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Richard the Third. Act One. In one of the many installments of the Wars of the Roses, England’s most infamous civil war, the York family has claimed the throne from the House of Lancaster. Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, the title character of our play, is the youngest of three sons of York. His older brother, Edward currently holds the throne, but is very ll. Richard, who some say is deformed of body and mind, desires the throne for himself and uses every situation to that end. We should also note that, oddly enough, Queen Margaret of the fallen House of Lancaster has been given freedom to roam the halls of the palace, which she does like some deranged prophetess.
As the play begins, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, encounters his brother, George, Duke of Clarence, who is being sent to prison by their older brother, King Edward. Richard pretends to be sympathetic to Clarence, but later arranges for his murder to ease his own pathway to the throne. In the next scene, Richard encounters Lady Anne Neville, who he desires to be his wife for political purposes. Even though he killed her husband and arranged for the death of her Father-in-Law, King Henry VI of Lancaster, he convinces Anne to marry him somehow with his silver tongue. Next, in a hall of the palace, King Edward’s wife, Queen Elizabeth, expresses her concerns about Richard’s aspirations for power, but the wily Duke claims that this is all nonsense and rumors. Unknown to all, as this conversation unfolds, Queen Margaret is hidden in the shadows. When the time is right, she reveals herself to curse them all. As the Act ends, murderers hired by Richard to kill his brother, Clarence, go about their dark business in the Tower of London.