History of Richard the Third Author:Jacob Abbott General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1886 Original Publisher: Harper Subjects: Great Britain History / Europe / Great Britain Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get ... more »free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Condition of young Richard in his childhood. Chapter III. The Childhood Of Richard III. YOUNG Richard, as was said at the close of the last chapter, was of a very tender age when his father and his brother Edmund were killed at the battle of Wakefield. He was at that time only about eight years old. It is very evident too, from what has been already related of the history of his father and mother, that during the whole period of his childhood and youth he must have passed through very stormy times. It is only a small portion of the life of excitement, conflict, and alarm which was led by his father that there is space to describe in this volume. So unsettled and wandering a life did his father and mother lead, that it is not quite certain in which of the various towns and castles that from time to time they made their residence, he was born. It is supposed, however, that he was born in the Castle of Fother- ingay, in the year 1452. His father was killed in 1461, which would make Richard, as has already been said, about eight or nine years old at that time. Strange tales in respect to his birth. There were a great many strange tales related in subsequent years in respect to Richard's birth. He became such a monster, morally, when he grew to be a man, that the people believed that he was born a monster in person. The story was that he came into the world very ugly in face and distorted in form, and that his hair and his teeth were already grown. These were considered as portents of the ferociousness of temper and cha...« less