ritual murder 623Richard II: The Art of Kingship(Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1999); Richard H. Jones, The Royal Policy of Richard II:
Absolutism in the Later Middle Ages(New York: Barnes &
Noble, 1968); Nigel Saul, Richard II(New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, 1997).
Richard III (1452–1485)last Yorkist king of England
Richard was born October 2, 1452, in Fortheringay Castle
in Northamptonshire, the youngest son of Richard
(1411–60), the duke of York, and Cecily of York. He was
the youngest brother of EDWARDIV, during whose reign he
became the duke of York and the powerful royal represen-
tative in the north of ENGLAND. He was a good soldier and
an important commander in his brother’s victories in the
WARS OF THEROSES. In the north he gained a reputation
as a competent and fair administrator and ruler over one
of the most lawless parts of England. In 1483 he was
appointed guardian to his nephew, the boy-king Edward V
(r. 1483). However, on the death of his brother on April 9,
1483, he seized the throne for himself, deposing the 13-
year-old, and destroyed the family of his mother, Elizabeth
Woodville (ca. 1437–92). She was the second wife of his
brother, Edward IV, whose family Richard considered far
too influential. He was endorsed on June 25 by an assem-
bly of lords and commoners, who had been told that
Edward IV’s marriage to Elizabeth was not valid and her
sons were illegitimate. Edward and his younger brother
disappeared while in confinement in the Tower of London
later that summer. Because Richard had much to gain
from their disappearance, an accusation that he had them
murdered resulted. Skeletons of two boys were later found
hidden away in the tower presenting the opportunity for
others to claim the throne. Richard’s only son, Edward
(1473–84), died in April 1484, and his wife, Anne Neville
soon afterward on March 16, 1485. The duke of Bucking-
ham failed in an attempt to gain the throne in 1483, but
Henry Tudor, a distant Lancastrian claimant to the throne
and later King Henry VII (r. 1485–1509), defeated Richard
in the Battle of BOSWORTHFIELDin 1485. Deserted by
allies and constrained by the terrain, Richard was killed in
the battle on August 22, 1485. Tudor historians and play-
wrights later deliberately tried to destroy his reputation.
No evidence supports the tradition, popularized by Shake-
speare, that he was a hunchback.
See alsoTUDOR, HOUSE OF.
Further reading:Dominicus Mancinus, The Usurpa-
tion of Richard the Third: Dominicus Mancinus ad
Angelum Catonem de occupatione Regni Anglie per
Ricardum Tercium libellus, trans. C. A. J. Armstrong, 2d
ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969); Anne F. Sutton and
P. W. Hammond, eds., The Coronation of Richard III: The
Extant Documents(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984);
Alison Hanham, Richard III and His Early Historians,
1483–1535 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975); Michael
Hicks, Richard III,rev. ed. (Stroud: Tempus, 2000); Rose-
mary Horrox, Richard III: A Study of Service(Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1989); Paul Murray Kendall,
Richard the Third (New York: W. W. Norton, 1956);
Jeremy Potter, Good King Richard?: An Account of Richard
III and His Reputation, 1483–1983(London: Constable,
1983); Charles Ross, Richard III(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1981); Charles T. Wood, Joan of Arc and
Richard III: Sex, Saints, and Government in the Middle Ages
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).Richard Rolle of Hampole(ca. 1295/1300–1349)
English hermit, mystic, author
Richard Rolle was born about 1295/1300 at Thornton
Dale in Yorkshire. After studying at Oxford, he returned
to his family, but he soon left them again in about 1328 to
become a hermit on the property of a friend. His PREACH-
INGand denunciation of vice were not especially popular.
After wandering around, he settled at Hampole near Don-
caster. Toward the end of his life, he directed the NUNSof
a small Cistercian community. Eventually popular in
ENGLANDand on the Continent, he was venerated as a
saint soon after his death.
Richard wrote numerous prose exegetical treatises,
spiritual commentaries, and letters in LATINand English
as well as lyric poems. He made TRANSLATIONSof parts of
the BIBLE, denounced the excesses and abstractions of
Scholastic thought, and wrote a meditation on Christ’s
suffering. He liked to talk of how he was set on fire by a
divine love that was physical and spiritual, painful and
soothing. Rolle mistrusted all theological speculation. He
died in 1349.
See alsoMYSTICISM, CHRISTIAN.
Further reading: Richard Rolle, Richard Rolle, the
English Writings,trans. Rosamund S. Allen (New York:
Paulist Press, 1988); Nicholas Watson, Richard Rolle and
the Invention of Authority(Cambridge: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1991).Riga SeeHANSEATICLEAGUE;LIVONIA.ring SeeMARRIAGE.ritual SeeDEATH AND THE DEAD; KINGS AND KINGSHIP,
RITUALS OF; MASS, LITURGY OF; PROCESSIONS, LITURGICAL.ritual murder Ritual murder, the alleged murder and
cannibalism during their ceremony of the Eucharist, was
an accusation initially formulated by pagans against
Christians in the second and third centuries C.E. From
the 12th century, the accusation was aimed at JEWS. At
Norwich in ENGLANDin 1144, some Jews were accused of
killing a Christian child, William (d. 1144) whose body
was found in a nearby forest. According to a story in