e again. The action of Richard III begins shortly after this event, but in reality the hostility between the two families was much older. The Lancastrians had killed a second York son-Edmund, earl of Rutland-when he was still quite young. (Shakespeare's other history plays-Richard II,Henry IV Parts One & Two,Henry V, and Henry VI Parts One, Two, & Three-cover all of these events.) Shakespeare often plays fast and loose with the facts, stretching and altering the timeline to suit his dramatic purposes, but the plays generally are based upon historical records.
             The events of this civil war-including the murders of King Henry and Prince Edward by the York brothers, and the earlier killing of the Earl of Rutland by Henry's family-are important background to Richard III. In Shakespeare's version, for one thing, both Henry and Edward leave widows: Henry's is the former Queen Margaret, who bitterly curses the Yorks in Act I, scene iii; Edward's is Lady Anne, who mourns his death and that of Henry in Act I, scene ii, and who later becomes Richard's wife.
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