James Gairdner – Richard III: King of England
Biography – read on the Kindle for free during September 2011
- 1 nod out of 5 -
We all love a villain in history. Check out the shelves of a nearby bookshop and what we’ll find are books on the likes of Hitler and Stalin. Closer to home, in British history, we place a great emphasis on the failures of our own monarchy: of the losses of Bad King John, on the madness of King George III, and on the monstrous myth that is Richard III.
The worm uses the word ‘myth’, as much of what is commonly known about Richard was the invention of good old Bill Shakespeare. James Gairdner – one of the eminent voices on Tudor history in the Victorian age – conforms to this stereotype in this short biography of the hunchbacked villain who sought power at all costs. True to Shakespeare’s portrayal, Richard is seen butchering all who stand in his way, friend or foe.
Such is the venting of the spleen, Gairdner has been labelled “the Victorian Anti-Richard” for such severe views. Later revisionist works have rebuffed such ideas, with more expressive and expansive conclusions now being deduced about Richard’s reign. Was he the murderer of the princes in the tower, out to grab all the power he could muster; or was he trying to steer England away from ruin? Such questions have no home in Gairdner’s prose, and it is all the poorer without them.
Gairdner wrote a whole stack of biographies on some of the key figures of the Tudor age: Henry VIII, Edward IV, Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Edward V, and more and more and more. Some of his works maintained a strong currency until the middle of the twentieth century; but his short biographies – of which this read is one – contain none of the debate and analysis that his longer books became known for.
Richard III will continue to attract critics and supporters; he is a monarch best viewed in a different format. Gairdner’s short rendition of his life is a blunt and tired one best reserved for Victorian historian enthusiasts (wherever they might live!). It might have sufficed in the Victorian age, but unfortunately for the author’s legacy, it simply doesn’t suffice today.
