But what they have to agree on is the fact that there is no clear evidence that Richard was guilty or innocent of his so-called “crimes”. Richard’s Deformity:
Many people’s image of Richard III is influenced by Shakespeare’s portrait of a “limping hunchback” with a withered arm. Shakespeare’s sources were the Tudor chronicles, hostile to Richard III. Perhaps Shakespeare also wanted to present an evil soul in ugly body. But we have to remember that there were REAL people who REALLY met and saw Richard. There were also earlier portraits, for example those belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, which were not painted in his lifetime but they are based on originals that could have been done from his lifetime and they do not show any kind of deformity. Later portraits, probably painted to fit in with the myth, show uneven shoulders and a villainous countenance. The raised shoulder of the Windsor portrait can be shown under X-ray to be a later addition to a painting with a normal shoulder line. Those who were writing in the 1480s such as the Crowland Chronicler, Philippe de Commymes and the Italian monk Dominic Mancini, did not mention any deformity of Richard, although they must have either met Richard themselves or spoke to those who had. A knight from Silesia, Nicholas von Poppelau, who visited the English court in 1484, recorded in his travel diary that “Richard was three fingers taller than himself but a little thinner and not so thickset, also much more lean; he had delicate arms and legs, also a great heart.”
Sir Winston Churchill wrote in his History of the English Speaking Peoples: “No –one in his lifetime seems to have remarked on these deformities, but they are now very familiar to us through Shakespeare’s play.”

The play:
The play is opened by Richard, who feels very sorry for himself. But on the other hand is pleased about laying the plots between his brothers King Edward and Clarence. Then, when Clarence enters with armed guard, Richard looks very surprised and pretends that he didn’t know about his arrest. But actually it was Richard who has incited King Edward to arrest the innocent Clarence, by pouring “drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams” (page 56) into the King’s ear. Richard shows sympathy with Clarence, blaming King Edward's wife (Queen Elizabeth born the Lady Grey) for Clearance’s situation. He even says that he will talk to King about Clarence in order to help him, but when is Clarence led away Richard says to himself: “Go tread the path that thou shalt ne’er return.