The Murders of Richard III Read Online Free Page A

Jacqueline in the same steely voice, “is the meeting extraordinary?”
    â€œWe’ve found the letter. The one from Elizabeth of York, Richard’s niece.”
    The bald statement had the desired effect. Jacqueline’s hard stare softened.
    â€œYou’re kidding.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThe letter in which the girl says she’s in love with her uncle and wants to marry him? That she wishes the queen would hurry up and die? That Richard is her—”
    â€œ ‘Only joy and maker in this world,’ ” saidThomas, thoroughly pleased with himself. “That’s the letter.”
    â€œThe girl was at court,” Jacqueline said thoughtfully. “Her mother let her and the other princesses leave sanctuary after Richard was crowned. He agreed to provide for them, and not to force them into unsuitable marriages. But the letter is apocryphal, Thomas. I remember; it was quoted by one of Richard’s earliest defenders, back in the seventeenth century—”
    â€œBuck.”
    â€œYes, Buck. He said he had seen the original, in Elizabeth’s own handwriting. But then it disappeared. Most authorities doubt it ever existed. Because, if it did—”
    â€œUh-huh,” said Thomas. “If it exists, it absolves Richard of one of the Tudor slanders—that he tried to force his unwilling niece into an incestuous marriage in order to improve his claim to the throne.”
    â€œYes, I remember. I was particularly struck by one part of that story—the Christmas party at court, where Queen Anne and young Elizabeth appeared in identical dresses.”
    â€œEveryone at court was struck by it. The gesture was in singularly bad taste. The queen was dying of tuberculosis; she must have looked like a haggard ghost next to a handsome, healthyyoung girl. Richard was accused of thinking that one up, of course.”
    â€œA man would never think of a thing like that. It’s a woman’s trick. Not the queen’s; she wouldn’t give another woman a gown like hers, especially if the other woman was younger and prettier. I thought, when I read about it, that Elizabeth must have planned the trick herself—had the dress copied.”
    â€œExcellent,” Thomas said approvingly. “I hadn’t thought of that, but it bears out my own theory. There certainly was a rumor going around that Richard planned to marry the girl. When Richard heard it, he denied the story, publicly and emphatically. It would have been an extremely stupid move from his point of view. The girl was illegitimate, a commoner, his own niece, one of the hated Woodvilles. He had everything to lose and nothing to gain by such a marriage.
    â€œNo, I’m sure young Elizabeth started the rumor herself. Wishful thinking. Richard was only about ten years older than she was, and the queen was dying….”
    Jacqueline shook her head violently. “No, Thomas, it’s too much. Granted that the girl was ambitious—granted that she was in love with her uncle. Even so…”
    Thomas finished the sentence. “…it is inconceivablethat she should want to marry the murderer of her brothers. I couldn’t agree more. It’s hard enough to explain how the queen mother could have entrusted her daughters to Richard’s protection after he had ruthlessly slaughtered her sons. She accepted a pension from him, even wrote to her son by her first marriage, who had fled abroad, urging him to return because Richard would treat him well.”
    Jacqueline was still shaking her head. “Maybe the two Elizabeths didn’t know the boys were dead. The date, Thomas. What was the date of the letter?”
    â€œThat won’t wash. The letter was probably written in January or February of 1485—a year and a half after the boys were supposed to have been killed. All England prayed for saintly Henry Tudor to come over and rescue them from the monster. You can’t