Some may question my depiction of the animosity between Richard and George, but from all I have read, the two brothers could not have been more different, and the angry in-fighting over the Warwick inheritance is well documented. George’s denial of permission to wed Anne is fact, and George did hide her from Richard. It was the climax of Richard’s antagonism towards George from childhood and served as the main source of conflict in this book. However, George’s many treasonous actions toward Edward would certainly have turned the loyal Richard against his brother even without the Anne debacle. George was simply a bad lot.

Many of the scripted documents I include during Richard’s time as protector and king are written verbatim, including his words after the royal oath—if a little 15th-century stilted.

Shakespeare, in his play Richard III, depicted Richard as culpable of several deaths, only one of which can in fact solely be attributed to him: Will Hastings’. The others are Tudor historians’ and Shakespeare’s conjectures. In my first draft, I had Richard present at the “execution” of Henry VI—at Edward’s command. As I was rereading the scene, something made me decide to have Richard actually commit the murder, leading to the resulting darker side in this book. Richard was not a saint, as many Ricardians would have him be, and I believe he was a man of his violent time and cognizant of the dangers he faced being noble. The killing of the saintly Henry made Richard, for my purposes, a far more complex character, even though we still do not know exactly how Henry died.

I am choosing not to include a bibliography, because those readers who know me know that I am dedicated to as much truth as fiction allows. I love the details, like the fact the city of Gloucester did refuse the grateful gift Richard offered the citizens. New readers will find many of my resources cited in my other five books: A Rose for the Crown, Daughter of York, The King’s Grace, Queen by Right, and Royal Mistress.

—Anne Easter Smith, Newburyport MA

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

Over the twenty years that I have been writing my series of six novels, I have had incredible support from dozens of historians, archivists, curators, librarians, Ricardians, and a host of family and friends offering beds, chauffeuring and willing ears. Thank you all—you know who you are! And thank you to my beta readers: Margaret George, Rita Wright, Fontaine Dollas Dubus, Laura Stacey, Reniera Lupton, Christine Forsa, Maryann Long, Nancy Bilyeau, C.C. Humphreys, and my husband Scott Smith. This book would not have been ready to read by any of those kind people without the help and rigorous analysis of my first reader/editor Catherine Thibedeau.

To my daughters, who have encouraged me in this authoring endeavor, and especially to my husband and champion, Scott, my love and gratitude.