Richard III, King /ˌrɪtʃəd ðə ˈθɜːd $ -ərd ðə ˈθɜːrd/ BrE AmE
(1452–85) the king of England from 1483 until his death. When his brother, King Edward IV, died in 1483, Richard had the job of taking care of Edward’s sons, who were still boys. But he put the boys in prison in the Tower of London (the Princes in the Tower). They disappeared and he took the position of king for himself. He was later killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. In Shakespeare’s play Richard III , Richard is shown as a cruel and ugly man, and as a ↑ hunchback (=person with a large raised part on their back) , but some writers now believe that he was in fact an effective king and a brave military leader, who was not responsible for the deaths of the princes. The play contains the famous line: ‘A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!’, which Richard says when he loses his horse in battle.