SOURCE: Saccio, Peter. “History and History Plays.” In Shakespeare's English Kings: History, Chronicle, and Drama, second edition, pp. 3-15. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

In this essay, Saccio provides a background for the historical events addressed in Shakespeare's history plays—events that also comprise the subject matter of several other chronicle plays of the period.

Methinks the truth should live from age to age.

Late in Shakespeare's Richard III, three royal ladies, the dowager queens Margaret and Elizabeth and the dowager duchess of York, sit upon the ground to catalogue their losses:

MARGARET.

I had an Edward, till a Richard killed him; 

I had a Harry, till a Richard killed him. 

[to Elizabeth] 

Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard killed him; 

Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard killed him. 

DUCHESS.

[to Margaret] 

I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him; 

I had a Rutland too...