Lynne recently read Katherine the Queen and shares her thoughts as they concern Richard  about this book with us here.

Linda Porter, Katherine the Queen: The Remarkable Life of Katherine Parr. Macmillan, London/GB, 2010  ISBN 978-0-230-74955-9 (hardback).

The connection  through service to Edward IV and Richard as Duke of Gloucester king, and the ancestors of Henry VIII’s sixth wife are well documented in this book.

In discussing Richard as a builder or renovator, Porter states on pp. 316-17 about Sudeley Castle:  “much of its current appearance and appointments in the mid-sixteenth century, it owed to improvements made by Richard when he became king.  He added the banqueting hall and the state rooms and might have spent much more time there if he had reigned longer.”

Disappointingly, she thinks that Richard was out to gain the throne for himself and that was why his ‘lieutenant’ in the north, Sir William Parr, left court and returned to Kendal Castle when Richard became King; however his wife Elizabeth was close to Anne Neville and made a lady-in-waiting.  William’s younger brother Thomas died fighting with Richard at Barnet and is one of the six gentlemen mentioned by Richard when arranging for prayers to be said for their souls and for “all lovers of the House of York.”  So often we encounter his – Richard’s concern for the ordinary person.

Tags: Books, Shakespeare