Literature / The Sunne in Splendour

A Historical Fiction novel by Sharon Kay Penman.

The Sunne in Splendour covers 33 years, from 1459 to 1492, focusing on the Wars of the Roses and in particular Richard III, whom Penman depicts as a heroic character, vilified after his death by political enemies.

The novel is split into four books. Book I deals with Richard's childhood and his relationship with his older brother Edward as Edward seizes the throne and becomes King Edward IV. Book II deals with Richard coming into adulthood, learning to be a politician as well as a commander of men and Richard's Childhood Friend Romance with Anne Neville. Book III portrays Richard's successful tenure as Lord of the North and happy family life with Anne, along Edward's decline. Book IV chronicles Richard's decision to seize the throne, the death of Anne and his son and finally his death at Bosworth Field.

Alongside Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time, this novel is considered to be one of the classics of Ricardian fiction.

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This novel provides examples of:

• Alpha Bitch: Elizabeth Woodville, even when she was 'trying' to be nice to Anne.
• Anti-Villain: Even though Edmund of Somerset is directly allied to Lancaster, and thus is bought into direct conflict with Richard and Edward, he is depicted as being a moral man who pleads for Anne Neville's safety even when he knows he is facing death.
  • This applies to most of the people in the book, as everyone who is bought into conflict with York is given at least some redeeming qualities and there is no clear cut good and bad side.
• Arranged Marriage: A fact of life for most of the characters, even Anne and Richard originally had an arranged marriage though the plans were set aside. Edward, however, rejects his arranged marriage and marries Elizabeth Woodville, and this causes much strife. Overlaps heavily with Altar Diplomacy.
• Artistic Licence – History: As a work of Ricardian fiction, the book treats Edward's betrothal contract with Eleanor Butler as legitimate. In reality, with the exception of the Richardian faction, most royalist historians are rather dubious of its authenticity since the only source for this claim is Parliment's decree de-legitimizing Edward's marriage and there's zero evidence for it anywhere else, making it come off as a convenient excuse so Richard to grab the throne.
• Babies Ever After: or rather "baby" ever after since Anne and Richard only had one child.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The much-maligned double turncoat George of Clarence was the one who fell upon and killed the defeated Lancastrian prince Edouard; King Edward is greatly relived that it was his unscrupulous brother who took it upon himself to kill off his teenage counterpart. Later, Edward makes the contentious decision to execute — or, if you like, murder — the boy's captive and deposed father, Henry VI, whose mere existence, however harmless on its own, continued to serve as a wellspring for rebellion. Edward knows that he's crossing a major line with this, and his dismayed inner circle all consider it a despicable, honourless act... except for George, of course, who thinks it's a wonderful idea.
• Bathtub Scene:
  • Richard returns home after an absence and takes a bath, with Anne romantically assisting him.
  • While dropping in on Will, Edward IV comes upon Jane Shore in the bathtub, which leads to a Naked First Impression.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: applies to Bess, Cecily Neville, and Anne though she was described as frail; averted with Elizabeth Woodville, the most beautiful woman who wore a coronet but a complete Jerkass.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • Véronique, a lady-in-waiting to Marguerite and then Anne Neville, is a lonely youth with Lancastrian roots, having neither friends nor family to rely on. She starts pulling for York after Anne shows her great kindness and friendship.
  • A similar example with Francis, another lonely and unbelonging youth with Lancastrian loyalties. The hand of friendship offered by Richard of York inspired a lifelong bond between the two, each the other's dearest friend, Francis going on to become a hardcore Yorkist loyalist and eventually King Richard's lord chamberlain.
• Best Friend: Francis is this to Richard; Véronique is this to Anne; Will is this to Edward.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Richard. As children, George often picked on him until he suddenly retaliated. Decades later, the Woodvilles completely underestimate Richard and how far he is willing to go to protect his family and followers once Edward dies.
• Big Brother Worship: Richard's relationship with his older brother Edward.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Subverted then applied. When Richard and Anne have their Big Damn Reunion, he wants to give her a passionate kiss, but ever-chivalrous and sensing she is a Broken Bird, he gives her a chaste peck instead. Later, when she admits she hated her Edouard and is happy he is dead, Richard is overcome with emotion and kisses her passionately.
• Big Damn Reunion: After Anne is widowed and taken prisoner, Edward knows Richard still loves her so arranges a reunion. The couple are overcome with emotion, but Richard, ever chivalrous, only gives her a chaste kiss.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Plantagenet-Yorks and their Neville cousins sure do count as one, what with the adultery, Malicious Slander, betrayal and full-on treason. Poor Cecily does try to keep the family together, but it doesn't go well.
• Blunt "No": Richard astonishes Edward by flatly stating that he refuses to participate in the envoy for peace between England and France.
• Born Lucky: Edward... well, at least it's invoked plenty of times.
• Broken Bird: Anne after her marriage to Edouard. She was frustrated and disappointed with herself that she couldn't feel the love from Richard during their intimate moment on their wedding night.
• Broken Pedestal: Edward IV to Richard, especially after George's execution. The saintly, inviolable image of his dearest brother is gradually torn down as the novel goes on; by the end, Richard has come to deeply resent the legacy left by a predecessor whose many flaws and mistakes have cast dark shadows over his own reign.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The love affair between the brooding Richard and the kind-hearted Anne is this, through all the pain and joy.
• Byronic Hero: Brooding and quiet, the self-serious Richard contrasts with his more extroverted older brother, Edward. In the early part of his life, he has more balanced qualities, but after Anne's death he becomes a depressive death seeker, something which only serves to captivate Bess.
• Cain and Abel: George and Edward (Isabel even lampshades this); subverted in that Edward isn't exactly a good guy himself. Later George and Richard, too.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Anne confronted her mother the Countess of Warwick after the Countess returned to Middleham. Anne was hurt and distraught that the Countess failed to protect her from Edouard's abuse, especially after becoming a mother herself. She pointed out that Marguerite of Anjou even knew better on this aspect. The Countess defended her actions but was sorry that Anne was hurt. The two reconciled in the end.
• Can't Have Sex, Ever: Richard and Anne can't have sex after she gets diagnosed with tuberculosis, for fear he'll get infected too.
• The Casanova: Edward IV
• Catapult Nightmare: Richard had one after the disappearances of Princes in the Tower.
• The Chessmaster: King Louis of France.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Richard and Anne know each other as small children, with the younger Anne developing a crush on him that he is both embarrassed and flattered by.
• Childhood Friends: Most of Richard's most trusted friends and advisors are childhood friends he met while being fostered with Warwick. This especially includes Francis Lovell and Anne, but others as well.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: The major cause of all the strife. Richard II was deposed after being a Royal Brat, and then after being made a king as a baby, Henry VI turns out to be Royally Screwed Up and a Puppet King. It's no wonder that when faced with another boy king, and one in the control of the corrupt Woodvilles, that Richard's friends and enemies alike encourage him to act on Stillington's information.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: George. This is also the hat worn by the Stanleys, who at one point or another were pulling for nearly every major claimant involved in the power struggle. Their final and greatest turn of the wheel turns the tide of the final battle, just when the Yorkists are in danger of overwhelming Henry Tudor's main camp.
• Clear My Name: Penman wrote the book partially to do this for Richard. Also, toward the end, the characters become increasingly concerned about how history will view them.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Henry VI, of course. Edward and Richard think George is becoming this, as well.
• Coitus Interruptus: Richard and Anne's intimate moment was cut short when Buckingham walked in on them, to deliver an urgent message.
• Comforting the Widow: applied and averted. Anne was more than happy that Edouard is dead.
• Coming of Age Story: Anne and Richard; they were children at the beginning of the novel
• Conflicting Loyalty: The most obvious example of this would be poor Johnny Neville, who died fighting against York... and yet secretly wearing its colors.
• Cool Uncle: Richard, to all his brothers' children except young Edward, but especially Bess.
• The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Ned puts out a story that Henry VI died of a broken heart, but he tells Elizabeth that he killed the man himself to prevent more rebellions forming around him. Ned doesn't feel good about it, but he feels it was necessary and did it himself because he didn't want to order anyone else to kill an innocent man.
• Courtly Love: Richard courted Anne after she returned to York's side. He gave her a locket as a present and Anne asked for a lock of his hair. They sealed their love with a True Love's Kiss.
• Cruel Mercy: Edward IV lets Marguerite d'Anjou live after the Battle of Tewkesbury, knowing that she'd rather be dead than see the ruin of all her hopes.^note The Plantagenets did not kill women - unlike the Tudors who cheerfully executed Margaret Countess of Salisbury, Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard, Lady Jane Grey and Mary Queen of Scots.
• The Cutie: In the first part of the book, Anne and Richard are precocious, charming children. As their lives unfold, a mixture of Break the Cutie and Corrupt the Cutie follows.
• The Dandy: When Francis first sees Warwick, he is fascinated by the man's opulent clothing and knows he must be someone important.
• Dated History:
  • The book was written long before Richard's remains were discovered, and it imagines that his uneven shoulders were the result of a fall from a horse compounded by other injuries. In truth, Richard had scoliosis.
  • Zigzagged with the fate of the Princes in the Tower. The book was written when even Ricardian historians presumed the Princes in the Tower were dead by the time of Bosworth Field. Thanks to new information, some Ricardians now believe that the princes were alive at that time, with Richard III having sent them into exile. That said, Penman's depiction of the princes being dead, and being dead whilst in Richard's custody (albeit on Buckingham's initiative) remains the consensus of Tudor-sympathetic historians.
• Dead Guy Junior: The same names get recycled over and over.
• Decadent Court: Edward's court has lots of feasting, and when his wife is not looking, plenty of womanizing.
• Deadpan Snarker: Elizabeth has her moments.
• Death by Childbirth: happened to Nell Percy, wife of Rob Percy and later possibly Isabel. Richard was afraid that it'd happen to Anne too after the difficult birth of their son Ned.
• Death of a Child: A fact of life for many of the characters. Edmund's death devastates Cecily. Mary's death devastates Edward and Elizabeth and Richard and Anne are absolutely wrecked by their Edward's death.
• Death Seeker: Richard in the end. His supporters are all terrified of this and try to will him out of it.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: In spades.
• Despair Event Horizon: The last stretch of a book is a long one for Richard; see below. Having lost nearly everyone he loves and jaded by a string of constant betrayals, he goes to his final battle a broken man determined to either win or die.
  • Elizabeth had hers sometime before. After seeking sanctuary from Richard, she looks back on her the long road and the many corpses between then and the last time she'd sought sanctuary, realising that this time she is utterly without hope.
• Deus Angst Machina: The last 200 pages or so of the book. Everything that could possibly go wrong in Richard's life does so, in the most brutal way possible. Justified in that it comes straight from the historical record.
• Did Not Think This Through: Elizabeth's attempts to circumvent Edward's will and have Edward V declared King and avoid Richard becoming Protector. The Woodville's coup is immediately stopped by Richard and so Elizabeth flees into sanctuary.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Anne. Major tearjerking scene.
  • Edmund as well, since he died in his friend Rob's arms. Another major tearjerker.
• Dirty Coward: Eduoard and John Wenlock. They both refuse to support Edmund of Somerset during the battle of Tewkesbury, even though their battle plan hinged on their aiding him. It comes back to bite them in spectacular fashion as it causes the Lancaster loss and leads to both of their deaths. (The latter at the hands of an enraged Somerset who had to watch all of his men be butchered by the Yorkists.)
• Domestic Abuse: George physically abused Isabel after she tried to speak for her sister's cause. Anne was shocked after seeing her swollen eyes and bruises on the face. George's treatment towards Anne when she was his ward also applies since he was taking away her freedom, stealing her fortune, and even planning for her disappearance.
• Doomed by Canon: Those familiar with the War of the Roses will know what's coming.
• Doorstopper
• Double In-Law Marriage: Brothers Richard and George marry sisters Anne and Isabel.
• Downer Ending: Richard is betrayed, is killed in battle and his reputation is ruined...
• Due to the Dead: Everyone is appalled when the bad guys behead or otherwise mistreat the bodies of those fallen in battle. The good guys accord their dead enemies a decent burial. When Richard fails to do so, with Will Hastings, it's a clear sign of a Heroic BSoD in progress.
• Dying Alone
• Dysfunctional Family: the Nevilles and the Plantagenets
• Easily Forgiven: After attempting to publicly shame Jane Shore, Richard allows her to marry Thomas Lynom. The two meet and part on somewhat pleasant terms given the circumstances.
• Elite Man–Courtesan Romance: Both Ned and Will Hastings fall in love with the vivacious, working class Jane Shore, but she falls hard for Ned to Will's chagrin, as he had been involved with her first.
• Enemy Mine: Marguerite and Warwick are probably the most clashing example, when they join forces to depose the Yorkist king Edward IV. Considering the two are each other's Arch-Enemy – and that it was in large part due to Warwick that Edward was able to seize power from the Frenchwoman and her "illegitimate" son to begin with – it speaks to the very deep-running hatred they've come to share for Edward.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Buckingham and Stanley both betrayed Richard.
• Evil Matriarch: Elizabeth Woodville after death of Edward IV. She became ruthless to protect her power even if it meant to use Bess as her pawn or to cause another civil war in England. Her daughters Bess and Cecily called her out on that.
• Evil Uncle: How young Edward views Richard. The rest of the nieces and nephews.... not so much.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Richard's is his poor judge of character, causing him to trust certain people he really ought not. As he all but publicly admits before the final battle, had he taken a firmer, more lethal hand with proven traitors and the disloyal, he would not have arrived at the final hour in such a weak position.
  • Edward's is Lust. His prodigious sexual appetite installs an unsuitable tyrant as queen, granting her scheming family members undeserved position of power, and causes a major issue of succession when a secret plight-troth he'd once made to another woman technically voids his marriage and disinherits his children as bastards.
  • Will's is his jealousy; innocuously towards his legendary best friend Edward, but more cuttingly towards Richard, eventually leading him to betray the latter when his advice (concerning Richard's own fatal flaw, funnily enough) goes unheeded and he feels disfavoured.
  • Warwick's pride. He becomes consumed with resentment when he realizes he can't control Edward, despite helping put him on the throne and the advancement of the Woodvilles proves too much for him.
• The Fate of the Princes in the Tower: Buckingham did it, knowing Richard would be blamed. He colluded with the Lancastrian side as part of a larger scheme to take the crown for himself.
• Feuding Families: York and Lancaster
• First Love: Although Anne did marry Edouard first, Richard was her first love and vice versa.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Rotates around a bit.
  • Early in the book, Edward is off seducing Richard's nanny when Richard becomes lost and it is Edmund that must find Richard.
  • Later in the book, Richard stays loyal to Edward, serves as The Lancer and becomes one of the only people Edward truly trusts. Meanwhile, George keeps foolishly thinking he can get the better of Edward, which eventually leads to his death.
  • On the other hand, Richard has a strong case of Honor Before Reason so there are times when Edward has to reel his little brother in before Richard does something rash, whether it be driving George to another rebellion or continuing a pointless war with France.
• Foregone Conclusion: if you know history, then you know how the novel ends.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Richard Duke of York's four sons. Edward is hedonistic and doting (sanguine), George is ambitious, resentful and backstabbing (choleric), Richard is loyal and principled to a fault (melancholic), and Edmund is caring, sensitive, and perceptive (phlegmatic).
• God Save Us from the Queen!: The way most of the main characters react to Elizabeth Woodville Grey and Margeurite of Anjou.
• Gray-and-Gray Morality: Most of the conflict in the book. Particularly between Lancaster and York.
• Hair Memento: After Richard gives Anne a locket, she requests a lock of his hair to keep inside it. He obliges.
• Happily Ever After: applied and then averted. This trope certainly applies at the end of Book 2 where Anne and Richard got married after numerous obstacles and returned to Middleham together as Lord and Lady of the North. However, at the end of the entire novel, Anne died from consumption; they lost their only son; and Richard met his end at Bosworth.
• Happily Married: Richard and Anne, adorably so. For most of their marriage, this was true of Edward and Elizabeth as well.
• Heart Is Where the Home Is: After her traumatic marriage to the French-born Edouard, Anne and Richard get married and return to North to make their home in Middleham Castle, where they spent much of their childhood together. When they arrive, Anne even says, "We're home." If you stop reading at the end of Book II, this could serve as a Happily Ever Before.
• Heartwarming Orphan: George's poor son Edward.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Edward and Will, best friends who think nothing of sharing the same women... until Will falls hard for one, anyway. Even this fails to come between them, though; Will is even buried next to his beloved sire after his death.
• Hidden Depths: George, for all his flaws, did seem to love Isabel in his own way. He is a broken man at her funeral vigil and even Anne is moved to pity for him.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Richard, possibly. Penman gives him a more than charitable portrayal and is upfront about this in her author's notes, believing him to have been a major victim of Written by the Winners whose alleged crimes are not particularly credible. Cleanly exonerating him of the infamous disappearance of the "Princes in the Tower" is probably the biggest example.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Elizabeth Woodville formed alliance with Margaret Beaufort to make Bess Queen of England. Only ended up being walled up in an abbey and her lands confiscated.
• Honorary Uncle: Jack Howard, to Bess.
• Honor Before Reason: Richard is appalled at his brother making peace with France, seeing as him cheaply selling their honour for empty promises and pensions, preferring to have pushed the advantage and toppled King Louis in battle. Louis observes this and marks Richard as a potentially dangerous opponent to France.
• Hot Consort: Elizabeth Woodville is, if nothing else, a legendary beauty.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Richard, Anne, and Bess. Richard loved Anne till the end while Bess harbored false hopes that Richard would love her too. Elizabeth Woodville did want to see Richard falling in love with Bess so that Bess could be Queen of England. After Anne's death, there were rumors that Richard poisoned Anne and wanted to marry Bess. Of course, in this novel at least, it was only a rumor spread by Richard's enemies to blacken his name.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Anne starts coughing, eventually dying of tuberculosis.
• Internal Reveal:
  • After Richard rides into Aldgate, Anne is revealed to be a great lady rather than a kitchen maid.
  • Edward reveals that he was already married to Nell Butler before he married Elizabeth, and she is, to put it mildly, horrified.
  • Jane Shore sweetly defends Edward IV's debauchery to a disapproving stranger in fine clothes. When he calls Edward Ned and scolds the king for being sharp with Jane, Jane realizes she's been talking to Richard, the King's brother.
• Jerkass: Elizabeth Woodville has a constantly acidic personality, and passages written from her point of view exude her vindictiveness. George is worst of all, plotting at one point to have Anne kidnapped and disappeared so that he can claim her half of the Neville fortune.
• Kick the Dog: George's treatment towards Anne after she lost her father and her husband. Elizabeth Woodville also has more than a few, not least of all laughing when she learns that Richard's young son abruptly took ill and died, considering it proof of God's disfavour upon her enemy.
• King Incognito:
  • Veronique's plan to hide Anne in an inn works, and Anne tries her best to perform manual labor and endure harsh conditions. Richard's dashing rescue and his romantic reunion with Anne is witnessed not only by his men but the denizens of the inn. Richard tells her that she will take her place in local legend, and later it is revealed that he was very generous with the Lancastrian family that hid her.
  • Late in the book, a common woman shares a night of passion with a mysterious nobleman. She reveals in the morning that somewhere along the way, she realized the man was Richard, the king. She expresses her love and sympathy for him.
• King Maker: Warwick was the original kingmaker. Also seen later on with Buckingham, who does this for Richard, and then the Stanleys and Northumberland, who do it for Henry Tudor.
• Kissing Cousins: Richard and Anne were cousins. George and Isabel as well.
• Knight Templar Parent: Marguerite d'Anjou is obsessed with securing the throne for her son, Edouard.
• Lady and Knight: Richard and Anne, for as long as she lives and beyond.
• Lady Macbeth: Elizabeth Woodville, to the core. Played with in that Edward is mostly on board with her machinations, indulging them when the whim strikes him and otherwise generally agreeing with the dark path she's pushing him down, even executing his own brother (admittedly, his most despicable and least-loved brother) at her urging. Ironically, the one demand of hers that he'd scrupled not to grant — the murder of a priest who knew too much — comes back to cause carnage for his line of succession when he's gone, casting down his wife and children.
  • Anne of all people has a good go at this during the final tumultuous scramble for the crown. Knowing that she, Richard, and their son are all doomed if he does not seize his birthright, she pushes him hard, hating herself all the while, but knowing it's the only way to secure all of their futures. Richard ends up agreeing with her, at the last admitting to her that a part of him had in fact always wanted to be king.
• Lady of War: Margaret of Anjou leads armies and plans battle strategy.
• The Lancer: Richard and Will for Edward, Francis for Richard.
  • Will Hastings is a bit of a deconstruction, having been Edward's closest friend and partner in debauchery, but despite the great loyalty and love Will had for Edward, he ultimately did not serve him well, performing poorly as a battle commander and, in Richard's view, leading Edward into an early grave through their shared excesses and degenerate living.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Anne suffered one miscarriage after another after giving birth to Edward. Edward died at age 10.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: When Ned reunites Richard and Anne after she's widowed, he sees how they are looking at each other and declares he's about as welcome as a case of the pox, before taking his leave.
• Like Father, Like Son: Henry Tudor's initial attitude towards Bess was based on his disdain towards her mother Elizabeth Woodville.
• Locked Away in a Monastery: Stashing women in a convent is a good way of getting rid of them, especially if they are forced into Taking the Veil.
  • George floats this idea as a means of getting rid of Anne and taking her fortune. Veronique suspects he might have even worse in mind.
  • Edward leaves Lady Warwick to languish in sanctuary and denies her pleas to be able to exit.
  • After all her machinations, Elizabeth Woodville succeeds in defeating Richard and placing her daughter on the throne, only to have Henry Tudor and Margaret Beaufort send her to a convent.
• Love Ruins the Realm: Edward IV might have thought through his romantic choices a bit better.
• The Lost Lenore: Anne. Richard could never love another.
• Love Across Battlelines: In a book about a civil war, it happens a few times.
  • Richard and Anne experience this when her father switches sides and forces her to marry Edouard. Richard's courting of her after she is widowed and returns to the Yorkist fold causes a minor scandal.
  • George claims this is why he married Isabella and joined Warwick's rebellion. Not even Isabella really believes him.
  • Bess is caught between two sides of the war. She loves her mother and her uncle. When she's forced to marry Henry Tudor, she winds up loving him but has to put her Yorkist sympathizes and her fond memories of Richard in check.
• Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Two very important cases of this occur in the book.
  • The first is a rumor that circulates that Edward IV is the product of his mother's affair with an archer. In the book, very few people take this seriously but George brings it up as part of his campaign for the throne. Richard is particularly offended that his brother would brand their mother an adulteress in the name of ambition and jealously.
  • Most people, including some Lancastrians it is implied, don't believe for a second that Edouard of Lancaster is the son of Henry VI, but since the paternal suspects are all also descended from Edward III, they say nothing. The Yorkists know they can't prove anything, but they also certainly don't believe the childlike Henry VI fathered him. The book takes this far more seriously than the rumor about Edward IV.
• Marital Rape License: Edouard takes this as a given with Anne, and nobody, save Richard when they meet up later, has much sympathy for poor Anne.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Let's see, Richard loses Edmund, Warwick, John Neville and finally Edward himself. And this is true the historical record.
• Marry for Love: Originally betrothed by their families, Richard and Anne love each other and even after she is married and widowed, Richard goes out of his way to rescue and marry her because he loves her.
• The Middle Ages, specifically The Late Middle Ages is the setting.
• A Minor Kidroduction: Richard is introduced as a small boy, lost in the woods. Additionally, George, Anne and Francis are all children when the story begins. Edward and Edmund are teenagers.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Warwick really didn't like the whole "let's promote all the Woodvilles" thing.
• The Mourning After: Richard after Anne's death
• My Greatest Failure: On her deathbed, Elizabeth's greatest regret was not arranging Stillington's death herself.
• Never My Fault: George. Elizabeth is guilty of this too at times.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Averted, much to certain characters' disgust. Foul rumours and Historical Villain Upgrades concerning the recently deceased are very commonplace.
• Nice Guy: Richard, relative to his historical reputation. Sure, he does ruthless things as he lived in brutal times, but he tries to be moral and good.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Richard, George and Edward, respectively.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male:
  • Early in the novel, young Richard had Edward and Edmund as role models. Edward is a carousing, womanizing, fun-loving and at times reckless figure, who also happens to be a brilliant warrior. Edmund is the brave, thoughtful, kind, wise-beyond-his years, Too Good for This Sinful Earth mentor to his sensitive youngest brother.
  • When Richard grows up, he steps into the "noble" role to Edward's rogue, becoming a fierce warrior and fair governor of his own lands. He is intensely loyal to Edward, even standing by him when he is deposed for a brief time. After some youthful dalliances, he becomes a loving and faithful husband to Anne, and he very much frowns upon the debauchery of his brother's court.
• Nobility Marries Money: not exactly for Richard and Anne, but the Beauchamp inheritance was an issue with George who wanted it all for himself. Richard himself did gain financially from his marriage to Anne. Truth in Television.
• Nobody Likes a Tattletale: Early in the book, Richard earns Ned's respect when he doesn't snitch on Edward for hooking up with Joan. Edward brings this up years later, when they are exiled in Burgundy.
• Obviously Evil: Harry Stafford, Duke of Buckingham. Richard really should have listened to Will on that.
• Off with His Head!: Beheadings are a part of life for everyone. As a boy, Francis witnesses one and becomes sick. Richard doesn't judge him, and the two become friends.
• Official Couple Ordeal Syndrome: Richard and Anne. The two were torn apart by wars and Warwick's fallout with King Edward IV. After the war, George did everything he could to prevent the two to be together; Edward IV was not helping much either with Beauchamp properties involved. Finally, after the two were married, they faced other issues such as miscarriages, lost of siblings, etc. In the end, the two were separated by death but their love remained.
• Old Dog: Gareth is given to Richard when the dog is just a puppy and Richard is still a boy. But time passes, and Richard and Anne, now adults, find the old dog's passing sorrowful.
• One-Steve Limit: Henry VI's son, who was known as Edward of Westminster, is here called Edouard, while Richard III's son Edward of Middleham is called Ned, to distinguish them both from Edward IV. Elizabeth of York is called Bess to tell her apart from Elizabeth Woodville.
• The One That Got Away: applied and then averted. Richard did not take it well after hearing Anne was marrying Edouard of Lancaster. Edward IV told Richard that had he informed him sooner about his love for Anne, he would've made it happen. Luckily, Anne did not ended up as The One That Got Away after Edouard was slain in battle.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All of Edward's charm and grace drops at the mention of Nell Butler.
• Out of Focus: Despite being the ultimate victor, Henry Tudor is a fairly minor character in the novel.
• Parental Favoritism:
  • Ned is this for Richard in relation to his two bastard children. Richard admits privately that this is because Ned is the child of his beloved Anne.
  • Bess is this for Edward IV.
• Parental Marriage Veto: Edward exercises this with his brothers, with varying success.
• Pet the Dog: Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset asked Richard to be merciful to the younger daughter of Warwick (Anne). Later Anne forgave her mother and accepted her back in her life despite her mother failed to protect her or support her while she was abused by Edouard.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: the marriage between Bess and Henry Tudor turned out surprisingly well.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Sir William Stanley takes great pleasure in breaking Marguerite d'Anjou after her capture, telling her that if he had his way, she'd be presently joining her most loyal battle commander and "bastard-born whelp" in Hell everlasting. He then spells out the details of her son's ignominious death, painting him as a coward who begged for mercy before being skewered. Privately, the news brings about Marguerite's Despair Event Horizon.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Margaret of Anjou and the Lancastrians think that the Battle of Wakefield and the deaths of Richard of York and Edmund are a great victory. They did not count on Edward rising up and being far more dangerous than his father.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Ned is fiery, passionate and decadent, but he's got a pragmatic side when it comes to politics. Richard is cool, intellectual and thoughtful, but he has a strong case of Honor Before Reason.
• Really Gets Around: Jane Shore, whose earnest nature makes her very appealing to many men. Her display even seduces the austere solicitor who'd come to deal with her during her imprisonment, and she marries him.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Richard gives a scathing one to Will Hastings and the other conspirators who'd plotted his death and risked another great bloodletting of England for personal gain.
• Replacement Goldfish: In a rare endearing version of this trope, Edward declares that Richard has succeeded their deceased brother Edmund as the brother Edward is closest to.
• The Resenter: Edward fosters a lot of this after his death. After taking power, Richard bitterly reflects on the poor decisions his beloved brother had made, having seen them bear calamitous fruit: for taking to queen an utterly unsuitable schemer; for putting his son under the tutelage of a snake who poisoned the boy against the better half of his family tree; for ignoring the rivalries and hostile factions warring within his court, juggling them rather than decisively addressing them; and most of all, for delivering himself into far too early a grave through decadent living. Anne and Elizabeth also look back on the late king with similar resentment (although in the latter's case, very different, not-entirely-unjustified reasons).
• Reunion Kiss: After Richard and Anne reunite after her marriage, he gives her a chaste kiss, though he wishes to give her a more passionate kiss.
• Royal Brat: Edouard shows signs of this.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Edward IV and Richard III. Both were politicians and warriors.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Sensitive, wise-beyond-his-years Edmund, Earl of Rutland, is murdered (Red Wedding Style) early in the story when he is only seventeen.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: George's attitude toward life.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: Happens in France, much to Richard's dismay.
• Secondary Character Title: The Sunne In Splendour refers to Edward IV, and is his emblem, rather than the novel's protagonist, Richard.
• Second Love: Henry VII was this to Bess, who still thought kindly of Richard after she became Queen of England.
• Secret Relationship: Edward keeps his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville secret for a time, which has epic consequences. Even more secret was Edward pulling the same marriage trick with Nell Butler prior to Elizabeth, something which leads to George's execution and Richard sincerely believing the throne is his.
• She Is All Grown Up: Richard noticed the changes in Anne after the Battle of Tewkesbury. They hadn't seen each other for nineteen months and he saw that she grew taller and developed curves. Later Edward IV noticed it too on her wedding day.
• Shoot the Dog: Ned murders Henry VI to prevent more bloody rebellions from forming around the old man, but he doesn't feel good about it. Not wanting to order anyone else to kill an innocent man, Ned does the job himself. It makes the normally affable king very melancholy.
• Sibling Rivalry: A major theme in the book.
  • George is jealous of Edward and covets his crown. He's also jealous of Richard's closeness to Edward.
  • Edmund feels competitive with Edward, whom he is frustrated by and admires in equal measure. He spends his short life trying to keep up with his charismatic, brilliant and reckless older brother.
  • When Edward visits Richard in his northern holdings, he recognizes how popular his younger brother has become and admits he doesn't like it.
  • Isabel marries George thinking she will become Queen of England. When it appears that Anne will have that honor, she is jealous, even though Anne is horrified and doesn't want to be queen.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. She was not a Lady of War like Margaret of Anjou, but she was also a politically acute woman who knew how to protect her children.
• Sole Survivor: Rob Apsall, after Sandal Castle, and Francis, after the foiled attack on Henry Tudor.
• Spare to the Throne: Prior to the birth of Edward IV's sons, George is his heir and becomes obsessively jealous and covetous of the throne. Richard is loyal to Edward, though the prospect of a boy king controlled by his enemies the Woodvilles and proof of Edward IV's bigamy, causes him to seize the throne.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Anne and Richard. They genuinely loved each other but were torn apart because Warwick fell out with Edward IV. Anne was married to Edouard; after the war she became a ward of George, who did everything he could to keep them apart.
• Stock Unsolved Mysteries: In this novel, the Princes in the Tower were killed by Buckingham and Richard is not happy about it.
• Tangled Family Tree: The connections between the Yorks and Nevilles and their Lancastrian cousins are dizzyingly complicated, and another name for The War of the Roses was The Cousins War.
• Team Mercy vs. Team Murder: While Richard is more than willing to sentence men to death if it is necessary and within the law, he is uncomfortable with his brother ordering unnecessary deaths. When Edward reveals he plans to have the former king, the mentally infirm Henry VI, murdered, Richard is at first appalled. He argues against it, but also begrudgingly realizes his brother has a point and without Henry around to be the focus of rebellion, lives with be saved. However, Richard is bewildered and disgusted by his brother's determination to execute George. Richard, who personally has reason to hate George and knows well of his former treason, begs Edward IV to spare him, if only for their mother's sake. Edward won't be swayed, and when Richard later learns that George knew of Edward's first marriage and bigamy, he is sickened at Edward's actions.
• Teen Pregnancy: Richard was in his teens when he fathered his bastard children Johnny and Katherine.
• Thicker Than Water: Averted quite a bit. Brothers, uncles, nephews, cousins turned against each other for power and crown. Played straight with George and Richard. Richard hates George with good reason but argues passionately against his execution and is horrified that Edward goes through with it.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Edmund, whose early death sets the tone for the novel. Anne, whose tragic decline and death marks the beginning of the end for Richard.
• Tragic Bromance:
  • Richard III and Francis Lovell are this, to a T. Richard befriends the lonely and isolated Lancastrian Francis when they are boys in the Earl of Warwick's Yorkist household. Richard wins Francis's loyalty, and they remain devoted friends, bound by chivalry and honor. It is Francis who encourages Richard to claim his birthright, in the face of evidence that Edward IV's marriage was invalid, and it is Francis who absolutely refuses to save himself and his wealth and position by swearing fealty to the man who defeats Richard, Henry Tudor.
  • Edward IV and Will Hastings have quite a tragic bromance as well, with a good dose of mutual Toxic Friend Influence. The two share a love of carousing and wenching and the only thing that ever threatens to come between them is their mutual love for Jane Shore. When Edward dies prematurely, Will is distraught and simply can't transfer his loyalties to Edward's younger brother.
  • Edward IV and his younger brother Edmund are this as well. As boys, the thoughtful and noble Edmund served as a grounding force for the more hedonistic Edward, and he knows it. He laments his younger brother's murder years into his kingship, knowing things would have been different had Edmund lived.
  • Richard and Edward also qualify, with Richard idolizing his older brother, despite not approving of Edward's debauchery. Richard is wrecked by Edward's death in more ways than one, since he was happy ruling the north on behalf of Edward and had no desire to be king. Only after Edward dies and the depths of his depravity are revealed to Richard, does Richard move to seize the throne. Unfortunately, seizing the throne proves to be the beginning of the end for Richard.
• True Love's Kiss: When Richard first saw Anne after the war, he gave her a kiss as a friendly gesture. Later he began to court her and gave her a True Love's Kiss. Unfortunately, Anne was traumatized from her marriage to Edouard that she did not take it well.
• Undying Loyalty: Richard towards Edward — for all their disagreements, some enormous and seemingly irreconcilable, Richard never turns on his most beloved brother. Will always has this towards Edward... but not Richard.
• Unequal Pairing: Cecily Neville never saw Elizabeth Woodville as a worthy bride for her oldest son Edward.
• Unexpected Successor: Richard and Henry Tudor
• The Un-Favourite: Richard's bastard son Johnny is acutely aware of being this compared to his younger legitimate brother Ned. When Ned dies Johnny is full of Survivor's Guilt. Richard has to assure Johnny that he loves him and that he would be heartbroken if Johnny really wished he died instead of Ned.
• Victorious Childhood Friend: Richard and Anne
• Villain's Dying Grace
  Edward: I'd not stain my hands with a woman's blood.
  Marguerite: Even if it were a mercy?
  Edward: Especially if it were a mercy, Madame.
• War Is Hell
• Wedding Finale: Richard and Anne's wedding at the end of Book Two
• Welcome Back, Traitor: Although that never ends well for the traitor.
• We Used to Be Friends: Edward and Warwick.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • Joan. We never even find out if she survived the sacking of Ludlow.
  • Averted for Margurite in a chapter, her ignominious death is mentioned.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Women never get executed for treason, no matter how serious their crimes.
• Written by the Winners: By the end of the book, Henry Tudor is victorious and sets about to ruin Richard's reputation. A few, including Henry's wife Bess and Francis Lovell, know the truth.
• You Need to Get Laid: As Richard broods over the loss of Anne and his exile in Flanders, his friends encourage him to hook up with a prostitute to forget his troubles. Edward, of all people, interrupts him to have a talk before finally also encouraging Richard to enjoy himself.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: After Richard came back to London, Anne was missing. Richard immediately suspected George either harmed her or imprisoned her. He searched all around and finally found her in an inn.
• Young Future Famous People: Bess in earlier chapter. She would be Queen of England.

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