Richard iii wikisource autobiography

​RICHARD III (1452–1485), king of England, the eleventh child of Richard, duke of York [q. v.], by Cicely, daughter of Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmorland [q.

v.], was born at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 2 Oct. 1452. At the time of his birth the court of Henry VI stood in fear of his father's pretension to the crown, and civil war was brewing. He was just seven years old when, owing to his father's hasty flight from Ludlow (October 1459), his mother, with her two youngest sons—namely, George and himself—was taken in Ludlow Castle and handed over by Henry VI to the keeping of her sister Anne, duchess of Buckingham.

Richard iii wikisource autobiography

But next year Henry himself fell into the hands of the Yorkists at the battle of Northampton (10 July 1460), so that the Duchess of York recovered her freedom. She brought her sons George and Richard to London in September, and lodged them in John Paston's house.

The duke, her husband, w