ABSTRACT
Queen Margaret, the widow of King Henry VI and mother of the murdered Prince Edward, is addressing Queen Elizabeth, wife of the dying King Edward IV, and the assembled nobles. Shakespeares Richard III covers the rise to power, the bloody rule and the fall of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. It is the last in a series of plays that covers the lamentable reign of Henry VI and the civil strife of the Wars of the Roses between the feuding houses of York and Lancaster. The remnant of Lancastrian rule is represented in this play by the mad, spiteful and prophetic Queen Margaret, the widow of Henry VI. The vivacity of the young Margaret is still apparent in the old harridan. Her function in the play is to be a fierce prophetess of the ill-fortune to come. Part of Margarets strategy is to compare herself with the unfortunate Queen Elizabeth, a woman who will be a successor to Margarets woe.
