How could a man who seems to be so fiercely loyal to his brother, kill said brother's children after his death? This is one of the questions that Josephine Tey takes up in her mystery novel, The Daughter of Time. By the end of the story, Tey concludes that the man who is looked at by over 600 years of history as a murderous villain, Richard III, did not kill his nephews. This paper, like Tey's novel, is an attempt to clear Richard's name, by citing various arguments for his innocence, or at least argue that there is not enough evidence, at least not beyond a reasonable doubt, to condemn a man of a murder that is very unlikely to benefit him.

First, there is his character: according to contemporary sources, Richard was "a man universally liked and admired (Tey 113). He was very loyal...