Is Richard III a Machiavellian character and does he ultimately benefit from this?

SECOND MURDERER

You are deceived. Your brother Gloucester hates you.

CLARENCE

O, no, he loves me and holds me dear!

…..

FIRST MURDERER

… Come, you deceive yourself;

‘Tis he that sends us here to destroy you here.

CLARENCE

It cannot be, for he bewept my fortune,

And hugged me in his arms, and swore with sobs

That he would labour my delivery.

One Moment in the play where Richard shows much cunning and deceitfulness is in Act One where Richard is seducing Lady Anne the widow of the Prince of Lancaster. Richard says that he has never cried, not even at his father’s funeral but says that Anne’s refusal to marry him makes him cry. This makes Richard appear initially weak and that “Anne holds all the cards”. Richard then begs Anne to stab him “for I did kill King Henry”, “‘twas I that stabbed young Edward”. Anne cannot do it and Richard uses this very manipulatively. He says “Take upon this sword or take upon me”. As Anne cannot stab him she marries him.

A part of the play where Richard is greatly manipulative in gaining support through fear is at a meeting with many people including Hastings and The Archbishop. Richard incensed by Hastings ignorance says “those who love me follow me, those that do not stay here”. Not wanting to stay with the doomed Hastings all stand and follow Richard.

After the beheading of Hastings, Richard had to persuade the Mayor of London that Hastings killing was justified. So Richard and Richmond dressed in rusty armour (Stage direction says; Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Buckingham, in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured).

This cunning move makes him appear weak just like when he was seducing Anne where in actual fact it is Richard who holds all the cards.

So therefore, in my interpretation of a Machiavellian character, Richard is a Machiavellian. Does he benefit from it? I think that he does. Richard, a deformed man, can never exist in a peaceful world but on a battlefield is equal to any man. To gain this war Richard used Machiavellian “techniques/tactics” so that he could live. Without his Machiavellian side Richard probably would have stayed under his brother’s shadows, shunned by his mother.