This is a series of articles dealing with the British nobility beginning with William the Conqueror in 1066 and ending with Henry VIII circa 1530. The information within has been compiled from multiple resources and a bibliography will follow the completed work. Beginning with the Normans, the Plantagenets, the Lancasters, the Yorks, and then finally, the Tudors.
Richard III: Generally maligned and thought of as despicable, Richard is now being re-examined by modern scholars and questions as to how valid his "evil reputation" is deserved. Although contemporary accounts and paintings portray him as a tall, slender, and handsome man, it seems that Shakespeare’s rendering him as a hunchback with a withered arm is not very historically accurate. Contemporary accounts hold that at the Battle of Bosworth, Richard dived into the foray against Henry Tudor's army and came within striking distance of Henry before he was struck down. In 1483, the College of Arms is founded. Parliamentary statutes were written down in English for the first time. The war of the Roses comes to an end with the death of Richard III in 1485.