He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. Richard was created Duke of Gloucester in after the accession to the throne of his older brother Edward IV. This was during the period known as the Wars of the Roses , an era when two branches of the royal family contested the throne; Edward and Richard were Yorkists , and their side of the family faced-off against their Lancastrian cousins.
He governed northern England during Edward's reign, and played a role in the invasion of Scotland in Before arrangements were complete for Edward V's coronation, scheduled for 22 June , the marriage of his parents was declared bigamous and therefore invalid. Now officially illegitimate, Edward and his siblings were barred from inheriting the throne. On 25 June, an assembly of lords and commoners endorsed a declaration to this effect, and proclaimed Richard as the rightful king.
He was crowned on 6 July There were two major rebellions against Richard during his reign. Then, in August , Henry Tudor and his uncle, Jasper Tudor , landed in Wales with a contingent of French troops, and marched through Pembrokeshire , recruiting soldiers.
Henry's forces defeated Richard's army near the Leicestershire town of Market Bosworth. Richard was slain, making him the last English king to die in battle. Richard's corpse was taken to the nearby town of Leicester and buried without ceremony.
His original tomb monument is believed to have been removed during the English Reformation , and his remains were wrongly thought to have been thrown into the River Soar.
