Explain why Richard, Duke of Gloucester, made himself King in 1483.

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Explain why Richard, Duke of Gloucester made himself King of England in 1483.               (12 marks)

England in mid-1483 was an unstable and dangerous place. The King, Edward IV, had died and turmoil raged as to who was to be his son, the twelve-year-old King Edward V’s Protector and rule as Regent until the King was old enough to rule by himself. Among the front-runners was Edward IV’s brother and fastidiously loyal servant, Richard Plantagenet, the Duke of Gloucester, the uncle of the King. However, far from living up to his loyal reputation with the new King, within a couple of months he had usurped the throne, imprisoned the King and shown his ruthlessness by murdering both allies and enemies. There are a number of reasons why Gloucester ended up being King.

Edward IV had married Elizabeth Woodville a decade and a half before he died and many disapproved of the marriage; considering the Woodvilles a large, common family which were nothing but a drain on resources. They were given large swathes of land and power during Edward’s reign and came to be one of the most powerful Yorkist families. As such, after Edward’s death, the Queen felt that her family should look after Edward V – after all, he was her son. However, Gloucester disagreed. Like many others, he resented the power given to the Woodvilles and decided that he would stop them from taking the throne by taking Edward V under his wing. Part of this was due to his opportunistic character.

Gloucester was tactical and opportunistic, knowing exactly when and where to strike to gain him more power and harm his enemies; he had learned this under his father’s ally-turned-enemy the Earl of Warwick (the “kingmaker”) in the 1460s. He was ruthless and determined to seize whatever power he could and guaranteed a legacy for his family. Immediately after Edward IV’s death, Earl Rivers (a prominent Woodville and the Queen’s brother) set out to escort Edward V to London for his coronation in the hope of gaining Protector status from the Royal Counsel. However, at a tavern in Stony Stratford on the 30th of April 1483, Gloucester and his long-time ally the Duke of Buckingham met to discuss a plan to take Edward from Earl Rivers and for Gloucester to become Protector. The next day, they ambushed Rivers and the King on their way to London, and Gloucester had Rivers arrested and three of his officers sent with him to prison in Middleham Castle in the north, where they could not be a threat to him. Gloucester’s allies, the Lord of Hastings and the Duke of Buckingham were to be invaluable to him in seizing the throne later on.

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The Duke of Buckingham and Lord Hastings were two of Gloucester’s main allies throughout the power struggle. Buckingham (Henry Stafford) had a remote claim to the throne, being descended from Edward III’s youngest son. He controlled mostly lands in the Midlands and south-east Wales. Hastings managed the East Midlands for Edward IV. He had castles at Kirkby Muxloe and Ashby de la Zouch. He supported the new King, but disliked the Woodvilles and allied with Gloucester. Hastings especially was pivotal to Gloucester’s rise to power, as he urged him in May 1483 to defend his position as Protector of ...

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