Edward IV & Richard III

Nottingham Castle was highly regarded by these sons of York.

It was at Nottingham Castle in 1461 that 18-year-old Edward, the Yorkist Earl of March and distant relative of Roger Mortimer, proclaimed himself King during the Wars of the Roses.

Later that year, after defeating Jasper Tudor’s Lancastrian army at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross and then also defeating King Henry VI’s forces at the Battle of Towton, Edward was crowned king in Westminster Abbey. Edward appointed his brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, as the commander of his armies in the north based at Nottingham.

Between 1476 and 1480, Edward spent lavishly on Nottingham Castle, adding new comfortable State Apartments in the Middle Bailey and a defensive six-sided tower, known as Richard’s Tower. After Edward’s death and Richard’s own bloody path to the throne – involving him knocking off several family members – it was from his “castle of care” at Nottingham, that Richard would raise his standard and depart for the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. At Bosworth, Richard, the last of the Plantagenets, was killed by the Lancastrians led by Jasper Tudor’s nephew, Henry, who would become King Henry VII, the first of the Tudors.

Richard’s body was discovered buried in a car park in Leicester in 2012.