{"product_id":"2940016423883","title":"Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third","description":"Excerpt\u003cbr\u003eIt occurred to me some years ago, that the picture of Richard the Third, as drawn by historians, was a character formed by prejudice and invention. I did not take Shakespeare’s tragedy for a genuine representation, but I did take the story of that reign for a tragedy of imagination. Many of the crimes imputed to Richard seemed improbable; and, what was stronger, contrary to his interest. A few incidental circumstances corroborated my opinion; an original and important instrument was pointed out to me last winter, which gave rise to the following’ sheets; and as it was easy to perceive, under all the glare of encomiums which historians have heaped on the wisdom of Henry the Seventh, that he was a mean and unfeeling tyrant, I suspected that they had blackened his rival, till Henry, by the contrast, should appear in a kind of amiable light. The more I examined their story, the more I was confirmed in my opinion: and with regard to Henry, one consequence I could not help drawing; that we have either no authentic memorials of Richard’s crimes, or, at most, no account of them but from Lancastrian historians; whereas the vices and injustice of Henry are, though palliated, avowed by the concurrent testimony of his panegyrists...\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"VolumesOfValue","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47156173242608,"sku":"2940016423883","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940016423883_p0.jpg?v=1763635505","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940016423883","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}