The Daughter of Time is a 1951 novel by Josephine Tey concerning King Richard III of England. It was the last book Tey published, shortly before her death.
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Plot summary
Alan Grant, Scotland Yard Inspector (a character who also appears in five other novels by the same author) is in hospital recovering from injuries. He becomes intrigued by a reproduction of a portrait of King Richard III. He prides himself on being able to read a person's character from his appearance, and King Richard seems to him a gentle and kind and wise man. Why is everyone so sure that he was a cruel murderer? With the help of friends and acquaintances, Alan Grant investigates the case of the Princes in the Tower. He comes to the conclusion that the claim of Richard being a murderer is as much a fabrication of Tudor propaganda as the popular image of the King as a monstrous hunchback.
Literary significance and criticism
"Without leaving his bed, Grant investigates the evidence and arrives at a convincing solution by means of acute historical detection, in a tale which Anthony Boucher called "one of the permanent classics in the detective field," and which Dorothy B. Hughes has termed "not only one of the most important mysteries of the year, but of all years of mystery".[1]
The title of the novel is taken from Bertolt Brecht's play Life of Galileo, in which the eponymous hero observes: "Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority."
The innocence of King Richard III
Arguments presented in the book in defence of King Richard:
- The Bill of Attainder brought by Henry VII against Richard III makes no mention whatsoever of the Princes. There never was any formal accusation, much less a verdict of guilt. The Princes were probably still alive when Richard's reign came to an end.
- The mother of the Princes, Elizabeth Woodville, remained on good terms with Richard, surely an impossibility if he had murdered her sons.
- There was no political advantage for Richard III in killing the young princes. He was legitimately made king. (Under English law there is no absolute undeniable heir to the throne, only an Heir Apparent. In fact, any male person born in England could be declared King by the Star Chamber.)
- The Princes were more of a threat to Henry VII as the foundation of his claim to the crown was significantly more remote than theirs.
Works with similar themes
- Valerie Anand, another popular writer, wrote a novel, Crown of Roses, in which Richard III is presented as innocent of the murder of the Princes.
- Horace Walpole also wrote a defence of the innocence of Richard III, Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III (1768).
References
- ^ Roseman, Mill et al. Detectionary. New York: Overlook Press, 1971. ISBN 0-87951-041-2
External links
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