The Literary Richard III: The Making of a Monster through Historiography

King Richard III is perhaps best-known from his depiction in Shakespeare’s Richard III, but his monstrosity has been developed across hundreds of texts and five centuries. This thesis seeks to explore four of the texts that either confirm or deny Richard’s monstrosity, especially as they relate to the “monster theory” outlined by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. I examine two early-modern texts by Sir Thomas More and Shakespeare, as well as a twentieth century text by Sir Clements Markham and a set of contemporary novels by author Philippa Gregory, in order to follow the development of Richard’s monstrous “legend” and the cultural instances that follow. By comparing these four accounts, we can see Richard’s cultural trajectory more clearly and follow the written history of his body, which preceded the physical discovery of his remains.