Top of the Deform

[Birchy]

Shakespeare wrote Richard III as a pretty ugly individual, but was he instructed to do so? I heard that he may have had to conform with the monarch of the time, therefore painting a somewhat different picture of Richard....is this true?

[incitatus]

Yes, basically. Whatever your views of Richard, the notion of his being a hunchback etc. is nonsense. It merely fit in with the Tudor view of him as a usurper. The fact that they had an equally tenuous claim to the throne, and were descended through his eager child bride, was compensated for by his being an obvious monster. It wasn't just Shakespeare. Portraits of Richard were altered during this period to make him appear deformed, as modern x-rays clearly show.