while Mr. Seward definitely does not.His final comment in the epilogue of the book about disproving certain female historical writers was a total turn off for me. As I said it was well written and had me rethinking about certain episodes in Richard’s life but his final misogynistic comment left me unconvinced because it seemed the author was just out to prove ‘female’ writers wrong, and that he, as a male writer knew better than all of them.

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