A chronicle play in five acts, first performed in London in 1592-93 and published in 1597 in a quarto edition reconstructed from an actor's promptbook. Richard III is the last in a sequence of four history plays (the others being Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2, and Henry VI, Part 3) known collectively as the "first tetralogy," treating the Wars of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York. For the events of the play Shakespeare relied mainly on the chronicles of Raphael Holinshed and, to a lesser extent, Edward Hall

The dissembling and physically deformed Richard, duke of Gloucester, reveals his true purpose in the opening soliloquy of Richard III: "And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover / To entertain these fair well-spoken days, / I am determined to prove a villain." Having killed King Henry VI and Henry's son, the prince of Wales, in Henry VI, Part 3, Richard sets out to discredit or kill all who stand between him and the throne of England: his brother King Edward IV; his brother George, duke of Clarence; Edward's queen, Elizabeth, and two young sons, Edward, prince of Wales, and Richard, duke of York; his own wife, Lady Anne; and numerous courtiers and noblemen, most notably Elizabeth's brother, Anthony Woodville, earl Rivers, and the honest Lord Hastings.

Richard III is the last of the four plays in Shakespeare's minor tetralogy of English history: it concludes a dramatic chronicle started by Henry VI: Part I and then moving through Henry VI: Part II and Henry VI: Part III. The entire four-play saga was composed early in Shakespeare's career, most scholars assigning Richard III a composition date of 1591 or 1592. Culminating with the defeat of the evil King Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field in the play's final act, Richard III is a dramatization of actual historical events that concluded in the year 1485, when the Tudor monarchy replaced the rule of the Plantagenet family over England. A full century after these events, Shakespeare's Elizabethan audiences were certainly familiar with them (as contemporary Americans are of their own Civil War), and they were particularly fascinated with the character of Richard III. Shakespeare's audiences could readily identify the various political factions and complex family relationships depicted in the play as they proceed from the three parts of Henry VI.

After a long civil war between the royal family of York and that of Lancaster, the York's have won, and England is enjoying a period of peace under King Edward IV. But his younger brother, Richard, (not stopped plotting since the defeat of Henry VI.) is resentful of his brother's power and of the happiness of those around him. Malicious, power-hungry, and bitter of the disfigurement he was born with, Richard decides to ascend to the throne himself--and to kill anyone he has to in order to do it.

Using his intelligence and his great skills of deception and political manipulation, Richard begins his campaign for the throne. He conspires to play his brothers, Edward (now King Edward IV) and George, Duke of Clarence, against each other in an attempt to gain the crown for himself. By insinuating charges of treason against George, Richard has him arrested.

He manipulates a noblewoman, Lady Anne, (brazenly wooing Anne, widow of the murdered Prince of Wales, during her husband's funeral procession.) into marrying him--even though he was the one who murdered her him. He has his own older brother, Clarence, executed, shifting the burden of guilt onto his sick older brother King Edward in order to accelerate Edward's illness and death. Richard has already arranged for George to be murdered while imprisoned, and so it stands that Richard will serve as regent while Edward's son (also named Edward) can come of age.

After King Edward dies, Richard becomes Lord Protector of England--the person who will be in charge until the older of Edward's two sons grows up.

However, Richard kills the court noblemen who are loyal to the Princes, most notably Lord Hastings, the Lord Chamberlain of England. Then he has the boys' uncles on their mother's side--the powerful kinsmen of Edward's wife, Queen Elizabeth--arrested and executed. With Elizabeth and the Princes now unprotected, Richard has his political allies (particularly his right-hand man, Lord Buckingham) help agitate to have Richard crowned King.

Then, with the aid of Buckingham, Richard declares that Edward IV's offspring are technically illegitimate. In an arranged public display, Buckingham offers the throne of England to Richard, who is presumably reluctant to accept.

By this time, Richard has alienated even his own mother, who curses him as a bloody tyrant. Needing to bolster his claim to the crown; Richard has the young princes locked away in the Tower of London must be disposed of. Buckingham, until recently Richard's staunchest ally, balks at this deed. Richard gets a murderer to do the deed, but turns on Buckingham for his insubordination.

By this time, Richard's reign of terror has caused the common people of England to fear and loathe him, and he has alienated nearly all the noblemen of the court--even the power-hungry Buckingham. When rumours begin to circulate about a challenger to the throne who is gathering forces in France, noblemen defect in droves to join his forces. The challenger is the Earl of Richmond, a descendant of a secondary arm of the Lancaster family, and England is ready to welcome him.

Richard, in the meantime, is continues his attempt to consolidate his power. Conveniently, a widower after the suspicious demise of Anne-makes a ploy to marry , the daughter of the former Queen Elizabeth and the dead King Edward his niece. Elizabeth. Since the alliance would secure his claim to the throne.

However, Richard has begun to lose control of events, and Queen Elizabeth forestalls him. Making Richard believe that she agrees to the match; however, Elizabeth has arranged for a match with the Earl of Richmond.

Richmond, at this point in the action, is bringing over an army from France to war against Richard. Buckingham, finding himself out of favour with the king, gives his allegiance to Richmond, however, Buckingham's army, thrown into disarray by floods, allows Richard to capture him, and has him immediately executed. Richmond, who has undergone his own troubles crossing the English Channel, finally lands his army and marches for London. The armies of Richard and Richmond encamp near Bosworth Field; the night before the battle, Richard is visited by the sundry ghosts of the people he has slain, all of whom foretell his doom. The next day at Bosworth, Richard is unhorsed in the combat, and is found by Richmond, the two of them clash swords. From which, Richmond prevails slaying Richard, and is to become crowned as King Henry VII there on the field of battle. This is the founding of the Tudor line of kings and the end of the War of the Roses.

The new King is betrothed to young Elizabeth in order to unite the warring houses of Lancaster and York.

Today, readers and audiences may find it exceedingly difficult to follow the overlapping webs of political intrigue, family relationships, and personal vendettas. The synopsis below provides some useful guidance, but it must be acknowledged that it does not capture all of the play's complicated historical strands. Fortunately, while a full knowledge of historical context would certainly enhance a modern reading of the text, it is not really necessary. The play, in fact, is dominated by Richard the hunchback Duke of Gloucester, who becomes Richard III through a series of horrible acts, killing off his enemies, his kinsmen, his wife and most of his supporters before reaching the Battle of Bosworth and crying out "My kingdom for a horse." In a work that is as much melodrama as history, Richard is a pure, self-professed villain of monstrous proportions. His evil drives the plot, and until his final defeat by the Duke of Richmond (who became Henry VII) in the play's last act, the good forces opposing him are weak, splintered, and ready prey for his schemes

Richard III was the first of Shakespeare's history plays to have a self-contained narrative unity. In it, the playwright emphasized the moment of death as a crisis of conscience in which the individual is capable of great clarity.