List of Historical Figures Dramatised By Shakespeare - R

R

• Sir Richard Ratcliffe is a confidante of Richard in Richard III.
• René or Regnier is the impoverished king of Naples and Jerusalem, and father to Queen Margaret, in Henry VI, Part 1.
• Richard:
  • King Richard II is the title character of Richard II: a king who is deposed and eventually murdered.
  • Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III, brave but evil, is the third son of Richard, Duke of York (1). He is a fairly minor character in Henry VI, Part 2, is more prominent in Henry VI, Part 3, and is the title character—and murderer of many other characters—in Richard III.
  • Richard Plantagenet, later Richard Duke of York, is a central character in Henry VI, Part 1, Henry VI, Part 2 and Henry VI, Part 3. He is the Yorkist claimant to the throne of England, in opposition to Henry VI, and he is eventually killed on the orders of Queen Margaret.
  • See also Richard Duke of York.
  • Sir Richard Vernon is a follower of the rebel forces in Henry IV, Part 1.
• The Earl of Richmond, later King Henry VII, leads the rebellion against the cruel rule of Richard III, and eventually succeeds him as king.
• Earl Rivers is the brother to Queen Elizabeth in Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III. He is arrested and executed on the orders of Richard and Buckingham.
• Lord Ross is a supporter of Bolingbroke in Richard II.
• Rutland is the youngest son of Richard Duke of York (1), killed in battle while still a boy, by Clifford, in Henry VI, part 3. (Historically, Rutland was not the youngest of the four York brothers depicted in the plays. Shakespeare made him so using dramatic licence.)