A noted lawyer investigates the historical controversy surrounding King Richard III of England and the disappearence of his nephews from the Tower of London, examining Richard's vilified career and offering a surprising and history-changing theory.

Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes

Literature & Fiction

Fields, Bertram

History & Criticism

Harper

For centuries scholars have debated the true identity of the author of the magnificent body of poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare. The majority of academics and other "Shakespeare authorities" have accepted the idea that the author was indeed one William Shakspere, the historical figure who hailed from Stratford-upon-Avon, acted on the London stage, and co-owned a successful theater company. And yet many credible voices -- including Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, Benjamin Disraeli, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Walt Whitman -- have challenged the conventional wisdom, casting irresolvable doubts on the Stratford man and proposing alternatives from rival playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe to Queen Elizabeth herself.
Now, in this provocative and convincing new book, historian and attorney Bertram Fields reexamines the evidence and presents a stunning, and highly plausible, new theory of the case -- an unconventional approach that will change, once and for all, how we think about the question, "Who was Shakespeare?"
With an attorney's mastery of four centuries of evidence and argument, Fields revisits all the critical facts and unanswered questions. With thirty-six plays, two long narrative poems, and 154 sonnets to his name, why did Shakespeare leave behind not a single word of prose or poetry in his own hand? Is it really possible that the Stratford man -- who had a grade school education at best -- possessed the depth and scope of knowledge reflected in the work? Shakespeare the author used Latin and Greek classical works with familiarity and ease, and drew upon Italian and French works not yet translated into English. Was there a single man in the English theater with such breadth and range of knowledge -- a man who also knew the etiquette and practices of nobility, the workings of the law, and the tactics of the military and navy? Is it possible that any culture had produced a figure with both the poet's lofty ideals and empathetic humanity, and the streetwise, boisterous theatrical sense of the crowd-pleasing playwright?'
Or -- as Fields asks in his tantalizing conclusion -- was this not one man at all, but a magnificent collaboration between two very different men, a partnership born in the roiling culture of Elizabethan England, and protected for centuries by the greatest conspiracy in literary history?
Blending biography and historical investigation with vibrant scholarship and storytelling, Players revolutionizes our understanding of the greatest writer -- or writers -- in our history.

Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare

Reference

For centuries scholars have debated the true identity of the author of the magnificent body of poems and plays attributed to William Shakespeare, the actor and co-owner of a successful theater company who hailed from Stratford-upon-Avon. And yet many credible voices -- Mark Twain, Sigmund Freud, and Walt Whitman, to name a few -- have challenged conventional wisdom, proposing alternative candidates from rival playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe to Queen Elizabeth herself, in what has become a centuries-old parlor game.
In this provocative and convincing new book, historian and attorney Bertram Fields presents a stunning, and highly plausible, new theory of the case. Mastering four centuries of evidence and argument, Fields revisits all the critical facts and unanswered questions. Could there have been a single man in the English theater with such breadth and range of knowledge, a man who knew Latin and Greek, the etiquette and practices of nobility, the workings of the law, and the tactics of the military and navy? Or -- as Fields asks in his tantalizing conclusion -- was this not one man at all, but a magnificent collaboration between two very different men, a partnership born in the roiling culture of Elizabethan England, and protected for centuries by the greatest conspiracy in literary history?
Blending biography and historical investigation with vibrant scholarship and storytelling, Players revolutionizes our understanding of the greatest writer -- or writers -- in our history.

Harper-perennial

Notoriously immortalied by Shakespeare and historians, he is history's most infamous royal villian: Richard III, king of England from 1483 to 1485. Crazed with power and paranoia, he is generally supposed to have killed the youthful Prince of Wales and the aged Henry VI, drowned his brother in a vat of wine, poisoned his wife, and, worst of all, murdered his two young nephews, the older of whom was the rightful king--a reign of terror ending only with his own cowardly death on the blood-soaked field of battle.
But is all this true? Modern revisionists, citing the unreliability of Shakespeare's sources and the political agenda of historians in Richard's own day, have offered a far different portrait. A brave and valiant soldier, a loyal brother, and an intelligent, able king popular with his subjects and defeated only through treachery, their Richard is the victim of a deliberate campaign of slander devised by his Tudor successors to the throne.
In this comprehensive, meticulously researched book, renowned litigator Bertram Fields outlines and evaluates the arguments of both sides, sifting through five hundred years of legend to apply his highly successful courtroom techniques to the available evidence. Clearing away the dust of time, Fields reconstructs one of the most dramatic and turbulent episodes in history, analyzing the motives and machinations of the many players and emerging with the most definitive account yet of this most fascinating figure--and a powerful argument against acquiescing to common belief.

Notoriously immortalized by Shakespeare and historians, Richard III is history's most infamous royal villain. In this book, US litigator Bertram Fields goes back more than 500 years to review the case of Richard and the princes in the tower. Applying the same modern techniques he successfully uses in the courtroom, Fields outlines and evaluates the arguments on both sides and weighs the evidence, aiming to offer the definitive truth about this extraordinary man. Clearing away the dust of time, Fields attempts to answer the intriguing questions inherent in the drama: was Edward IV's marriage truly legal? Were his sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, and Richard, Duke of York, illegitimate? What role did Richard play - or not - in his brother Clarence's death? Were the bones found in the Tower of London those of the young princes? Was there even a murder? Were the boys instead removed from the Tower and raised in secrecy? And if they were cold-bloodedly killed, who else would have wanted them dead? The book ends with a re-examination of British and world history: what if Richard had never accepted the Crown? What if he had instead insisted his young nephew reign as Edward V? How would our lives be changed?

Biographies & Memoirs

Sutton Pub Ltd

Arts & Literature

The History Press

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Books by Fields, Bertram

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fields, Bertram. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes

Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare

Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare

Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes

Royal Blood: Richard III and the Mystery of the Princes

Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeare