Would you see Richard III as Elizabethan?

Question

How so?

Answer 1

No--unless you're referring to the play by Shakespeare and not the last Plantagenet king.

Richard III was a product of the late Middle Ages--while the Renaissance had been going on in Italy since the 1200's, it didn't really get going well in England until the early 1500's.

Answer 2

In terms of time, certainly not. The Elizabethan era specifically refers to the time, politics and culture of Elizabeth I. The politics of the era was markedly different from the age of Richard III--the country had been divided by a fractious civil war which had ended a century before, the English Reformation had changed the religious landscape of the country, and England had risen to be one of the great powers of Europe.

Of course, the portrait of Richard III by Shakespeare is Elizabethan, although not entirely accurate. THAT Richard was a product of a man writing for the family that had defeated Richard and his house. So that Richard was crippled, a conniver, and a man that was more interested in himself than his country. Richard III was perhaps Shakespeare's greatest "history" play, but it bore little reality to the man who was eventually defeated by Elizabeth's grandfather...

Answer 3

No - he belonged to an entirely different era. He died at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485 and was the last king from the House of York (not the last Plantagenet king - that was Richard II, who ruled from 1377-1399). His successor, Henry VII, was the first Tudor king. Henry's granddaughter was Elizabeth I and the Elizabethan era relates solely to her years as Queen i.e.1558-1603.