Shakespeare's Richard III was written in mid-Renaissance England during the golden age of Queen Elizabeth i. Elizabeth was the last monarch of the House of Tudor and, realising her family's weak claim to the throne sought to justify Henry VII's actions. Henry, Earl of Richmond led the army that deposed the last of the Yorkist kings, Richard III. The play can be seen as Tudor propaganda, particularly scathing towards Richard III and a line of other nobility associated with the reign of Edward and the accession of Richard. The play also has strong traces of Renaissance-humanism shown through the investigation into individuals and the fitness of some to rule. Shakespeare uses Richard to investigate the nature of evil and power, issues that are of interest to both Elizabethan and contemporary audiences. Demonstrating the intermediary stage in the transition from medieval to modern thinking, Shakespeare also questions the divine...