Simple plain Clarence, I do love thee so that I will shortly send thy soul to heaven....” (page 58) Another thing he thinks about is marrying Warwick’s youngest daughter, Lady Anne, whose husband (Edward, Prince of Wales) and father he helped to kill, but not because he loves her but “for another secret close intent by marrying her which I must reach unto.” (page 60)
In another London street he meets Lady Anne attending the funeral of Henry VI, her father-in-law. Lady Anne calls him a “black magician” and a “hedgehog”. However, Richard admits involvement in the deaths of her husband and father-in-law, but only because he loves her. Then he gave her a ring and she accepted it. After Lady Anne leaves, Richard says: “I’ll have her, but I will not keep her long.” (page 70)
In the Royal Palace in London Queen Elizabeth speaks with her relatives and expresses her fear that if King Edward dies, Richard of Gloucester will be named protector over his two sons. This meant that Richard himself would take the throne. When Richard enters he blames the Queen and her family for Clarence’s and Hastings’s imprisonment. Queen Margaret, the wife of the deceased Henry VI enters and she too expresses her hate towards Richard, warning Richard’s ally Buckingham against him. After everybody’s leave Richard meets two murders, who are supposed to murder Clarence in the Tower. Another scene takes place in Clarence’s prison cell in the Tower of London. Clarence tells his keeper that he has had horrible dreams that his real enemy is not the Queen, but his own brother, Richard. Richard’s two murders appear. They showed their commission to Brakenbury and so they are let to visit Clarence. Against Richard’s instructions, they speak with Clarence and disclose that Richard, in fact, hates Clarence. He tries to persuade them not to kill him and one of them starts to have an uneasy conscience when suddenly the second murder stabs Clarence to death. The action continues back in the royal palace where King Edward IV wants everybody to make peace. Asks them to shake their hands and so they do: Hastings and Rivers, Buckingham and Elizabeth and so on.. Richard enters and announces that Clarence is dead. King is devastated. Only now he realizes how deeply devoted was Clarence to him. Richard feigns complete innocence. In another room of the palace are the two young children of the murdered Clarence and their grandmother (the old Duchess of York, Richard’s own mother). She denies that Clarence is dead but the boy says that his father has been killed at the order of King and that he knows this because his good uncle, Richard of Gloucester told him so. Queen Elizabeth arrives with her hair about her ears crying because her husband – King has died.