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interest for the present work, William Catesby was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. Later he would be Speaker of the House in the only Parliament held during Richard’s reign. The final outcome of this train of events was that on the 6 July 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester was crowned Richard III in Westminster Abbey. 80 It was but two years and two months to the Battle of Bosworth Field.
    I started this chapter with the central question which acts to bias any assessment of Richard III and his ambitions. If one sees Richard looking for the crown on or before his brother Edward’s death then one is likely to adopt a position reflective of Richard as a long-term, scheming usurper. 81 The later one places Richard’s decision to assume the throne, the more lenient one is liable to be in one’s viewpoint. In what I have tried to set forth here, I have suggested that the interval around the critical Council meeting on Friday 13 June was the juncture at which Richard made this fateful decision. In fact, although not indispensable to my present argument, I would like to suggest that it was the events of that very morning that proved the pivotal turning point which changed Richard from fairly assiduous Protector to aspiring monarch. Thus, to understand the story of Richard III, we have to understand the events of that critical day: Friday 13th June 1483. It is to the examination of this fateful day that I now turn.

Eleanor Talbot, Lady Butler
     
    The holiest harlot in his realm.
The Uncrowned Queen?
     
    Any explanation of the events which took place on 13 June 1483 at the Tower of London has to begin some decades earlier and some distance away from London. John Ashdown-Hill, whose recent work has been most informative and influential, 1 has asserted that the events of that summer have to be viewed in light of the question of the so-called ‘pre-contract,’ since, as he points out, ‘Richard III’s claim to the throne was based chiefly on the presumption that Lady Eleanor Talbot was the legitimate wife of Edward IV.’ 2 It is this relationship between Edward IV and his nominal ‘uncrowned queen’ 3 which proves to be crucial in respect of the explanation of events that I propose.
Eleanor’s Early Life
     
    Since this issue of the pre-contract is so important, it is fundamental to begin with some of the facts of Eleanor Talbot’s life ( c . 1436–1468) and her actions and activities before and after the so-called ‘pre-contract’ occurred. Eleanor was the tenth of the eleven children of John Talbot ( c . 1387–1453), the 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, whose spectacular demise is recorded to have occurred in battle with the French at Castillon on 17 July 1453. The earl himself was the first child of Richard Talbot (4th Baron Talbot of Goodrich) and his wife, Ankaret (Le)Strange. This couple was also blessed with a large family and had nine children, the last of whom, Alice, we shall hear more of presently. John Talbot married twice. The first time was around 1405 to Maud Neville ( c . 1390–1424), with whom he had five children, two of whom died in early childhood. Talbot’s second marriage occurred sometime around 1424 4 to Margaret Beauchamp (1404–1467), by whom he had a further five children, the penultimate child of that marriage being Eleanor herself. We can see painted representations of John Talbot and his second wife in Figures 5 and 6. 5
    To the best of our knowledge, Eleanor was born probably in either February or March 1436, possibly at the manor house of Blakemere, near Whitchurch in Shropshire. 6 Ashdown-Hill argued for this location, as it was a house that her father John had inherited from his mother and was apparently a favourite residence. However, as he also notes, it could equally well have been Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire. 7 As will become evident, the latter location is one of potentially great importance and can perhaps serve to render some insight into Eleanor’s subsequent relationships and